On top of the dresser that I have scoured multiple times over the span of a year or two looking for the thing. I guess some things just decide when it’s the right time to reveal themselves.
There’s a few internet/media stories of lost rings which fell off in gardens and emerged years later wrapped round carrots.
I lost my wedding ring once, and I did what any man would do: I quietly went out and bought a replacement. 4 months later my wife was about to throw an old computer box into the trash when she heard a rattle inside, and was very surprised to find my wedding ring… which she didn’t know was lost.
H had to remove his wedding ring when he was installing and removing cables at his office or risk serious injury. Of course he must have stuck said ring in a pocket. Years later, one of his co-workers found said ring in the office parking lot and somehow was able to figure it belonged to H (pretty mysterious since 100s or 1000s work with H). We took it back to the jeweler who sold it to us who was able to help restore it to its former glory.
The ring is now in our medicine cabinet or my drawer with my mostly costume jewelry (better pieces are in safety deposit box). H does too many things where wearing a ring could cause him serious finger or hand injury.
True story…my best friend and I were heading out on a cruise 18 months ago. The day before we left she went to the bank and got $700 cash. When we arrived at our first destination (flying) she told me she’d left the $ at home. We went to a bank and she got more $. 14 days later we came home and she told me the “envelope is gone” - her housekeeper “must have tossed it with the magazines” (I didn’t ask what the $ was doing with magazines, my friend has become very scatterbrained over the past few years). Fast forward…2 weeks ago same friend and I are in the car and she announces “Guess what? I found the envelope!” Turns out she’d put it in a bag she thought she’d take on the trip, but didn’t, and pulled it out the night before we were leaving on another trip.
I’m quite the opposite, I DON’T trust my memory and therefore I have exact places I put things every time, regardless.
All that said, about 10 years ago my car key with a key fob fell off my kitchen counter. I immediately went to pick it up and it wasn’t on the floor. I got on my hands and knees and even with a flashlight, it was no place to be found. Over the years I have have had many well-meaning friends (and even my daughter) get on their knees assuring me they’d find it. I honestly have no idea how it could disappear. There’s about a 1/4" gap between the floor and the counters. I don’t think it’s big enough for the fob to have fallen into. To date it has not shown up. I have a new car now, so no longer need the key, but boy would I LOVE to know where it disappeared to!
@JustaMom, could a well-meaning (and strong) small rodent have put your keys someplace for safekeeping?
Did any of you read The Borrowers book series when you were kids? I always loved them. Some of the stories on this thread remind me of them. 
I also lost $ in the house, designated for a large job tip. It was nicely hidden under papers on the K table, then I moved it somewhere, yup, “safer.”
As a child, D2 was my “finder,” pretty miraculous. Her powers are waning. I also leave that bracelet in one of two same spots, every time, for years. This is why it’s frustrating and I hope I didn’t lose it in public.
We lost a croquet ball during a teenage party at our house once. It turned up years later, had rolled under the back steps.
When I was a kid we lost a horseshoe that was part of a set for tossing at our cabin. A reward was offered, but it never turned up. It has been almost 50 years, and we are still looking…
I am the queen of misplacing things, and then panic sets in. I can’t sleep at night if I know I misplaced something. H usually comes to my rescue. I have lots of stories I could tell, but my favorite -
When I graduated college, I was packing my apartment to fly home to my parents house across the country. I thought I had hidden some jewelry in a shoe box but as I was packing, I threw away all of the shoe boxes and packed the shoes. So after I arrived, I realized what I had done and KNEW the jewelry was gone forever. It wasn’t super valuable, but was a few silver pieces my grandmother had given me. I was really devastated and so angry for not checking those boxes- I never forgave myself. Thought about it for years.
Fast forward more than TWENTY FIVE years later, I was cleaning out some old purses hiding in the back of my closet. I was checking pockets before donating- and in the pocket of a purse I had since college, was the jewelry! OMG. That was such a great day. I really hope your important mail shows up, @oregon101 !
Once we had a car for sale… Unbelievably we found a buyer really quickly, so fast that we hadnt had a chance to even put our hands on the title. I was going crazy, looking everywhere in the house, desk drawers, all the usual places. I had almost given up but decided to try one last random drawer. I went through everything in the drawer and it still hadn’t turned up. As I started to put all the "stuff"back into the drawer I paused to look at a copy of my dad’s obituary (he had died suddenly a couple years earlier). What do you think was “stuck” to the obit… You guessed it, the title.
Thanks, Dad…
Love these stories!
Guess I will check my underwear drawer next =))
It really bothers me when I lose things, so I have “trained” myself to always put important items like keys, checks, financial papers, etc. in their “special place” immediately. So I’m pretty good with those things. Can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent looking for my cellphone, though. (It’s usually in the bathroom.) I’ve often found missing items in a place that I’ve already looked several times. It’s as if it wasn’t there the first couple times. When I finally go back to that place that I was so sure it was, and look very calmly, thoroughly, and methodically (or have someone else look for me), then I find it. S#2 --who never loses anything–couldn’t find his drivers license anywhere. He got a new one. A year later, he found his old one in a different spot in his wallet. (I wish I had looked through his wallet for him).
H once lost his wedding ring, and I bought him a new one. Months later, in the fall, he found the original in the pocket of a flannel shirt that had been put away in the spring. My dad lost his ring in his giant compost pile. It tuned up the next spring-- like a needle in a haystack. B-i-l lost his ring in shallow water off a dock in a lake. Our whole family searched for hours. He knew exactly where it fell off, but never found it. My parents’ car keys once turned up in a box of crackers (my handicapped brother must’ve been responsible.) It became a family joke whenever something was missing–“Did you check the cracker box?”
I was getting ready to donate an old piece of handluggage but for some reason decided to carefully recheck all pockets and crevices. Lo and behold, I found a lovely ruby ring I hadn’t known I lost!
Have also found a lovely strand of iridescent dark pearls while helping my mom clean. She had no memory of them and didn’t want them, do I love them.
In our office in the '90s, there were a lot of paper files in various states of progress through the ‘system’ (I use that term loosely!) and every so often a file would be unfound, no matter where we looked we did not find it. DH is a tear the place apart until you find it person, I preferred to stop looking and just go about our business, it nearly always turned up quickly. Something about calmly not being focused on it would allow us to relax and recall the odd reason that file was in a different spot.
My mom always asked me where she put things she thought she’d lost and St Anthony was a bust. For some reason I usually knew just where to look. I’d picture it. Now, if I knew what your house looked like, I’d probably be able to help.
FILs dementia is getting worse and he has a habit of putting things “away”. Last thing were the headphones for his piano. We all looked. I searched the old valise-style briefcase next to the piano - nothing. My daughter searched there 30 minutes later and there they were, stuffed into a folder in the briefcase (and they’re big ones, too). Undershorts are in the file cabinet. Wallets in the bathroom cupboard, instead of the safe in the closet. Safe is now gone and we keep the current ID, etc at our house and old ones there (so he doesn’t feel we’re keeping things from him).
I was late to pick up a girl I mentor to go swimming last weekend. And then I couldn’t find my phone. I searched and searched. I knew it had to be in the house. I finally decided to just go without it. I picked up my bag of swimming stuff and there was the phone underneath.
Anyone done the “where is it?” and it’s in your hand? That’s embarrassing.
When I misplace things and am running out of places to look, I look skyward and say “mom- where is it? where should I look?” and way more often than not I’ll think of some place I hadn’t checked, or recheck a place I’d already looked, and sure enough… I don’t usually believe in this stuff, but…
^ I have done the, “Where the hell are my sunglasses!!!”, frenzied search because I am on my way out the door to an appointment, only to get a glimpse of myself in the mirror and realize they have been on my head the entire time. Talk about embarrassing…H has gotten a good laugh at my expense several times. :-L
Yes, the missing sunglasses and reading glasses are often found on my head. Also I’ve been known to look for my phone because it’s not in my pocket while it’s in my hand because I’m talking on it.