January 29, 2025–
“Bound and binding, binding, bound,
Hear the sight, see the sound.
What was lost now is found,
Bound and binding, binding, bound.”
You’re walking out of your house for an important appointment, when you remember you misplaced your keys/wallet/eyeglasses/portfolio/ computer mouse/ or whatever netsuke that is vitally important to the meeting.
You immediately dance the “Panic Polka.” It starts like the sign of the cross as you swat your forehead, pockets, pants, and hat.
Then it’s on your knees slinging cushions off the couch, looking under the table, and pulling out drawers.
Or, you invoke the incantation above that was recited to me by a re-enactor at the Kerrville Renaissance Fest when we were discussing how to find lost objects.
Or, you say a novena to St. Anthony, Restorer of Lost Things.
Stop! It does not have to be this way, according to Arryn Robbins, cognitive psychologist at the University of Richmond. It turns out there is a science of finding things. She lays out some suggestions:
Retrace your steps
We’ve all done this, mumbling to ourselves, saying OK I gathered up the laundry and took it out to the washing machine, then bent over to clean the dryer screen, then went through the garage and back into the house, getting a drink of water in the kitchen, then put on my shoes and put out the cat… and so on.
Chances are when you are in the same environment, you brain will remember where you placed the lost item.
Visualize
One strategy is to meditate on the physical appearance of the missing object. Let’s say it’s a television remote.
Imagine the rectangular shape. See the color and finish in your brain. What would it look like with the kitchen light bouncing off of it. Visualize the color and shape of the knobs. This prompts your brain pull out the missing object from a cluttered background.
Reenact your actions
Growing up, my sisters taught me this trick that I still use. Whenever they dropped an earring or a coin, they took a similar object and dropped it in the same area. Nine times out of ten, it fell or bounced the same direction as the lost object. This is not silly, according to Robbins. She said if you place an object similar to the lost one on the ground, it will give clues on how the light hits it and which orientation it might assume. I still use this to this day.
Last Resort: Become An Archeologist
You divide the space up into regular grids, then you search section by section. Maybe I’ll try this, when I’m digging up brontosaurus bones in Tanzania. But not to find my lost chapstick.
Of course the best way to find lost things is to not lose them in the first place.
Right.
I’ve gone down that road. When I buy any gift, I take care to stash it in a secret hidey-hole, which I immediately forget. Invariably, the big day comes… and goes. That’s why members of my family get orange and black candy at Christmas and Valentine cards on Mothers Day.
The solution that works for me is making easily-lost items easily findable. I routinely tape a foot-long gaudily-patterned ribbon to each remote for TV/DVD/VCR/CD/gate opener, so they are like gaily-colored cats wagging their tails behind them. This method was foolproof, until during a housecleaning frenzy we actually lost the TV.
It can hide. But now we possess the power of the science of finding things. Let’s all go seek.
XXX
Phil Houseal finds words at Full House PR.