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How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

blog.alexwendland.com

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Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#211

Post by foobarian »

layer8 wrote: post #126
tonymet wrote: 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

It may be linear in the number of items, but not in the number of rightful places (you’d have to sort the items by rightful place first). Deciding on each rightful place also tends to not be constant-time.

On the bright side, at least the rightful places are presumably still in Euclidean space so there are efficient solutions for the optimal traversal paths.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#212

Post by powersnail »

My algorithm is like this:

1. Everything has a place;

2. If something is out of place, I put it back to the place;

3. If I cannot put it back at the moment, I put it in my pocket, and goes to 2 after current task is done;

4. If I cannot put it in my pocket, I put it near me in some salient way, and goes to 2 after current task is done;

5. If something is constantly out-of-place, rethink the designated place for that item.

Step 4 is dependent on the fact that the space is well-organized in the first place, such that I could put item in a way that is salient and jarring to future me. If I'm surrounded by a mess, it probably wouldn't work. For example, I often perch something that I have to carry to my room in the middle of the kitchen island while I'm chopping and cooking. It works because the surface is almost always empty. If the kitchen island is already crowded, this wouldn't have worked.

But I think the real secret to how to get the system working, is to do step 2 as much as I could, and avoid step 3 & 4 if at all possible. It's the realization that moving an item to the right place takes less than 20 seconds, only 19 seconds longer than putting it in my pocket. (This of course predicated on the fact that I live in a small apartment rather than a big house.)

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#213

Post by SoftTalker »

duckmysick wrote: post #84
silisili wrote: post #79

It's just a bandaid. When I was growing up, the 'holding pen' was the top of the dishwasher, and it lived in a constant state of entropy. The mail and bits were piled into a mountain that would fall when bumped into. The solution is simple: deal with things when they come. Stop putting everything off until 'later.'

That's what the point number five is about: "Is cleaned out regularly—ideally daily, at most weekly—, so that it doesn’t become a storage area." > deal with things when they come Sometimes it's not practical. You can't deal with everything in the morning because you will be late for work or school. You have to push certain things later and it's ok - as long as "later" is something specific like 6 PM every weekday.

If you can't deal with the mail until 6pm, don't bring it in from the letterbox until 6pm. The key is to reduce the number of times you have to touch the thing. Ideally to one time. Any strategy of "putting stuff in a pile to deal with later" just results in piles of stuff unless you are very disciplined. And if you're disiplined, you deal with stuff as it comes not later.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#214

Post by kodt »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #81
wodie wrote: post #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.

This breaks down when there are two of you with different places you would search first.

Exactly, I can always remember where something is or should go if I made the initial decision of where to store it. But if my spouse decides on a new organizational system, even if explained to me, I can't seem to recall it when I need it!

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#215

Post by duderific »

pipes wrote: post #87
bubblebeard wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might just steal this idea from you. Having a partner who ”organize through chaos” (which I maintain is not an actual system) there are constantly treasure troves of knick-knacks everywhere, usually hiding important items. No matter how often I try to organize it’s always messy, I think this might be the answer. Thank you!

Ah yes, same here, my wife stacks stuff in any available free space, anywhere in the house.

We have "piles" everywhere. Woe to you if you move or rearrange a pile...

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#217

Post by skydhash »

powersnail wrote: post #212

My algorithm is like this: 1. Everything has a place; 2. If something is out of place, I put it back to the place; 3. If I cannot put it back at the moment, I put it in my pocket, and goes to 2 after current task is done; 4. If I cannot put it in my pocket, I put it near me in some salient way, and goes to 2 after current task is done; 5. If something is constantly out-of-place, rethink the designated place for that…

I have pretty much the same algorithm, except that I do have misc boxes for the stuff I don't need right now, but I may need later. Those boxes appears after a cleaning spree (1 per room). After a week or so, the items inside will get their proper place based on usage patterns (whatever is left inside goes back to long-term storage).

Small items need proper attention. Anything smaller than my hand get organized on the spot.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#218

Post by foobarian »

graftak wrote: post #70
TeMPOraL wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

We have a problem getting rid of stuff in this way because we have hoarding tendencies. For every item you consider removing, you think up new ways in which you might need it in the future, or you say you will have a yard sale and make a little bit of money back, neither of which are realistic.

I think the problem is further exacerbated for people growing up in scarcity, so they are used to frugal operations, and are unable to cope with modern day flood of goods. Our parents are a good example, they save plastic grocery bags, all boxes, all original containers even for e.g. a coffee maker. "Just in case we will sell it one day".

I don't know what to do :-) Maybe we should write a will/set aside a fund to pay a junk removal company to come before our kids get ahold of the mess, so they don't inherit the burden.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#219

Post by Bluestein »

NorthOf33rd wrote: post #149
leokennis wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just curious: The "33rd" in your username is the parallel, a given 33rd street somewhere, none of the above ...

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#220

Post by kazinator »

How to fix the mental problem of placement amnesia, though?

For instance, when I'm working on something with many parts, involving multiple tools, even though I haven't moved from the work spot, I misplace tools right there and then, spending time looking for them. Where are those pliers? Oh, somehow they ended up under this thing, oops.

I blame years of computer use. In computer applications, we also have tools. But all we ever do is pick up the tools (in a GUI, or otherwise activate the tools in other paradigms, like invoking them by name in a command line or programming language). We never have to worry about returning these virtual tools into their original place. Computers train the habit of picking up tools, working with them and then forgetting about them when done.

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