Brilliance of Janitors
21 September 2006At college, whenever we needed ice for of-age or underage parties
(more often the latter), we always knew where to go to get the large
plastic garbage bags required to transport the ice and keep it from
getting your entire dorm wet: garbage cans. The janitors kept spare
clean garbage bags at the bottom of the garbage cans, so that every
time you empty the trash by removing a full garbage bag, the new
clean ones are right where you need them. Think about how brilliant
this is. No really, take a moment and think about this truly elegant
solution to what otherwise could be a significant logistical challenge.
There were 5000 students at my university, about 4,000 lived on
campus. In my hall there were 16 of us and 2 trash cans, so let’s
round conservative to one per 10 people. They were probably emptied
twice a week, so we’re talking about 2 bags per 10 people per week,
that’s 800 bags of trash per week! (Seems high, so if you have
additional information, feel free to challenge my virtual napkin
math) Spread over 20 dorms and 80 floors, that’s a wide array. If
the spare bags had to be carted around, there would be considerable
energy just spent on transporting the bags, before even getting to
the less than idyllic and not wholly unchallenging task of actually
emptying the bags. So the work was simplified by leaving the empty
bags exactly where they would be needed next: at the point of use.
Now think about where this line of thinking could save you time and
energy in other ways. Why isn’t toilet paper stored in the toilet
paper dispenser. Imagine a tall vertical stack of rolls, when you
unroll the last square, inevitably rendered unusable by the glue that
keeps the entire roll together, instead of holding your breath in
anxiety hoping you can find a full roll before people get suspicious,
you just pull out the empty tube and down pops the new one. This
solves two problems at once: storage (where the hell to keep the
Charmin rolls), and the awkward behind-closed-doors-shouting question
about where the owner/resident keeps the spare rolls. Granted, this
type of structure is more beneficial for a sequential use of
inventory, and not as well suited to something as random as picking
the clothes you’re going to wear (unless you’re Steve Jobs). But it
could still be applied in a more loose sense, say positioning the
closet adjacent to the bathroom, so that the next logical step after
a shower (getting dressed), is also the next physical step. This
works to a lesser degree in shared bathrooms (i.e. dorms), which is
potentially a reason people don’t tend to expect it, they’re just
used to something worse.
The point is that things should be stored where they are used and
needed, or organized in a way that is in line with how you live,
work, etc. Forget a “storage closet”, but have things there, just in
time, ready to be of service when you need it.
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