Avoid Losing Items - Assign Places for Them

I like to believe that everything has a place, especially for smaller household items that usually go wherever and “have to be found” later, leading to frantic searches.

I really liked the article How to avoid losing items? Holding Pens and its accompanying comments on Hacker News.

I already had quite a few ways to make it easier for the family and me, including extended family, to find things. This article helped me further refine it to be simpler and stay focused on the essentials.

The article suggests the idea of Holding pens, which are designated areas in every room to hold transient items. They are trays with a lip used to temporarily store items until they can be placed in their permanent location.

Well, this will always be a work-in-progress. However, I have found that “Valet Bowls”¹ are fantastic for holding items, whether temporarily or as more permanent storage containers. For instance, we have a wall-mounted key holder where all keys go by default. It has been more than 10 years since I made my suggestions to the extended families that we all seem to know where to look for keys when we are at each other’s homes.

We have started using Valet Bowls with good depth to hold items at many locations around the house. When an item is lost, it is very likely in one of them. At times, mostly during weekly or monthly chores, we tend to pick them up and reconcile at their places. For instance, all hair-related items (I have daughters) go in that bowl with all other hair-related stuff. All of the stationery goes in a few bowls, so you always know where to look if you want a pen or a pencil, an eraser, or sticky notes.

Others have called it the “take-off,” and I like the thinking behind it. For instance, if you need to drive out, the house keys, the car keys, and other items that go out with you are usually there near the “take-off” places/bowls.

You can define your own Valet Bowls from easily available items from Ikea or Amazon. I like the rectangular one with a bit of depth, making it easier to hold items.