A Place for Everything

My daughter was in a tizzy. She couldn't find her car keys.We did not give our daughters their own cars in high school but when they got their license, they got their own set of keys to the family vehicles. Which also meant they had to keep track of their keys-a bit of a challenge for any of us, at times.

She was late getting to an evening school activity so I quickly pulled a key off my ring and let her borrow it. A stop gap measure. There would be time to hunt later.The next morning, she still couldn't find her keys. She retraced her steps, thought through her evening activities the night before. Still no luck.

Finally she went out to the car, again planning to use my key. She soon tore back into the house. "Mom, you'll never guess where I found my keys!"

"In the grass? In the lane?" I responded from guilty experience.

"There were laying on the trunk of the car! I now remember I put them on the roof of the car when the neighbor girl came over and talked to me. And when I was driving down to school last night, I remember hearing a "thunk" which must have been the keys sliding from the roof to the trunk!"

She has about a 20-mile round trip (32 kilometers) drive to school over curves and hills, so I found it pretty amazing that those keys didn't slide off the car. Then I recalled an oil cap that rode all the way to West Virginia and back (an hour's drive) and I suppose more amazing things have happened. But luck was definitely with Doreen that day.

But you can't depend on luck to find your car keys every time. It helps to have a little organization. My personal key-hunting episodes reduced greatly when I adopted a specific pocket in my purse to always put my keys in. Now I rarely forget to put them in the right place and my key hunting episodes have all but disappeared. (But somehow I still end up hunting for my glasses, my watch, and the cordless telephone.) When things are always put in the same place, it saves so much frustration and wasted time searching.

There are people who make a living from organizing the clutter and mess of other people, so maybe here the first week of November before the house fills with Christmas and holiday things we would benefit from learning a few things from the clutter experts.

Why do we accumulate things? These clutter experts say it can stem from the fear of being without or worrying that we won't have the things we need at the right time; competition with neighbors, family or peers; not having time to organize or put things away; and being or living with people who are collectors or who are very sentimental about things. It is okay to be sentimental, but we need to keep perspective on the importance of objects. Which is more important, things or people?

If you're interested, there is more information about:
The most important event of all time and
The most important Book of all time.

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Contributed by Melodie Davis from her weekly columnANOTHER WAY (http://www.thirdway.com/aw/).For information on using Another Way in a local newspaper, contact:ANOTHER WAY, 1251 Virginia Ave., Harrisonburg, VA 22801-2497; or call1-800-999-3534; fax at 540-434-5556; or email me at:Melodie@mennomedia.org