It’s my goal for 2010 to find a place for everything. No more frantic searching for lost items, no more sinking feeling when I realize that I need something that is probably buried in one of many piles of random stuff. No more piles of random stuff.
But of course, being only March, I’m not there yet. Better, but not there.
For more than a month now, I’ve been looking for the materials for a class I teach on Sundays. I teach a group of 3 & 4 year olds, and I have some great resources, including Ms. Prim, the puppet who instructs the children about manners and lives in a large red wig box.
But this large, red, oddly shaped box and accompanying tote bag of materials was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere. I searched every room in the church where I might have been on a Sunday morning. I looked in both vehicles. I looked in my closet, my scary master bedroom, my garage. I asked around, and even looked in lost-and-found at church.
Nowhere. So I finally stopped looking, sure that they would turn up at some point, as most of the things that I lose tend to do.
A few days ago, I found some new materials that I would like to use. And today, as I carried them into the house, I thought and thought of a proper place to store them. A place that would be logical and would not slip my mind either in the putting-away or the getting-out stage.
I thought of the perfect place.
I went to this place, opened the door, and guess what I saw.
Really, guess.
The oddly shaped red wig box and accompanying tote bag. Sitting right there in a very logical place.
Susan says
That is the part of the process that frustrates me the most…I find a new logical, permanent home for said item…then can't FIND it when I need it! Yet I can clearly recall where it USED to be, the pile location, what it was near, etc.
PegOBrien61 says
I do that too. I go right back to wherever it was before I found a better place to put it. I won’t find again it until I’m looking for something else.
Amanda says
I totally do that! I can often remember thinking, “I’ll put this in X place, so that will be it’s new home and I will always know where it is.” (Only to never be able to remember where “X place” actually WAS) I have come to consider that phrase akin to the kiss o’ death – I am never gonna see THAT item again!!! 🙂
Mama Hen says
I had to start writing things down. I read on someone else's blog about this also. She keeps a list on her fridge of where items are. It helps. Because I always think I will remember and then I never do.
Anonymous says
And y'all are probably young. Guess what happens when you're not so young any more!
Diane says
It is so hard to have everything have a home I have been trying to do this but wow so overwhelming!!!!!!!!!!
I love reading your blog your journey is so similar to mine .
Mar says
I was looking for the online banking information for one checking account I have. I want to start using it as my only account, but couldn't do so until I found the logon information. I looked in one basket at least 5 times in the last 5 weeks for these two papers, which are on bank's dark cream stationery (so the color should stand out, right?) I was looking for something else in that basket yesterday and guess what I found????
I think my 14 year old daughter is trying to gaslight me – it's the only excuse…
I like the idea of the list on the refrigerator, but I would forget to update the list when I move something. Just sayin'…
Marcia says
The only thing that really works for me in the de-cluttering/moving things to new "logical" places is to tell my husband when I move something….oh, not that I expect him to remember it! I can USUALLY remember telling him that I moved something to a new location, and that keeps me sane! Good luck!
Tricia says
I just have to say that this is one of my biggest frustrations. I’m really good at putting important things in a “safe place” and then completely forgetting where that place may be!
Danielle says
I was hunting all over the house for scissors the other day. Searched everywhere, got frustrated, grumbled about how we have 3 pairs of scissors and I cant find a single one. Hubby walks over and opens the drawer the scissors go in. They were all there. Miracle of miracles they were in the spot they belonged. I was looking in the spots I had seen them last, not realizing that at some point I actually put them up-without thinking about it!
Erica says
So you mean I’m not the only person who puts things in such a safe place, they are safe from even me? I am loving this blog, reading from the start, and beginning to implement changes that need to happen in my house. I think we are very alike, and I have struggled to both maintain and make significant progress. It seems like it is one or the other. I’m using some of your ideas, and hope to see as much improvement as you have shown! And I’m 3 years in the past at this point, so I can’t wait to see how you are doing now.
hestia74 says
We have a running joke in our house about this very issue. Every time I or my husband can’t find something I supposedly put away in a “logical place” he says the same thing: “Oh, I know, it must be stashed away with the deodorants.” That’s because very early in our marriage we had several bottles of deodorant that needed to be put away until it was time to use them. I put them in such a perfect, ideal place, that later I couldn’t find them when my husband asked me for one. I looked for *days* and still couldn’t find them. He eventually had to buy new deodorant bottles. A few *weeks* later I found them stashed in a bottom drawer of our dresser. Yes, a very “logical” place!
Livvy says
I don’t like paper lists, I always lose them.
I use my phone to take photos of items/locations instead.
(Or you could take a photo of a list?)
If I must make a list I use the calendar or reminders in my phone.
Evernote is also good as it syncs across all your devices.
Katie says
Hahahaha! This post sounded so much like me that I just HAD to comment! I’ve been reading your blog from the start, and haven’t commented until now (mostly since the better part of a decade has passed since the original postings) but I just can’t help but chime in here. I feel you, and frequently “lose” things that I’ve put away in their proper home while looking in all the cluttery areas the item used to sit.
Thanks for sharing your struggles and saying things that I just assumed were just my own darkest secrets. I can’t wait to read ahead to some more recent posts to see how things are going for you now. Thanks for sharing and inspiring me to take on some of my own daily tasks!
Sandra says
I, too, am extremely late to the blog, but I am reading backwards per you suggestion since I miss your posts during the summer. Our circumstances are not the same, but I can’t tell you how many times I have lost items that were put away in a “safe place”.
I love reading your blog and look forward to your return at the end of summer.