where are my keys?

I found this here.

I consider myself a pretty organized person, so this caught my attention. I bolded the items that we do not have in our house. I put an asterisk next to the things I could find immediately.

Often, people don’t realize how disorganized they are. Are you? Take this quiz.
At a minimum, you should know exactly where to find these possessions (assuming, of course, you own them—and you should):

 * stamps
 * your passport and if you’re married, your spouse’s passport
 a corkscrew
 * Bandaids
 a safety pin
 a flashlight
 * a functioning alarm clock
 * paperclips or a stapler
 * your phone charger
 * a spare set of keys
 * your doctor’s phone number
 * cinnamon
 * your tax statements from 2003
 * fabric stain remover
 a pair of mittens
 * spare AA batteries

Congratulate yourself for being well-organized if you can also say exactly where you’d find these objects:

 a tape measure
 * your high-school yearbook
 a Swiss army knife
 * a pencil sharpener
 a copy of Pride and Prejudice or The Da Vinci Code
 the instruction manual for your camera
 silver polish
 * a vase the proper size to hold a bunch of tulips
 food coloring
 * a tube of lip balm (only in every one of my pants pockets!)
 a cheese knife
 an extension cord
 a recipe for a favorite food your mother or father used to make
 * a pack of playing cards
 *a pad of sticky notes (Post-Its)

One observation: disorganized people often aim to put things away approximately. They’ll keep something “in a kitchen drawer” or “in my office.” It’s much more satisfying to put things away in an exact location—like a particular kitchen drawer. It takes some effort, at first, to decide where everything belongs, but once you’ve put objects in their proper places, it’s much easier to return them there.

Now, to toot my own organizational horn: I have a whole drawers devoted to post-its, plasticware, party napkins, stickers, etc. I also have a handy container to store my paperclips right here on our desk. We have scissors and a pen/pencil cup in 3 different rooms. I have boxes assigned to each of my kids for cards and mail they receive. Our passports and other key documents are located in the same manila envelope. I could go on & on. My hiccup is that I can't keep my office/desk area very neat. Despite my penchant for organization, things still look cluttered. I see Pottery Barn ads and think, ha ha, like I'd ever have EVERYTHING put away like they do in those pictures!

So I'm not sure how this quiz categorizes me: I'd have to say I'm organized but not as neat as I'd like to be.

What about you?

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11/24/07 - for Priya - (I do not take credit for any of these ideas; they're my way of handling things based on magazines, what I've seen in other people's homes, etc. There are probably many other more organized people out there - and a plug: great tips can be found in Blueprint, a magazine I sang praises about here).

* baskets next to each toilet for extra rolls of tp and magazines
* solid-color mugs next to each bathroom sink for q-tips (a cheap way to do it)
* long rectangular rubbermaid containers for wrapping paper; store under the bed
* get a weighted tape dispenser and replacement rolls; it's easier to use and cheaper in the long run
* we couldn't afford a real filing cabinet for important papers, so we use cheap plastic crates and green hanging file folders. we have files for each person's medical papers, car info, insurance info, receipts for donations, tax stuff, paycheck stubs, magazine subscription forms, etc. at the end of each year, i take my 3-ring hole punch and put all of that year's paperwork into a large 3-ring binder. it helps with spring tax season. this year i'm not going to buy another large binder. i'm going to take out my papers from the 2004 binder, keep them in a box, and reuse that binder for 2008.
* we have a little desk organizer shelf thingie on an end table for our many tv remotes. it helps to always have them there. i also put current magazines & papers in the larger slots.
* keep stamps and address labels in your wallet and on your desk
* keep your address book, stamps, and all of your stationery in one place, like a nice box. put nice pens in there so you don't have to dig for them when you want to write a card.
* (that's probably why i tend to buy stamps 3 sheets at a time)
* if mailing cards to people is important to you, keep a separate calendar for birthdays, anniversaries, etc. near your stationery.
* keep a box (decorative photo boxes at michael's are cheap) for "special" mail (letters, cards, etc) - at the end of the year, go through them and only keep the most important things; recycle the rest
* for all that memorabilia, childhood keepsakes, papers you can't bear to part with: keep them in medium-sized rubbermaid containers in a closet. whenever i'm digging for something sentimental, i go right to them. same thing for pictures if you have a lot of pictures.
* get a magnetic notepad for your fridge - use for grocery lists, ideas, reminders, etc
* get those plastic drawers for different office things. for example, i have drawers for address labels, stickers, postcards, stamps, envelopes, highlighters, markers, pencils/pens, post-its, staples, etc.
* if you can, allow one kitchen drawer to be the junk drawer for batteries, gum, chopsticks & soy sauce, take out menus, etc.
* oh! latest idea: we keep a chinese takeout menu in the kitchen drawer AND in our car center console. that way we can order if we're already out. totally brill.

anyone have any other ideas? nothing is too obvious or silly!