I have the organizational skills of a tree stump. I’ll prove it. My sister gave me the book, “Organizing For Dummies,” as a gift. I lost it in a matter of days.

I’m supposed to know things do not simply get up and walk away. I understand. I do. I also know life can be generous with its exceptions; I think the book ran away.  

I was born with an organizational philosophy based on a solid principle built by creation itself: things are easier to find when you can see them. My parents, however, held an entirely different view of the matter. They believed things should be hidden from sight!

Put things in drawers, closets. Put your clothes on hangers and then, put them inside a closet where you can’t even see them. It made no sense to me then and makes little sense to me now. 

When I was a boy I was highly skilled at leaving my clothes out on the floor: underwear, socks, T shirts, pants, jeans, shoes, slippers. You name it, it was out there. I had to wear something and knew exactly where to find it; they were all on the floor right in front of me which made them easy to find.

My parents would ask, how do you walk around a room with your things scattered everywhere? Good question with an easy answer. You make a path.  Path, as in, trail. Trails have been around a long time, way before roads.  I saw no reason there couldn’t be trails in my room.

If you stayed on the trail in my room everything would be hunky-dory. Everything was out in the open if I needed anything it was right in front of me, where I could SEE it. 

It’s way easier to manage your belongings when you can see them than it is when you’ve fallen prey to the belief that organization-by-incarceration is a wiser choice.