worst thing to remember where i've put something is to clean my room

[Rhodie Ranch]

Shamefully, I've had to hide some things and when I do, I send an em to my DD about where I hid them. That way, she has the record and I have it in my sent file. Imagine my surprise the other day to find one of those items deep inside my sugar plastic container!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Flower, you may find labeled bins are your friend. Since Mom's well over the hill of her memory life and I am starting that downward roll myself, I've found that labeled bins have improved our lives considerably.....except Mom forgets to read the labels and STILL can't find anything, nor put a lot of things back in the proper bin.

Mostly, though, it just helps to remove about half of everything you own and get rid of it....less stuff, less things to remember.

I use the white washtubs one can buy from DG....cheap and you can write on them. When wanting to repurpose them for other items, you just simply turn the other end to face outward and write on THAT side. If you fill those up and still want to change content labels, you can just put some nicely colored duct tape and write on THAT.

For things of greater importance in the shelf of white bins, I get the red bins....red bins always indicate things we use more frequently or many small misc. things we use but never have a good place for.

In the main living areas of the house, I use decorative baskets instead...I can find interesting and lovely to look upon baskets at GW or the Habitat store for $.50-$2 that provide bin storage that goes well with the room decor. Unlabeled but one could easily do so in a cute way with some old fashioned string tie labels.

These baskets here and there in the house create the illusion of neatness, as all the surface areas are clean and clear of clutter....while the clutter is gathered into a nice looking basket or basin on one end of the surface area.

I admire and aspire to "neatnik" status, so I say go ahead and get them in your head.... and firmly....if you want to remember where things are and actually find them, there's nothing so effective as order and minimalism. And it's all wrapped up with being considerate of others....those who come after us and have to dispose of all our mess will be greatly blessed if it's already trimmed down and organized.

 

[flowerbug]

@Beekissed yes, i am getting rid of stuff as i can get around to it. i won't be doing labelled boxes or plastic containers, there's no room at this inn for things like that. i like stuff in box tops so i can see what it is. i have six or eight of these i need to eventually consolidate and go through them to get rid of stuff but that is not a project for any time soon.

at the moment i'm too tired and planning a nap. that's as far as i might get for now.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

After DH died we cleaned the garage and threw so much stuff away. I have his desk to go through. I want to use it for my sewing stuff. It is full of papers not needed. I spent over a week going through all of the homeschool papers and books that were in the garage. I put 12 years of work for each of them in a brown folder, test scores or special things. I sold cases and cases of jars for money for DD to buy things for Evelyn when she was born. We took things out of the kitchen and stored on the porch and repainted and put shelf liner down. I think my exercise for the winter is going to be cleaning and decorating.

 

[Beekissed]

I think my exercise for the winter is going to be cleaning and decorating.

Besides breaking down huge skid pallets and replacing the floor on the back porch, mine will be cleaning and painting indoors. Again. Last winter was the same. Sure does feel good to roll into spring with things cleaned, organized and spruced up, though.

 

[Zeedman]

Fairly often, I am carrying something around with me, and put it down in a place that seems logical for the moment... then can't find it a few minutes later, when I know it is within 10' of where I am standing. That can be exasperating at times. I'd ascribe that to the aforementioned "senior moments"; but then, such things happened when I was younger too. A combination of distraction & disorganization is usually the cause, with a little absent mindedness thrown in for good measure.

What really throws me for a loop is when DW - with the very best intentions - picks up & moves something. Of course, she then puts it in a place which is logical to her. After 42 years together, I've come to just accept that I will never find such things until she goes "it's right here...".

 

[flowerbug]

Mom can be a gremlin here too, but since i repeatedly tell her to leave stuff in my room alone it helps cut down on what you describe @Zeedman . the desk where the phone is at i sometimes use for temporary setting something down or sorting and she may mess with those when she's talking on the phone. that's a risk at times, but oh well.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Evelyn is putting things in safe places now. They could not find her pacifier which has a stuffed elephant on the end. They looked for an hour. Finally they opened DD's nightstand and found the baby monitor that’s been lost for a few days and opened husband's nightstand door and found some missing pajamas and the missing pacifier. Yesterday, DD could not find her bank card. Baby put it somewhere safe. When asking Evelyn where it is, she makes this gesture of I don't know, and she is not even 2 yet and bad memory. LOL

 

[Beekissed]

Got one the same age here that is doing the exact same thing....something about that age where they want to get everything out of cabinets, drawers and shelves and then put stray, random items INTO the same places so you don't find them until you actually access that area.

She's also taken to unplugging lamps and other things....then trying to plug them back in. NOT good.

 

[flowerbug]

plug covers! and teaching them what "owie!" means.

i learned about plugs when i was playing with a necklace chain (swinging it on my finger around and around) and then it flew off, hit the wall and fell down the wall across a plug which was not pushed in all the ways. bright flash, smoke... got my attention and respect...