Everything in its Place, or the opposite of that.

There are two schools of what I’ll call, for lack of a better term, “stuff accumulation interaction design living”, the art of how you approach the minor physical objects in your life. Nail clippers. Scissors. Flashlights. Tubes of ointment. You know.

School #1: Have a place for everything. Buy one of that thing and put it in the place for the thing. When you need the thing, look in the place for the thing. When you’re done with the thing, put it back in its place. Repeat.

School #2: When you need a thing, look for it in some obvious places it might be. If you can’t find a thing when you need it, you don’t own enough of them. Buy three more and put them in places you might think to look for them next. The critical mass of owning enough of a thing to be able to find it when you need it will vary with each individual thing. When you’re done, put the thing back in some obvious place you might think to look for it again. If there is already a thing there, re-evaluate. Repeat.

This says something about you, how you interact with your spaces, and the rest of the decisions you make in your daily life. Choose your school carefully. I want to know what you chose.