How good are you at losing things?

Me, I’m brilliant.

I bought a big roll of garden twine at the weekend to tie up some climbers. Got a lot used on Saturday and put the rest it in the most obvious place you would keep twine, in the secateurs box obviously. Tonight, needed it for some sweet peas, yep it’s gone. Can’t find it now anywhere in the garage.

So I turn my attention to the bike and take the pads out to check them as I’m heading out tomorrow after a bit of a lay off.   Get out the magnetic parts tray and remove the tiny retaining clip and screw and put them neatly in the magnetic tray with a pleasing “tink” as they hold fast. How smug I felt that I’d had the foresight to buy one of these trays.  Pads out, spring out and check the pads for wear. All ok, so time to reassemble. For the life in me, I don’t know where the spring clip went.  I didn’t move anywhere, and didn’t put it in the parts tray.  It should have been somewhere within arms radius of my working position.

Had to crack open a news set of pads and pinch the spring off them.

Just a couple of examples of world class losing I’m enjoying as I hurtle towards 55….

Oh yeah, top drawer. Like you, I can not move from an area and yet have somehow, by magic, found a tool on a ladder rung across the garage. I don’t know how. I have a messy mind, though. I’m always just putting things down where I am, not returning them to their actual home.

Sorry, I thought you meant things like losing your temper and only popped in to say **** you, **** you judgemental ****!!

5:25 every single day I will have ‘lost’ my shop keys and my van keys.
Every

Single

Day.

More a question of where has Mrs Vlad “tidied up” my carefully left items from their usual place…

Right, I’m going to swing right in here with a hijack – what’s the best of these tile location things for an Android user? For someone that plans on buying a shed load.

I’m just on the come down from the quite euphoric high of finding the car keys at the weekend……that went missing 3 weeks ago (a way more impressive location than left in a pocket – proper elite level incompetence). Much as the high was amazing, I had 3 weeks of hell – it properly does me in. Which is surprising seeing as I’m olympic level at losing stuff so you’d think I’d better at handling the stress.

So everything is getting a tag.

Very rarely lose anything but I did lose some sunglasses while out riding at the weekend ☹️

My problem must be a family trait. Many years ago, I lent my brother a pair of sunglasses to ride in.  We were in Morzine at the time and he had no goggles or glasses with him, I had a spare.
On the first morning, he lost a stem faceplate bolt while building the bike up ready to ride. So we rode into town and went to a bike shop to try and get a spare. While waiting around, he wanted to post the postcard he’d got and written the night before.  I gave him my spare glasses outside the shop and he then went into the shop to pick up the spare bolt they had found for him.  He then came back out of the shop and posted the postcard but then said he had lost the glasses. Checked the shop, road and pavement outside, nothing. But he still had the postcard in his hand.  It appeared to be not beyond the realms of his intelligence that he posted the glasses.

It’s my superpower.

I once chucked my wallet in the bin and took the recycling into the house when cleaning the Van out.

Lost my car once at Gatwick, and once when I lived in a town centre, I had to park a bit of a distance away, took me ages to find it.
The little clip things on Hope brake pads stand no chance.

I often go back to jobs I’ve been to maybe a year later and find tools I left the last time I was there. Tape measures or terminal screwdrivers usually.

On my own… Not too bad at all! My life may look like chaos from the outside, but I am actually quite organised in my own random way, I promise…

Introduce my Girlfriend to the mix, and her incredible ability to hide things in totally inappropriate places and for no apparent reason, and plenty of arguments and even repeat purchases for things I believe are now long lost ensue! ??

I’m convinced that my house contains a number of time portals

So I can be working on my bike and put a split link or something down, the time portal opens, a little hand comes out, grabs the split link and the time portal closes again

It will then open again and place it back in the exact same spot it was taken from, a week on Wednesday. 8 days after I’ve totally lost my ****ing mind

I lose the car every time I park it in a multi-storey. I have an inability to take note of what floor I’m on. Takes ages to find, every, single, time. I’m good at losing bits off bikes too. In the last week I’ve lost two mudguard extenders (front and rear) and one of the tiny black plastic end caps that hold the front mudguard in position. Need to find out what the hell they are called so that I can buy some replacements!

Pretty good. I’ve just spent the last 2 hours looking for my garmin headunit.

Turned the garage upside down and went through all the bike bags/kit. In the end i found it in the outside mesh pocket of a walking rucksack that I *never* use for cycling…

I did the same thing two weeks ago and found it in the glove box of the car that can’t fit bikes in.

My wallet in Clifden, Ireland a few hours ago, anyone seen it ?

I have the usual middle aged brain fade on a regular basis, but 24 years on I am still regularly reminded of The Big One, the still-mysterious disappearance of my passport one week before my wedding which was overseas.  A quick trip to the Passport Office rectified the loss but the incident lives on in the family history and bought out as Exhibit A when having a minor loss of possessions.

I currently have no idea where my work telephone is.

I’m actually quite enjoying being without it. Only been gone a week so I’m still staying ‘it’ll turn up’

I have a very fashionable pony tail. I lost my bobble this morning by putting it on my left wrist instead of the usual right. Took me ages to find that.

Big respect to the pony tail @andrewh

I vaguely remember the days when I had hair and remember the bobble situation well. You have either none or you have twenty. There is nothing in between

1. It’s in the washing machine door seal

More a question of where has Mrs Vlad “tidied up” my carefully left items from their usual place…

I’ve been through a good run of finding things underneath a pile of clean clothes. It makes it very hard to complain, because as is immediately pointed out by Her Right Wonderful Mrs Reeksy she did fold the clean clothes.

The worst was when my wallet was missing. I retraced my steps – ringing up shops, checking the car, etc, etc. I was panicking because I needed to go out to an event I was supposed to be running. And after an hour of searching found it under the **** washing!

Also lost a passport the day I arrived in Australia. Spent considerable time looking for it – including returning to the airport – and after a week resigned myself to needing to buy a replacement. Even sent the documents off to get it replaced. Then I checked the car, one more time…

Introduce my Girlfriend to the mix, and her incredible ability to hide things in totally inappropriate places and for no apparent reason

I live with a master of the hidey-tidy.  Stuffs shit in random places and then denies all knowledge.  Today it was a box of greeting cards rammed in a rucksack.  “Well, I didn’t put them there!”  I’ve never even seen them before let alone put them away anywhere.  Prior to that a USB cable went missing (“I haven’t touched it”), eventually located in the kitchen cupboard next to the blender.

I lost my bobble this morning by putting it on my left wrist instead of the usual right. Took me ages to find that.

I was once late for work because I couldn’t find my keys.  Turned out, they were in my other hand.

I’m forever misplacing things, I used to drive my poor partner nuts, because I’d come home from work, immediately start up a conversation with her, and then the next morning, when I needed my car keys, I couldn’t find them anywhere! They, and the spare set, now have an AirTag attached. Not that it’s quite so critical, because I’m retired and I don’t need my keys at stupid o’clock in the morning.

Ages ago, I misplaced a really nice gardening trowel, that my folks had bought somewhere, it had a nice long, narrow blade, and a sculpted handle that made it really nice to use. I remember using it to try to dig something out from the bottom of one of my hedges, about five years ago.

A month or so ago, I went to get some compost from the bottom of my big compost bin, and while I was digging it out I spotted something odd, a sort of white serrated object, looked almost like bone. Did a bit more digging, it was the trowel I’d lost, buried in the bottom of the compost bin…

It is my life and existence. I look down at my hands and am astonished to find them empty. .

I’ve banned anyone from letting me in the house. Unless I unlock the front door and put the keys on the hook they’re not getting found again for days.

Thinking about this subject, it’s a pity there’s no Olympic event for the fastest time that something goes missing after being put down somewhere, it might be the best chance I’d have of getting a medal!

Once walked a line before riding it to check out out and when I got back I’d lost my bike, took about 20 minutes to find it.

20 years ago we lost a colander. Big shiny metal bowl with holes in.

Just vanished. Used it one day, next day gone. Just….how?

If the OP finds their garden twine can they send some to me.  I only bought a new roll on Monday and have already lost it before I’ve even opened it.

I once lost the TV remote that I’d just had.  Spent most of the day looking for it, turning the flat upside down. It was a hot day so I gave up and went to get a drink – it was in the fridge.  I was the only one home.

Not losing, as such, but I once locked my keys in the car not only in the ignition but with the engine running (back in the days when you could do things like that).  On top of that, the keys to the house I’d just locked were also in the car.

@molgrips a good few years ago that happened at Melrose 7s poor bloke good cheered on his walk back to the car which could be seen from most of the “stadium”.

I’m pretty good at putting stuff down and then finding it but add in Mrs 100ths hidey tidy and it all goes to ratshit because she’ll handily give one of fourteen places she may have put it.

I’ve a tile which makes finding keys from phone so much easier.

master of the hidey-tidy.

Felt that phrase needs recognition.  We all know what is meant.

I’m in a permanent state looking for something lost.

Looking for my copy of Silent Hunter 3 CD, missing for weeks now…. Got a bad feeling on this one.

My partner has lost her works keys, let me know if you see them. In Bristol somewhere ;-).

I’m the one who has to deal with you lot!

Mrs Lunge is terrible for stuff like this, in her hand one minute, gone forever the next. And it’s not helped by her immediately jumping to panic stations as soon as said items disappears. Said panic means either turning the entire house upside down immediately or just slumping down with tears in her eyes sayings it’s gone forever, there is no middle ground.

Which means I’m the one who has to conduct a logical search to find said items and relieve the panic. This is almost always followed by a “how did it get there?” comment. Well, you put it there didn’t you?! I’m so glad we live in a small house, if we moved somewhere bigger it’d make it even worse…

I’m a professional. I’m a carpenter. A 3 hour job will stretch to 5 hours if you add in “where’s me pencil?”.

My mother has A Place for each thing. Everything goes in its place. This works well cos she’s lived in the house for 40 years so can more or less find things off muscle memory.

Except when the Thing is not in its place. This happens occasionally, she’ll put something down “for the moment” while struggling with shopping or “tidying” or similar and then it’s not in its place.

When this happens, there is no hope for the Thing. It’s lost, good and proper.

Her purse now has a Tile tracker in it to avoid a repeat of a situation a while ago where it was not in its place and it generated 3hrs of panic-stricken searching.

Oooh, I’m pretty good.  But for the other awesome losers on this thread – a little tip.

You know those ridiculously small Amazon Fire remotes?  The teeny tiny ones?  That love to hide underneath cushions etc?

There’s a really good Fire TV app for your phone that’s much better to use than those piddly remotes.  Have been exclusively using it for the last couple of weeks since my remote vanished for the last time.

Our house is a disaster.

I have really poor memory (and I swear it’s getting worse, I couldn’t articulate the word “data” the other day I was stuck with “what’s the word for specifications, but you already have the information, what are the numbers called?”.  My keys spend more time lost than found and the “find my phone” feature on my watch is the most used by far.  I couldn’t go back to a separate wallet!

Nothing in the garage is where I think it is.

And she who must be obeyed likes to reorganize things to make my life easier.  Not realizing that creating a new drawer for cycling paraphernalia doesn’t help when I already had one elsewhere, but still couldn’t find the right thing.

Where have all my rechargeable batteries gone?

I bought many spare ones but where have they all gone?

Went out to buy some more and they too disappeared somewhere … arrgghhh …

Yesterday I found the earbuds I thought I’d lost 4 weeks ago in the work bag that I’d searched twice previously when looking for them.

I seem to have lost some bricks ……….

Depends what we’re talking about.

Some things I’m not good at losing. Weight. Monopoly. Virginity.

Other things are never where I left them. Technically not lost, just not where I know I definitely left them. I did lose the van keys recently only to find them – eventually – in the bonnet release mechanism in the front grille (Ford).