place for everything (and everything in its place), a

place for everything (and everything in its place), a

An old maxim for neatness. The earliest citation for it is a naval novel of 1842, but it continues to be used, both in the sense of tidiness and by extension, appropriateness. The second, more figurative sense is meant in P. Dickinson’s Skin Deep (1968), “Do you run your whole life like that? . . . A place for everything and everything in its place, and all in easy reach.”See also: everything, place