Do you lose the same things over and over again? What did you do about it?

[Doctor_Jackson]

@Shakes

I do this too with my everyday things. And yes, it works just fine. But what do you do with those items you know you’re not going to use for months at a time? Because it’s THOSE types of items where the “special place” system falls apart.

Easy, I ask my wife “What did you do with ________?”.

[Dervorin]

@HoneyBadgerDC

Pencils in my shop. I use them constantly and set them down instead of over my ear. A few years ago I decided they are cheap so i will just buy a box and hang it on the wall. Eventually I will have set down a pencil everywhere that a pencil could possible get set down. About 100 pencils later my shop still has not reached the pencil saturation level.

This is an fascinating approach. However, it relies on the fact that there are no other forces at play - either malicious humans or occult forces. Are you certain that your pencils are not making their way to another dimension, living the pencil version of the good life? Of course, it’s also possible that the Eater of Pencils (as seen in Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett) is at work in your shop. I think this bears closer investigation!

@Doctor_Jackson

I use that system and, while it may seem fallacy to you, it works for me - especially if you read the OP, like I did, to refer to things lost outside the home as opposed to misplaced or forgotten inside the home (from the OP "I’m a serial donor of some things to the public good ").

I think I need to apologise here - my comment came across much more snarky than I had intended; it’s easy to forget that what might seem gentle sarcasm from here comes across very harsh in text form. I meant more that I’ve tried this and it doesn’t seem to work for me, rather than mockery of your post. Still, my apologies for a misplaced attempt at ironic humour.

@RichieBoy

I’m constantly losing my glasses or a better explanation, misplacing my glasses. This is all done at Home and not work. I simply lay them down somewhere and forget where I had put them. I need them to drive so I can’t leave home without them. The time I waste looking for them is unbelievable as I have been late for appointments on account of this stupid trait. I’ll lay them on the coffee table or lay them on my bed while undressing or changing clothes. One day I went absolutely crazy as I could not find them after looking in all the usual spots. Then I realized I put them where I was supposed to put them, In My Glass Case where they belong when not using them!

This is why I never use my glasses cases - I know that one day I’ll wake up and never find them again. I’ll just have to blunder around the house like a dazed moth, bouncing off random things and groping around in the hope of finding them.

@SpoilerVirgin

I grew up in California, so the first time I ever needed to have warm winter gear was when I went to college in Boston. I equipped myself with a big puffy warm coat, and a nice pair of black gloves. Shortly after the cold weather began, one of my gloves went missing. I told my Mom, and she sent me a nice pair of blue gloves. It wasn’t long before one of the blue gloves went missing. Again I told my Mom, and she sent me a nice pair of red gloves.

One day I went to the movies with my friends. As we were leaving the theater, I reached into the pocket of my big puffy coat and pulled out…a black glove. This struck me as odd, since my gloves at the time were red. I reached back into my pocket and pulled out…a blue glove. Now I was wondering if I had discovered some kind of glove wormhole. A little bit of investigation revealed that there was a sizeable hole in my pocket that lead straight down into the lining of my big puffy coat. So I never really lost my gloves at all – I had been carrying them around with me every day for months.

In spite of the fact that the missing glove mystery was solved, I continue to lose gloves regularly. Most recently, I had an unusual occurence when a complete pair of favorite gloves went missing. I searched everywhere (including coat linings), but eventually gave them up for lost. Then I was packing to visit my family for the holidays, and unzipped a side pocket of my suitcase…there were my missing gloves.

I keep a drawer dedicated to the gloves I have leftover when one goes missing. There are always five or six lonesome singles in there.

Don’t get me started on umbrellas. I consider them to be single use items, and count myself lucky any day I make it home with the one I started out with.

I had exactly the same problem with a hole in my pocket, and losing things to the lining of my jacket. When exploring down there (no innuendo intended, honest) I found a bar of chocolate, a pack of tissues, some paperclips and a lot of lint. I’ve since stitched it up, but I always wonder if I’ve abandoned something in the lining, like a baby elephant, perhaps.

@ZipperJJ

I think you need to start pinning your earphones to your shirt, like a mom would do with mittens that keep getting lost

I wonder… although I’m sure I’d just lose the pins before too long.

@SpoilerVirgin

I’ve mentioned before (to much apathy) that I pin my socks. I keep a dish filled with safety pins on my nightstand. In the morning, when I put on my socks, I unpin them and drop the pin in the dish. In the evening, when I remove them, I remove a pin from the dish, pin the socks together, and drop them in the laundry hamper. They go through the laundry pinned, and then back in the drawer pinned and ready for wearing.

I’ve pretty much given up on explaining this to people, because they just look at me funny and continue to complain about lost socks. Even my landlady says “Oh you’re the person with the pinned socks!” as if she’s saying “Oh, you’re the person who left dirty underwear in the hallway!”

All I can say is… any publicity is good publicity? At least they remember you for something! Socks are something I struggle with, though eventually the singletons do seem to return. I think they just like to wander around a bit, see the sights, travel and live a little, and then return to be good socks once more. I did, however, once write a poem about lost socks, which I reproduce here for your benefit.

Elegy Written on the Death of my Favourite Sock

Where art thou now, O lonely, left-footed friend of mine?
Wandering through Valhalla, some afterlife divine?
Art thou gone to oblivion, or to burn forever in Hell?
Or reborn as a handkerchief – who among us can tell?

Last morning you were sprightly, with your mirror image paired,
Your right-footed companion with you my drawer shared.
This evening I am gloomy, aye, sunk deep and morose
And from out of my left sandal, do coyly peep my toes.

Into the great round portal of the washing machine you went -
(I cannot bear to think of it, in grief I am double-bent)
To have your sins all washed away, and your purity restored,
But the omens I did not heed, and the warnings I ignored.

And when the buzzer sounded, I knew not that I had erred,
I could not know, in truth, that ’twas your death-knell that I heard.
I opened the great round door, and eagerly peered within -
But you were gone – GONE! – amid the fury of Wash and Rinse and Spin.

Now I am a shadow, broken where once I was bold.
With frost-bite in my left foot, and other ailments of the cold.
I pass my time in listening to the meaningless tick of the clock,
And in cursing the foul machine that went and ate my sock.

[usedtobe]

I’ve posted this on a number of “life hacks” threads:

Pens, pads, tape dispensers are cheap. Splurge.

Have pens simply everywhere and pads whereever you might need them - where are you when on the phone?

I have pads and pens:
truck
every coat and jacket (outerwear)

I may lose one or two, but will not be inconvenienced by the loss.

Socks?

I have a BL who did the pin thing. Nobody can stand him. Maybe a relationship?

I just buy socks by the 6-pack - lose one? Still have 11 - a single lost sock is not a problem.

[SpoilerVirgin]

@usedtobe

I have a BL who did the pin thing. Nobody can stand him. Maybe a relationship?

What is it about the pin thing that drives people crazy? It’s not like I’m some kind of anal “everything just so” person. I’m pretty much a slob, and fairly badly organized (note the glove story). I just don’t like losing socks.

[Arrendajo]

I got nothing to add. I never lose things. I will never lose my glasses because they go on my head as I get out of bed and stay there until my head hits the pillow at night. I always carry the few essential things I need in the same pockets. I have carried the same pen (right front pocket) for years (a Pilot G2 Pro, if you’re interested). Not the same kind of pen, the same pen. Gone through dozens of refills.

[Hedda_Rosa]

Better than safety pins though also more expensive.

The thing about losing my glasses is once they are lost, I can’t see in order to find the damn things.

However my regular donation to the universe is hair bands. Like for a ponytail. I buy at least 2000 each year and yet can never find one when I want one.