jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I lose things. Well, I lose track of where I put things. A couple of days ago, I got an old GoPro from eBay. Where is it? Where is my little tripod? Where is the remote for the DVD player? I know I could buy those little tracking devices, but there's probably a device I would need to find them, and I would lose that. This is why I have so many duplicates. I lose something, spend days looking for it, and then order another one. The day the new one arrives, I find the old one. I've tried different systems, and they work, sort of. But where is that GoPro? Maybe this is why I prefer those big DSLRs.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I know exactly how you feel. We have the same issue. My wife and I are constantly having to search for things.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I tried, "A place for everything, and everything in its place," but that doesn't work.

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

You sound like my cousin. He is always losing or misplacing something.

Tom467 Loc: North Central Florida

Jerry, I believe it is our doorjamb that makes us forget when we go from one room to another.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

As a Type A with a 73 year old's balky memory this works but you have to have done it for at least a couple of decades. My keys always go into a small bowl on the piano. Quite often these days, I can't remember where I put them so the first place I check, is the piano...and there they are.

St.Mary's

Remember, nothing is truly lost until mother can't find it.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

You ever leave your key in the front door lock, then can't find em. I did. Ever get a rent check from your tenant and misplace it and have to ask them to cancel check, and write a new one. Then 8 years later find it in the little pouch hanging from the seat on my ten speed bicycle!! Ugh! I guess that check isn't any good now. The other day I must have looked for over 30 minutes for a box of gloves that I use for just about everything including working on the car, or cleaning guns. Where did I find them? Well, funny you should ask. They were in the kitchen cabinet because now I remember using them to handle raw chicken I was preparing for dinner about a week ago. Ugh!!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I had forgotten to turn my memory on the other day. When I turned it on, I remembered where I put the camera and other things. I'm back to normal, whatever that means.

Tom467 Loc: North Central Florida

Reading all these comments are making me feel good knowing that I am not alone.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I suffered from the same issue until I came up with a system. It's a 'piling system', not a filing system. I put everything in a pile so regardless of what it is, I always know where it is at....it's in that big pile of stuff.

Now, exactly where I don't know, however, it's got to be in there somewhere.

MtManMD Loc: Beaverton, Oregon

My nemesis is lens caps. Just lost one to my most expensive lens, again! Fortunately, I had a spare and now another $13 spare on order. Last year, I lost my pickup keys. Spend days turning everything inside out, retracing every step. Finally spent $$$ getting new ones made. Two days later while cleaning out my large backpack prepping for an outing, I found them in the bottom of the main compartment. No idea how they would have gotten there. Totally worthless at that point

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

Then, of course, there is the possibility that you just have too much stuff!!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Too Much Stuff is an affliction of the aging affluent.

Like me.

I have Too Much Stuff. It's not really that I have more things than I need, it's that I can't remember where I left them. And of course, as noted above, the best way to find something is to replace it. The old one MAY show up the next day, but sometimes the new one just disappears too.

My wife and I have different philosophies of how to keep track of our stuff. She has a place for everything. I tend to leave things where they get used so they will be there next time I want to use them. So I have a favorite spray bottle of cleaner. It uses hydrogen peroxide for sanitizing things instead of stinky chlorine. So I got 6 bottles of the stuff. I leave one under the sink, one under the bathroom sink, one under the sink in the other bathroom, one in my shop, one by the cat litter, one in the garage.... My wife will take them all and put them under the kitchen sink. The problem is that the next time she collects them, she might have a different common location for them. So I go out and buy 6 more. And, of course, I need a roll of paper towels to go with the cleaner. I leave one next to the cleaner because that's where I will need it. She has a place for paper towels. It's not the same place for the cleaner.

Of course there are some things that just naturally resist being located. When I was in grad school I shared a lab with 6 other guys. There were 4 rooms full of equipment. Each room had a drawer full of tools. If I needed a Phillips screwdriver, there would never be one in any of the tool drawers in any of the 4 labs, let alone one of the right size. One of the guys got frustrated and ordered a bucket of screwdrivers. A Gross. Twelve Dozen. It was heavenly. For about 2 weeks. Then it was back to normal. No screwdrivers to be found. Of course if you needed a straight screwdriver, you would find a drawer full of Phillips. And vice versa.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I do that, too, but I forget which pile something is in.