When I was a child my mother would often say, “A place for everything and everything in its place” when urging us to put things away. For reasons I cannot explain I thought this was from Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milk Wood” but I have just discovered, thanks to the internet, it turns out it’s Benjamin Franklin, which seems far more likely. Anyhow like all my parents’ well used phrases, it seems to have burrowed its way into my own family life.
Recently, herself was unable to find some item despite my well honed tidying techniques, “A place for everything and nothing in its place,” she harrumphed. “That’s harsh,” I said. “This place is a finely tuned disaster zone,” she replied. Little does she know that, if experience with our parents is anything to go by, it will only get worse.
By strange coincidence, I read last night that that phrase is attributable to one Samuel Smiles.
I first heard that phrase in Namibia in the 1980s. It was our mantra for what was called Loss Control on the mines. Part of loss control was housekeeping and a place for everything and everything in its place was the gold standard. It worked ok in workshops but in the middle of a rundown diamond recovery plant struggling with recession and just trying to survive it was a different story. Still it is one of my favourite phrases and since retirement I now have a double garage and a greenhouse which are organised along these lines. Of course there is no room for the car, I think I would need two or three garages or a barn before this would ever occur. I suspect that this empire will downsize in a couple of years but it’s fun now.
L, how interesting – saw your tweeted picture, who knew that this was such a loaded expression.
Charles, what an interesting life you have led…