The TikTok ADHD community commonly refers to these as "doom boxes" (or "piles") which reflects both the sense of dread that they instill, while also being an acronym for "didn’t organize, only moved".
How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
141–150 of 282 posts
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#142My 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…
These "take off" points remind me of a great parody
Whoa, it's halfway there
Whoa,leave it on the stairs!
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#143I just end up buying enough of the item to be within arms reach of nearly anywhere I'm likely to use it. I used to never be able to find a screwdriver when I needed it, so now I have seven screwdrivers: three regular ratcheting, three stubby ratcheting, and a ratcheting one that lives in my pocket. I keep a regular ratcheting on my desk, in my living room, and in my bedroom, which are the only places I would realisti…
Yeah. You can't do it with everything but, for example, I tend to have a stocked travel kit that I don't need to raid (for the most part) for everyday charging gear. My laptops live where they live and I'll bring their chargers with them; they basically don't move unless I'm traveling. My office has some tools and my garage has some tools. I may need to raid one or the other but not for routine stuff. I certainly don…
USB-C has been a game changer for charging. I'm now able to keep a charger that will work for almost everything I own everywhere I might need one. One at my desk, one in my bag, one by the TV, one by the bed. Next step is strapping a set of adapters to each of those cables.
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
More intrigued about the socks part, how did you solve it? I’ve lost enough to understand that there’s something clearly wrong about the way I deal with them.
I solved my socks issue once and for-all when I moved out of home - I bought 10 pairs of the exact same sock so that you can never mix a pair up by mistake. Over the years as they either get holes or stretch to much, I replace it with a new pair of the exactly item
This is the Way.
I have one kind of gym sock and one kind of dress sock. I never need to pair socks; each type goes into a box in my dresser or closet.
Similarly, I never fold gym shorts, gym shirts, or underwear. (Who cares?) Each gets stuffed in a general area of a drawer. The time savings substantially outweighs the inefficient use of space.
My usual t-shirts (32° from Costco — super comfortable) are generally wrinkle-free and likewise just get stuffed in a bin.
95% of the time my outfits are grab-and-go and require minimal laundry effort.
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#145Best 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
And how do you manage to force yourself to do that last daily part? Most people who struggle with storing stuff in a dedicated storage also struggle with routines.
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#146Best 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
When I lived with a mate we each had a drawer in the kitchen. This place had weirdly deep drawers, two of, stacked. Perfect for this. If I saw his junk lying around, it went in his drawer. Far more often if he saw my junk lying around, it went in my drawer. ‘Where’s thing? ’ Probably in my drawer.
It is nice until you start having fragile stuff like sunglasses in the drawer.
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#147Funny, when I read the title I thought it was some mental trick that involved holding a pen.
The actual idea of 'holding pens' is a good one. However, only if the contents get sorted, otherwise they will just fill up with clutter. I know people for whom this idea would lead to excuse to not put things away, they'd just put them in the holding pen and do it later. Later never comes.
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#148Earlier 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.
stop, you are triggering my Dora the explorer PTSD.
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#149My 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…
This is a good idea, as is the idea in the article. The basic requisite however is a desire to not lose stuff. My wife always loses track of her EarPods. My oldest kid always loses his pocket knife. I could have 20 holding pens in the house and they'd still lose their stuff, since the idea that you have to exert even a minor amount of effort by putting stuff in its place to save yourself much more searching effort ,…
This is just good marriage (and general relationship) advice.
Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens
#150I 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.
That is the best way to end up with a giant mess on that tiny piece of furniture you have next to the front door.
That is what happened to me.