Designate a place in every room as, “the place I put things.” Use positive reinforcement to train yourself to put things down in that space. Every time you use a drop zone, give yourself an attaboy/girl. It needs to be big enough that it can hold a few things, keys wallet, cell phone, but not so large that things can get lost in it. You don’t want too many drop zones, but you need to have one always handy. Keep them uncluttered when possible so that they’re always available. Dissuade the people in your life from “cleaning up” these spaces. Now, when you lose something, you’ve got a good chance of finding it by checking all your drop zones.
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My drop zones typically turn into piles that quickly evolve into DOOM piles.
Didn’t Organize Only Moved piles for those curious.
I’m working on it, but it sure as hell isn’t easy
and then someone else decides to rearrange or clean-up those piles… and then, ‘AAAHAAHHHHHHHH!’
Yes because these piles, especially if they are papers and whatnot, are chronologically organized, and thinking of someone moving or merging them without your knowledge is stress-inducing!
I’m guiltily looking at my drop corner and I don’t like being called out like this. But, I have gotten better about only leaving non urgent things (read: won’t develop roaches and ants) lying about for too long.
I’ve got drop zones like 1944 France.
Can someone drop a beat for this guy?
This is very useful tip. If I don’t want to leave the house without something I place the thing in the car first or on top of my shoes. I basically can’t trust myself to remember things when I’m on the way out because I’m too distracted by a myriad of unimportant things.
I live in one of those tall but small/narrow places with multiple sets of stairs - one thing I noticed within myself was a resistance to going up/down one or two flights of stairs just to put a thing in its right place. I put ‘drop zones’ at the base and top of stairs and I just grab whatever’s there on my next trip up or down. In between I completely forget about those things, but I see them again and pick 'em up when I’m headed up/down and then - well, I’ve got it in my hand so I might as well put it where it goes.
This works to put things in the right spot, but then I often forget the real reason I went up/down those stairs in the first place XD
This is brilliant! As others have commented, I too have DOOM piles. I will commit from now on, one area for the most important/most needed items and resist the urge to put all the mail, and receipts, and other crap that usually ends up in the catch all spot. Thank you for sharing!
I have done this for many years. The only problem is they will often become doom piles.
I know that I have at least one box full of items left in these drop zone become doom piles from moving 5 years ago…
My wife has now shrunken my drop zone recepticals and this really helps keep the doom piling to a minimum. We’ll also occasionally have filing days where she puts the paperwork in the filing cabinet and I find the actual homes of the things that have been in the drop zone too long.
Well my drop zones evolve to piles, and then there’s just piles of stuff. But at least I always have a rough idea in which pile the currently desired item is.
I think a good drop zone is limited in size, so it just isn’t possible to endlessly pile up stuff.
Right now, I have a small table, which collects all those random things - and when there is no more space to put another thing, I put everything I didn’t use for some time into boxes.
Now there’s boxes full of stuff, but the room doesn’t look cluttered or messy. Progress!
And the next step would be to regularily sort through those boxes and throw stuff away… Someday. For sure.
Sorting is a tomorrow task but every day when I wake up, it’s still today.
I’ve been doing this for decades, and highly recommend! Things that go in the drop zone are the ONLY things I don’t lose!
We have an “upstairs basket” and “downstairs basket” that we put stuff in for the next time one of us goes up our down. They work great.
My wallet and sunglasses have a spot and I have a place to hang house/car keys. That mostly covers it.
