to put crumbs...

So happy to read I am not alone.
when Ever I clear any surface he comes along with his books and covers it entirely in a single layer. Vertical Piles are anathema.Tried to help him in clearing out his study by boxing everything in categories so he could sort everything out and clear some space.... and I could decorate the room for him. Two years later the boxes are still there and, of course, I am now blamed for everything that has gone astray.
Tried to convince him of the benefit of one -in-one-out system and I organised my stuff by taking the superfluous to charity shops
Christmas day was every day as the books and other ( essential for him)stuff rolled in from Amazon and he was able to be meticulous in piling up his stuff in every place I had cleared

Mine is meticulous about filing and much tidier than me. Also tidy and careful with his clothes - but doesn't colour code them like another member has mentioned!
The one thing he is not careful with is handkerchieves (he has a clean one every day as his mother taught him and likes them ironed) but uses them to mop up anything eg spills, blood or even the oil off the dipstick (yes he checks oil. water and tyres on the car every week!)

I think my DH fits the profile that many of you have described. He 'files' important papers in the drinks cupboard, any drawer at all, the kitchen cupboards, the study floor, or a huge pile on the desk in the study. He usually irons his own shirts and then hangs them in his wardrobe 3 or 4 to a hanger! The garage is full of his stuff and like Snowdrop I can barely open the door. He puts bottles back into cupboards with their tops balanced (never screwed) on top, his clothes are totally untidy in his drawers, and he puts my things away if I dare to leave them out, and then has no idea where he has put them, and I am left to search the entire house and all his favourite hiding places to find them. He has even been known to throw brand new books in the recycling bin, which is truly amazing as he doesn't usually bother to recycle, despite me telling him he should! None the less he is extremely organised in many ways and manages various bank accounts, utility accounts (including my mother's) and a mass of other things very well and friends compliment him on his organisation!

My DH needs to be given exact co=ordinates of anything he is looking for in the house i.e 2nd drawer down on the left, open, oh the right handside 3/4 of the way towards the back ! but in the hell that his his workshop and shanty town of sheds he can find he smallest screw or tool.Wonder why that is ?

bags do you think she'd notice?

Think my OH is the flip side of your lot! Everything is filed meticulously and everything set out perfectly. Even the knives in the knife drawer have a specific order for him. His shirts - which he irons as soon as dry - are hung up in colour order. OCD you say??? Could very well be!

I'm a "Use a plate" ogre too. So much so that when I went out after I had been baking, and left a message with my cleaner to help themselves but use a plate (!), my DH said he knew it was true because of the add-on.
My DH can't / won't file until I go ballistic about the teetering piles. Also can't find stuff - we call it man-looking.

My DH has phoned me at work to ask where various things are. Without exception he will 'already have looked thoroughly, it's not there' wherever I tell them the 'missing' item is. I tell him to go and look again. When I get home it is invariably where I told him it was. Even he now admits he is suffering from Man Looking. He also has a double garage 'workshop' where things disappear for all eternity, I can hardly get in the door. The study is a complete mess (well his half is!) and if I move anything at all I'm accused of throwing valuable paperwork away. So valuable it's been filed on the floor for years. The conservatory has a nest of tables piled high with magazines and periodicals dating back to the last ice age and the coffee table seems to be an extension of his workshop. As so many have already said, what is it with men??

My DH files and throws. This can have unfortunate consequences. I am the opposite I like to keep 'in case'. We manage but only by having a desk and office space each. He does the finances as I do not want to be accused of doing something wrong. As we have a joint account if he is ever incapacitated I will have to go to the bank and find out how to do it.

Though DH files well he does leave everything around in the kitchen - chisels, screwdrivers, plant tabs etc. He has garages, greenhouse and sheds. So I put these either on his desk or in the garage.

I'm not good at filing on a regular basis and wish I could afford my declutterer monthly instead of yearly. My friend has a PA weekly and this is making her life easier.

I forgot an engagement last night as I thought to make a nice sea-bass dinner for us both and then eat it in front of Gardener's World. I am going to have to find out how to use a reminder program. Once I get into cooking the evening meal I seem to forget everything. Not the first time I forgot a Parish council meeting last year.

Staying efficient inold age seems to be much more complex than it was when at work.

Mine has a plate but puts it on table and eats dropping crumbs in his lap, then floor. He puts things away then asks where I've put them, swears blind it's me. If I put something of his anywhere I make him put down whatever gadget he's playing with, tell him to look at me, then tell him where I'm putting object. I tell him things, he swears blind I didn't,. I have now taught him to say when he says I haven't told him something and I know I have "I wasn't listening". Usually said with such innocence that I have to laugh. You've guessed I'm a bit of an ogre!

bags a pelican bib? No more sausage rolls?

Re the crumbs - no food except at the table!!
Or buy a handheld vacuum cleaner for her Christmas present

DH files more regularly than me

But usually not where I would file things
(He uses different logic? - or none!)

Annesixty- sometimes in life you do get what you really want. I've got a study of my very own and DH has one too. Sorry to be smug but I do love my own wee place.
Filing though?

What is it with men and filing?

In our house those words do NOT go together

Nonnie -
annsixty - I really couldn't let my DH have a whole study to himself. He already has a double garage to himself (with no cars in it) which is a rival to our local council tip. Our one and only small study is supposed to be my place for painting/sewing/ etc but if I am caught off my guard it quickly becomes an overflow point for the garage.

Oh I love the idea of " his and her study's". That is surely an estate agents dream selling point. I have a large untidy drawer in the hall and a large tin box bought from Aldi in one moment of efficiency, the hanging files of which are mostly empty.

NTO I would never let DH file anything in 'my' files! He just doesn't get that filing is not about putting paper somewhere, it is about knowing where it is when you need it. I do all the finance, he does the insurance, I have 2 shelves of files he has 3 cupboards!

PS I do have a filing system for all household stuff but can DH ever find the right file? He looks vaguely up at the shelf where the box files are arranged, all neatly labelled by moi, and then says he 'can't see it'. If I don't go and help him he just bungs stuff in any old file where it is lost forever. Gawd 'elp us.

What is it with men and filing? I think they just don't get the basic concept. My DH loves 'filing' his stuff on the floor around the chair he usually sits in to open the post. If I move it he moans that he won't be able to find it, if I leave it it soon completely encircles the chair, all laid out in untidy piles. He also has an annoying habit of writing important (to him) stuff on newspapers or the TV magazine and goes mad when he can't find the info because I've tidied it into the recycling. Grrr - men!

The trouble is, the more we run around after them the more they depend on us.
Nonnie a similar thing happened to us a few days ago. I was looking for the mortgage file,which is a green one, and asked him. He said you do all that, you changed it!
I searched again and found it - shoved in with loads of other irrelevant stuff in a folder with HIS writing on it. All out of order and confusing. GRRR!

thatbags the only thing is, spiders and mice will hoover up these crumbs rather than minibags.

Welsh but DH thinks he is normal! He came into my study the other day looking for a gas bill, couldn't work out he should look in the file marked Utilities until I told him. When it wasn't there I pointed him to my filing pile (small) but he said "I suppose it is somewhere over there" pointing in the general direction of my desk. He just doesn't get that life is easier if everything has its place.

Nonnue my OH is just the same - any clear surface and he lines his tools/ pencils/ notes all in a row till I put them in his place! He always loses his specs too!

You're saving her a job though, aren't you? Why should she bother about using a plate when she knows her crumbs will be collected and put on her pillow, all in one place so she can just tip them in the waste paper basket!

(or on the floor, depending how fussy she is...)