Redundancy is the enemy of small
So I cleaned out my desk yesterday. These items were among the things within the mess. Notice the problem?
That’s right. Unless you’re running a kindergarten, you don’t need multiple scissors and tape. The screwdrivers are both phillips head, both the same size. I suppose the glue’s sort of excusable, since they’re different glues. Except, I’m a flash animator, and as we say in the trade, “If you’re using glue to animate Flash, you probably did something wrong.” They shouldn’t be in the desk at all. And it’s not just the desk: I know for a fact there’s two open Grey Poupons extant in the fridge.
There’s a catch-22 in play. The reason I have multiple items is that there’s so much clutter, I never remember what I have, or I can’t find something when I need it. So I buy another one. More clutter. And so on. It’s like heroin but without the weight loss. So from now on, three simple rules:
- Supplies are to be kept in a separate area from active duty items. Always. No putting the new bag of disposable razors next to the nearly gone bag of disposable razors. It goes in a separate area. I went so far as to remove all but one pen from my top desk drawer. One day I’d like to use up a pen.
- If it looks like I don’t have something, I will scour the apartment before buying another. Or resolve that, if I find the original at some point afterwards, I will give it away or sell it.
- Most controversial: I will try to buy the highest quality items I can, so that I remember I have them. Obviously it didn’t work with the gray poupon, but imagine: if you had a red swingline stapler, would you misplace it?
On this last point I will make an exception for umbrellas, which will be lost no matter what.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Jesus, this is the story of my life. I suppose I’d better start discarding scissors now. Thanks for the reminder.
May 4th, 2007 at 3:32 am
I have a red swingline stapler. I know exactly where it is. I also have about 15 pairs of socks, most of which are buried under the bed or lost in the closet. Thanks for the great website!
May 4th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Socks are the worst. I’ve tried just keeping a certain set of uniform socks, but it never works. Part of the key is to discard regularly when the elastic fails or a hole forms, and try to eliminate different brands of the same basic style. If all your crew-length are identical, matching becomes much easier.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:28 am
card credit payment processing solution…
However cash international loan payday services chase credit card payment overnight cash advance card credit debt management uk card consolidation credit debt keyword…