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A humorous yet practical guide for finding lost items … you know those pesky things that may or may not have been jottled. Hey – you can always consult your local horary astrologer.

Principle One

Don’t Look for It …

Something’s lost, and your first thought—
your basic instinct—is to look for it.
You’re ready to start rummaging about.
To hunt for it in a random, and increasingly
frenetic, fashion. To ransack your own house.

This is the most common mistake people make.
And it can doom their search from the start.

I know you’re eager to find that lost item. But not yet. Don’t look for it yet.

Wait until you have some idea where to look.

Principle Two

It’s Not Lost—You Are …

Have you ever stopped to think that maybe it’s you that are lost—not those keys or that umbrella?

Because a fundamental truth is this:

There are no missing objects. Only unsystematic searchers.

Accept that—copy it down and tape it to your mirror—and you’ll soon be finding things with ease.

Principle Three …

Remember the Three C’s

To find a lost object, you must be in the proper frame of mind. And that means paying attention to the 3 C’s.

They are:

COMFORT

Start by making yourself comfortable in an armchair or sofa. Have a cup of tea, perhaps, or a stick of gum, or pipeful of tobacco.

CALMNESS

Next, empty your mind of any unsettling thoughts. Pretend that the sea is lapping at your feet. Or that you’re sitting in a garden full of birds and flowers.

CONFIDENCE

Finally, tell yourself you will locate that missing object. (To enhance your confidence, you might want to don a thinking cap. Click here for instructions on how to make one.)

Now you’re ready. To begin a systematic search.

Principle Four

It’s Where It’s Supposed to Be

Believe it or not, things are often right where they’re supposed to be.

Is there a place where your missing object is normally kept? A particular rack, or shelf, or drawer? If so, look there first. You may actually have hung up your coat last night. Or put the dictionary back on the shelf. Or returned the tape measure to the tool drawer.

Even if you didn’t, someone may have done it
for you.

If you haven’t found it, proceed -

Principle Five

Domestic Drift

Many objects do have a designated or customary place where they are kept. But the reality is that they aren’t always returned there. Instead, they are left wherever last used.

Such objects have undergone Domestic Drift. They could be anywhere in the house or out in the yard.

Relax. Get comfortable. Pour yourself a cup of coffee.

Now try to remember. Where were you last using that pliers, or tape measure, or fountain pen? Where did you last have it?

Because that’s precisely where it still may be.

Principle Six

You’re Looking Right at It

All right. You checked where it’s supposed to be, where it was last used, or where it might have been casually tossed. And it wasn’t there.

Or…was it?

It is possible to look directly at a missing object and not see it. This is due to the agitated state of mind that often accompanies a misplacement. Go back and look again.
It may be staring you in the face.

Occasionally, our distress is such that not only do we overlook an object—we forget what we’re looking for! To avoid this, repeatedly murmur the name of the object. (“Potholder, potholder, potholder.”)

But why the agitation? Have we forgotten the second C? Return to your armchair and get calm.

If not, onward –

Principle Seven

The Camouflage Effect

Don’t be fooled. Your object may be right where you thought it was—but it has become hidden from view. Be sure to check under anything that could be covering your object, having inadvertently been placed on top of it.

I call this the Camouflage Effect. Among the most common offenders are newspapers and sombreros.

If not –

Principle Eight

Think Back …

You were there at the scene of the misplacement.

You were there when the object was put down—was left in an obscure location—was consigned to oblivion.

You were there—because you did it!

So you must have a memory—however faint—of where this happened.

Are you prepared to think back and retrieve that memory?

If so, you may soon be crying out “Of course!” and making a beeline to that forgotten place.

But if it’s proving elusive –

Principle Nine

Look Once, Look Well …

Don’t go round in circles. Once you’ve checked a site, don’t go back and check it again. No matter how promising a site—if the object wasn’t there the first time, it won’t be there the second.

Assuming, of course, that your first check was thorough.

Was it? If not, go back and do it again—thoroughly.

Principle Ten

The Eureka Zone …

The majority of lost objects are right where you figure—once you take a moment to stop and figure.

Others, however, are in the immediate vicinity of that place. They have undergone a displacement—a shift in location that, although minor, has served to render them invisible.

Some examples:

A pencil has rolled beneath a typewriter.

A tool has been shoved to the rear of a drawer.

A book on a shelf has gotten lodged behind other books.

A folder has been misfiled, several folders away from where it belongs.

Objects are apt to wander. I have found, though, that they tend to travel no more than eighteen inches from their original location. To the circle described by this eighteen-inch radius I have given a name. I call it the Eureka Zone. With the aid of a ruler (or a Eureka-Stik—click here for instructions on making one), determine the Eureka Zone of your lost object. Then explore it. Meticulously.

If not, move on –

Principle Eleven

Tail Thyself …

If you still haven’t found you object, it may be time to Recreate the Crime.

Remove your thinking cap and don your detective’s cap. For you are about to follow your own trail.

Let’s create a typical scenario. You come home from work and find a letter in the mail. Sometime later you’re ready to read it…but it’s missing. You’re perturbed and perplexed. Where’s that letter?

Okay, start at the door and retrace your steps since returning home. Where in the house did you go? To what specific locations? Stop at each of them and look for the letter.

Hmm, a coat thrown across a chair. You were here. (Check under the coat and in its pockets.)

A depression in the sofa. You were here.

On the kitchen counter, a glass. You were here.

On the table by the armchair, candy wrappers and a novel. You were here.

And marking your place in the novel—aha! That missing letter.

Good work, Sherlock.

If not, there’s still –

Principle Twelve

It Wasn’t You …

When all else has failed, explore the possibility that your object hasn’t been misplaced. Rather, it’s been misappropriated.

Perhaps someone you know has borrowed your umbrella. Or eaten your doughnut. Or taken your magazine into another room.

Approach that person and inquire if such might not be the case. (“Have you by any chance seen my…?” is a tactful way to phrase this.)

But if you’ve tried all twelve Principles and still no object—onward! To a very special Principle.

I call it the THIRTEENTH PRINCIPLE. And I have kept it apart from the others to underscore its use in a certain dire situation only.

The situation is this: You’ve applied each of my Twelve Principles, and still haven’t found your object.

That should rarely happen. But when it does, there does remain—for emergency use only -

The Thirteenth Principle

Qué Será Será …

Have you been applying the Principles? If so, you should have found your object by now.

But occasionally, Fate chooses to separate us from one of our possessions. When that seems to be the case, it’s time to call off the search.

Your missing object may eventually turn up. Until then, accept that you are being offered a lesson: in patience…or humility…or nonattachment to the things of this world.

And if not, so what? Lost keys, books, eyeglasses—even elephants!—can be replaced. Such losses are inconvenient and vexing. Yet surely they have their place in the inscrutable economy of the Universe.

You’ve done what you can. So relax, and—with a shrug of resignation—accept the fate of your object.

Qué Será Será. What will be, will be.

Professor Solomon  - http://www.professorsolomon.com