Well, the SDope always have the answers, so I thought I’d try! Do you have any tricks for finding lost articles? Maybe some Dopers have had luck in this department, even if it sometimes comes in the strangest ways. Any stories to share? Maybe, it’ll work for me, too…
I once lost my keys for about a week. I searched everywhere - including the place where I last set them down. Nothing. Then, the reappeared in the very first spot where I first looked…where they should have been all along. And, this spot was boldly out in the open atop my dresser. Very strange. I looked there a hundred times, too! How could I have missed it? Go figure!
Now, I’m looking for notes on yellow, large file cards bound by one of those binder clips where the “wings” fold down to secure the grasp. When folded up, they act as a handle to squeeze by which to remove the clip.
This is going to really bug me. It’ll be hard to recreate these notes. Maybe someone has an in with St. Anthony…
I talk to myself. If I’m running late, or looking for the keys is making me late®, then I start cursing. That usually scares them out of their hiding place.
My answer:
I do not lose my keys. They are always either on my person or on my dresser, period. If anyone borrows them I specifically request that they be put back in my hands. Lost keys are a pet peeve of mine.
My wife’s answer:
She, for the most part, doesn’t find her keys. She borrows mine, 'cause I know where they are. If I’m not around, she’s late to wherever she’s going because she had to hunt for keys. Her keys have turned up in the fridge (freezer compartment), behind the drapes, under a pile of papers, in the car door, in the house door, under the bed, etc.
I am the most disorganized person I know, but I somehow manage to never lose track of my keys. My mother, on the other hand, is notorious for losing her keys. She can walk in the door for 2 seconds to pick something up, and go back to her car and realize she doesn’t have her keys. 30 minutes of searching ensues, (the kind of searching that turns so desperate as to involve quick “just in case” checks of the refrigerator) before she realizes that they somehow managed to transport themselves to a room she swears she didn’t even go into. Every. Single. Day. I have to help her find her keys, and her sunglasses.
At the moment, she’s driving a rental car, and of course, keeps misplacing her keys. What’s ironically amusing is, she has no problem keeping track of the keys to her own car (where her house keys are) now that she doesn’t need them.
Screaming and swearing seem to help me. I usually lose my keys just as I’m about to leave for somewhere very important. It’s funny because I always put them somewhere obvious so I won’t forget them. Then I start swearing and yelling, and they turn up shortly after I start, leaving me feeling idiotic and embarrassed.
This is me. We have boxed keyhooks inside both the front door and the kitchen door. Keys go into one of the keyboxes, nine times out of ten. One time out of ten, they stay in my jacket pocket. They are never, ever, ever anywhere else; not on the stove, not on the windowsill, not on the coffeetable. Always in the keybox or in the pocket. (Unless it’s the one time per year I lock them in the truck: oops. That’s why I have an extra key in my wallet.)
My keys are: in the car ignition, in my pocket (only if I’m not at home, though), and if I’m home, they are always on the little table next to my computer. It is also where my wallet, pager, etc… go. As soon as I get in from work or wherever, I just empty my pockets onto the table. Never lose a thing.
Only key I currently need is to my dorm room, which, if not in use opening the door, remains firmly clipped to my belt-loop. If I’m wearing beltloop-less pants, I clip it straight to the waistband. A pain, but it works.
I leave mine in the ignition most of the time, if I am just in town I may take them out and throw them under the seat. If I am somewhere I have to lock up the vehicle, I put them in my pocket. I’d say that 98% of the time, they are in the ignition.
Seriously, for some dumb reason, that’s the first place you look when you lose something. So, if you put your keys there on purpose, you’ll find them on the first try!
After being traumatized in my youth by being locked out of my house, I am rather compuslive about things like keys, wallets, and other small valuable items. This has kept me from losing such items my entire life, and my system works.
For instance, I will never lock a door behind me, or pass through a door that will lock shut behind me, without making sure my keys are in my posession. Therefore, even if they get dropped or fall out of my pocket, I will know the general location in which they can be found.
Working on the same principle, I always confirm my wallet is in my possession whenever I stand up from a chair, or get into or out of a car, exit a building, or walk through a security control point.
When I travel by air, I keep my ticket and ID in my hand at all times. My wife thinks this is idiotic and a sure way to lose one or both items, but she doesn’t understand the security that holding such items in one’s hand gives to a compulsive perdiphobe.
The wife also doesn’t understand the key thing. She hangs her car keys on a hook by the back door. My keys go wherever the rest of my “pockets” go… usually on a counter or dresser. It doesn’t matter where, as long as everything that belongs in my pockets goes in the same place: wallet, keys, ID badge, cell phone (and formerly, cigarettes and lighter).
My keys are either in the ignition, in my hand, or in my purse, period. Whenever I exit my car, I have to acknowledge that I’m taking the keys out of the ignition and look at them before putting them in my purse. The same thing with my house keys; I must stop what I’m doing and really look at them before dumping them in my purse as well. Sounds obsessive, but I’ve never misplaced them because they have a place they don’t leave.
Like most others in this thread, my keys are only in a couple places. My pocket, the copper bowl in the den, or the car’s ignition. Never lost my keys, ever. And generally, I’m an unorganized SOB.