Losing and Finding

I'm on a bit of a cleaning and organizing frenzy, mainly because of things I've lost and can't find and the utter chaos of so much stuff squirreled away throughout the house is stressing me out. It's not a nesting situation, where I'm trying to make things look better, although the work inevitably makes that so. It's more about getting a grip on all the accumulated detritus of my life (our life) and know where the heck stuff is. (Spoiler: It's a losing battle for me.)

I would love to have an app for that -- Ctrl+F to find whatever obscure thing I'm looking for (travel wallet, Christmas ornament from Gatlinburg, etc.). But in order for something like that to work I'd have to physically tag every little thing and/or put it in a list showing where it lives. And if I did that then I'm fairly certain my brain would retain where it is. Just like I remember where things are that I use regularly -- I don't lose my deodorant or the kitchen knives.

Writing Utensils by mrsdkrebs on Flickr

And in this faux clutter-busting (because really I'm not even getting rid of a fraction of the stuff I have -- just organizing and moving it around in somewhat more logical placements) I am bewildered by the HUGE number of pens I own. There are pens everywhere. I should never have to buy another pen in my entire life, or possibly Jane's entire life. But you know I will. Ah, I love them.

With all this I STILL cannot find my travel wallet. Oh where, oh where could that CB2 wallet have gone? There's nothing in it besides old boarding passes, my Southwest membership rewards card (an airline I never fly anymore just because the routes don't match up to where I need to go) and a terrible drawing of a dress I made. But it's still driving me crazy not knowing where it is or for sure if I left it on an airplane.