Losing and finding things

Talking of 'stuffage' - a good coinage - I was frantic because I couldn't find my pre-booked rail tickets for Saturday when I'm going to Dundee. I'd searched my bureau umpteen times yesterday but one last search this morning revealed the envelope stuck in the middle of a bunch of bank statements. Relief! Same thing happened long ago with my passport, only that time I'd rushed to Liverpool to get a new one and spent a weekend in Paris before I found it in the very drawer I'd been searching. Disorganised? What, me?

Doesn't this phenomenon happen after you've bought a replacement for the thing you thought you'd lost?

I was on the point of ordering replacement rail tickets when I said to myself, 'Just hang on; don't be so hasty. Look one more time.' And there they were! Saving me considerable expense!

We bought a replacement log book for the car a couple of years ago and then afterwards round the original - naturally it was my fault

Somewhere in this house there is a an A4 piece of paper in a brown envelope that had the garden design that a friend who is a professional did for me.

I can't find it.

I read somewhere that saying the name of what you are looking for, several times, out loud (Car keys! Car keys!) works. Hard to carry out a proper evaluation but I've tried it and I'm almost convinced.

Tried that. My train tickets were mysteriously quiet.

"Where are Mum's keys!!" used to be the regular cry around our house - as I would panic and turn the place upside down so it was very satisfying when DD and the little boys came down last week and she was frantically searching pockets/bag/changing bag/boys' toy bag/on the drive under the car... for her keys which she found in her gilet pocket. Hah! it comes with being a mum I told her. [smug] emoticon

Since Mr.G died, I have had an increasing amount of panicky moments when I can't find things. I have now learnt to stand still, keep calm, retrace my steps in my head and say out loud 'if there's anyone up there listening, will you please tell me where the bloomin' form/keys/passport/ring is and, more often than not, I remember where it is - weird or what?

I think we lose things because we have too much stuff. I spend a chunk of my life hunting for document s articles of clothing other people's passport s driving licenses I could go on.i would love one of those people who come and declutter your house. I have baskets of materials to make quilts and bags and so on and know I will never use them up and yet can never find the perfect piece to go with something else.

Lost my car keys just prior to going on holiday for 2 weeks, decided that there wasn 't a lot that I could do about it and would worry once we got back, finally found them on our return - in the ignition of my Daimler, alongside the house keys!! Guess we don't have too much of a crime problem where we live (or nobody would be seen dead in the Daimler!!)

Is it a Daimler hearse?

Galen - that appealed to my (possibly warped) sense of humour!

I had a lovely pair of earrings and I lost one of them. I kept the other for YEARS in my jewellery box 'cos I thought 'oh well, you never know, it might turn up'.

After about 4 years sat there lonely, I thought 'don't be ridiculous' and I threw it out. The very next week, I was in the garage and there on the floor was the 'lost' earring!

You couldn't make it up, could you?!

Justme, I've done that with earrings, several times!

Never ever tell yourself you have lost something ! If you do your subconscious wont let you find it - how can it if it is lost?

I learnt that trick in CBT many years ago, and it works !

My cleaner told me ' I've picked up a glass earring of your floor'
A glass earring, I asked
Yes square and colourless.

It was one of a pair of diamond earrings I'd left on top of a box on my dressing table!
She must have knocked off while dusting, away with the fairies as usual!
Thank goodness she noticed it on the floor though!

It is hard for me to lose anything at home, as I live in a very tiny, very tidy flat, and alone. Don't you know it is always somebody else who has moved your belongings?
In the great car key search, I also found the little stylus I bought for tapping on letters on the Kindle Fire tablet - after I had spent about 5 pounds on a fancy one in Queenstown! The gd who now owns the tablet uses neither as she is so adept at using her mobile phone for texting, etc.
My mother found twenty pounds, which she really needed, in my Dad's empty shaving things box, after he died. She was about to throw it out when something prompted her to look inside.

I put my passport in a safe place and still haven't come across it! Luckily the passport office gave me a new one and kindly said to forward the former one to them should it turn up. Phew!

I lost my driving licence 10 years ago and had to send for a replacement. I was sure the original would turn up at some point but it still hasn't ! We are still in the same house so I am ever hopeful even though it would be of no use now.

susieb I like it. I am going to locate this any moment...
as if you would have glass earrings galen
I lost a diamond earring once in a holiday cottage. The people there went through the hoover bag and found it and returned it to me.
(momentary guilty pause - they were specially ordered by DH to go with engagement ring. I do not wear earrings any more cos I got fed up with pierced ears. I do not wear wedding or engagement ring since the blooming DS's dog broke my ring finger. should get rings adjusted really. dont think i will get ears pierced again though)
I once lost a filing cabinet key. Went on holiday. Put it in a safe place. When i came back I could not remember where safe place was.
I knew that somewhere in my skull the memory lurked so I told myself as i was going to sleep that I would dream the hiding place.
I dreamed i was looking at an election poster and someone said "It's a centre right party" I woke up and knew that I had put the key half way down my right hand bookshelves. Ta-daaaah.
Always worth a try if you have deliberately hidden something and can't remember where.

OH always blamed our good friend and cleaning helper in the UK. And he still blames here 1000km away, whenever he loses something now, poor Georgia

I once lost a very expensive ring my mother had passed on to me. I looked for it for months, then told the insurance I'd lost it whilst gardening. They used photos to get one re-made by their jeweller- but it was never the same. When we moved 3 years later- OH found the ring behind a chest of drawers, in all the dust ... I must say I am a very honest person, but I didn't tell the Insurance (we had changed insurers in the meantime) - gave the new one to our youngest who love it, and kept the original.

JessM... might try that dreaming thing... every time I go away I hide my rather expensive watch and I insist in putting it in a different place every time don't ask why. Trouble is, when I get home I can't remember where it is!

I must be half asleep... I read your post as 'I once lost a filing cabinet'... eeeek...

We put our wills in a ''safe place'' and then couldn't find them . Now if anything gets lost someone will say''Oh, it's with the wills!'' (We have incidentally since found the wills and placed them with a solicitor.)