...does a person really need? How much is too much? When is it OK to take up more space when you don't think that you have enough?

Why am I asking these questions? Well, I'll tell you.

Today I went to the gym and found myself in the same corner of the locker room as another woman. It's a cramped corner and I moved my stuff a little further down the bench so that she would have more room for her things. She smiled, said thanks and proceeded to put her gym bag in a locker. Then she opened the locker to the left of that one where she hung her towel, put three hardcover books (from her gym bag) and her mp3 player. She closed the door of that locker.

Then she opened the locker directly underneath that one and put in a pair of dress shoes and hung up a nice pair of slacks. She closed that locker door as well. Then she went digging in the gym bag and pulled out a lock. She closed that locker door and opened the door of the locker to the left of the first locker and put her handbag in. She closed that door and secured the lock.

Then she went back into the locker with the books and towel and pulled the towel out, shut that locker door and went into the gym bag locker to dig something out and put that in the locker with the shoes before closing that door as well. She was constantly in and out of lockers (and opening and closing the doors of them) until I left to workout.

For those who have lost count - that was 4 lockers. Our lockers aren't huge but they're not tiny either. She could clearly have put everything into one locker, but didn't. Yes, I checked when I came back in to change after I was done - she still had 4 locker spaces taken up. Why does someone need that much space in a locker room?

I'll admit she was very methodical about opening and closing the locker doors and particular about what things went in what lockers. I figure it probably is some sort of compulsion to do such a thing, but it still rings as unusual with me and that is probably because I don't want to take up that much space in a locker room. Other people need to use the lockers too.

Granted, not every locker is going to be all used up by the entire population in the gym so there are going to be empty ones, but *four* lockers for one person? Especially when a small purse is the only thing that goes into one of them?

Someone enlighten me...