The Upside of Losing Your Phone

So, I lost my cell/mobile phone last Tuesday - for two whole days. I knew the last time I had used it (looking for photos of the ten year old for school), where I was (in the kitchen) and the time of its last appearance (7.30pm). You'd think that would make it easy to trace wouldn't you? The only thing I knew for sure was that it had to be in the house because it was lost by the following morning and I hadn't been out.

Anyway, I tore the house apart. For four hours on the first day I looked in every nook and cranny, with no success. The Ball & Chain came home that night and went through every place I'd already looked. (I can never decide whether to take the "two heads are better than one" attitude, or just be irritated at the implication that I hadn't looked properly.) Day two saw me going through the laundry baskets, looking in fridge drawers and emptying out the recycling bins. Nothing. Nowt. Nada.

To cut a long story short I decided that it must have been carried by me from the kitchen to somewhere upstairs. I thought about the piles of stuff I'd removed and dumped outside various bedrooms and began another unsuccessful search. Then I remembered shopping at Pier One for a few bits and pieces, and storing the bag in a certain cupboard. Bingo! God knows how or why the phone was in there but it was. Happy dance.

I now have one very organized house too. In looking for the phone, I went through every drawer in the kitchen and living room, throwing out 12 instruction manuals for things we no longer even have, a file full of last year's school stuff, a box full of old Xmas and birthday cards that I was going to get crafty with (three years ago), and about forty five dried up marker pens. I also found five (yes, five) folding umbrellas, a bracelet that needs to be mended, a list of potential posts for my BBC America stint (yippee) and the present I bought for an October birthday (hidden in a "special" place, ie. one that I had completely forgotten about).

I am now motivated to get even more organized. Oh yes. So far, the instruction manuals that are actually relevant are now in a handy accordion style folder thingy, in alphabetical order. (See below, and be impressed.) All the school paperwork is hole-punched and in a smart binder with a section for each kid. My scissors are all rounded up and in one place (wonder how long that will last?) and my collection of pens and pencils are no longer rolling around my desk.

By the way, my walls aren't really lime green!

I may even tackle the Man-Child's desk.

On second thoughts.......