I’m so frustrated with myself. No clue when was the last time I’ve seen this thing (wallet of crochet hooks). Yesterday I searched every project bag, every bag of my yarn stash, every drawer, nook and cranny where I might have put it absent-mindedly. I just went through them all again today. I have memories of seeing it on the breakfast table, on my desk (where the cat tried to annihilate the decorative tassle on its zipper), and in a project bag. I’ve moved it somewhere. I want to start a new project but need a hook of unusual size that is in the wallet. I haven’t been motivated to crochet in a while, and I caught a spark over the weekend by finishing up another project. Blegh. Fuck.
Thank you for reading my rant while I wallow in self-loathing.
P.S. This thing is neon fucking pink and bigger than a paperback book. I must have a forgotten project bag smushed into a closet or left out in the camper. I thought I accounted for all my half-started projects though.
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The fastest way to find a lost item is to buy a replacement. As soon as you get the replacement home, the old one will reveal itself.
Recently confirmed this technique also works for items borrowed by others but not returned.We’ll see. The number one thing on my kids Christmas List is Super Mario Galaxy because we had 3D All Stars and it was his favorite game but it’s been lost for a long time. Wherever it is, I suspect the cases for my Odyssey and BotW carts are with it…those cases went missing (but not the carts) around the same time.
So of course we had to buy another copy of 3D All Stars, now at an elevated price.
I’m sure I lost it, too. Probably during a home improvement project. I’m certain it’s somewhere in the house in some bucket I stored whatever tools I was using that particular day. Like, I can practically see the cases in my mind. But I can’t find that damn bucket anywhere.
Oooh I hate this. Spend hours looking for something, knowing you have it, but then having to buy another only to find the thing a week later.
That’s right up there with cleaning up or organizing, finding a thing you didn’t need at the time that you knew was useful, and then needing it 6 months later and not remembering exactly where it was you last saw it - but you know you’d seen it.
What were you thinking about or feeling at that exact time, can you trace back to it?
Bonus if you were listening to music or what was the ambient noise that was happening at the time?
Lol i was probably thinking that I didn’t want to put down my project in order to go to some board meeting/networking event/family function. “I’ll be riiiiiight back.” 😄
Try to grab onto any hook like a current thought at the time or smell or sound that can help guardrail you back into the knowledge of what you factually did and where you put shit
Ooh, that’s peak weird spot time. I’d look, like, behind the couch, in case I set it on the back. Or if you have any weird little surfaces, check their vicinities. There’s a chance you put multiple things there, and when searching for one, mixed the other in somewhere close at hand. At least, if you’re like me lol
Indeed, there are multiple project bags loitering on the back of the couch! 😂
I’d try looking on the floor, underneath and behind furniture, and between/behind seat cushions etc.
If you’re like me and hate crawling around on the floor and can’t always see behind the furniture, you can use your cellphone camera to look for you. If it ends up in a place that’s hard to reach, like between the desk and the wall, you can try securing a magnet to a piece of string and “fishing” for it.
Ooh. Behind the desk. This has potential. I always forget to look there. Desk butts up to a window, and cats use this windowsill to come and go from the off-limits desktop, and totally knock stuff off all the time. But one of my furry sweethearts has parked herself on my lap, so looking will have to wait until I am dismissed.
Where did you look first? “Don’t put it down, put it away”
Think where you would logically look for the thing in your hand and put it there works really well.
Anyway all that advice is useless now since you put it somewhere really safe, you have two options, buy new object, old one will magically appear once money is spent or in the drawer you open to put away the new object.
Option two is invent time machine.
Good luck!
What I do when I do this is go to the store to buy a replacement. When I get home I will then usually find the original item within a day, my record is in a few minutes.
The timer has started. Just got back from the craft store. 🙃
And, any progress yet?
None 😭
This advice always gets downvoted, but it works for me. I’ll offer it for what it is.
When I lose something I’ll take a moment and politely ask the thieving house elves to give it back. Then I stop thinking or stressing about it. I usually find it within a day.
My strategy is to pretend I have it and start looking for where I can put it with gradually increasing stress. I try to hold something of similar size and imagine I am running late. Usually works, and if not now I am also stressed, so bonus.
I will leave out some of my Trader Joes dark chocolate peanut butter cups as an offering. I hope this pleases the Fae.
Pizza, they like pizza.
May not apply here, but something I learned helping people move is that many sofas have frame gaps stuff can disappear into, which isn’t obvious until someone is hauling it and you hear things tumbling around inside.
To check, you can usually just reach underneath and tap the batting fabric in a few places to see if anything is suspended on top of it in the subframe cavity.
Doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a try:
If you had the thing in your hand right now, and you had to put it away where would you put it?
Think of a few options and check those.
If you eventually find it and it wasn’t in the first place you though of, put it there when you put it away next.
Going off the memory of the cat wanted to destroy it. When I want to hide stuff from cats it goes up high, or it goes in cabniet, or in something they won’t like or want. Could you have put it in a plain paper or plastic bag so the cats wouldn’t have been drawn too it? Or the closet high up spot or cabniet to where the cats were attacking the wallet? Good luck finding it!
I got a new cell phone right before a vacation a few months ago. I ‘hid’ the old cell phone so it wouldn’t get moved or wander off while I was out of town because I still needed to transfer everything.
I’m sure I’ll find it someday.
How long does your frustration and self-loathing last before you get distracted?
I’ve already replaced it with the zen and mindfulness I that produce from crocheting with new gear.
Sit where you used it last, then get up and walk to each place you remembered seeing it, in the order you think it was there last. Mentally picture it in the next place while going there, and that you’re carrying it to the next place When you get to the last place you remember, just go wherever.
It might not work the first time, and it helps if you do it randomly after thinking of something else for a while and “surprise” yourself with it.
But for most of human evolution being able to remember where something is, has been super important. So it’s not really handled by the conscious mind. So you got to try and trigger the more basic parts of your brain into realizing that the goal is ending up with whatever you’re looking for.
It’s like trying to intentionally put yourself on n “highway hypnosis” where the brain just runs on autopilot and handles shit.
Yeah, I did this a few times yesterday. I think my trouble is it has been too long since I stashed it (see: previous loss of my cro-jo) and so trying to walk myself backward through the memories is just banging my head against the wall.
I usually successfully find things this way. But it’s kicking my ass with this one.
Two weeks from now at 1:47 a.m. I’ll jump up from the couch, run to a random room and find it where I suddenly remembered putting it.
This actually works for me
I once lost my car keys for like 2 weeks and had to use the replacement keys, dumb stick without a remote. The keys were inside a hiking backpack I stowed away in the basement. No idea when or why I put them there.
My steps are usually this:
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Blame everyone else, someone MUST have stolen or maliciously misplaced your items.
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Tear whole apartment apart (hence the name). Of course you cannot find it.
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Grieve and move on. The thing you yearn for is irrecoverably lost.
1.Blame everyone else, someone MUST have stolen or maliciously misplaced your items.
2.Tear whole apartment apart (hence the name). Of course you cannot find it.
Oh my god, I am so ashamed when I do this. Like, I know they only do it 5-10% of the time, but I ‘ask’ them if they’ve moved it nearly every time.
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If you’re like me, you’ll eventually find it in a place that makes no sense whatsoever.
Like with a travel toothbrush, or in a utensil drawer, or with your last phone’s USB cable, idk.
Bonus point if you buy a replacement and find the old one’s hiding place when putting the new one in that “place you’ll never forget for sure, but totally just did”.This is totally what I’m expecting.
This thing DID have a designated place. Or it was kept out in the open where I could see it. But I must have hastily scooped all clutter into a black hole before a guest came for the weekend, and ☆blip☆ there it disappeared.
I just got back from the craft store with my replacement hooks, so I guess does anybody have the over/under on how long it will take for my original thing to surface?
My guess is that when your done with this project and go to put the replacements away, you’ll find the originals, but ONLY if the return period on the replacements has already passed.
Sounds like Murphy’s Law of Replacement Items
Like my keys and wallet.
I can be reasonably certain I didn’t leave them somewhere smart.
