I’m generally a pretty organized guy. My office and shop are often cluttered, but I still have places for my stuff where I can reasonably expect to find it when needed.

Unfortunately, I am also a misplacer. I do this most often in the shop when I stop in the middle of what I’m doing and walk over to get something I need. However, when going to fetch that item I invariably carry with me whatever was already in my hand and in use at the time – pencil, tape measure, screwdriver, utility knife, flare gun, whatever – and I unfailingly set this down when I pick up whatever it was I was going after. Then, a few seconds or a few minutes later I’m mystified as to what happened to that original thing. It may take several minutes, or several weeks, to stumble over that original item with an oh-here-it-is as I pick it up and put it back where it belongs.

I also tend to put things temporarily in places where I can easily find them later, only to have no idea the next day where that was. Often, I not only don’t remember where that was, but I don’t even remember putting it there, temporarily or otherwise. On the one hand, losing stuff like this is incredibly annoying when it happens in the middle of a project and you immediately miss it. But on the other hand, it’s exciting in a you-never-no-what-you’ll-find sort of way.

Last Friday I told you about my good fortune to send all those birdhouses I’d made for a recent book to a local shop to be sold. Well, yesterday I found two more in my office closet while looking for something else. I hadn’t recalled stashing them there, and hadn’t even realized they were missing from the carload of birdhouses I took over to that shop last week. But I can now take those over to the shop to add to the others he’s selling to the benefit of my wallet.

Being a misplacer can be annoying while you’re working, but sometimes it’s like slipping your hands into the pockets of a jacket you haven’t worn for a while and finding a five-dollar bill you forgot you stuck in there.

Till next time,

A.J.