Losing things

[tmm99]

I am obsessive about routine and organization. Everything has a place and I always put things back where they came from when I am done using them. As such I almost never "lose" anything, because it's always in the spot I designate for that item. I could sit here and tell you where every item I own is located, and probably be 98% accurate.

My wife, on the other hand, loses stuff all the time. She'll pick something up and set it down wherever she was last. Her phone could be on the dining table, next to the couch, in the office, or on the charger in our bedroom. She wastes a lot of time looking for things she could have found easily if she always put them back in their designated place.

About the only time I lose something is when my wife takes something of mine and leaves it somewhere in the house. For example, she'll come into the office and grab my ink pen to write something down. Then she'll take the pen and tablet somewhere else. I reach for the pen that is always on the tablet next to my computer, and discover it's gone. Then "I" have to go searching the house to figure out where she left it. And yes, we have other pens around the house.

Your wife sounds just like me. I think the key is organization and routine like you say. I need to have some kind of system for myself and stick with it.

 

[tmm99]

I was having one of those multi taking moments last night when I was at a gas station fueling. I put my wallet on top of the trunk while fueling and surfing the net on my phone. I can’t remember if I picked up my wallet from the top of the trunk before I got in the car. I couldn’t find my wallet when I got home. I went back to the gas station and the wallet wasn’t there. I even went back to check their trash can thinking someone might have taken the cash out and left threw the wallet away. No luck. I blocked all my bank/ credit cards and went to bed. DH finds my wallet stuck between the passenger seat and the door. I did check the driver side door when I was searching for my wallet. I think what happened was the purse was open and my wallet flew out when I dumped my purse on the passenger seat.
This taught me a few things.

Do not multi task when my wallet is at stake.

Do not ever place my wallet anywhere else except inside my purse.

Make sure and zip close my purse all the way all the time.

I have put a shoulder strap on the wallet so whenever I have to have my wallet without my purse, I can wear the wallet around my neck.

Anyway as I’m so easily distracted nowadays, I just assumed I left the wallet on top of my trunk and drove off. I am so glad that I wasn’t losing my mind but this sure was a big lesson for me. I have my permanent residency card in my wallet (Canada) and I’m planning a trip out of Canada in 2 weeks (with a non refundable $1,500 ticket) so I would have had to cancel my trip if I in fact had lost my wallet since it takes weeks to get a replacement PR card.

 

[ivinsfan]

tmm99 IMO you forgot one, do not look at your phone while re-fueling a vehicle. This is a time when you need your full attention on what are doing and what the people at the pumps beside you are doing.

 

[tmm99]

tmm99 IMO you forgot one, do not look at your phone while re-fueling a vehicle. This is a time when you need your full attention on what are doing and what the people at the pumps beside you are doing.

That's true. I've never even thought of looking at other people, but there could be someone who is forgetting to turn off the engine while refueling, etc. Either way, in public, I should be paying more attention to my surroundings!

 

[RAE]

I lose things all the time........most temporarily, but a few things appear to be lost for good, as I haven't seen them for years. And I don't just lose small things.......I actually cannot find a LADDER that I last used a few years ago. No one borrowed it, and I'm sure no one stole it........I just can't find the damn thing! (and believe me, I have looked in every possible place it could be). That one bothered me for a long time before I decided to just put it out of my mind, as it is clearly gone for good, and I have survived without it.

The only thing that seems to help me keep track of things is to keep each item in their designated storage place ONLY, and NEVER allow myself to get lazy and just put them down in a different spot (temporarily). Of course, that is easier said than done.......

 

[Telly]

I lose things all the time........most temporarily, but a few things appear to be lost for good, as I haven't seen them for years. And I don't just lose small things.......I actually cannot find a LADDER that I last used a few years ago. No one borrowed it, and I'm sure no one stole it........I just can't find the damn thing! (and believe me, I have looked in every possible place it could be). That one bothered me for a long time before I decided to just put it out of my mind, as it is clearly gone for good, and I have survived without it........

A few days ago I read a story about the large number and variety of foreign objects that were being found in Boeing 787s about to leave, or after delivery from, their SC factory. One of the items found inside the tail section was a ladder. You SURE you didn't loan yours to someone? Probably best to keep saying you didn't...

 

[redduck]

...I actually cannot find a LADDER that I last used a few years ago. No one borrowed it, and I'm sure no one stole it........I just can't find the damn thing! (and believe me, I have looked in every possible place it could be).

Check the freezer.

 

[Sunset]

...... Even had friends drive me around a work multi-story at the end of a long day when I can't remember from 8 hours early. I've imagined calling the cops thinking it's stolen and them saying "ma'am, are you SURE this is where you parked?" And I'd have to confess, nope, not even a bit now.
....

So funny, and I know a woman in her 30's who did this, parked the car at work, couldn't find it. Reported it stolen.
Drove a rental for a few days, until one day she parked the rental beside her car .
She was famous at that company for that episode, even after she left.

 

[Dtail]

So funny, and I know a woman in her 30's who did this, parked the car at work, couldn't find it. Reported it stolen.
Drove a rental for a few days, until one day she parked the rental beside her car .
She was famous at that company for that episode, even after she left.

Great story.

 

[scrabbler1]

So funny, and I know a woman in her 30's who did this, parked the car at work, couldn't find it. Reported it stolen.
Drove a rental for a few days, until one day she parked the rental beside her car .
She was famous at that company for that episode, even after she left.

Reminds me of what happened to my mom back in the 1980s. She parked her car (a Toyota Corolla) in a store's parking lot one evening (after the store was closed) and carpooled with a friend to go into Manhattan. She returned later to find her car gone. What happened next was a cumulative FAIL.

She went to the local police to report it stolen and the process was under way. She reported it to her insurance company and soon got a payout for the stolen car.

A few weeks later, she gets a call from someone who works at a service station near where her car was stolen. He tells her that her car is still sitting in its storage area and is wondering why she hasn't tried to retrieve it yet. (He had gotten into her car and found her insurance card with her name and address.)

The employee told her he had gotten into a dispute (unrelated to towing her car) with his boss and was fired the next day before being rehired a few weeks later. He had told the local cops that he towed her car, the proper procedure.

Delighted, she retrieved her personal items and called her insurance company to tell them she had found the car - it was never stolen. She offered to return the money she got in exchange for regaining official ownership of the car. But the car belonged to the insurance company and they had a deal with an auction house, so the only way she could get the car back was to go to the auction and try to buy it back. She was unwilling to go through that time and effort.

Instead, she was already in the process of buying another car from a friend, so she went through with that and would own that car (a Honda Accord) for another 9 years until she passed away. I drove that car for a while when was out of town undergoing cancer treatment. Nice car.

A comedy of errors, for sure, from the local cops who mistakenly neglected to tell her her car had been towed, the fluky event of the actual tower getting fired and not calling her the next day, stopping the insurance company from moving forward with her claim, to the rules in place to prevent her from regaining ownership of the car after she had "found" it.

 

[mountainsoft]

I actually cannot find a LADDER that I last used a few years ago.

Did you check the last place you used it? Maybe it's still leaning against the house somewhere. Or maybe it's on your truck? Did the wife turn it into a plant stand?

Otherwise, are you sure you ever OWNED the ladder? Maybe you rented it or borrowed it from a friend?

On the other hand, if you forgot the ladder somewhere and people going by realized you hadn't used it in years, maybe they thought they needed it more than you did.

 

[Nick12]

I knew some folks that were very absent minded. When they parked their car in a parking lot a few of them thought they were locking their car via the remote button on the fob key. Instead from a distance from the car instead they unlocked the car and started the car again via the fob button since they had remote start option on their car. When they got back to their car one guy saw that his car was idling for about 2 hours. The other absent minded guy found out that the idling of the car drained his gas tank and he could not drive home since he ran out of gas. Losing one's mind.