It turns out I have a lot of hunting gear. Not a lot of GOOD hunting gear, but a lot of gear in total. I do have some good stuff, and I always know where that stuff is, because it gets used a lot and has its own special places in my hunting gear storage areas. But just about every year, I decide I need something I know I have, but I just can’t put my hands on it.
Some years, I just give up the search and do without whatever item I was looking for. But once in a while, it prompts me to do another full-scale cleanup of the hunting gear section of my store room. And each time I do it, I get serious about the search, but I tend to lose interest after I find whatever gadget I was looking for.
For instance, a couple years ago, I was looking for some upland bird carrying lanyards. I got about halfway into the stack of hunting gear when I found them, so I tidied everything up and put it all back. But all the stuff below and behind where I found those lanyards didn’t get touched.
This year, I decided to do it for real. I actually pulled every piece of hunting and camping gear I have out of the store room and scattered it around the basement. For a couple of weeks, it looked like we’d been robbed by an unusually tidy thief who tossed the place, but put everything into piles of related items. It took a while, but I got everything organized, put back into containers, and this time, labeled. That was probably the key – labeling the totes. Because I have gotten to the age where I can’t remember what box has what items. But now I know, so at least until I get them all jumbled up again, I’ll be able to find exactly what I’m looking for for every hunt. I give it until this time next year before I have to clean it all up again.
