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How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

blog.alexwendland.com

61–70 of 282 posts

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#61
post #3

Best cleaning / organizational tip I’ve learned : everything out of place goes into a tote. Every day shuttle the tote around the house to deposit the items in their rightful place. This reduces reorganizing to linear time

This is how I ended up with three boxes ful of infrequently used items that were supposed to find their place for a year now... :/.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but where does the tote live? It’s mobile and might not be where I need it when I need it. Then I go looking for it, and all of a sudden I have two problems and have difficulty getting back to what I was doing in the first place. :-)

I'm afraid the only remaining option is to wear a backpack 24/7 and reenact your favorite inventory management RPG.

You know how RPGs that don't let you stack same items in the inventory suck? They're too close to real life.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#64
I like the tip from Adam Savage on where to put new things: Quickly think about where you would search first for this item. The first thought that comes to mind is where you store it. Next time you look for the item it is right where you would search first.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#65
From the title I thought, how is holding a pen all day going to stop me from forgetting where I put things down? Lol.

This is at times my personal hell. I'm of the type who uses the "find my phone" feature about ten times a day and needs Tile trackers for my keys - and wallet. If only a tracker existed that was small enough to attach to my two pairs of prescription glasses.

I'll have a think about designated putting things down areas, but I'd likely just forget.

(I see that https://findorbit.com/products/orbit-glasses-x exists but that's for Apples only).

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My coat is the only place for my keys so I can’t leave without them.

I tried this trick too, but What if it’s sunny/too hot for a coat?

Maybe you use an alternative like something to clip on a belt?

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#68
post #16
post #7

Ah yes, that fifth step is the trick…

I'd argue mostly. I do have a few bins mostly related to financial information like statements and bills--which I'll probably never need to look at given online access to many things--but that are probably good to keep around for a while before chucking them.

For that, you can use "spike filing". Place everything incoming you might need on top of a spike (or on top of a pile or in the front of a folder). The automatically sorts by traverse chronological order, making it easy to both retrieve old documents and to know the age so you can discard older ones.

https://www.enotesnepal.com/class-11/notes/business-studies/...

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#69

My approach is to have separate “take-off” points near the entrance/exit of each room. Example: If I’m in my home office and find that some things need to go to the living room and some to the kitchen, I simply queue them to take off instead of taking a trip every time I realize an item needs to go. Then when I take a coffee break, I’ll grab all the items; drop the living-room items off on the way to the kitchen, and…

It’s interesting because it contradicts the advice to only move an item once (avoiding clutter)

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#70
post #3

Best cleaning / organizational tip I’ve learned : everything out of place goes into a tote. Every day shuttle the tote around the house to deposit the items in their rightful place. This reduces reorganizing to linear time

This is how I ended up with three boxes ful of infrequently used items that were supposed to find their place for a year now... :/.

We throw everything out (to thrift stores if possible) after a year of no use. Has bitten us almost never and when it has it’s usually something useless to someone else too (cheap to replace).
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