Organizing 整理

Space is always difficult. People have their own mental mapping of how to put things. That is why although as a family we share a common space, but each one of us has a little bit of space that is inviolate. If someone moves what I have put in one place, as happens all too often with 7 pairs of hands 七雙手 around, I cannot find what has been ‘reorganized.’ I never quite know where the item will turn up, a toy box, a bag with “my things,” etc. Moving 搬家 complicates the situation even more.

Packing 裝行李 seems to be something that women need to control. (In Chinese culture, the woman is the decisionmaker in things regarding the home, but I suspect this is true to a lesser extent in American culture as well. ) Some of you will no doubt correct me about your personal situation, but for almost every couple I have known in every culture the man stays out of the way while the woman packs......very much as I am doing right now as my wife packs. I have my personal things that I need to pack accordingly, but the rest is my wife’s decision. Women often know exactly how they would like space to be arranged and how it should be reconstituted once the family is at their destination. Men are for moving all the boxes and suitcases once they have been packed.