Losing things [marbles included]...

I try hard to remember all my safe places and good ideas for storing things. I am not always successful!

I have a key rack and the other day I 'rationalised' the keys and put some away in a cupboard. DH was in a panic and thought some sneak thief had been in and stolen all our spare keys.

For me everything is always in it's place, I rarely lose anything. I might be well organised and know where to find things, but the insides of my cupboards and drawers are far from tidy as I have a tiny house and lots of 'might come in useful' items! As long as they are out of sight I don't worry until there is an avalanche when opening a cupboard.

I started a system at work (and copied it at home) with a box file labelled 'A SAFE PLACE' where we kept keys, tickets, computer discs - anything really that you would want to put in a safe place. System worked reasonably well for us except for Mugs. As my young colleague taught us the 3 Ms - Missing Mugs are always in the Microwave. This is one of life's great truths.

There must be some sort of Bermuda Triangle or Black Hole where millions of teaspoons/biros/front door keys/specs all creep to when my back is turned

There's a suspiciously large number of solo socks on my washing line today... Now where's that black hole in my house? My sock drawer is overflowing!

ANNO, the sock monster in the washing machine is the culprit!

Yep! I have had a sock monster for years my daughter even wrote an essay about it when she was at school. I like the grey socks with the coloured toes and heel ideal under trousers, and my other half has the same socks all the time - but there is always an odd one which seems to have a mind of its own. Just one of life's little mysteries.

A few years ago a radio phone in discussed the subject of missing socks and the presenter came up with the conclusion that they were running the Government!

I think it was Terry Pratchett who came up with the idea that there was some place in the universe where all the single socks congregated. I think it's probably a black hole and they end up in an alternative universe where everyone has only one foot.

There was also a creature that ate socks - possibly a figment of a wizard's imagination called into being... (Hogfather I think...)

Mr absent got into a right state recently when he thought his socks with MONDAY on the undersides had been lost. And yes, he's so anal that he wears the "right" socks on the appropriate day.

I've lost all my knitting patterns. I know where I used to keep them - but they're not there. I must have thought it a good idea to move them, but where.....!

I lost a favourite pair of trousers about four years ago. They may have been left in Verona... Last week I searched everywhere for another pair of trousers which I needed because all my others needed to be washed. Couldn't find them anywhere - not in the laundry basket or waiting to be ironed, not visible in the wardrobe or the spare room wardrobe, or the linen cupboard among the towels, or under the bed (yes, I even looked there). Then yesterday when I was looking for something else, they jumped out of the wardrobe at me. They had been hiding, just to annoy me.

I've been looking for a coat for weeks. I remember finding it last year and thinking that it was creased because I had worn it in the rain, then put it away again. I have looked in every cupboard, wardrobe, drawer, suitcase - even under the stairs and it is not to be found. It's probably with the pair of pale blue desert boots I lost in 1976 and the huge hand knitted navy blue sweater which disappeared in 1979 which haven't been seen since; all very strange . Things are so bad in the marbles department that I now have a Reminders file on the pc in which I keep information on anything and everything (apart from the lost coat!)

I also have a Reminders file on the computer. I think my nice little blue Dannimac jacket which I thought I had left at my sister's house in Dundee many years ago has been joined in the black hole by the trousers last seen in Verona.

I've spent the last six months looking for a baby's playmat. I put it away several years ago when my grandson was definitely too old for it but now I want it for his brother. I have found the toys that used to hook on to it, but not the blanket! I've searched under the beds, in drawers and cupboards, inside and on top of the wardrobes and opened every box in the house. Every so often I do it all again in the hope of taking it by surprise. If I don't find it soon he's going to be too big for it.

I quite often manage to find mislaid things by asking myself "if I was to put this away now in a safe place, where would I put it?"
Hopefully the answer would tell me where it is

I've lost all my knitting patterns too and keep searching without success. I have lost a Rotary watch, a bunch of keys and a gorgeous Alexon jacket bought at a knock down price in the January sales. it has disappeared! How can you lose a jacket!?
If we have visitors for the weekend I have a mad tidy up,then when they have gone back I can't find a thing! Maybe my visitors have gone off with my keys, watch, knitting patterns and the jacket. Will have to search their cases next time.
Weird eh? But am glad it's not just me.....

I once found one of my son's socks and one of my husband's in our hedge. At that time, as I was working fulltime, I never dried washing outside. I never worked out how they got there. I assumed they were eloping.

As general rule: Never put anything in a 'safe place'. You will never remember where the safe place is.