Go ahead Laugh At My Expense . . .
I have a bit of a problem. It seems I’m slowly but surely inheriting my mother’s family trait – an excellent ability to lose keys, wallets, sunglasses and phones. The worst for me is keys. It started getting bad when CrashGirl was born. I pretty much couldn’t make it out of the house without leaving at least one of the aforementioned items behind. As you can guess, leaving the keys at home was a killer.
I’ve been rescued by CrashHubby who has had to return from work to find me and CrashGirl on the doorstep more than a few times. I’ve had to seek refuge at other people’s places because as well as my keys, I had also misplaced my phone and couldn’t call my usual Knight in shining armour.
I’ve had to scratch around in the bottom of a nappy bag to get the bus fare home with a grumpy baby CrashGirl on a failed ‘shopping’ trip without my wallet. And then there was my recent attempt to shop at IKEA, again without my wallet. Hmm, sensing a trend here. Must write myself a note:
Dear Laney,
If you go shopping you usually need something to pay with. Supermarket shopping with two screaming children and without your card or any cash is a futile exercise and you’ll probably cry at the counter. Trust me, I know.
Love,
Laney x
Then there’s the car keys. The older I get, the craftier those keys get. Lately they’ve taken to hiding right before I need to get out the door with the kids, like right now!!!! OK, it’s not them, it’s me. I just keep putting them down in random places.
Actually, it’s not just me. A couple of weeks ago the car keys (and all important alarm fob) went missing. Hubby has a spare key to my car, but without the alarm fob you can’t get in without setting off the alarm. After a day of searching I was getting desperate so I resorted to Google. Good old Google told me that I could disarm the alarm by turning the key in the door lock again after the alarm had gone off. Google lied and the whole damn neighbourhood heard about it. Again, and again and again.
So whilst my car was serenading the neighbours I tried some advice from one of my Kinder mum friends. Turn the key in the ignition 10 times. Nup. I just set the alarm off – again. CrashBoy thought this was all highly amusing. I did not, because I knew he had been playing with my keys while I was in the shower (I heard them), and he wasn’t very helpful about telling us where they were.
A day later I found them. In his little scooter backpack, stuffed in a bottom drawer. Little bugger.
Anyway, I’m slightly buoyed by the news that I’m not the only one who loses these things. A survey done in the UK reveals that people can spend 10 minutes every day looking for things – that’s 153 days over your lifetime searching for things like phones, keys, wallets etc. Here’s a list of items that are lost the most often.
Any of these repeat offenders for you? What do you lose the most often?
Laney x
PS Next week I’ll share with you some of the ways I have tried to be better organised so this doesn’t happen so often. I really need to revisit them and put them back in place!
Oh I can SO relate to this. Keys used to be my number 1. I got stuck inside my flat over Easter once and couldn’t leave for 4 days cos I couldn’t find my keys and flat mates wouldn’t be home until after the long weekend. I had no food in the house and had to live off home delivery pizza.
Another time I was living in an old terrace house that had a bathroom out the back and I couldn’t get back in after my shower. The cops had to come rescue me while I was warning nothing but a dressing gown.
I left my entire handbag in a shopping trolley in the carpark. Another time after bubba 1 my handbag fell out of the pram near a buiulding site. I’ve lost my iPhone 3 times and my iPad once (thank goodness for that find my iPhone app and honest strangers). So far I’m lucky and have found them or had them returned.
My most regular loss is parking tickets. I even have a strategy of putting thein the same spot in my handbag every single time ….. But still they go astray. I can’t tell you how many times my 2 hour free parking has turned into a maximum fee experience. Bring on those tips!
Not being able to go out would suck! That’s pretty extreme isn’t it? Your parking tickets experience reminds me of another recent ‘loss’. When I went to pay for my parking ticket I couldn’t find my card. I panicked and called Hubby who was miles away. I had two very tired and over it kids to contend with. Luckily I remembered I had this stuff called cash in my wallet! I also ‘found’ my card two days later – in my wallet. Enough said really!
I HAD this problem, and got sick of looking for stuff. Now there is a shelf at adult height (to stop the leprechauns) by my front door with a bowl (for the coins who used to wander to the school tuckshop) a hook (so I can see my keys) and my phone charger. Everything gets put there as I walk in. I used to dump everything on the kitchen table as I ran past, and it would then get covered by junk mail, lunch boxes, newsletters and homework (see not my fault). The only issue is the remembering to put them there in the first place, but after a week it becomes habit
Yep, I have a drawer in entrance way that I usually put my keys in. I use usually very loosely here ;)
Shoes. Always shoes. Bubba went to daycare barefoot yesterday because they’re hiding so well.
Michelle’s last post..When will I be skinny? A tale from my distorted body image and I.
Yep! Totally my shoes! i leave them in the car, cos i drive without them on, and hate wearing them….but occasionally hubby or kids (or me!) take them inside and i dont realise till im half way to the shop!
What is it with shoes? Sometimes I can find one, but never the other. CrashBoy went out this cold morning with socks and crocs – daggy!
Oh laney
I’m hearing that alarm going off again and again and again. I’m so sorry for you and yes wouldn’t you feel like “killing” our angel when you found the keys.
Have a great day
:). Loulou
Loulou’s last post..What Olivia Newton-John said.
My car alarm is one of those really annoying ones too with all the different noises. So bloody obnoxious. Nobody ever comes to see what’s going on though so they’re a waste of time if you ask me!
I had a car alarm experience like that once.. bub was less than two.. and my car keys were a great distraction that allowed me to drag her around the local grocery shop doing a once a week big shop.. Only teething toddlers DROOL! and my immobiliser key was getting old and had a hole in the button.. suffice to say she shorted the key out. And while it opened the door (setting off the alarm) the car refused to start cos although the key was right.. its immobiliser wasn’t working….hubby had to come and rescue us with his spare key.. and my poor key never recovered. suffice to say to this day I tell EVERYONE I SEE when their child is chewing on their keys!
Thanks for the warning! Our cars are too fancy these days. I like the good old days when I could break into my Ford with some packing tape and turn the ignition with a screwdriver ;)
Totally… the security is great in theory.. but in practice we’re probably the ones that want to break into our own houses/cars the most often.
And as for your old ford, my parents had an old (hand-me-down) orange Datsun when i was growing up and its ignition was dead, so to start it you had to open up the bonnet and short the solenoid (dunno if that’s how its spelt.. basicaly the starter motor) with a big screw driver dad kept in the car… wasn’t until years later I recalled to hubby that story and he goes.. “you know that’s hotwiring the car right?” I had no idea!
I’m *so* forgetful too….last year 4 occasions in a row we rocked up and I’d forgotten the present (and once we’d driven from brisband to northern nsw too!)… and this morning.. I forgot my daughter’s lunch for kindy! Luckily they’re just around the corner so I could just duck home and bring it back. *sigh*.. Its the sleep deprivation i tell you!
Ha ha Laney I have to say, I never lose stuff. There is a spot for everything and Jaden is not allowed to play with our keys for the very reason you describe above! That said, he’s only 2 so he still listens to me. Maybe I will be back here in a year’s time eating humble pie ;)
Kelly Exeter’s last post..March to your own beat – Week 3
Of course you don’t Kelly! I really need to achieve a ‘life less frantic’ like you! But yes, wait until they stop listening ;)
You are not alone!
I lose everything and keys and purse are the top offendeds! I also have a brainless habit of taking my card out of my purse, using, and then just chucking it in my bag as i juggled the kids…..not a problem till i ‘just grab my purse’ for a quick outing!
AARGHH!!
I also had to get our neighbour (who i hadnt met) to bash down our back door, because i left the keys (house and car) inside, had two kids in the car, two at daycare that needed picking up and Hubby was and hour and half away!
Oh, I did that just last week. Threw my card into my handbag and then freaked out at the supermarket counter when it wasn’t in my wallet. Luckily I had my handbag and remembered what I did! You totally win the getting locked out thing though. At least I haven’t had to break down the door!
Hi there
Most regulars are keys and my mind really! other not so regulars are the car in carparks and losing track of what the hell I was starting to do in the first place.
Just the usuals (I am kidding myself aren’t I?)
today I have lost my mobile TWICE. both times I tried to ring it from the landline and got the “i’m sorry the phone you are trying is unavailable…” REALLY not helpful. and i’m about to head out, waiting for a sms about when/where I’m meeting someone tonight. And I don’t even have their phone number to call them wihout my phone! Oops….
Hayley – HappyHouseWIfey’s last post..I don’t know how you do it ?!?!
Oh no! Hope I didn’t jinx you! How did it turn out. Did you find it in time?
I left my wallet at home last week but didn’t realise until after i’d ordered my meat from the butcher. By the time I got both boys back to the car, home to get wallet then back again I lost the better part of an hour. Sigh.
You need house locks like ours. We have a keypad with a code and they are awesome. No need to carry a housekey so I can never get locked out! Well, if there’s a blackout I can but that’s not my fault!!
Kate Sins’s last post..The path to diagnosis: part 1
I’d still get locked out because I’m likely to have a mind blank and forget my code!
Gosh this is a family trait for us – I live in fear I’ll end up like my mum or worse my grandad. Actually, no I think my mum has to be the worst – nobody else I know has called the police about their stolen car only to find it one level down in the shopping centre car park. Seriously.
I’m forever losing my phone, worse I have it on silent 99% of the time so every time I leave the house I have a panicked hunt around until I finally locate it.
oh my goodness this is me.. I am constantly losing my keys, phone, wallet.. Im not sure how Ive managed not to lose one of my 3 kids yet!!!
Mum’s the Word’s last post..The Mother Guilt
you have to attach one of those tracker devices to your car keys, and maybe your phone…. hehehe x
the parenting files – tahlia’s last post..WIN! a Kimochis Emotion Doll!
Absolutely Tahlia! I remember those ones in the 80s that beeped when you whistled for them!
Keys, phone, wallet I seem pretty good with (although I have accidentally locked myself out on a couple of occasions!) Paperwork is the killer here – always an argument over a misplaced “important” document. Never mine – always hubby’s but somehow my fault :P Also have about 10 different lip gloss stashed around but never seem to be able to find one!
Nee Say’s last post..Like a fine wine + {Giveaway}