I am an organized guy. Or as my wife likes to say “obsessive compulsive”.
I like to have things in order. I embrace minimalism because it makes it easy for me to know exactly what I have and where it is.
When I exercise, I follow a system. When I make dinner, I take certain steps every time.
It’s probably no surprise that I also have a system for grocery shopping.
My grocery shopping system is pretty simple actually.
I visually segment the grocery list into 4 quadrants.
Upper Left – For dairy, water, soda and junk food
Lower Left – For cleaning supplies, frozen food and paper products
Top Right – Meat, poultry, canned goods.
Bottom Right – Produce. Bakery. Deli.
This maps exactly to where the products are located in the grocery store. It makes it easy to walk through the store one time and get everything we need – efficiently and with no backtracking.
I just shook my head and sighed. My wife asked me, “What’s wrong?”
I replied, “Look at this list. It’s out of order. I need to rewrite it before we go to the store otherwise we’ll be backtracking all over the place.”
I asked, “Haven’t you noticed over the past years that I always try to list items in the order in which they are located in the store? Why would you do it this way? It doesn’t make sense.”
She responded, “Well, I try to write them in order too. But then I remember we need something else and there’s no space left, so I add it to the bottom of the list.”
“But I have a system for that“, I said and I started to explain the 4 quadrants.
Her reply was perfect.
“Fuck you and your fucking system. I don’t need a system. I don’t want a system and in fact, I refuse to use a system for the grocery list. You’re just too goddamn obsessive compulsive.”
Then we both burst into laughter. and I said, “Well. Ok then.”
She’s right you know.
For us to have a marriage as great and longlasting as ours, I sometimes have to recognize that it doesn’t matter whether I thunk my way is best.
Not only that – if my wife was a lot like me, I probably wouldn’t be able to stand to live with her!
Pick your battles my friends, and maybe you’ll someday be celebrating your 29th anniversary like we will be later this year.