Tidy Garage, Tidy Mind

I don’t like clutter. Never have. That is why when we moved house a year ago I was so quick to unpack boxes and find the right place for everything. Within a week the house was basically sorted although an awful lot of stuff went to charity shops or the tip. The one area where I failed to tidy was the garage. For quite a while it was jammed full of boxes.

In the spring I finally went through every box and threw a lot more stuff out. But as I emptied the boxes, my garage itself became a bit of a tip and I have become increasingly frustrated through the year as I couldn’t find anything. Well this week I finally got around to putting up some shelves and tidying.

There is a good and a bad in this. The good is that I can now find whatever I need. The bad is that I have become obsessive about maintaining the tidy garage. I found myself telling Mandy that she can only put things in there after consulting me. I mean – it’s a garage!

I think my ridiculous behaviour is a mental thing. When things are well organised I feel under control. When things are messy it just feels wrong. I can cope with a disorganised garage by closing the door but eventually it has to be sorted. That is just the way it should be.

I see that Wes Streeting is saying this week that the NHS is over-diagnosing Autism and ADHD. I am not sure that over-diagnosing is the problem. The thing that costs money is over-treating. People like me with unusual ways of thinking are OK with no treatment. Because even though sometimes I have ridiculous ways of thinking, I quite like them.

And garages should be tidy.