Forgetting where you left your keys does not mean you are “losing it”

I've always had a thing about forgetting names. I can remember minute details about someones life and family to have a conversation and its just the name.

I think that sometimes it’s not that we simply forget, it’s that we haven’t registered whatever it is in the first place.

Some things are so routine (locking a door, switching off the tv…) that we don’t register having done it. How many times have you double-checked that you’ve closed a window or locked the back door because you can’t be sure/remember that you’ve done it?!

In answer to the OP, forgetting where you left your keys may not mean that you’re losing it, but it does mean you’ve lost your keys, temporarily at least…

Think we need to do some more bumping of normal threads as we’re being taken over by spam again.

Once, about 3 years ago, I got into the shower and for the life of me I could not recall how to operate it. To be honest it scared me silly for days afterwards. The sudden panic and awareness that I just didn’t know how to switch it on. It freaked me out I can tell you. I worried about it for days afterwards in case it was the start of something serious.

Never happened since - with that or indeed anything - I’m thankful to say.

I’m a place for everything and everything in its place sort of person!
Years ago, the Bursar where I worked had to deal with his wife who had rapidly developing dementia, she was such a lovely lady. He said one day that it wasn’t so much her forgetting where things were, but what they were for. He would get a couple of mugs out and a jar of coffee and she would just blankly stare at them.

"FORGETTING where you put your keys or wallet does not mean you are losing your memory, scientists have claimed in a new book.
Instead, they say the brain forgets on purpose so that it can store other information.
Two academics, Dr Megan Sumeracki and Dr Althea Need Kaminske, have written a book, The Psychology of Memory, to explain why people lose household items and how we better remember names and numbers."

Oh, how I love it when the scientists finally catch up and tell us what we always knew.

Forgetting where your keys, glasses etc. are is usually a consequence of either having too much on your mind, especially worries, or of trying to do too many things at once.

Nothing to worry about, unlike my BIL who (45 years ago) forgot his six month old daughter in her buggy outside the grocer's. He got home with the groceries and not until my sister said "Why is the grocer's assistant pushing our daughter's buggy up our garden path?" did he remember he had had the child with him, when he left the house.

Strange to say he stayed married to my sister for the next twelve years, until one evening he forgot who he was supposed to go to bed with, and was found by my sister with her best friend in my sister and brother-in-law's bed!

That kind of forgetfulness causes problems - forgetting where your reading glasses are is just a minor occurence in everyday life.

Baggs

If there are a limited number of places you put your wallet/keys you don't need to remember.

Being ship-shape – a place for everything and everything in its place – saves a lot of memory space.

This is not a claim that I'm a ship-shape sort of person but I do try 😅.

I try to put things where they belong .. whilst cooking, cleaning, dressing, doing the laundry etc .. I have ADD and forgetting comes easily. If things are where they belong life is far easier.

Last week I "lost" fenugreek. Spices all 100s of jars go in one place. I've looked everywhere, finally decided Baby binned it.

I'm holding firm, that's the answer.

Yes a basket on the hall table for keys to go straight into together with small umbrella, bus pass, NT card and other membership cards. Always there nowhere else. And I agree with the emptying bags and pockets of things which shouldn't be there and putting them where they should be stored.
Glasses hmmmm they are a moveable feast. Could be on my head or on any table in the house. Sometimes they are on my head and then I try and put sunglasses on top. Actors' names sometimes take a while to remember. I Google them if they are taking a while to put me out of my misery.
I think the getting lost in a familiar place or not remembering what something is for are 2 red flags.

Oreo

I agree with you OP and think the brain, as a sort of computer, stores so much data that trivial stuff like keys and glasses gets pushed out for more important stuff, like where your emergency chocolate is.😁

Priorities, Oreo. Just so. 😁

Bags th problem is remembering to put things where they belong! It is a system I work to, but find that at times I just put things down without any awareness I have done so.

MrB does that, M0n, the no awareness thing. I call it shedding. He just sheds things, like a tree shedding leaves 😁.

I am the youngest of 9 children. Towards the end of her life, aged 93, if asked to name all her children, she would name and count on her fingers and by the time she reached No 9, she would say, I think it was a girl, and I’d be sitting right in front of her. After much hints and prompts, she would finally get my name. This was a standing joke in our family. Bringing up 9 children, 7 boys and 2 girls couldn’t have been easy. Poor, dear Mum ❤️

We were in Jersey last week and on exiting the hotel, we went down to reception to settle our bill, husband then discovers his cards weren't where he thought they were, he goes through his jacket pocket and back pack. I go through my hand luggage, although ultimately not a huge problem, I have my cards to settle up. He then has to get key back from reception to go back and search room for missing cards, comes back a couple of minutes later, they were deep in his trouser pockets all along

I agree with you OP and think the brain, as a sort of computer, stores so much data that trivial stuff like keys and glasses gets pushed out for more important stuff, like where your emergency chocolate is.😁

I have a habit of sticking things in coat pockets instead of putting them back in my bag. So many times I've gone out without my bank card because I stuck it in my coat pocket last time I was out but was wearing a different coat. Now when I get home the first thing I do is to rummage through my pockets and retrieve anything that should be in my bag. Then I go through my bag and take out anything that shouldn't be in there (like things I bought and forgot about) and put my keys, cards, glasses, tissues, and anything else back in it's proper pocket. I have spare glasses that stay in my bag because I was always forgetting to take them with me.

Bags th problem is remembering to put things where they belong!

It is a system I work to, but find that at times I just put things down without any awareness I have done so.

I have still not lived down an occasion many decades ago, when, car keys in hand ready to leave the house, i saw something on the side waiting to go into the freezer, so I picked it up, went and opened the chest freezer, put it in, went back in the kitchen - and couldn't find my car keys. I searched everywhere, finally grabbed the spares and went out - very late.

Later that day someone went to the freezer and found my car keys, where I had let go of them unthinkly while putting the food in the freezer.

We have a bowl in our hall for keys and I never fail to leave my car key there. House key, my wallet and often my phone are always in my small across the body bag, but glasses are another matter, I continually curse myself for not being able to find them, even though I've two pairs of reading glasses, I still manage to mislay them. I need glasses to find my glasses, or at least feel like I do, even though I'm not that short sighted yet!

M0nica... You could have hit on the problem? When he worked away from home I used to put a list in the kitchen so he could check off everything he has to take.
Interesting? Thanks

If there are a limited number of places you put your wallet/keys you don't need to remember.

Being ship-shape – a place for everything and everything in its place – saves a lot of memory space.

This is not a claim that I'm a ship-shape sort of person but I do try 😅.

Last year I twice had to do full cognitive tests and had a clean sheet on both (the higher the score the more likely you have a memory problem)

I mislay keys and glasses. I always say that my memory is like a plate. After 80 years, the plate is very full so bits placed on top, or round the edges, trying to find room, tend to roll off the plate very easily.

Visgirl DS is like that, he has ADHD. His wife does a run through with him every time he leaves the house - if she is there - telephone, car keys, phone. He has descibed how difficult he finds it, trying to keep it all together and finding he has forgotten something.

I'm glad I'm not alone! I forget where I put things too AND sometimes forget people's names which is more worrying.

ginny

I always think it’s not losing your keys that is the problem. It’s if you find them and don’t have a clue what they are for.

keepingquiet

We all forget where we put things, it is an multiple times a day occurence for me!

Forgetting names though- that's a worry.

I don’t forget where I have put things but I do forget names regularly, not my nearest and dearest obviously.

My DH has been loosing Keys, sunglasses, etc since he was a kid. My Mil used to say he drove her batty with his loosing things especially his door key. No different now, he's a nightmare at times, I don't think there is any hope!
I do know you can get a tag that you attach to your items, that a phone app can trace, I did ask him does he want some, he just ignored me

Calendargirl Specs often get 'lost' on my head - can't think who puts them there.

I too use a carabiner to clip my keys to the inside of my bag - but that is reliant upon remembering where I have put the bag!

Went for a five year health check recently. All well until she asked about my memory. Light heartedly I said “Fine, but I couldn’t find my glasses as I was about to come here!”. (I soon found them before I left home).

Big mistake! She honed in on that, did this happen often, did I live alone, what would my DH say if asked about my memory?

The health care lass doing this assessment was probably in her mid 20’s, if that, and no doubt doesn’t wear glasses, so has no idea what it’s like to take them off in the kitchen, go to do a job in the bedroom, then think “Now where are my glasses?”….

Next time I shall keep quiet.