The article by Sumathi Reddy in the Wall Street Journal presents tips for finding misplaced objects, such as checking their expected location and searching systematically. It highlights that common lost items include keys, phones, and wallets, and that the average person misplaces up to nine items daily. Additionally, the author shares personal tips on maintaining organization to avoid losing items in the first place.

1. Lost Your Keys Again?
8 Tips for Finding Misplaced Objects.

2. Sumathi Reddy wrote
an article in the Wall Street
Journal that had a great series
of tips about how to find
a lost object.

3. Apparently — and this is no surprise — the most commonly
misplaced possessions are: cell phone, keys, sunglasses,
purse, umbrella, bank card, tablet, documents
(that’s a little broad), and wallet.
The average person loses up to nine objects every day.

4. The article included these tips from Michael
Solomon’s How to Find Lost Objects:

6. Look where it’s supposed to be —
It’s surprising how often you overlook something,
or don’t look quite carefully enough, to see that
an object is pretty much where it’s supposed to be.

7. Keys?
Repeat the name of
the object
as you search for it.
Keys?
Keys?

8. Check to see if it’s
somehow hidden
in its proper place.

9. Look carefully and
systematically —
don’t just rummage
around (which is very
tempting)

10. This sounds impossible, but
I’ve found this to be
uncannily accurate.

11. Be philosophical. Most
things eventually turn up.
True. But, I feel compelled
to note, they don’t always
turn up in time!

12. I would add a tip of my own:
Clean up — this is very effective.
Plus, even though I’m annoyed by having
to look for something, having a tidier
environment cheers me up.

13. Also, here are two of my tips for never losing
something in the first place — beyond the familiar
“put things away in the same place.”

14. Counter-intuitively, it’s easier and also more fun and
satisfying to put something away in an exact place,
like “the basket on the third shelf of the coat
closet” rather than “in the closet.”
As much as
possible, put
things away in
an exact,
rather than
an approximate,
place.

15. If you see something that’s obviously out of place, don’t absent-mindedly
think, “Hmm, I wonder why someone put a cell phone in the
bathroom cabinet?” but move it — either to where it belongs, or at
least to a place where it’s very conspicuous.
So many times I’ve raged to myself, “I saw that thing in some
unexpected place, and I sort of noticed how weird it was to find it
there…but where was it?”

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