Because of my need of organization, I have now accepted that I will forever be in charge of cleaning and putting things away - both at home and in the lab.
FML.
Now, I'm not saying that my lab mates are filthy pigs - in fact, I have a great lab family and I really like them. It's just... that there's a pervasive culture of not putting things away. In my experience, the outlook is poor for getting people to put their lab equipment away after it's been cleaned and dried. That minuscule area by the sink is constantly brimming with tools to be autoclaved or put away. It's literally limbo for lab tools.
Once a week, I've now resigned myself to putting things away. Sometimes I need to, because it's the only way I can place my used tools there to dry. Sometimes I'd prefer to postpone whatever science I have slated for the day in favor of the mindless indulgence that is organizing. Sometimes I do it because I have undergraduate assistants around me almost all of the time, and they need to be taught how to be good lab citizens.
There's absolutely nothing harder than trying to get a lab member to change a bad lab citizen habit. It's easiest to pretend it never happens, and hope that you can eventually have more good than bad lab mates. Maybe you can approach a poor citizen individually, and appeal for considerate behavior. ...And sometimes you let it roll, suck it up, and clean up after them silently. Not all lab mates are perfect or permanent, and sometimes it's easier to simply wait for the ticking time bomb to explode (or graduate, because that happens sometimes).
So today, I raise my glass to my lab mates. I put away your shit like a bitch.
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