Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

blog.alexwendland.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 282 posts

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#241

Post by jen729w »

prmoustache wrote: post #146
jen729w wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your fault for leaving them out!

Although we were respectful of each other’s stuff. We were best mates so it worked out.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#242

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

ghaff wrote: post #23
bdjsiqoocwk wrote: post #18

Not sure I want to take advice from someone who keeps their keys on their back pocket.

I used to be bad with keys. Now, in addition to having an AirTag on them, I have a hook for them right by the front door which I pretty much use religiously. I do have to go searching for my iPhone sometimes but not my keys.

I used to not have keys because I was too small. Then when I was about 8 or so my parents gave me keys and told me to put them in my pocket every time I leave the house. So I do. It's not difficult stuff.

Saying "I'm bad with keys" has to be such a low expectation of one self I can't even comprehend. Like those people who say "I'm bad with maths", but even worse.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#245

Post by notfed »

BurningFrog wrote: post #227
treetalker wrote: post #31

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…

One take-off point I've used is putting things in/on top of my shoes. That way I can't leave the house without dealing with them

Or blocking the door!

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#246

Post by notfed »

prmoustache wrote: post #145
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

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.

Yeah, "just clear the tote out daily" is a a huge understatement. Though, I think this plan better than never cleaning at all.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#247

Post by notfed »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #61
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

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... :/.

This is similar to how---let's be honest---most of us manage our OS desktop files.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#248

Post by beryilma »

I lose things extremely rarely so much so that I distinctly remember the only two things I've lost in the last 5 years or more. My rule is simple: put the item back to its designated place the moment you are done with it.

One of those two things are the faucet o-rings that I've placed somewhere near the faucet itself thinking that "it should be easy to find them here", rather than putting them in my usual tool bag. They are still "missing" to this day. I will probably find them when we move.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#249

Post by tonymet »

prmoustache wrote: post #145
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

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.

start with weekly and work forward. It varies for me too. depending on how cluttered your house gets you may get by with a different routine.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#250

Post by tonymet »

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.

over time your items will develop a home.
Post reply on HN