apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My husband just asks me...

Don't bitch and moan -- just look for it.

what about

"st. anthony, come around
something's lost and can't be found."

it works a surprising number of times for me.

also, i have to pass on the tip of hooking your keys to the strap of your handbag with a carabiner clip. i've been doing it for a few months and i'll bet i've saved at least 2 hrs. of my life in searching time -- if they don't get lost, you don't have to look for them!

(Bitch and moan about "losing" whatever object you're looking for, I mean. This coming from 18 years of living with my sister who would constantly misplace things and then complain and complain about not being able to find them but wouldn't shut her mouth and start looking.)

If I've put on my jacket to go out and can't find my phone anywhere, it's usually in my pants pocket. That's my tip for the day. I have tried the carabiner my keys to my purse, but I have never found them there before looking everywhere else for them. "Putting things where they belong" is partly necessary a habit for finding them there later, and training is hard, when finding them where you put them works just as well (but that's me).

I have some sort of knack for helping other people find their things. I don't know how I do it, but I have a sense if they put it in a drawer or it fell down and under the furniture. If it's not where you put it, or where it should be, it's usually fallen and gone under or behind the furniture. If it's not under it, take the drawer out, it could be behind it. If it was on a shelf, check behind the books on the next shelf down. Even if people are messy, they usually lose things they use all the time, and need again right away. They tend to keep these few things in habitual places and planes. It's really a lot easier to find other people's things because you're not as frantic to find it, but you have some idea how their head works (almost logically identical to your own) and how to think how the thing moved away from its spot.

Maybe you, too, K T G, can win fame as a "findologist"!

"# It's where it's supposed to be. Amazingly, our possessions are often right where they're supposed to be. Can't locate your raincoat? Check the closet where it's supposed to be kept (someone may have hung it up for you).
# Domestic Drift. Sadly, things seldom get put back where they belong. So check the place where the missing object was last used. You may be pleasantly surprised"

Don't these sort of contradict each other?

Sadly, no one puts anything away for me. On the bright side, I can see everything I own at a glance. I do lose things often, but I just learn to live without them, until they come back from lost possession vacation.

I make myself calm down and think back to where I used it last. Usually, it works. Unless the cats moved it.

1. for important things like keys, have a specific place to put them.

2. when that fails, think back, rewind the film in your head.

3. and last but least, St. Anthony is quite good, he is especially popular at work.

a findologist? seriously?...

just put stuff where they belong. things get lost when you have clutter or are careless about your things. period.

Yeah, in that picture, the cat obviously moved it.

I constantly lose my cell phone. I usually call it from my home phone and listen for the ring.

:o)

Living with a number of other people - I have discovered that often saying: "Where is it?" Is just an excuse for "I can't be bothered to get it, get it for me!"... I hate that... and I always say: "Have you looked yet?"...

For myself, it is often a case of mental searching "Where was I, what was I doing, ... that finds the object, active searching is usually just a frantic scrabble!

Great post!

We've done 'where is it?' now can we do why am I here?

I just blame my husband...
http://www.notyourgoddess.blogspot.com/

yeah, i'm with eddie p. i misplace something maybe once every three months max. and only for a few minutes until i find it again. you just have to stay tidy. it saves a lot of time and aggravation. wasn't it Ben Franklin who coined "A place for everything and everything in its place"? i love that guy.

Here's a little trick I use when I have supposedly looked everywhere: lie down on the floor and look. Gravity brings everything down and things slip off counters, tables, out of pockets and purses. Once you commit yourself to lying full on the floor and letting your eyes wander, you will often find what you are seeking: keys, earrings, papers that have slipped behind or under furniture. Good luck to everyone who is seeking something right now!

A trick I learned in childhood: Stand on something (the bed, a sturdy piece of furniture) and get a good view of the room from higher up. A quick scan is usually all I need to find something. Not earrings though.
Also, jgphotomom has the other clue, look under things!

the tips are really useful!

I hear everybody complaining about people who whine about losing things... I had the flip side of that problem. My dad would tell me to get something for him. I'd ask where it was. He'd get all huffy about it. So, basically he'd lose things and then make me find them. And it annoyed the crap out of me because i use se7in's 'where did you last have it' technique, which doesn't work if you can't trace the other person's steps and/or if he's too bitchy to tell you where he last was. I lose things all the time, but I find them as long as somebody doesn't get all frantic and lets me think.

eddie p, maybe your life is saner than mine. I have places to put things but you know what? Sometimes I don't! S**t happens, okay goodie two shoes?

Funniest thing the cat ever stole: my engagement ring. I had seen her take it before when I was washing my hands, so when it disappeared I looked in all of the spaces cat toys end up: under the washer, the oven, behind the bookshelf... no luck. There's a basket of cat toys on the mentioned bookshelf, and one day when I was cleaning, I thought, wouldn't it be funny...? And there it was. She was probably playing with it behind the shelf and wopped it into the basket.

Love the name findologist. I also like the name Barista but I don't want to be either. They don't pay enough.

But it was an amusing post!