Ever Lose Something and go Crazy trying to find it?

Preparation, Preparedness & Prevention Disaster Preparation & Planning
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Ever have one of those days were you just cant find something? You spend hours trying to locate a item until it drives you crazy. I was thinking if I cant find the little items with hours to locate them then what about if the SHTF and I really needed it. So now I just got back from the store from buying a couple rubber maid totes to finish off locating, labeling and storing all of those little items that you know one would have to have during a SHTF vehicle bug-out.

I still didn’t find that pesky vertical grip I was looking for after four hours of searching. To rub salt in the wound its one of those items you just don’t find locally a Fobus model FGG-S.

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Yea try a 2 year old girl that hides the car keys and it takes you 3 days to find them :rolleyes::smiley:

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usually if it’s been over an hour looking for something, for me at least, it’s time to re-assess my operation- because it’s probably in the FIRST place i should have looked.

two of my favorite sayings about finding things:

“aint it funny how you always find something in the last place you look??”

“i found it. it was right where i left it.”

its good to search for shit for hours on end… one of those rare (hopefully?) reminders that you’re not the sooper genius you generally think of yourself as.

and thomas- i have 3 boys under the age of 6 with another set of buns baking in the oven… i learned years ago to keep at least three sets of keys. not just the car keys, but ALL keys- gun safe, regularily used padlocks, toolbox, etc.

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I’ve searched for things for hours on end… always make sure you look at least twice, everywhere - because sure as shit your mind will not register the item you’re looking for the first time you see it. This happens to me every couple of months when the clutter gets bad, or when I go for a rarely used tool/item and it’s MIA. It usually comes down to me blaming the wife for putting things away - I knew right where the hell it was before she “put it away” and then forgot where she put it! :stuck_out_tongue:

And then she says something about me having cleaning supplies and tools on her coffee table, and I’m sleeping in the recliner…

Oh well, at least I know where my stuff is now!

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I work in a Prison,one time we had a co-worker misplaced some keys and we all went nuts trying to find them without anyone knowing about them(inmates or other shift employees)and I was the shift supervisor who had to answer for anything that happens on our shift.Finally I found them,after a couple hours of wondering if I still had a job the next day.Like I said a co-worker misplaced them in the wrong place.We always try to look out for one another on our shift,what happens on our shift stays on our shift.:cool:

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This post is perfect! I just found a Leatherman I had given up on months ago. It was after a move. I searched and searched, and searched. Gave up too. Where was it? In one of my job specific tool kits at the bottom under the black box of sheet rock screws, the nylon case of the knife blending into the nylon case of the tool bag. A box of finishing nails propping up the screws to make an awesome false bottom. DDddooohhh! And I thought I was organized.

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“Ever have one of those days were you just cant find something?”

Do you mean today? Or some other day just like it?:wink:

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I try to keep specific items in specific places and return them as soon as I’m done with it/them. I received numerous whippings while growing up for not putting tools back where they belong. Generally, I don’t lose things. Generally meaning one time I walked around for 15 minutes looking for a hat. I was wearing it.:smiley: Talk about feeling like an idiot.

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Everything I own has a very specific place where it resides. On the occasion that I leave a tool or something somewhere else in the house because I’m going to be using it there again, the only time I lose it is when my wife decides that it doesn’t need to be there. Then, she proceeds to forget where she put it, and that is why I now have about 47 screwdrivers. :slight_smile:

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HaHa, I’ve riden that pony a few times!

About two weeks ago my son “played with” my lanyard with my installation access badge on it. Weekends here are Friday-Saturday and I realized it wasn’t in my bag Friday morning when I pulled up to the gate. Thank goodness I was off. We found it in hidden in one of his toy buggies Satruday night. I swear “it’s always in the last place you look!”

As far as your small knick-knacks for your distaster preparations a good idea would to maybe double up on what you can. At least that way you have a back up if your primary goes MIA or KIA.

My 2cents.

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Day two and still MIA.

Maybe its time to interrogate the kids.

After that the cat.

And maybe the in-laws.

It has to be someone Else’s fault.

I never lose anything!

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I am still looking for my sanity

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I wrote a piece on this for a sniper publication once… I wish I could find the original, I spoke with several medical types and discovered the world of perceptual psychology – here is the quick rundown on the difference between looking and seeing:

We have all had this happen, I like to use the pair of scissors in the junk drawer in your kitchen… you know the ones? So you go into the kitchen to get them, open that drawer, but they are not there – they should be, but they are not.

So you close the drawer and look elsewhere: pile of clothes, reloading table, gear bag and if you are like me… you sort of lose focus and end up outside looking under the seat of your truck, where you find that Skynard CD you lost and listen to a couple of songs… a couple of times each.

Then, back to the hunt… which picks up back in the kitchen, at the junk drawer… still no joy. About the third time you check that drawer, you close it rather… let’s say, enthusiastically, to which the spousal unit responds “what are you looking for”

Much to your dismay, when you tell her the scissors… she opens the drawer and picks them up, sets them on the counter and says “you look so good” – which leaves you thinking two things: Where the hell where those scissors? And, burn the witch.

I can’t help you with the second… but the first is not that hard really; you see, you did not see… you looked, but did not see.

We have been taught in numerous sci-if movies that some animals can only see things if the object moves… but that is not what is happening, regardless of how much we are starting to look and act like dinosaurs.

We, clever top-of-the-food-chain types see by using object and pattern recognition, so when you looked in that drawer, you most likely formed an image of the scissors (orange handles, blades closed, small ring to the top, points to the left) and looked for that image… if you did not see that image, you did not see the scissors – which were laying tips pointing away, small ring to the right.

The good news is that you can teach yourself to overcome this… to some extent anyway; the bad news is that your wife will still find things you miss.

That, and for some strange reason, you put the Skynard CD back under the seat and will not remember where it is tomorrow.

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We have a new Lab puppy in the family. Put something down around her, and it will disappear for a few days, when you find it, it will be with mixed emotions, as it will be all chewed up.

As an aside, I hate it when I lose magazines… set a PMAG down in the house somewhere for a second… then spend an hour looking for it!

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“inattentional blindness,” i believe is the psychology term. causes traffic crashes, billions in lost profits in corporations, and makes you late to work at least once a month.

so you said we can work to correct it- but you DIDNT SAY HOW!

i realize simply being aware of the phenomenon makes it easier… but if you have some expertise, do share!

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A few years ago I couldn’t find the key to my tool box. Looked all over. A few days later I went to fill up the car and there it was. Inside the gas cap door. The little one said he put it there for safe keeping. So he would know where it was.

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Actually, just being aware of it helps a lot… but when we teach how to look for or observe something, we work on having the person not concentrate on the whole, think about parts of what you are looking for… colors… patterns… distinct shapes that do not change.

Here is an interesting thing to try next time you look in that drawer and the scissors (or whatever) are not there - close the drawer and then shake it back and forth, pulling it in and out a little a few times to “shake” up what is in it… then look inside and see what you find, when you mind knows that the contents are mixed up and it will be looking for them at random.

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My old neighbor had two ferrets for many years. When they fiinally moved they noticed a small hole in the wall where the couch had been. They proceded to tear into the sheetrock and found an entire stash full of rings, pens, watches, you name it. At least they got all of their stuff and had someone to blame it on.

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some days i think i need to low-jack my brain!

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BTDT this week.

I misplaced a thumb drive, 1 Gig half full of files I needed. One file was a master database I’d been working on for a year!

I finally found it in a company vehicle I borrowed last week when mine was in the shop. It was the boss’s and she mentioned that he though she saw it in the console. There it was!

I was so happy I kissed her on the forehead when I came back in!