ANDRE BEGIN

For the most part, I like to think of myself as a neat, tidy, organized guy. However, it wasn’t always that way. As a kid, I often misplaced stuff, which led to the inevitable, “Mom, have you seen my (insert name of missing item here)?” I firmly believe that the frustration I felt in those moments was my calling to become more organized.

Now, I like having a place for everything and everything in its place, but that’s a work-in-progress as I sort and donate some of the things I accumulated over the years that aren’t used as much. At least now, I feel that I spend less time looking for stuff and am able to get on with my life and my many interests.

However, there is one item that seems to be the subject of many searches to retrace my steps… my glasses.

Even though I wear progressive lenses to correct my vision for distances, I don’t need to wear my glasses for anything within a 5-foot radius. For example, whether I am cleaning, working at the computer or preparing food, I tend not to need them. For that reason, I park my glasses in a safe place before undertaking any of those tasks. The problem occurs when I’ve been in deep focus and concentration for a length of time… I often forget what the safe place was.

Then there’s the catch-22 of needing glasses to look for my glasses, given that I can’t sweep the room with a glance and see items at a distance with any degree of accuracy.

There are times I wish I could stick a tracking device on them and have technology tell me where they are. Or it would be so great if they had cellular capability, and I could ask my partner to call my glasses so that they could emit a sound for me to locate them.

Now, it has turned into a running gag in the house, as my partner has said, “Before you ask, your glasses are on the window ledge in the bathroom” or “If you’re looking for them, your glasses are by your coffee maker.” Clearly, he understands when I have parked them in a less obvious location and the potential for resulting detective work.

Either way, I’m trying to be more mindful and in the moment when I do park my glasses. By choosing a designated spot for them before I undertake housework, hopefully, I won’t leave them absentmindedly in a random location and unable to find them afterwards.

The consolation is that my glasses are really the only item that seems to escape my view. Wallet, phone, and keys always seem to be in the right spot and ready when I need them.

Perhaps what I need to do is get one of those beaded chains like the ones worn by the ladies I worked with at a neighbourhood pharmacy in my teens. It may not heighten my cool factor, but at least I’d know where my glasses were at all times and not need to send out a search party to look for them.

On the other hand, maybe the answer is to revert to the “a place for everything and everything in its place” philosophy and park them in the same place where I keep my wallet, phone and keys. Given that I never seem to lose those items, hopefully I can save time, energy and frustration by keeping these precious items together as a family of daily essentials.

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André