But where did I leave the rake?

Those who know me know I do not line up my cushions, colour code my wardrobe or organise my sock drawer in neat rows.

Those who know me well will break into hysterical laughter at the slightest suggestion I ama fan of minimalism and go on to suggest that organised chaos, with the emphasis on chaos, is more my natural state.

However, I’m not averse to the saying, ‘‘a place for everything, and everything in its place’’. My definition of ‘‘its place’’ may be loose sometimes but I get the concept and may have even been known to quote the saying at times, particularly when I am trying to accomplish something in the garden and cannot find the tools. This is generally either because I have left them where I used them last, or because the other half put them away.

The problem is, often his ‘‘the job is finished, put the tools away’’ approach doesn’t correlate with my ‘‘oops, run out of time but I will be back to finish this later so I will leave the tools to hand’’ methodology, leading to the aforementioned waste of time on both our parts when working on garden tasks.

I was pleasantly surprised at how useful I find the tool board he recently created in the garden shed, with neat pegs for our pruning tools. He didn’t stop there. We now have pegs for small digging tools and a purpose-built rack for rakes, hoes, spades and shovels. We even have strategically placed nails on a rack for sundry items, including my No. 8 wire garden pegs.

While it took me a while to find stuff (somehow the No. 8 pegs at eye level failed to catch my attention and I had to ask him their whereabouts), I think the other half’s work is a brilliant addition to our garden.

Yes, I feel a bit of pressure to faff about and put the tools away when I finish whatever I amdoing but it does make starting the next job much easier when I know that what I want tool-wise will be exactly where I expect to find it, not buried under a heap of weeds.

The dogs have been accustomed to trailing randomly about the garden behind me as I wander, trance-like, muttering, ‘‘now I started here, then I saw that and moved over here to dig this, then the phone rang, oh, and I went to feed the chooks…ah, here it is!’’

They’re a little bemused by this new system of decide on task, grab tools, and start task. They reckon it makes their job heaps easier, as no longer do they just get comfortable then have to get up and follow me to another location as part of their selfimposed task to supervise all gardening duties.

This tidiness thing may grow on me. All in all, I have to admit something any other half is happy to hear when they have put thought and effort into DIY improvements: ‘‘You were right, dear.’’