Like it or not some things will unkindly remind us that we are getting on in years (let’s not use the word ‘old’, which according to my friends refers to octogenarians only ! ). No it’s not arthritis, dementia, depression and all that stuff – the simple fact of elderly life is that we often mislay our most useful possessions – glasses, mobiles, medicines, car keys, cards. We search high & low, remote places in the house like under the bed and behind almirahs and blame our innocent spouses for carelessness yet not look under the nose.
To borrow from George Orwell’s famous lines ‘All men & women tend to forget as they turn grey, but some are more forgetful than the others’. Here’s where the early habits come in handy and one of the practices I watched my Dad follow was that there were places marked for clothes, watch, glasses, wallet etc, for he taught us ‘everything must be in its proper place’ for orderly living. Remember, gadgets hadn’t started ruling lives in the 60s-70s – there were few items to manage. Today each family member may have 1 /2 mobiles, TV ( with remotes) in every room, more than one car & their sets of keys and license, insurance, renewal documents for each, apart from inevitable Aadhar & PAN.
It was later on that I learnt the full phrase ‘A place for everything and everything in its place’. It’s a principle of order that means to keep things in their correct positions to stay organized. It’s often attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Also the 5’S’ method of work in assembly lines specially, involves sorting, setting, shining, standardizing, sustaining, the “set” stage follows this principle. In this stage, workers position items based on how often they’re used, with frequently used items kept closer at hand. This means that the best way to stay well organized is to keep things in their correct positions.
However, daily domesticated life is not that simple for we have members with different lifestyles and ideologies. In the previous order ( our parent’s time) we looked to preserve things and value them such as polishing our leather shoes which would last for ten years and school teachers insisted on neatness. In the present ‘use and throw’ set-up gadgets get replaced every three years either due to new technology for new fashion. Why treat them like prized items when there’s a shinier, sleeker model on its way as Ads suggest.
Yet senior citizens with many years of marital experience know how to be supportive at home and know where exactly her glasses are lying and her mobile might have slipped under the chair cushion. With plethora of passwords/log in keys needed for both of us for various digital transactions and their safety, I have decided to become the custodian. This is not to claim greater IQ since kitchen is wife’s exclusive domain and all kinds of miracles emerge from there. It’s only my analytical part and my banking past helps me.
BTW, I can’t find my old phone book with vital nos. Is my ‘old’ age making a cameo ?!
Working on Living 