I have misplace an important paper. It came in the mail on either Thursday or Friday. Nothing has left the house since as we did not recycle last week. I typically find lost items within a day or so but I am coming up empty.
(St. Anthony seems to be on a vacation). I can make a difficult phone call and fix this but still hoping it shows up.
You?
This is the sort of thing that makes me completely clean my house. 
check in with St. Anthony tomorrow…
Did you hold it in your hand, or do you just know for a fact that it actually arrived in your house but haven’t seen it yourself? Did anyone open it and then set it down? Ideas: Stuck in a stack of newspapers or magazines (note how I assume people still get such). Somewhere safe you normally put important papers but forgot about it. Slipped under a couch or table. Caught up in bedding or cushions. Up on a shelf. Slipped behind a desk or shelf. In the car or garage (if someone was leaving the house when they picked up the mail).
DH is the one who misplaces things and I’m the one who finds them in our family. Sometimes I’ll see his wallet/phone in an unusual place and know that eventually he’ll be looking for it. I call myself the family search engine. But we do have a small house.
H brought it into the house around 6 pm. Friday. I left it on a bare and clean kitchen bar with a mailer on one bill. I left it there until Sunday and did not touch it nor did H. We were gone Friday and Saturday night for dinner. I don’t typically leave mail there and am not sure why I did. I think I was trying to ignore it and wished it would go away (and it has #-o ). On Sunday I picked all three up and put it either to the left or the right of the computer about 7pm.
On Wednesday I was ready to deal with it and am still looking.
We have checked between and under everything and the garbage and pockets and find nothing.
I misplace things and I find them but this time I am stumped. The bill seems to be here and the mailer
maybe as I checked the recycling as I don’t recall what it was.
Many things have gone wrong this week and so far are are nicely corrected–except this the most
important thing.
Based on that, my only thought is that the mailer was sticky (tape or glue) and the important item stuck to it then dropped off maybe when the mailer was tossed or got caught under a flap? Not clear if you’ve seen that exact mailer in the recycling but so much junk mail has that soft gluey substance that can catch another piece of paper.
thanks
we have both checked that but in the morning I will go over all one more time super carefully with that in mind…
Last summer we got a passport for our D, and opted to also get the passport card. Both arrived in the mail, package was opened, we all checked them out and then D took them upstairs and I guess threw them on her extra bed until she had time to figure out a safe place to put them. Once she got around to dealing with them the next day, the passport card was missing. We couldn’t remember if it made it up to her room or not, so the whole house was searched, garbage and recycles carefully searched several times, we looked everywhere and couldn’t find it. Finally we just gave it up and said oh well, at least she has her regular passport. This spring I was cleaning out the linen closet and found the card under some things on a shelf - WEIRD! I think it’s similar to what Marilyn suggested, the card was either a bit sticky or had static cling, and got stuck to a towel from the clean laundry that often gets put on D’s extra bed and then “traveled” with that towel to the linen closet. Moral of the story - it may be in a place you would never think to look!!
Several years ago, in the midst of winter, I lost my watch. It tended to become unclasped. I tried to retrace my steps that morning, going down the driveway to get the newspaper (before it started snowing and covered my route) - didn’t see the watch. I was pretty sure I had it the day before, but I still called my hairdresser to see if he found it at the salon. I retraced my steps around the house, but couldn’t find the watch. It was annoying because I knew I had it at some point - I wore it daily.
Fast forward several months - I was having cereal for breakfast, not something I did very often. I had finished off the box of cereal, but still heard something in the box. I pulled out the cellophane liner, and lo and behold, there was my watch. The morning I lost it, I must’ve caught the watch on the cereal box flap, it opened, and fell into the box, but there was still cereal in there so I didn’t hear it. I had looked in the pantry the day I lost it, but never thought to acutally check inside the cereal box.
Under the refrigerator…
Now if you didn’t touch it wouldn’t have moved, so one of you may have thought - hey I better move this to a safer location. Either that happened, or you put something on top of it and threw it out. If I had an important paper that I lost, I’d check - the dining room table, in all the junk drawers and end tables, on my desk in my office. If the top of the fridge is a spot, look there. I tend to carry things to different rooms and not realize I’ve done it.
My dad would say it wasn’t born with legs so it didn’t walk off by itself.
Agree with eyeamom–if it wasn’t with the other two pieces of mail then it got moved to a safe spot. I have a drawer that gets all the important stuff. Either that or right next to my “to do” pile next to my computer.
A good way to find lost items is to visualize the item and sweep a room clockwise with your hand. Although that trick certainly won’t find a watch that’s inside a cereal box!
Once I found something in a file folder it didn’t belong in — do you have paper files, and have you had any of them out since the paper arrived? Also, did you make a copy (is it in the copier)? Once I found my D’s driver’s license from 2,000 miles away by suggesting that because I remembered she had recently needed a copy.
Could it have slipped into a cabinet below the counter?
Stuck to other papers, fell behind or into a crevice, behind a desk, monitor or other stuff on desk. Got put into a file folder by mistake, or grouped together with something else you were dealing with this week.
I feel your pain. I have “lost” our debit card several times. Only I find it later, in a strange place.
I’ve put important docs “temporarily” on a high shelf, in a vase. Of course, then I forget it. Eventually I look at the vase, and remember. Is it possible it was put somewhere “temporarily” for safe keeping?
Not relevant to your situation, but I once lost the car keys in the summer. Fall and winter pass, and the snow melts. There, under what would soon be a hosta plant again, I found the car keys. They had fallen under the plant and I couldn’t see them at the time. Unfortunately, the alarm key fob no longer worked. But at least it was a spare key.
Thinking about your situation I have 2 thoughts. For me if something is important, but I want to set it aside for some reason, I find I tend to put things up high unconsciously. However, if I’m procrastinating/avoiding something, I have found myself putting things in a drawer.
So I would look near your computer, high or in a drawer, even if you think you’d never put it there. Also I would check around the kitchen bar and all your kitchen drawers. Good luck!
Did you shake the magazines in your recycling? I’ve found bills stuck in between pages.
Did anyone use it as a book mark and then put the book away?
Most things in our house fall between the bed and the wall or in the couch. Kitchen table also a good place to check for papers.