worst thing to remember where i've put something is to clean my room

[flowerbug]

i'm a horizontal organizer, aka, clutter and layers do not bother me. a little dust is ok, it makes me sneeze if i move it so i can leave it alone until it collects a village around it and then i can raze them all at once. a few times a year i clean and re-arrange the piles.

the piles are each a project, i may have a pile on a shelf for years before i get back to it or finish it.

so this past spring, as usual, i did my spring cleaning and moved things around.

this summer and fall have been horrible for me to find things - because how i usually remember where something is is that i remember what pile it is in or where it is, what shelf it is on, etc.

so moving something means i have to remember the new location.

this year i'm noticing my memory just doesn't work as well as it should be. i go to find something and it's not there and then i check my, "Moved memory." and it's blank.

i really cleaned up a lot of junk this year, combined boxes, moved a lot of things, different shelves, redid the bean collection. i think i just overloaded my brain with all this cleaning.

so what am i doing now? sorting beans and cleaning more, shredding papers, etc.

i find a packet of beans i was supposed to mail back to Russ. how did that happen? i know myself, i know to keep things in the same box and place until i need them to send out. i don't have any memory of putting this packet someplace else where i just found it. man, it's only the mid-50s. i'm not ready for this senior stuff...

chaos... utter chaos. lol

good thing i can laugh about it.

thought i would share the humor.

 

[catjac1975]

My Mother always called it,,,putting it in a safe place....

 

[flowerbug]

My Mother always called it,,,putting it in a safe place....

some things are very safe now. i took them to the recycle center a few months ago... things i've had for 20+yrs and never used but kept, "Just in case."...

 

[digitS']

There is a tendency to ascribe this to "senior moments." I think that may be right, often.

I have never had a very good memory for everyday things - even as a child. However, I was in college in the 60's, the 70's and the 80's. Oh no, not continuously. Breaks were as short as 2 years and as long 9.

The greatest difference in my mental quickness was the long break between my early 20's and my early 30's. Imagine that! I am more than twice that "mature" student's age now. Wow. Looking back from this perspective ... oh, fer Heaven's Sake!

First off 'Bug, don't treat every horizontal surface that way and expect to be organized.

Now, remember that there is something called "muscle memory." You may actually know where something is but you may simply be distracted by other thoughts while you were on your way to the location. Those distracting thoughts may continue right up until and after you begin searching. You thought it would appear one way, it doesn't - you laid today's newspaper on the stack - now that interesting news story briefly intrudes, and it introduces other thoughts. Or, simple frustration intrude and you impatiently spin in a circle!

Stop. While you are still calm. What are you looking at. Move things carefully. Consciously. Bingo!

Steve

 

[catjac1975]

some things are very safe now. i took them to the recycle center a few months ago... things i've had for 20+yrs and never used but kept, "Just in case."...

Lost my best fabric scissors for 2 years keeping them safe from those who would use them for dulling cuts.

 

[flowerbug]

...
Stop. While you are still calm. What are you looking at. Move things carefully. Consciously. Bingo!

my solution will be to clean less eventually. i'm on a five year plan. making good progress just not easy for me to change too much all at once.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

My piles are typically paper, with maybe the exception of my shop bench, and are a form of historical storage. Sounds good does it not?

 

[digitS']

History .

We have behavior history. In the nearly 25 years living in this home, how many times have I locked the garage? Did I lock it 15 seconds before I climbed the back steps to the house? Am I uncertain enuf so that a return to the garage door is warranted?

Senior moment much?

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

sounds like us. the other day we had to turn around because i was sure i'd closed the garage door, but had just enough doubt to come back and double-check when Mom asked me if i had. yes, i did, but to not worry about it was worth the small trip it took instead of being in town and then wondering later.

once in a while we may forget to close the garage door at night, but not often. trying to keep the mice out...

we lock all the doors because we have had a few incidents of people coming around at night after they've been drinking at the bar down the road.

which reminds me of the place i used to live, one night we had someone come in and sleep on the couch in the living room after they'd been out drinking. we heard them get up and leave in the morning and the room reeked of beer. neither of us were into drinking. no harm done there...

 

[ducks4you]

My big garbage can is rarely full. I am trying to remedy this by cleaning up this year. The trash man must wonder bc my neighbor with one teenage son overflows Theirs every week. I burn ALL paper and cardboard, at least cardboard not destined for gardening chores.
Take small bites. For inside cleanup If it is an article of clothing, ask yourself if you have worn it in at LEAST the last 2 years. If not, say, "Thank you for your service", and then bag it to throw away.
I don't have anything everyday clothes that are really worth Goodwill-ing that I don't already have hung to wear, although THAT will be for the closet cleaning. If you remove even ONE item, Congratulate yourself!! GIVE yourself a BIG hug!!! There are eNOUGH neatnik critics in your life. DON'T let them live inside your head.
I also have a large number of outside work clothes. One is an old synthetic sweater of sorts. I had left it at DD's house, and she gave it back when She was cleaning Her bedroom. I am using it withOUT washing until it wears out, then It will get tossed. I plan to do the same with it's replacement. I ALWAYS do chores in clothes that I don't mind getting ripped up or stained, like the old, white, synthetic long underwear shirt I am wearing this season. It is in great condition But it has permanent stains. Still keeps me warm for my chores.
I am throwing out more and more every week. Some days I am ruthless, other days I simply fill a bag with recycleable metal and move it either to the can bin (which is a repurposed water softener container with a good lid), or to the trash can in the tool shed for other metals. For tiny pieces of metal I empty this banged up trash can (which has a lid) into an empty 50 lb grain bag. I have thrown away most of my excess of grain bags, but I can keep around about 1/2 a dozen for such trash. I empty them at the recycler's place for scrap metal and then they get tossed in my garbage when I get home. You can be "Amish" only so much, and my 2019 and on proceedure is to reuse trash 1x for gardening or cleanup and then It goes to the trash. A few weeks back I packed these up in the truck and took them to the recycler. I got pretty much NOTHING, about $1.50 for 40-50 pounds, BUT it was off the property, I didn't violate any trash pickup laws AND I didn't have to pay someone to pick them up.
At the recycler I discovered that they will take and PAY for (only 2 cents/pound, unfortunately) the 12yo riding mower that doesn't run and has flat tires as LONG AS all fluids have been emptied. NOW that I have a tractor I will be able to pull it out of the back of my building that is the size of a one car garage, pull it onto the small trailer which has a ramp and is ideal for towing riding mowers, and take it there for recycling. The guys there see a older woman and ASSUME that I need help, so I won't have to beg for it. They weigh you as you drive in, and then weigh you as you leave without the scrap metal.
I am cleaning as if I am moving. I have trash cans in every room and my big cans have trash bags that fit them in their boxes at the Bottom of the can, so that I don't have to look for them when I take a full bag out to the trash. This really helps if somebody has tossed something wet in the trash in the garage, for instance. I don't have to take the time to clean the trash can, too, just a new bag. My bag in the basement and the one in the garage will be full enough to fill my trash can for pickup this Wednesday morning, crack of dawn. Goal accomplished this week.
My friend a few streets over has agreed to help me maintain My mowers and will be servicing DD's riding mower and push mower sometime this winter so that they are both ready for Spring mowing. That will be the best time to get this old mower in to recycle. We lost our mower fix it guy last year bc he retired.