Why I Don't "Reach" For Fragrances

Since taking up this perfume hobby, I have been surprised by the number of times I have heard people refer to "reaching" for a particular perfume. To me, the word "reach" suggests an inaccessible, far away object for which a bit of a stretch might be required, like a spice bottle on the top shelf of the pantry, or a spare pillow on top of the wardrobe. Occasionally, during that rare phenomenon of a dinner party at our house, I may reach for the cruet, or probably ask for it to be passed to me, which is more polite. But where most domestic objects are concerned, no reaching to speak of is involved. I "pick up" a pen or a mug or a piece of fruit, the dirty laundry off the floor, or the cat. I don't need to reach for these things particularly, because I take the initiative of going right up to them first.

Oh, now there's another example of when I might reach for something - when I am immobilised because the cat is sitting on my lap and the TV remote is on Mr Bonkers' lap (its usual resting place, in keeping with gender stereotypes!). Mr Bonkers meanwhile has fallen asleep and cannot pass the handset to me to enable me to change channel from what he was watching but no longer deserves to watch, as his eyes are fast shut and he is snoring. Then I need to reach over most gingerly to grab the remote without disturbing the cat. Come to think of it, I have been known to reach for a glass of wine from the coffee table when similarly pinned down by a furry impediment. But you get my point. Reaching for perfume is not really called for, unless your bottle storage system is particularly un-userfriendly, such as on top of the aforementioned wardrobe along with the pillow and the car blanket.

I have to say that the majority of my perfume collection which normally resides in the beer chiller is so ram-packed in there that in order to get to the ones near the back a degree of "scrabbling" is required, some "concerted rummaging" and possibly a fair bit of "inadverent dislodging" and "accidental toppling", but not real, outstretched arm stuff such as I understand by "reaching", and which seems to be broadly confirmed by an online dictionary.

1. To stretch out or put forth (a body part); extend: reached out an arm.
2. To touch or grasp by stretching out or extending: can't reach the shelf.

Now if anyone wishes to place their perfumes deliberately out of comfortable reach, so that the daily act of picking one out is tantamount to a bingo wing-whittling routine with a Bullworker, that sounds like a pretty nifty example of multi-tasking for which I have only admiration. But as a pseudo-portentous way of saying "pick up", I don't buy it!

And if anyone's perfumes are unintentionally out of range, here is some helpful advice from a site giving ergonomical tips to electrical contractors:

"Arrange most materials and supplies that must be accessed repetitively so they are in front of the body and can be easily reached with the elbows in close to the torso. These items should be within the 'windshield wiper area' created when you sweep your arms in front of the body and at your side. Materials that are accessed only occasionally can be placed further out."

Right, I am now going to walk right up to a packet of nuts, place them in my windshield wiper area and grasp them with ease...