Lost Your Keys Again?8 Tips for Finding Misplaced Objects.

Sumathi Reddy wrote an article in the

Wall Street Journal that had a great series of tips about how

to finda lost object.

Apparently — and this is no surprise — the most commonly misplaced possessions are: cell phone, keys, sunglasses,

purse, umbrella, bank card, tablet, documents(that’s a little broad), and wallet.

The average person loses up to nine objects every day.

The article included these tips from Michael Solomon’s How to Find Lost Objects:

Don’t look for it yet —wait until you have some idea

where it might be.

Look where it’s supposed to be —It’s surprising how often you overlook something,or don’t look quite carefully enough, to see that

an object is pretty much where it’s supposed to be.

Repeat the name of the object

as you search for it.

Keys?

Keys?

Keys?

Keys?

Keys?

Keys?

Keys?

Check to see if it’s somehow hidden

in its proper place.

Look carefully and systematically —

don’t just rummage around (which is very

tempting)

Note: objects are usually found

within eighteen inches

of their original location.

This sounds impossible, butI’ve found this to beuncannily accurate.

Be philosophical. Most things eventually turn up. True. But, I feel compelled to note, they don’t always

turn up in time!

I would add a tip of my own:Clean up — this is very effective.

Plus, even though I’m annoyed by having to look for something, having a tidier

environment cheers me up.

Also, here are two of my tips for never losing something in the first place — beyond the familiar

“put things away in the same place.”

Counter-intuitively, it’s easier and also more fun and satisfying to put something away in an exact place,

like “the basket on the third shelf of the coatcloset” rather than “in the closet.”

As much as possible, put things away in an exact, rather than an approximate, place.

If you see something that’s obviously out of place, don’t absent-mindedly think, “Hmm, I wonder why someone put a cell phone in the

bathroom cabinet?” but move it — either to where it belongs, or at least to a place where it’s very conspicuous.

So many times I’ve raged to myself, “I saw that thing in someunexpected place, and I sort of noticed how weird it was to find it there…

but where was it?”

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