I’m so frustrated with myself. No clue when was the last time I’ve seen this thing (wallet of crochet hooks). Yesterday I searched every project bag, every bag of my yarn stash, every drawer, nook and cranny where I might have put it absent-mindedly. I just went through them all again today. I have memories of seeing it on the breakfast table, on my desk (where the cat tried to annihilate the decorative tassle on its zipper), and in a project bag. I’ve moved it somewhere. I want to start a new project but need a hook of unusual size that is in the wallet. I haven’t been motivated to crochet in a while, and I caught a spark over the weekend by finishing up another project. Blegh. Fuck.
Thank you for reading my rant while I wallow in self-loathing.
P.S. This thing is neon fucking pink and bigger than a paperback book. I must have a forgotten project bag smushed into a closet or left out in the camper. I thought I accounted for all my half-started projects though.
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I hate when this happens to me, and it’s all the time. Usually I’ll finish a project and either leave the tools in the room I was working in (the project was done, so I moved on to other tasks, cleaning up is its own project of course) or they get piled my the basement door to eventually get put back in the tool chest. But then my lovely wife, whom I love more than anything, cleans up because either we have friends coming over, or because she’s stressed and cleaning is what she does. She’ll put away those tools, and the screws I left out, plus all those cords I need for that thing. To me all of those things are not gone forever. Even assuming I’d remember I left them out a month or three ago, they aren’t even there anymore anyways, they are where she thought they should go and I don’t know where that is.
The fastest way to find a lost item is to buy a replacement. As soon as you get the replacement home, the old one will reveal itself.
Recently confirmed this technique also works for items borrowed by others but not returned.We’ll see. The number one thing on my kids Christmas List is Super Mario Galaxy because we had 3D All Stars and it was his favorite game but it’s been lost for a long time. Wherever it is, I suspect the cases for my Odyssey and BotW carts are with it…those cases went missing (but not the carts) around the same time.
So of course we had to buy another copy of 3D All Stars, now at an elevated price.
I’m sure I lost it, too. Probably during a home improvement project. I’m certain it’s somewhere in the house in some bucket I stored whatever tools I was using that particular day. Like, I can practically see the cases in my mind. But I can’t find that damn bucket anywhere.
Oooh I hate this. Spend hours looking for something, knowing you have it, but then having to buy another only to find the thing a week later.
That’s right up there with cleaning up or organizing, finding a thing you didn’t need at the time that you knew was useful, and then needing it 6 months later and not remembering exactly where it was you last saw it - but you know you’d seen it.
Doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a try:
If you had the thing in your hand right now, and you had to put it away where would you put it?
Think of a few options and check those.
If you eventually find it and it wasn’t in the first place you though of, put it there when you put it away next.
I once lost my car keys for like 2 weeks and had to use the replacement keys, dumb stick without a remote. The keys were inside a hiking backpack I stowed away in the basement. No idea when or why I put them there.
My steps are usually this:
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Blame everyone else, someone MUST have stolen or maliciously misplaced your items.
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Tear whole apartment apart (hence the name). Of course you cannot find it.
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Grieve and move on. The thing you yearn for is irrecoverably lost.
1.Blame everyone else, someone MUST have stolen or maliciously misplaced your items.
2.Tear whole apartment apart (hence the name). Of course you cannot find it.
Oh my god, I am so ashamed when I do this. Like, I know they only do it 5-10% of the time, but I ‘ask’ them if they’ve moved it nearly every time.
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I got a new cell phone right before a vacation a few months ago. I ‘hid’ the old cell phone so it wouldn’t get moved or wander off while I was out of town because I still needed to transfer everything.
I’m sure I’ll find it someday.
May not apply here, but something I learned helping people move is that many sofas have frame gaps stuff can disappear into, which isn’t obvious until someone is hauling it and you hear things tumbling around inside.
To check, you can usually just reach underneath and tap the batting fabric in a few places to see if anything is suspended on top of it in the subframe cavity.
Me: I’mma just put this right here so I know where to find it
(never sees it again)
I’ve had to make designated spaces for things and always put them there. Took some training, but has been working well.
Yep, everything has a place. And if I need the same tool for 2 different things, each project box gets it’s own tool.
I’ve also started using a shopping list app to organizer containers/toolkits/project kits, etc (Anylist). I can create many lists (but I keep it to a few), and I make sure to label each container/kit, and add pictures to the list items.
Teach me your ways. I’ve been trying so. hard. to do this. It just won’t happen, to my ever increasing frustration.
If you’ve got something you want to find a place for, ask yourself, “If I was looking for this, where is the first place I would look?” I’ve ended up changing where I keep things because sure, it might havd been in a logical place, but it wasn’t where I would think to look. It’s not foolproof, but it helps.
For me, it helped that I chose locations where it “made sense” but was also convenient.
I’ve got a big, decorative bowl on a table by the front door where my wallet, keys, etc go. Basically all the stuff I need when I leave the house is there, and I dump them back immediately when I get home.
My remotes, e-reader, laptop, etc are usually on the coffee table. When I’m not using them, they go inside (it’s a lift-top with storage inside).
Just little stuff like that + forcing myself to repeat until it’s a habit.
I’ve been starting with just my phone, since it’s what I lose the most. If it’s not in my pocket, it has a designated spot in each room, mostly next to where I usually sit. Since it’s something I use a lot throughout the day, I get a lot of practice at making the habit.
For other things, I really like the launchpad approach. I keep my wallet, keys, sunglasses, coins, etc. in a box right by the door. The first thing I do when I get home is empty my pockets and put everything in that box. That way it’s always there. Unless my partner takes it lol
This advice always gets downvoted, but it works for me. I’ll offer it for what it is.
When I lose something I’ll take a moment and politely ask the thieving house elves to give it back. Then I stop thinking or stressing about it. I usually find it within a day.
I will leave out some of my Trader Joes dark chocolate peanut butter cups as an offering. I hope this pleases the Fae.
Pizza, they like pizza.
My strategy is to pretend I have it and start looking for where I can put it with gradually increasing stress. I try to hold something of similar size and imagine I am running late. Usually works, and if not now I am also stressed, so bonus.
If you’re like me, you’ll eventually find it in a place that makes no sense whatsoever.
Like with a travel toothbrush, or in a utensil drawer, or with your last phone’s USB cable, idk.
Bonus point if you buy a replacement and find the old one’s hiding place when putting the new one in that “place you’ll never forget for sure, but totally just did”.This is totally what I’m expecting.
This thing DID have a designated place. Or it was kept out in the open where I could see it. But I must have hastily scooped all clutter into a black hole before a guest came for the weekend, and ☆blip☆ there it disappeared.
I just got back from the craft store with my replacement hooks, so I guess does anybody have the over/under on how long it will take for my original thing to surface?
My guess is that when your done with this project and go to put the replacements away, you’ll find the originals, but ONLY if the return period on the replacements has already passed.
Sounds like Murphy’s Law of Replacement Items
A few weeks ago I hid my backup drive behind a picture frame. “This is a great hiding place”, I thought. Took me a week to find it.
If you really want to hide it, in a place your really won’t lose it, put it inside another computer, and leave it disconnected
I find that intentionally trying to hide things just makes this occurence 10x as likely.
Just password protect it and leave it where it’s convenient. I would hope that you aren’t in a situation where getting robbed is likely.
Instead of trying to remember where you put it, imagine if you had it in your hand and you wanted to put it away where you would put it. Imagine you’ve never own one of these before (this is important so you don’t pollute your thought process with all your previous search efforts).
You brought it home from the store, you used it and it rattled around for awhile until you decide to put it somewhere for future use. Where is that place? Would that place have existed when you put your actually owned needles away before? If not, where would the place that existed have been?
I have a bunch of screws laying around somewhere, that I intentionally put in a “safe place,” that I need to reassemble my weed whacker. It’s been like 4 years.
The good news is that you’ll probably find your crochet hooks long before then. Probably.
😒
My problem with keeping screws in a safe place is that, by the time I see them again, I’ve forgotten what they go to
Instead of setting them aside, I put them in a plastic baggie, write on it what they are for, and tape/magnet it to a wall or toolbox, somewhere prominent.
Works a charm for me.
I’ve done this with disassembling furniture for storage. When a baggie wasn’t available, I randomly had a latex glove at hand (heh) to hold the screws and get taped to the back of one of the furniture pieces.
Sit where you used it last, then get up and walk to each place you remembered seeing it, in the order you think it was there last. Mentally picture it in the next place while going there, and that you’re carrying it to the next place When you get to the last place you remember, just go wherever.
It might not work the first time, and it helps if you do it randomly after thinking of something else for a while and “surprise” yourself with it.
But for most of human evolution being able to remember where something is, has been super important. So it’s not really handled by the conscious mind. So you got to try and trigger the more basic parts of your brain into realizing that the goal is ending up with whatever you’re looking for.
It’s like trying to intentionally put yourself on n “highway hypnosis” where the brain just runs on autopilot and handles shit.
Yeah, I did this a few times yesterday. I think my trouble is it has been too long since I stashed it (see: previous loss of my cro-jo) and so trying to walk myself backward through the memories is just banging my head against the wall.
I usually successfully find things this way. But it’s kicking my ass with this one.
Two weeks from now at 1:47 a.m. I’ll jump up from the couch, run to a random room and find it where I suddenly remembered putting it.
This actually works for me
What I do when I do this is go to the store to buy a replacement. When I get home I will then usually find the original item within a day, my record is in a few minutes.
The timer has started. Just got back from the craft store. 🙃
What were you thinking about or feeling at that exact time, can you trace back to it?
Bonus if you were listening to music or what was the ambient noise that was happening at the time?
Lol i was probably thinking that I didn’t want to put down my project in order to go to some board meeting/networking event/family function. “I’ll be riiiiiight back.” 😄
Ooh, that’s peak weird spot time. I’d look, like, behind the couch, in case I set it on the back. Or if you have any weird little surfaces, check their vicinities. There’s a chance you put multiple things there, and when searching for one, mixed the other in somewhere close at hand. At least, if you’re like me lol
Indeed, there are multiple project bags loitering on the back of the couch! 😂
Try to grab onto any hook like a current thought at the time or smell or sound that can help guardrail you back into the knowledge of what you factually did and where you put shit
