I'm so frustrated when I can't find things I'm sure are there.
@bagarad (14283)
Paso Robles, California
September 14, 2011 11:18pm CST
Yesterday I got an order for some books -- seven of them -- that I'm sure I was holding for another customer who inquired about them months ago. I thought I ran across that box just a few days ago when I was looking for something else. I have searched that room twice now and every other place in the house, both warehouses, and the car, and I've only been able to locate five of the seven books, and they weren't together in a box I thought I had them in. I'm supposed to have ten and I can only locate five of them. Then someone ordered a bunch of books from that same series, and I can't find all of them, either. It's very frustrating, since I have a place they should be, but they aren't there. Again, I've checked all warehouses and storage areas for them. I've found about a third of what I need. I'm wondering where these books could have gone. Sometimes I think I have leprechauns who come move everything when I'm not looking and then put them back later on, because sometimes I can look three times in the same place and not find it until the fourth time. Either my inventory is wrong (which is possible), or some things have disappeared, or there is somewhere I haven't looked. The only thing I haven't tried yet is to call the books to see if they will reveal their hiding places. It sometimes works for other lost things.
I wish I had more room to organize better, but space is very short. I label most boxes, but sometimes I miss one. How do you feel when something like this happens? Have you ever looked several times in the same place only to find what you were looking for in that very place the fourth time?
4 people like this
13 responses
@secretbear (19448)
• Philippines
17 Sep 11
Hi Barb!
That happens to me a lot of times! Sometimes, when I get some help from another person, the person would tell me, "It's right in front of your eyes! It's going to bite you already!". 
I also think sometimes that something or some spirit or creature is making fun of me and hiding what I'm looking for. Some people would say, it will eventually come out especially if you're not looking for it. I have not tried calling for the thing I'm looking for, all I spit out is curses of frustrations. That's why I don't like it when someone mess with my things, take my things and don't put it back to where they took it. It's always annoying when you are looking for something and you can't find it in the place you are sure you've put it before. Hell always breaks loose when something is missing from my things in their proper places. 
Anyway, I hope you have already found what you're looking for!
I also think sometimes that something or some spirit or creature is making fun of me and hiding what I'm looking for. Some people would say, it will eventually come out especially if you're not looking for it. I have not tried calling for the thing I'm looking for, all I spit out is curses of frustrations. That's why I don't like it when someone mess with my things, take my things and don't put it back to where they took it. It's always annoying when you are looking for something and you can't find it in the place you are sure you've put it before. Hell always breaks loose when something is missing from my things in their proper places.
Anyway, I hope you have already found what you're looking for!
@secretbear (19448)
• Philippines
18 Sep 11
Oh, that's really unfortunate, Barb. I can already imagine the clutter in your house and I agree with you that you should do some major rearranging and de-cluttering. Throw away some unneeded documents! Or if they are paper, maybe you can sell them instead of burning them or shredding them.
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
17 Sep 11
Unfortunately not, and I lost an order on account of it. Now I have discovered another group of books is missing that should be easy to spot. It's time to do some major rearranging and declutterig. I'm still trying to regroup after moving stuff around when the house was tented last year. Maybe I'll have time to move some stuff around tomorrow and throw some stuff away. I wish I didn't have to keep so much paperwork around for the governnent. I'd to have a big bonfire of all the boxes of stuff that need shredding before I can throw them away.
1 person likes this
@choybel (5042)
• Philippines
15 Sep 11
Calling missing items is also a common joke in our house and among friends, I mean if somebody misplaced his/her phone, which is becoming usual, somebody would suggest calling his/her number to locate where it's ringing from, and so with other items such as keys or other things it became a joke and he/she would say "could somebody please ring my key, etc..."
It is really frustrating. Needing an item and knowing it to be somewhere and to later find out that it isn't, searching for it several times on the same location and then finding it later to be just there, I know the feeling, irritating and somehow funny.
It is really frustrating. Needing an item and knowing it to be somewhere and to later find out that it isn't, searching for it several times on the same location and then finding it later to be just there, I know the feeling, irritating and somehow funny.1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
15 Sep 11
Right now I'm just tired of moving all those boxes again tonight just to see if I missed something. Maybe I will dream the location tonight.
@BarBaraPrz (47611)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
15 Sep 11
You have leprechauns. I have gremlins....
If they've taken something I yell at them to put it back and they usually do, right where I left it, just as you say. Annoying, isn't it?
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
18 Sep 11
Sometimes things are hidden right in plain sight. I had a particular book that I uncovered out of thousands of books in my warehouse (late hubby was a book seller in his ever present spare time -- NOT! -- and after finding it and laying it aside I met someone who was very much interested in it and I decided to give it to him as a gift. He was all excited to get it.
Then when I went to find it, the book had gone missing. I must have set a box on top of it or something. There are too many boxes to pick every one up looking. It will just have to wait until it resurfaces again on its own.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
18 Sep 11
As you have said, one book among thousands is easy to misplace. That I can understand. What I can't understand is how entire boxes or displays of books can be missing. These books have not been moved to any shelves and unless I changed the books in the little bin into a box and don't remember it, several list easy-to-read books are missing that were together in a display. About 15 books in the same series are also missing. I have a place for them and they aren't there. The only think I can think of is that there were too many items to fit onto the shelf and the normal box for overflow and I started another box that's been buried under boxes that came after. But I believe I've already looked in all those boxes. I guess all things will come to light someday.
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
15 Sep 11
Believe me, I do pray. I'm praying I can figure out how to sell at least most of this business and not need to do special orders anymore.
@Rick1950 (1575)
• Lima, Peru
17 Sep 11
Sometimes it happens that things get lost and you find them after reviewing the same place one more time.
I guess you have a lot of articles and some of them can escape out of your supervision. Maybe you need advice from an inventory expert in orden to improve the order of your stocks. 
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
17 Sep 11
I often find things in places where I've looked before and didn't see them the first two times. Often these items were right where they belonged. The problem is there is not enough room to put everything in order. Some things are by subject and some by publisher, and some are in boxes of backstock because there is no room on the sheves anymore. Some are on the "hold" shelf for people who didn't actually place an order, an some are in stacks waiting to be listed or returned to their places in the warehouse. I am pretty sure what an expert would advise, but I wouldn't ahave the funds to follow that advice.
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
15 Sep 11
You sound exactly like Jerome K Jerome in Three Men in a Boat LOL but yes, this is so true. Even if its not a book store you are running, most of us tend to hoard things which we are sure we will need very soon. And then invariably, it will just not be there exactly when you need it…as if it had legs of its own! Sometimes I exclaim in frustration as to whether it had suddenly grown wings LOL
But what’s more infuriating is if you’ve just thrown away something and two days later some situation comes up where you could have made good use of it.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
15 Sep 11
How very true. I guess you can't win for losing. Looks like I've lost one order because I couldn't find this box -- I could only find five of the books I'm supposed to have twelve of and she wants seven. She's looking to see if she can find them somewhere else, and she will find them somewhere else, I'm quite sure. I did find the rest of the other title, but now the teacher discovered the purchase orders now have to go through the central office and he's not sure when and if it will come through. So I may have ordered some books I won't need, or, someone else may order them when they come in. (And then I may lose them.
)
) @drannhh (15219)
• United States
15 Sep 11
This sort of thing seems to happen with the house keys quite a bit and sometimes with the car keys. I would say also with my cell phone, but I have two phones. One to use and the other to ring up the first one when is goes missing. My ring tone gets louder and louder the longer it is unanswered, so as long as the battery is good, the phone resurfaces.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
15 Sep 11
Wish my boxes of books had a ring tone and a way for me to set it off,
to set it off,
@allknowing (137540)
• India
15 Sep 11
The hide and seek game is played by most of us and I belong to that category. I do have a place for everything in my house and yet things disappear.I too get the feeling that "I have leprechauns who come move everything when I'm not looking and then put them back later on," After searching high and low and countless times I see it later in the place that I have searched.
@gloryacam (5540)
• Philippines
15 Sep 11
That is so frustrating, isn't it? Maybe you need to devise a better system for your books. And, like I said in my other post, set aside time for you to really sit down and organize them all..
@gloryacam (5540)
• Philippines
16 Sep 11
Oh...It would take only...forever to do it? If only I lived near you, I'd go over there and relieve you of that stuff! I'm a bookworm!
If only I lived near you, I'd go over there and relieve you of that stuff! I'm a bookworm! 
@SIMPLYD (90722)
• Philippines
15 Sep 11
Oh i am in the same situation as yours just today. I was looking for my favorite white blouse, which i thought the laundrywoman has already washed last week, but it cannot be located.
I looked for it everywhere but it's nowhere. Then, i remembered i might have left it at my parents' house when i went there last, last week. So , i sent my sister a message to look for it in the room and lo ! it was there.
Good thing, it's not Saturday yet, because i plan to ask the laundrywoman about it. 
Good thing, it's not Saturday yet, because i plan to ask the laundrywoman about it. 1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
15 Sep 11
I have a new shirt I only wore once that I can't find. I hope I didn't leave it at the hotel in the closet. . I never thought of that,and it was over a month ago.
. I never thought of that,and it was over a month ago.
@pbbbsra (1214)
• Philippines
15 Sep 11
It does happens sometimes. I too is very particular with where I put my things. But since I am not the only one home, they change their location without my control when somebody use it. Then when I go back and try to find them again, they won't be there. I will look in all places and ask my family if they saw it and the fault will fall back on me, they will say I am the one organizing the house and I should know where they are. Then I will find them in a place I know I did not put them, and will just end up shutting up and putting it back to its original place.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
15 Sep 11
My husband is always losing his glasses or the phone or something else that belongs to him, but it always seems to be my job to find it. He has preconceived notions as to where he would have put it, and has forgotten where he really did put it. At leat three times what he has lost was on his bed. So now I look there first. Of course, the place everything seems to get lost is in the frig. I put the onions in a certain place, but when I go to get them out they aren't there because he got them out and put them somewhere else. That sort of thing happens all the time.
@shanemae (1025)
• Philippines
15 Sep 11
yes, i have experienced finding lost things over and over in the same area of the house. then finding it at same exact area where i really left it. funny yet irritating to look for the things you know where you left it. same thing when i loose contact with my phone. i would actually let others ring my phone so i could locate it easily. there was one time that i lost my other earring. my friend told me to toss my earring in the air then look where it faces when it reach the floor the other earring might be there and it sure did work. haha that was really a funny experience from that on i do that whenever i lost a pair.
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
15 Sep 11
I've never heard of that trick before, but I don't think I'd want to try it with a box of books.
