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That Darn Closet Door

At work, my cubicle has a little closet for hanging up your coat. It's not very big, and I doubt I could fit more than two or three articles of clothing in there (there's only one hanger in there, though). Now, I know many of you might be commenting that I at least have a closet, and I don't deny that it's a nice little extra feature. I've actually never had one before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into that cube and realized that I had my own mini closet.

Since it was new to me, though, it took a while to build up the habit to actually use the thing. I've walked into a cube and hung my jacket on the back of my chair for years now. And even though I fully intended to take advantage of this new closet, I kept forgetting to do it at first. Of course, habit die hard, but they do die eventually. So I gradually got into the habit of hanging up my jacket (I always wear a jacket to work since I get up at the butt crack of dawn), and I was mildly pleased with myself. Good job, me.

Now, the other thing to note about my cube is that I don't have any small drawers there. I have several large ones (they'd roughly fit a basketball), but that's not very convenient for storing small items like pens or notepads. I usually just get around this by keeping a mug with my commonly-used office supplies (pens, highlighters, etc.) and a couple of notepads lying around my desk. It's not the most elegant solution, but it's functional, and it works.

However, I usually keep my wallet in my back pocket, but I don't like sitting on my wallet all day long. I have been known to keep my wallet and car keys in a small drawer until I walk out, so that they are both easy to grab and hidden away. Without drawers of the appropriate size, though, this isn't an option. I'm not going to throw those items into a chasm and dig around to retrieve them each and every time. That violates the whole "easy to grab" condition.

So, instead, I will keep these items in an inside pocket of my jacket. It's just as safe there as it is in a drawer, since no one ever goes into my closet. Think about it: how would you explain that you were rummaging through my closet? You could potentially say you were borrowing a pen or something if it was in a drawer, but in a closet, there's no pretending. You were rifling through my stuff, pure and simple. That kind of behavior is far more noticeable, so I feel pretty comfortable tucking away my wallet there. And all in all, it's not a bad plan. It's still easy to grab my stuff (open closet door, grab wallet), and half the time, I'm grabbing the whole jacket anyway since I'm leaving at the end of the day. See? It all works out.

There is, however, a catch. It's a little too easy to grab my wallet. Say I'm going to lunch somewhere, and I know that I need cash. I will open the closet door, reach in, grab my wallet, and head out the door. It'll take all of 2 seconds, so I don't even think about it. Did you catch the flaw in this plan, though? I forgot to close my closet door. It's not like there are any more valuables in there any more, but it's still a bit gauche/weird for me to leave that door open. And since the closet is still something of a novelty for me, I've yet to ingrain the habit of closing the door into my routine yet. I have come back from lunch on more than one occasion to realize that I left that darn closet door open (and now you why I chose the title that I did for this post).

All of that "good job, me" stuff goes right out the window whenever I realize I forgot to close that door. That sort of defeats the purpose, since it's not nearly as hard to reach into an open door without someone noticing. It's not so much rifling through my stuff at that point as being an opportunist and walking away before someone notices. It's a small barrier, but it's an important one. And one that I conveniently forget to erect through sheer forgetfulness. Bad job, me.

Luckily for me, I have plenty of time to correct this bad habit (as someone reminded me the other day, I likely have something like 30+ years of being a working stiff before I retire). Heck, I managed to teach myself to use the closet itself, I'm pretty sure I can teach myself to work a closet door eventually. These things are trickier than they look, I tell you.

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