Not Truly Obsessive-Compulsive

At the risk of being accused of using generalities and stereotyping, I must ask: Why is it impossible for men to put things away? Granted, I only have my husband to point to when I ask this question, but I know the same thing goes on in other homes.

I don't understand why my hubby cannot put things (Doritos, chips, etc.) away in the pantry where they belong. What he does instead is leave whatever snack food he is finished with on the bench in the breakfast nook. Now this might not be cause for being annoyed except for the fact that he only has to take ONE more step to put the food where it belongs! And he cannot understand why this irritates me. After all, he's not finished with the snack--he'll be eating more tomorrow.

Another thing he physically is unable to do is put his bathrobe back in his closet. His robe has been on the floor next to our bed for so long that it is light blue--instead of navy--because of all the dust that has settled on it. This, I understand, might be harder for him to put away because he actually would have to open a door to get into the closet--very difficult.

Most of the time his inability to put things away only causes me to be annoyed. However, his inability to put his tools away DOES cost us money. At the moment his toolbox has one set of sockets in it. The man has more tools than you can shake a stick at and he cannot find a screwdriver when he needs one--because they are not where they belong. The first thing he does when he needs a tool is he heads for MY toolbox and uses what he can find. Of course, he doesn't put it back when he's done, so now MY tools are MIA, also. The biggest problem, though, is when even I don't have what he is looking for. This gives him an excuse to go out and buy whatever he can't find in the house. This in turn has brought us to the situation we are now in--we have a hammer for every room of the house, more screwdrivers in more sizes than anyone ever imagined they made, and enough socket sets that we could've left a set in every vehicle we have ever owned. All of this is moot, though, as I can only find one socket set, three screwdrivers and one hammer (brand new) at the moment.

Okay, okay, I can hear you screaming, "If it bothers you so much, put it away yourself!" Tried that. And for my effort I got blamed for putting things where they cannot be found. And I even get blamed for things I never touch--I'm just a good scapegoat when he can't remember where he left something!

So, to try and keep my house in some semblance of order, I clean and organize what I can get away with and leave the rest. And because I haven't had a breakdown, yet, I know I am not truly obsessive-compulsive.