Losing things....

I would suggest one of those "beep" locators for your keys, and whatever else you can attach the unit to.

 

My mom had one of those and lost the thing you click to make everything beep to find it lmao. I would suggest just trying to find a place for everything and putting it there because I also constantly lose things. Once you get used to where your spot for everything is you won't lose things as much

 

Put a bag or box in front of the door you always walk in. In a glaringly obvious but out of the way place. Make a point to dump everything in it everytime you come in.

 

OMG I thought only I was like this..but I'm even worse...I also manage to destroy objects on top of losing them...

I like that box idea.

 

Hmm I kinda have the same problem, maybe u should buy like a drawer to keep your really important stuff in :/ or to seperate things in order of importance keeping the most important on the top drawer and the least important in the last one.

 

I have the same problem, I just lost my license tabs and fear that I will have to pay for new ones yet again... ugh! Why can't I lose unimportant things?!

I've found that what helps me is just to mentally organize a little better. I have places (usually containers) where certain things go. I have a box for stuff I use just before bed, a box for my assorted music accessories, a folder for important documents and lists and I have a box for office type things. Everything has a container, and I just had to dedicate myself to putting everything away correctly. In the culinary world it's called "mis en place", meaning everything in it's place. Obviously I still lose stuff, but not nearly as often.

 

Totally with you here. My running joke is that I remember what song was #1 in America on any given date in 1951, but I can't remember where I put my keys. I've gotten better at this, but certainly won't ever completely lick it.

A few suggestions.

One is to "take a mental picture". When I put my keys down, I try to mentally snap a photo of where they are. Not just "on the dining room table", but "on the dining room table, close to the left corner, not far from the candlestick" or what have you. Those few extra seconds of "taking the mental picture" helps solidify the position in my brain. As I leave the room, I turn back and take a second look at it to help remember. Of course, it takes some work and time to REMEMBER to take the mental picture, but I've gotten better at this as time has gone on.

Secondly, learn your habits. As often as you lose your keys (or whatever else), you'll presumably start noticing some patterns in where you eventually find them. The pocket of the jeans you wore yesterday? The kitchen counters? Next to the bathroom sink? Any place you often leave things should quickly be added to your "hunt spots" when you can't find it.

This helps more for "remembering to bring things" than "finding lost things", but my partner got me started on it. If he wants to remember to bring something to work, or do something before he goes to work, he'll somehow mess with items he takes to work the previous night. He might lay his wallet open and face down on the hall tree, for instance, and say (out loud to himself) "When I see my wallet like this, I'll remember to print that thing out to take to work tomorrow." Or he might stick his keys in the door (on the inside, of course), and say "When I see these keys, it'll remind me to call the doctor before I go to work."

For keys, oddly, one things that works for me is to NEVER leave them out. Anywhere. They must ALWAYS be in a pocket. During the winter, it's my standard winter coat. If it's summer, I just leave them in my jeans pocket. Then, the next morning, I pull my jeans out from the top of the hamper, fish out the keys, and put them in my new jeans.

Lex

 

I had the same issue and after losing my apartment key for the millionth time my roommate intervened. Every time I walked into our apartment he would make me take everything out of my pockets (phone, wallet, keys, etc.) and put them on the table next to the door. Then, i wasn't allowed to touch the stuff (except to use my phone) until I needed to leave again... its been working pretty well because it makes it so that I don't scatter things haha

 

exact same thing here. I keep on loosing things and I am completly disorganized. Funnily, I am very organized in my work, but at home that is a completly different story.
After years at loosing my keys, I finaly sorted out a way to keep my hand on them most part of the time. I have put a doornail right next to the door at home, and the first thing I do when I am coming home is ti put my keys there.
For when I am not at home, I have a little pouch that stays inside my handbag and I oblige myself to put my keys inside all the time (intead of putting them in my pockets, on my desk, in the fridge...).
That being said, that solves the keys problem but didn't prevent me to bin my credit card 3 months ago...
I know that don't help much, but just so that you know, you're not the only one on this (sinking) boat
(*hug*)(*hug*) Cécile

 

simple trick that worked for me.... Get used to saying a particular word out loud when you pick up and put down a particular important object. Pick up your keys, say 'bananas'. Drop your keys, say 'bananas'. Pick up your phone, say 'timbuktu', drop them, say 'timbuktu' etc.... It might help if you notice something in close proximity as you say it, too. There are lots of ways to do it.

My brain remembers where i was when i said the word, even if it wouldn't remember where i was if i'd only dropped the keys, for example. All you have to do is patch over the particular part of your brain that doesn't bother remembering objects.

since you and i are different, verbal cues might not work as well, so you could try tapping a wall or nearby object, winking your eye, whistling....

 

I have attention deficit disorder, and what you are talking about sounds like me. There is clutter everywhere, and I can't change it to save my life--every few weeks, I have a friend come and help me get my stuff back in order, because if someone is helping me I can stay engaged in the task, whereas if I try to do it by myself, all that happens is I waste hours of my life and nothing is accomplished. (My friends love me and do not judge me. They receive free help with writing projects in return, although we don't really keep score. In some cases, they have similar problems anyway, and I give them similar help when they need it.) I confess that my problem with clutter is not helped by the fact that I have more books than fit on my shelves, and more clothes than fit in my dresser.

And yes, I lose things. All. The. Time.

I also have some problems where I lose track of what someone is saying in a conversation, or even what I am half way through saying. Like, I start thinking of something else just randomly in the middle of things. It's not like I didn't care or wasn't listening--it happens involuntarily. The worst thing, though, is inattention while driving. I used to run red lights, sometimes, or miss turns and end up a good ways off before I noticed. But my problems following conversations and while driving are where I see the most improvement from taking Adderall (I take generic, but whatever). The improvement in my driving is the top reason I keep taking it. I had some really scary near-misses before. (I didn't take any medication until college, although I was diagnosed somewhat earlier.)

There is some improvement in keeping track of items (most noticeably my keys and my phone), but not as stark a difference as in the driving. (This is possibly because losing my keys is not generally potentially life-threatening.) But I still lose things more than other people. Possibly there is some improvement in the clutter, but it is so very, very bad, it is difficult to tell. I am able to keep my clutter out of shared space, for the most part, but I don't know what would happen if all my space was shared.

I have great difficulty being consistently on time. This improves with the Adderall, but again, not to the point of being within the range most people consider acceptable, regardless of the degree of my effort. This makes employment very difficult.

However, the improvements would perhaps be adequate if my deficit were less severe. I think that's as much as I can do in terms of discussing my ADD symptoms and the efficacy of pharmacological treatment.

I have of course tried many other methods of managing my symptoms, but they have mostly been unsuccessful. Everyone always thinks I should use a day planner. One year, I tried at least six different day planners. Always, I would forget to write things in them, and even if I did write things in them, I would forget to look. And then I lost them, every time, Adderall or no. I eventually came to the conclusion that day planners were a good way for me to waste money, and otherwise had no purpose for me. But almost every ADD organizing program, or whatever, tries to get me to use a damn day planner. I have sometimes had a very difficult time convincing people that I really and truly have given the whole day planner thing a real shot.

It's like that with the losing things and the clutter too: people just suggest the same things over and over, and if those things don't work, they have nothing more to offer.

I know that for me, a lot of the things suggested here wouldn't really work, because for them to work you have to be thinking about your keys when you are putting them down. But the problem is, if you have ADD, you are not thinking about your keys. Instead, your mind has wandered off, and you put your keys down absentmindedly, without thinking about it at all. Therefore, you can't take a mental picture, or say the same word every time, or whatever.

Having a place to put things right next to the door helps, until the box or table or whatever becomes totally full of cluttery crapola, which for me takes maybe two days, if I'm lucky. (Extra objects and/or garbage do not get removed when they ought to if you have ADD.) Also, it has to be okay with whoever you live with that you have your stuff by the front door. I've had some success with a hook for keys in the past.

My keys are attached to a long, colorful lanyard. This makes them easier to spot. I try to always keep them either in my coat pocket or in the pocket of by bag. I often fail. But because they are attached to the colorful lanyard, I am more likely to notice them sitting wherever I inattentively dropped them. Then, I try to immediately pick them up and put them in my bag. Sometimes I manage to do so. Other times, something else happens, such as me picking them up, but then getting distracted on my way to put them in my bag, and absentmindedly putting them down again, someplace else. Really, I actually do that.

I have accepted that I am always going to have a problem losing things, particularly non-novel things, items I carry all the time. Therefore, I try to (1) make it easier to find things when they are lost (thus the lanyard) and (2) make it not matter as much if I lose these items, especially my keys and phone. This involves having multiple copies of my keys, and using prepaid cell phones that can be easily and cheaply replaced when necessary. I use Net10. I also try not to leave my phone off very often, because if I lose it when it is off, it is much harder to find.

One more, somewhat related note: I think that everything that comes with a remote control should have a button on it that makes the remote control beep. I swear, I would make purchasing decisions based on this feature.

 

I don't have ADD, and I can say all that same stuff about myself. That's called being a creative big picture personality instead of a detail personality.

In the case of small necessary personal effects, like keys, I find that I HAVE to have ONE place where they go, and that is on top of my dresser (it used to be a shelf by the door, but I lost that option awhile ago to remodeling). And, it's not just on top of my dresser, but everything has to be right next to each other, or I'll forget something. If my badge for work (which I have to have to get into the building past security) is not immediately next to my keys, I WILL forget it.

Next, I actually forced myself years ago to actually COUNT how many things I had in my pockets. If I'm leaving my house at all, there should be no less than three things in my pockets (phone, my keys, and wallet), and if I'm going to work, there should be no less than five (phone, my keys, wallet, work keys, and badge). I find this actually does help me keep track of stuff, because it helps me in terms of keeping it all together. If I were to just throw my badge and work keys somewhere, and my car keys somewhere else, I would lose them, but if I force myself to think of those five items as a set that MUST be together, then I find I keep those items in the same place.

In terms of treating keys and things as mundane items, I found I had to ascribe importance to them. In the case of my keys, they're not just keys. Without my keys, I can't lock my house, which means all of my stuff will get stolen and my cats will be taken, and I can't drive my car, and to have a new key made for my car, I would have to go to the dealership and spend $150. They're more than just a thing I carry. Without my wallet, I could be ticketed for driving without a drivers' license and I couldn't buy anything. Without my work keys, I could not get into my office. I would have to drive an additional 60 minutes because I would have to drive all the way home, get the keys, and then drive all the way back to work.

Once they stop being just mundane items, you're a bit more likely to keep tabs of them.

 

I have something that plugs in to either a computer or a Wall socket on everything, so I make sure I have them attached to one of my computers or a powerpoint before leaving them anywhere (it's not perfect but it narrows the search down significantly)

 

>>>That's called being a creative big picture personality instead of a detail personality.

That does sound better than "daydreamer who's unable to focus". But I wear that badge proudly, too.

Lex

 

Um, okay. Those are the very symptoms for which I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. They are also things I have consistently had in common with other people with ADD.

Imagine that Hannah, Millie, and Edith are sitting around the kitchen table:

H: I'm attracted to other women. There's this girl at work that I'm completely in love with. I think I may be a homosexual.

M: Oh, I'm a homosexual. Let me tell you about my experiences. {Millie engages in a somewhat excessive monologue about her life and her attraction to females and her non-attraction to males.}

H: Oh, wow. A whole lot of that is just like me! I bet I really am a homosexual!

E: Well, I'm not a homosexual, and I can say all that stuff about myself. That's called being a sapphic personality. :confused2::eusa_eh::confused2:
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It's not that Edith isn't a sapphic personality. But that doesn't really prevent "homosexual" from being an accurate description of her. There can be more than one way of talking about the same thing.

However, in your case, xequar, I think it's possible that your "creative big picture personality" does not interfere with your ability to function enough to compel a diagnosis. According to your own report, you are able to maintain and make use of "ONE place" in which you put your small personal effects, something I generally fail at.

Novelty and importance are not the same thing. I have difficulty keeping track of items that are not novel, not new or unusual, regardless of importance. I am very well aware of the importance of these things, having been severely inconvenienced a multitude of times by having lost them. Thanks, though.