Brian Piles

For those who know me well it doesn’t come as a surprise that I am mildly OCD.  I like everything to have a place and for it to be in that place.  Brian didn’t feel the same way, he would rarely put things in the same place twice and had a tendency to leave stuff out wherever he happened to last use it.  This led to some conflict over the years which resulting in our compromise, what I termed ‘Brian Piles’.  I gave him designated areas in the house to deposit his detritus and usually he kept his stuff confined to those areas.  Occasionally I would find something left in a non-designated area and would relocate it to his pile zone but over the years he was usually pretty good about keeping his things where I could handle them.

The most visible place for his Piles was on the counter next to the front door.  We had been given a wood box as a wedding present and it’s original purpose was to hold our assortment of remotes for the family room A/V equipment.  When we got a new end table we no longer needed the box for that and it was relocated by the front door for Brian to use.  He was supposed to use it for his wallet, keys, sunglasses and instead it got stuffed with various cables, locks, receipts, business cards, toys, whatever he happened to leave in the general area got stuffed in there.  He also often forgot to leave his wallet there, leading to Ana aggravating the hell out of him by her saying ‘Well
Daddy, if you would put things in the same place every time you wouldn’t lose them like this’  I was vastly amused by my little mini-me and Brian failed to see the humor.

 

Now I have a beautiful new box where that old wood box used to sit.  It gives me a place to talk to Brian and is right by the door so anyone coming into the house or leaving the house can greet and say goodbye to Brian.  It’s too clean though, I would give anything to be annoyed by his piles of crap again.