Last updated on November 26, 2023
One of my personality quirks is that I like clear delineation of my space in the world. I don’t like fuzzy barriers between the bits of the world I occupy and the rest of (human) world.
I don’t mind if my yard leads into a forest. That’s great. But I do want to know where my yard ends and the neighbors’ yards begin. I want lines drawn, nice and clear lines that clarify my responsibility. Admittedly, I also want others to know, ”Hey, I’m not responsible for whatever you see over there!”
Fences and walls matter to me. The same is true at work. I want fences between neighbors and I want walls between coworkers.
When I’m on the phone or working on a project, I don’t want to hear someone else talking to his or her teenager.
I like my desk to be… mine. I like my desk clean, my filing cabinets organized, and my books shelved by topic and then alphabetical. Don’t enter my space without asking, and definitely don’t return books to a shelf for me to be helpful — other people never seem to place them back in order! Return the book to me and let me put it where it belongs.
Controlling my space, and wanting it as perfect as possible, is more than preference. It borders on a need — a desire to have a little bit of order and control, when we know control is so limited in life. My spaces are at least something I maintain, along with my equally picky (and sometimes pickier) wife.
I don’t like that our house isn’t done, that boxes and filing cabinets aren’t organized, that we need to organize many things and never have the time to complete these tasks, but at least we are in charge of our spaces.