…are GOOD things.
Well, on the meta-level, that’s obvious enough: letting go of old annoyances, frustrations, and sorrows surely will make your life better. Or at least make it easier to get on with life.
But when you come to be an Old Bat, forgetfulness soaks into the pores of your life: it exists on the micro-level. When you can’t remember everything, you can’t remember anything. Car keys are the worst offenders in this category, as we know…but the issue is pervasive.
Today, for example, one of the chores on the to-do list is to make a new magnetized note pad to stick on the fridge, thereupon to jot down grocery & household needs and people’s phone numbers (so I can lose them faster). This low-tech device is easy to build: simply take some Elmer’s glue to some of that flat, black, rubbery magnetic strip stuff you can get at Michael’s, JoaAnn’s, or Target; stick the stuff to the cardboard backing; let it dry, and voilà.
Glue a long, thin strip of the stuff to the flat edge of an old-fashioned yellow pencil, and most of the time you’ll have note paper right at hand. With any luck.
You can re-use the magneto-stuff quite a few times: just pull it off a used-up pad’s empty backing and glue it onto the next pad.
But after awhile it does get tired. Today when I tried to pull off an old strip, the damn thing fell apart. So the first item entered on the new pad was “Michael’s: Magnet strip stuff.”
Then I thought, though…wonder if by some chance i have any more of this stuff?
One nice thing about old age is that memory is replaced by wisdom.
Yes, in the drawer I found not only enough to replace the shredded strip, but the contents of a whole package of flat magnetic stuff. And when it’s new, it comes with fresh sticky backing on it, so you don’t even have to use up your Elmer’s!
Pretty handy, eh?
You can buy those small yellow pads — note that it’s only slightly longer than a partly-used-up pencil — at the Home of the Lifetime Supply — i.e., Costco. One package of the things will last you until they carry you off to the nursing home, where presumably they will not allow you to have pointy things like pencils. Until then, stick a memory pad on the fridge, and you’ll never forget anything again.
Assuming you remember to write down the things you’re not supposed to forget…
I’ve had 6″ X 4″ notepads since I was a teen. I keep one either on top of a small bookcase close to my desk or in my purse. If I put it anywhere else, I’m liable to forget it. I write down EVERYTHING I have to do and buy. In my early 40’s, I began jotting down my thoughts, plans, and dreams. It was kinda fun to write something snotty about a boss or co-worker in my little notebook when I’m sure people thought I was just making a grocery list. ;o)
At my old place, I had a hook under the mantlepiece in the living room where I kept my keys. If the key ring wasn’t there it was either in a pants or coat pocket. I bought a pretty artglass dish to put my keys in when I moved to my current place. As soon as I walk in the door, the keys go in the dish. I HATE looking for things like keys, purse, jacket, shoes, etc. when I’m leaving. My mood/language gets ugly fast, especially if I’m running late.
LOL! Half the rooms in the house have little dishes on which to deposit Things That Must Not Be Lost: The glasses dish. The thumb drive dish. The toothbrush dish…
The keys are kept in the lock on the office door. Because the only things of any value in the house are a couple of computers and a printer, I had a solid-core door and an extra-hardened lock installed for the room that holds my little business. I mean…I would not LIKE to lose the 60-year-old decrepit furniture inherited from my mother or the spectacular collection of Costco jeans, but if you really want them that badly, be my guest…. At any rate, I lock the office door every time I leave the house, and whenever I get back unlock it and leave the keys the deadbolt. So unless I carelessly set them on a counter or a bookcase or the washer, they rarely get lost.
Just about everything else does, though. Sooner or later.
At least you realized you had it before you went off to the store and got a new one. That’s typically my move.
Yes…that was a stroke of somethingorother. Usually one doesn’t figure that out until after one has charged up some new doodad on the credit card.
Once upon a time, in a fit of energy (or something), we cut the scrap paper from our printer into quarter sheets. Now, whenever we want a scratch pad, we just stick a sheaf of the stuff in a binder clip and call it good. Bonus: If you flip the front part of the clip up to expose the sheet, you have a convenient loop by which to hang it from a hook or peg.
I’m a big lover of lists. Grocery lists, to-do lists, reading lists, wish lists, you name it. Perhaps I get it from my mom, also an inveterate listmaker. When we were young and bored, she used to make lists for us. Some of the items were chores such as “Put away dishes” or “Pick up your room.” Others were silly, like “Clap your hands three times” or “Run around the building–outside.” It kept us busy and out of her hair, at least for a while, and now that I’ve remembered it, it’s a technique I wish I’d used on my own kids.
LOL! When I was a kid, “listing” was not in style, at least not in our venue. There was one little boy in my grade-school class — a kind of repressed, nerdly little fellow — whose parents would post a list of all the things he had to do each day. On the wall outside his bedroom door, you could see that he was required to get up, brush teeth, eat breakfast…and on and on, as though he had to be reminded to do the most ordinary things.
That weirdness kind of set me against lists: there’s something fruity about a list that reminds you to wake up in the morning. But as I get older…hmmmm…..maybe there’s somethin’ to that….
I simply can not make headway against scrap paper. I refuse to throw out a blank sheet, it seems disrespectful to the earth. So when I print something I eventually rip it into quarters and use the back for scratch paper. I have a small pile on the side of my desk and it never goes down. And I don’t even print that much and I do make lots of lists.
This is sad because I have an entire desk drawer full of pads of paper, some of which are decades old. I can’t even get to them. I have tried giving them away but apparently everyone else is in the same predicament. I also get small pads in the mail from realtors and charities.
One of the downsides of frugality.
Yes! At the office, we used to flip over used printer paper and run it back through upside down (for things that weren’t going out as correspondence, that is). At one point we were told the used ink on the back side could clog up the printer…but never had any experience to prove it.
Also of interest if you have a garden: shredded paper can go into the compost bin. I’d be careful about paper that had a lot of printer’s ink on it. But if it’s scratch paper that you use to scribble a grocery list, there’s no reason not to toss it in the compost.