Labels in the Garage

We spent a Saturday in a reader's garage in Michigan with a roll of masking tape and a marker. She had forty-one boxes, and nineteen of them said 'misc', 'stuff' or nothing at all.

The rule we used was three words, and the first word had to be a room. 'Kitchen, spare mugs'. 'Garage, bike parts'. 'Attic, Grandma's letters'. A label that starts with a room tells you where the box goes before it tells you what's in it, which is the order you need when you are carrying it.

By four in the afternoon there were thirty-three boxes, because eight of the 'misc' boxes turned out to be the same box, distributed. Two went to the curb. One was a box of labels from a previous attempt, which we kept, out of respect.

The masking tape cost three dollars. The marker was in the kitchen drawer, where markers live.