Let your Things Remember for You!

I am somewhat of a forgetful person. Getting older is not making this better. Years ago, I developed a system that has helped me keep track of things — Let the things remember for you! Can’t find your car keys? Put them in the same place every time you walk in the door. When you find yourself saying “Where did I put the car keys?” You won’t have to remember because they are in their place. The keys have remembered for you.

I was thinking about this lately with regard to my needlepoint stash & tools because it is the key to my non-thread organization. If I find tools I like I tend to buy them in multiples. Having specific places for these things means they are easier to pull together but also easier to put away. And I am bad at the putting away part. I tend to leave it until it’s a hassle.

But this principle helps here as well. While writing this I noticed my jar that holds my small scissors is just about empty. Since about 10 pairs of scissors are supposed to live there, I know I need to go on a search. Are there too many in project bags? Have some fallen to the floor by my stitching chair? Did I lend some to family members? My jar told me I need to do this before kitting up something new.

The scissors just came to mind but the same applies for me for tacks, minders, threaders, project bags, and stretcher bars. When I finish a project I take it off the bars and put th tacks back in teir storage container immediately. Needles get separated from the minder and both go away. Threaders and scussors go back into their places. I don’t put the stretcher bars away immediately, but group them together to do in batches. Dtto with project bags, because often I reuse them right way.

I can easily look out and know that the things I use to stitch don’t have to depend on my faulty memory!