Why do I do things like this? My flat flower head pins are in a little plastic container which is kept by the longarm. It’s been by my longarm forever because I so rarely use those pins for anything but the longarm. About six months ago, the container of pins ended up on the floor by my desktop computer. Honest to goodness . . I have stepped on that plastic container, flipped it and sent pins flying in all directions at least a dozen time, probably closer to two dozen times. Each time, I calmly and methodically pick up all the pins, get the magnet to make sure no pins have escaped because Chad or Vince will step on them and I’ll never hear the end of it.
Why do I pick them all up, put them back in the container and leave them on the floor . . where I never use them and where I continue to spill them?
Yesterday, I again stepped on that container and spilled all the pins.
I calmly and methodically picked every one of them up again.
But this time . . I did not put them back on the floor. I put them back near the longarm where I cannot step on them and I am likely not to spill them.
Why didn’t I pick the pins up the very first time I spilled them and put them back by the longarm? Better yet, why were they ever on the floor to start with? Do you do things like this?
Brita says
Nope. Never. I don’t leave things where they don’t belong. Well, sometimes 😀 Like that block that mysteriously disappeared from my design wall Monday top. It will turn up in some really weird place. After I’ve finished the quilt, of course!
Sandy says
It will usually take me about 3 times to take care of the problem. At the time I just don’t want to be bothered putting something in its proper place.
I sometimes will put things away and then can’t find them again. Do you ever do that, Judy? You wouldn’t believe where some things turn up!
Judy C in NC says
My problem is finding them again after I put them away. I looked for two days for a pattern, only to go through the pattern tub one more time and there it was. Sometimes I truly believe someone else resides in my room – working against me. Judy C
Judi says
I have a little ironing board I keep next to my sewing machine I am forever putting things on it such as pins in a container, last week I accidently dumped the ironing board over and there went alot of pins, I picked everything back up and ofcouse I put it all back on the ironing board for me to hit with my chair once again dump everything on the floor again. Now the pins are off of the ironing board and I hope I don’t make this stupid mistake again.
Karen U says
How about putting some double sided tape on the bottom of the pin box and attach it to the quilting frame or putting a magnet in the bottom of the box so even if the box falls over the pins won’t scatter?
I do similar things all the time, asking out loud (no one lives with me) “Why do you keep doing this over and over again?”. I think we’re just creatures of habit and laziness (me). Good Luck!
pdudgeon says
no, but i have been known to put things in the wrong place. this morning i opened the freezer and found a piece of thread lint from my book bag.
LOL, i have no idea how it got there, but this time i put it in the trash where it belongs.
Gwynette in NW Arkansas says
It’s human nature to put things off… like putting putting things away immediately when we notice them out of place. Why do today what you can do tomorrow?? Right??
glen in Louisiana says
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt! LOL.
I keep knocking my bose radio clicker off into the garbage can. But after I retrieve it I never move it. That is where I ahve always kept it I guess.
One day it will go out in the trash and it will cost me $458 dollars to get another one.
glen
ruth says
I do this all the time. If anything lands on the floor and is not immediately picked up, it becomes part of the decor.
Karen says
Yep! or I put them in a “safe” place and promptly forget where they are. I understand completely!
Kathy Alden says
I am so good about putting thing where they belong, NOT!!! I will put things in a safe place only they are not where I thought I put them when I go to look. What you need for your pins is the magnetic bowl. I have dropped my pins and now they don’t fly everywhere!!
Sue H says
My pet peeve is the time I waste looking for things. Having said that, you might think that I’m very organized. I am organized in some aspects of my life, but not with “stuff”. I’m working on it though.
Rose says
You might consider getting a metal bowl that has a magnet on bottom that mechanics use to keep screws etc. in while they are working. There is small and a large one 6″ diameter. Got mine at Harbor Freight. Home Depot-type store would sell them too. Even when spilled no pins fall out.
I never seem to be able to fit all of the pins back into the original container so that’s why I like the magnetic bowl.
Kari in UT says
Yes, that has happened to me, but usually in the kitchen with the salt, sugar for flour, messy stuff.
I also tend to put things away and then never remember where I put it. Then months later I will run across it and put it somewhere where I would think ‘this is the proper place for this, I’ll never forget this’ and then I’ll forget it, again.
Kari in UT says
I meant ‘sugar or flour’.
Annie says
You could have been writing about me!
lw says
I love my magnetic bowl so much that I ordered a magnetic tool tray from a tool website to keep my scissors, seam ripper, tweezers and other metalic stuff in. If it gets knocked off the table, it’s all in one clump and comes straight back up to the table.
I do have problems remembering which of the myriad little drawers in my cabinets that the right bobbins are in for the various sewing machines, though, and have to open 10 drawers to find the right ones sometimes.
Kitty says
I’m bad at putting something in a “special” place – only to forget where the “special” place is. I’m better at having things out in the open – if I can see it – I can find it.
mereth says
Yep, I do this too. And every time I have to pick it up, step over it, move it to get something else, I think “I really should deal with this…”And then one day I do, and it’s not a problem anymore. I’ll never be obsessively organised, but I don’t care.
Hope the move’s going ok, I’m itching to see some houses up for consideration!
Dora, the quilter says
Hmmmmm, have you considered cutting one of those flexible magnetic sheets to fit into the bottom of the box–they’re adhesive backed–and then if you accidentally flipped it, they’d stay inside the box?
jennifer says
yes, i do these sorts of things constantly. it would save so much time if we did it right or sensibly the first time, right? but then- what would we have to take pictures of and blog about?
Mel Meister says
We have a “black hole” here. Things just disappear. Greg’s things, my things… never to be seen again. There are whole boxes of treasured Christmas ornaments that disappeared several years ago and they have never shown back up again.
BUT.. if it’s something we MUST have, and we rebuy it…. 100% of the time, it will show back up again. It never fails. It will show back up again as mysteriously as it disappeared.
Diane S. says
I made my husband read this post, Judy. Every day he wastes time looking for his glasses which he needs to drive. EVERY day! He has a perfectly good and convenient place to put them where he can’t miss them and I can’t miss them (so if he DOES miss them, I will see them). But no. They’re never there. I really wonder what he’s thinking when he comes home and lays them down somewhere they don’t belong. . . MEN!