Places I've Learned that Not to Put Things for Safe Keeping

Looking at the title you're probably thinking things like not holding a cup of hot coffee between my legs while I drive. Or maybe that I shouldn't put my hand on a hot burner, well, I've learned places other then common sense kinds of place where I really shouldn't put certain things or in some cases I shouldn't put anything there.

Most recently I learned that putting a bag of potatoes in a cupboard that I not only don't have anything I use regularly in, but one that I put the storage container for my dog's food in front of it. You see last year as best as I can figure around Thanksgiving when I was in a mode where I wanted real potatoes instead of boxed flakes I bought a bag of potatoes. I can only assume that at the time I chose the cupboard that they would live in and well eventually become a rather big mess in that I figured it was the only cupboard I didn't have packed full of stuff so they would be safe in a dark place ... not sure about cool because I live on the second floor and my place is usually pretty warm, but it was definitely a dark dry place. Somewhere along the line after putting the dog food in front of the cupboard where the potatoes were at I forgot or maybe became oblivious is a better way of putting it of the existence of the bag of potatoes. They basically ceased to exist as far as I was concerned. I recall at one point being inundated with fruit flies and not being able to find the source of their food supply. It never crossed my mind even for a moment that maybe the cupboard next to the stove might be the source of the problem. Instead I scrubbed out the fridge, ran drano down the drains in the kitchen thinking maybe it was something in the drains feeding them .... I scrubbed my garbage cans to where I felt comfortable that my dog could safely eat out of them without risk of getting sick from anything rotten .... she's never gotten in the garbage but at least if she did it would be disease free. I looked under, around and behind my computer desk thinking maybe something fell behind it and rotted without me realizing it. All these efforts turned up nothing. So, I did the next logical thing. I hung up fly tape to catch the pesky little fruit flies. I caught a ton of them, and assumed that when I wasn't seeing them anymore it was because they were stuck to the fly tape I hung in my living room and kitchen. Still never considered it might be the potatoes. The fruit flies have been gone for a couple months now, and the other day for some reason, I got curious as to what I might have stashed in the cupboard next to the stove. It was then that I found the bag of now unidentifiable potatoes. I knew it was a bag of potatoes not because I remembered putting them there, but because I could just make out the print on the bag that said "potatoes". Armed with the dustpan and rubber gloves, I carefully removed the bag of potatoes that were so far gone they had no odor. I dropped the bag in the sparkling trash can and then began to contemplate what to use to clean up the residual mess. I opted for paper towels and bleach water just incase there was any mold in there but I got the impression that the mold had died of starvation. So I learned that things that could rot shouldn't be put in the cupboard next to the stove ... it's basically the cupboard that doesn't exist.

Another place which I haven't located yet is that place referred to as, "some place safe where I won't loose *it*" whatever "it' may be. It is the place where I put things that never seem to surface again until months later after I no longer need the item that disappeared. I wonder if either the dustbunnies are hiding things on me or if aliens are conducting some warped experiment to see how long I will hunt for things in that safe place where they won't get lost.... The reality is that they don't get lost ... they just never get found and often times they seem rather beat up or mangled when they do surface so I really don't know what happens to them during the time they are staying safe and not getting lost. It's usually important paperwork like a tax form or some other piece of paper I need for something I'm applying for or going through a recertification process for.

I've also discovered that my desk seems to swallow things. I can be using a pen and set it down in what I think is plain sight on my desk and when I go to use it again minutes later it's gone and nowhere to be found. I've been working extra hard lately at trying to keep my desk cleared off so it doesn't swallow things, but even when it's nearly bare things disappear from sight on it.

When doing laundry I've found that attaching two matching socks together with a clothes pin seems to prevent the washer and dryer from munching away at my laundry only to gobble up one sock leaving me with half of a pair. I'm thinking maybe line drying my socks might be more effective though I'm not sure how my landlord would feel about me installing a clothesline in the bathroom to hang them on.

Store owners beware .... While it is a kind gesture to offer a pen for customers to sign receipts or write a check with so they don't have to rummage through their purse or pockets looking for their own .... I've concluded that putting that courtesy pen in my hand is not a wise thing to do. I get so absorbed with digging out the right card, swiping it then hoping the swiper thing reads it and then once I'm sure it was read placing it back in my wallet and stuffing my wallet in my pouch that if I pick up the courtesy pen at anytime during that process it is pretty much a given that I will totally and unintentionally forget it wasn't my pen that I'm holding in my hand and after I sign the slip I will proceed to cram the receipt and the courtesy pen in my pouch to hangout with my wallet. I will then realize once I'm home that I have acquired several pens I don't know where they came from. I have tried to return pens I thought I accidentally stole but they are often refused even if they don't have any kind of advertising for the business on them and are just a plain ordinary pen. So while I try very hard not to put a courtesy pen in my hand until seconds before I need to sign my slip, it doesn't always work the cashiers often will hand me a pen while I'm cramming my wallet in my pouch which means the pen doesn't register in my mind as not belonging to me until I get home and try to figure out why I have three pens when I left the house with one pen. I actually buy very few pens because of the badly timed kindness of cashiers handing me courtesy pens at a bad moment.

Stashing a box of anything under my bed is another place I shouldn't put things because I won't remember it's there until I decide to rearrange my bedroom which only happens every two or three years at most often times it's longer then that. Closets are blackholes things go in and they mingle with the other things that got stashed in there and I'm pretty sure they breed because every time I open my closets they seem to have more stuff in them then I remember them having the last time I opened them. I clean out my closets once a year ... it's part of my spring cleaning ritual where I empty every closet, cupboard or other storage items and then sort through the treasures I discover that I had thought were long gone and decide what can continue to live in the closet and what gets evicted and either moves on by way of Freecycle, goodwill or the friendly neighborhood dumpster. I've discovered that I'm a packrat by nature and will keep things because I might have a use for it in the future or because I might be able to wear it again after I lose weight despite the fact that I haven't worn it since high school and it is way out of style.

So not only do I have a problem with things disappearing when I place them someplace safe so I won't loose them, but I also seem to have a breeding ground for stuff in my closets. I do better at throwing out socks that I can't wear because they are filled with holes then I am about getting rid of those items that were must-have trendy fashions of yesteryear.

So I have a cupboard I'm oblivious of, my closets are breeding grounds for more stuff to appear in and I'm a pen thief because I'm oblivious to the fact the pen isn't mine due to being preoccupied with other more pressing tasks. My next question is how do I solve these mysterious events? I started by making a strict rule that says that if I haven't worn it in over 2 years and can't fit into it it needs to find a new home, This is helpful in aiding in the parting from those treasures from the days when I wanted more then anything to fit in with the cool kids, but now fill up my closet and breed creating more stuff. I heard somewhere along the line that less is more, and I'm really starting to appreciate this statement. I'm finding that I don't need to hang onto everything that comes my way because I might be able to put it to use someday. I'm finding that by getting rid of these once treasured items I have less to do when it comes to cleaning which means I have more time for everything else. Getting rid of stuff also seems to have some mental health benefits. I say this because when I donate these once treasured items to goodwill or offer them through Freecycle I know that they will find new homes where hopefully they will be provided with a suitable breeding space so they can create more stuff in someone else's closets and drawers. The saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure comes to mind. While some things are still treasured by me because of the memories tied to them, I know that the things I am able to convince myself to evict from my closet will have a chance at becoming someone else's new found treasure so history can continue to repeat itself as the cycle of breeding and evicting continues.

One last place I learned isn't a good place to put things is the trunk of my car .... I put things in there and become oblivious to them until I need to haul groceries in it then I discover all the things I forgot I had that ended up residing in my car's trunk. Hauling a gallon jug of water in the trunk in the winter time without leaving room for the ice to expand as the water freezes can be bad because not only do I forget about the gallon jug of water, but it develops a crack in the jug from the ice expanding in it. This isn't too horrible until the weather begins to warm up and the ice that cracked the jug begins to melt .... Still forgotten it begins to leak causing a small flood in the trunk which in turn has proven to produce things like mold on the cardboard box I used to organize the things that need to live in the trunk but that got wet because of the gallon jug that wasn't suppose to live in the trunk.

I've learned that out of sight doesn't mean out of mind in my case. The reality is that out of sight means forgotten until I become curious about something, spring clean, or manage to be reminded of the existence of an out of sight item because I needed the space it is occupying for something else. As a result of this revelation, I've begun to work on finding more obvious methods of storing things I think I need to keep indefinitely so they aren't out of sight but yet don't cause chaos by turning into clutter. Baskets, milk crates and shelves seem to work great for this it keeps the closet breeding to a minimum and the chaos from clutter remains low as well. I just need more space for shelves .... Think it's a sign I need to get rid of more unused items.

Before you put something someplace safe where you won't lose it consider my tale of what happens when I do that and ask yourself if the item would actually be better off being tossed on the kitchen table where it will be found every time you go to eat a meal. If you want something to be lost forever simply box it up and place it under your bed it will be forgotten indefinitely. Consider making rules for yourself about how long you will allow items to live in your closets it will make finding things you actually use a lot easier not to mention spring cleaning gets easier with each passing year.

The moral of the story is that I need to consider what will happen if I put something someplace safe and ask myself if it will actually disappear or not from where I put it. Things that can rot should never be out of sight because bad things happen when I put them out of sight. I can say for sure that with each mysterious event, I become more aware of what not to do and hope that others might learn from my mistakes so they don't get invaded by fruit flies because they were oblivious to the potatoes in the cupboard behind the dog food container.