Are You Organised?

a) On your recently upholstered antique armchair while you bring them some home-baked goodies you have perpetually at the ready.

b) On a kitchen stool. You quickly wash up a few cups and make tea.

c) Having failed to divert them to the nearest café, you shove aside some abandoned laundry, plonk them on the emptiest spot you can find and pray they don’t ask to use the bathroom.

a) Never

b) A few times

c) You’ve lost count - but you have just been given your own set of keys so you can go in whenever you want

a) Yes. I’ll bring them to you right now if you like.

b) 1.5 out of 3 ain’t bad – will just the car keys and a 2013/14 tax return do?

c) None of the above. But thanks for reminding me to file my return for that year

a) Cloth and polish —I was just re-shining it

b) Some unopened mail and an assortment of children’s toys.

c) What dining table?

a) Have already organised the dove-delivered flowers to her front door and corralled your siblings (the slackers) into a thoughtful group gift. Five course dinner at your place tonight

b) Sent a card and little gift the other day. You call to confirm they got there on time and wish her a happy birthday

c) Are surprised to receive a terse phone call from your dad the next day reminding you it was mum’s birthday yesterday, and did you forget? You feel awful and try to blame the postal system

a) Yes, absolutely

b) Mostly. Some things might be a stretch but you can pass those down to a younger family member

c) Wardrobe? More like floordrobe. And as to who wears what, it’s a free-for-all to find something that fits.

a) A well-balanced, flavoursome meal with exotic ingredients. A restaurant deal is on the cards.

b) Something solid. A few frills and garnishes are missing but no one seems to notice

c) Toasted bread (mould trim optional) dipped in tomato sauce and covered in chocolate sprinkles

a) Infrequently or never.

b) A few times

c) So often that you could have gone on a short holiday with that amount of time and money.

a) Neatly ironed on name labels. Not that it’s an issue at home because all clothes are organised in the respective owners’ wardrobes.

b) Faded marker on the labels and a rough idea of what size corresponds to which kid.

c) You’re pretty sure your youngest had a breakfast incident yesterday morning – so the shirt with the egg stain obviously belongs to him.

a) Boxes are neatly stacked and correctly labelled and organised by owner, item type and year. You perform regular audits to ensure everything in storage is relevant and useful

b) Boxes are mostly labelled and with the correct things in them, though if you bothered to go through them right now, you’d find you could throw out a fair few things that are no longer important

c) It’s full to brimming with poorly labelled or unlabelled boxes. Though not every item has been lucky enough to make it into a box – or the garage for that matter. A ‘lucky dip’ of a randomly selected box could yield anything from a VHS copy of Weekend at Bernie’s to that funny cat calendar from 1998.

a) Arrive 10 minutes early and wait serenely for her to make a flustered entry.

b) Arrive between 11.00 and 11.15am. You are generally on time but you have your moments.

c) Assuming you haven’t completely forgotten the date, you rush in after 11.30am apologising profusely for being late and the fact that you couldn’t call because you’ve somehow misplaced your phone. Your friend doesn’t look too surprised – she’s used to this from you.