Don't lose your tools

[macmex]

I started having some memory issues years ago but could always rationalize why it really wasn't my memory that was causing problems. I was just too busy, too tired, or ... SOMEBODY MOVED MY TOOL! Eventually I had to come to grips that it was me. I was/am having memory issues. Losing tools was a fairly early indicator that there was a problem. I replaced a number of my favorite tools but the need to replace them returned with increasing frequency. Some, if not many, never did show up. I was tempted to blame UFOs or little people   

In 2020 I got help from Amen Memory Clinic. They're not covered by insurance and they're expensive, to be sure, yet I think they may have saved my life. I was getting to the point that I was beginning to be a danger to myself while working around the farm. Jerreth's comment about the expense was, "What kind of wife would I be if i wasn't willing to spend the price of a good used car in order to keep my husband functioning?" I'm grateful she got me help.

My problems have kind of improved. I'm not as acute as before but many of the symptoms resurface periodically. I'll probably always have them to some degree. One thing Amen Clinic doctors stressed was the importance of coming up with compensatory strategies. Hence, I have found a fabulous app for my phone which helps me to remember commitments. Jerreth painted the ends of all my tools bright yellow, which has definitely saved a few. We've also designated the greenhouse as "the place" to store tools when not in use. Even if I have to walk 400' to do it, I will usually do so, in order to put a tool in the greenhouse, when I'm through with it. I do have an alternate place, the bucket of my tractor, where I can put things when I'm in a hurry. That's closer to the sheds and chicken coop and, I stop there several times a day, on my way to care for animals. Strategy, that's what I need. 

I've noticed when I lose things that I'm usually in a hurry and immediately after doing whatever it is that I do with those tools, I realize that I don't recall what I did. When this happens my best bet for recovering them is to retrace my steps (which can be many) and find it IMMEDIATELY. If I don't, it's gone, and that, possibly for good. So, Saturday, when I was working in the gardens, I suddenly realized that I didn't know where my weeding sickle had gone. 

I stopped what I was doing and started searching. Probably, in 1/2 hour I traveled nearly half a mile, going back and forth between the gardens, greenhouse, house and tractor. I JUST COULDN'T FIND IT! Finally, after about 45 minutes of looking....



I found it! I had put it somewhere safe... (My back pocket)

Do you have strategies for keeping track of your tools?

[FrostyTurnip]

I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.  Certain of it.  

Jerreth for Mayor!  

What type of paint did Jerreth use on those tools?  I did this on my tools but the paint faded too quickly.  

[amyinowasso]

I used hot pink duct tape on mine. The Hori Hori knife that didn't get taped spent a summer in the yard, even got mowed over!

[macmex]

I'll have to check the type. It's a yellow spray paint. Time to renew on some of the tools and, I have some now that haven't been painted. 

At first it kind of hurt to see yellow paint on my natural wood handles. Now I'm glad for it.

I had an all purpose sheath knife fall off my belt last year. Unfortunately, it had an olive green handle and sheath. I grieved over it for about a month before stumbling upon it, where it had fallen, outside of an animal pen. We wrapped that sheath in fluorescent orange electrical tape. It may look kind of sloppy but at least I can find it if I drop it! 

[macmex]

This is the paint she used. Today, perhaps, I'll paint another couple of tools. As Amy mentioned, it does wear off, especially if it's a tool I use all of the time. Also, I have a favorite hoe that looks so old and beat up that Jerreth didn't paint it. Well, I'm going to do so!

[macmex]

Jerreth has used two different cans of paint. She asked me to post this one too.

[galina]

I am afraid that I am a three trowel person. I need three to always find one. Garden fork is fine, I leave it and the handle is easily visible. Trowels are a problem. And they disappear too. Possibly in the compost bin together with the little vegetable knives that end up in the compost with the kitchen waste. And yes, it is my fault. Lack of discipline putting it back in its right place, or at least putting it next to the fork which I can see. Still with three there tends to be at least one that is actually properly tidied up and can be found. Not proud of it either, but at least with three in circulation, I haven't needed to buy one for years. Currently the green one is lost, not my favourite anyway so haven't really spent a lot of time looking, and green is indeed such a bad colour to find. I am sure I must have looked right past it many times. Never thought of painting it, what a good idea! The one with the pink handle is easy to find.

[jang]

I’m with Galina. For example, I like to have four border spades on the go, partly because I have a split site. As with forks you can see them, but it means there’s always one within sight, and not too far to walk. I figure they last longer if they’re each not used as often, which is actually false reasoning as it’s the weather which wears them out fastest!

 But it’s the small tools which have the fastest turnover - secateurs (I buy cheap), hand weeding hoe, edging scissors and hori hori knife. I suppose I’ve come to accept one or two losses and fairly regular turnover, and they do often turn up, not too much the worse for wear. I do get frustrated sometimes but on the whole I take it as a necessary part of working absorbedly and often at some speed. Perhaps I’m too forgiving of my own losses, but I hope you can go easy on any self-reproach, Macmex.  Certainly it’s different if you have old and much loved tools and I have got one beloved trowel which I must have had for at least thirty years. 

[macmex]

I'm learning not to be too hard on myself while still recognizing the existence of the problem. I got to the point that I couldn't afford the replacements. I was losing expensive tools. I have gotten to the point that I use some pretty specialized hand tools that cost between $70 and $120 USD (after postage and handling). After replacing a couple my wife let me know that we simply couldn't be spending that much, over and over, sometimes only months apart. 

This solution has helped quite a bit.

[jang]

Yes, it certainly hurts to lose tools like that. Great that you've found a way of improving things.

The tools that I was thinking of, and lose sometimes, are my four basic gardening aids that I use at low level, usually kneeling. They are a hand hoe/weeder like the one sticking out of your back pocket (!), some edging scissors, a hori hori knife, and secateurs. I can usually find all of them for under or around £20 (25USD). Still even that adds up over time. ☹️

[heavyhitterokra]

I used to be head of Maintenance in a State Prison. I had 135 hand tools to account for each day. In 5 years, I only had two things come up missing; one was the end of a fish tape. Someone cut about a foot off the end of it with a pair of pliers and bent a new hook on the reel so that I didn't notice a piece was missing. They used the piece they cut off to make a shank and a lock pick set.

The other thing I came up missing was a short piece of pipe. Someone stole it off the back of the truck while we were working. Later, they used it to beat an inmate to death.

We had to inventory everything there. If you couldn't carry it in your hand at all times, you couldn't bring it along. It would take forever to get anything accomplished there, by having to have 'hands-on' every tool or piece of material at all times. I had to start bending a unique hook on my fish tape and had to check it every night to make sure it was the same hook that I had bent myself.

My tools were kept locked up in a tool crib, each individual piece hanging on a hand-painted shadow board. We had to read off a tool list every night and hand-count every tool before going home. Everything had a place and everything was in its place at all times. We had a Deputy Warden who made it his 'purpose in life' to try and 'Obtain' even one of my tools by any means. (Even by lying, deceit, and trickery if necessary). He even sent a foreman from the Saddle Shop one time to try to "Borrow" a pair of pliers from my shop, promising to bring the pliers right back. After a while, you just learned to trust no one. Keeping track of tools at all times just became second nature. Our minds were just trained to be super aware of where everything was at all times.  Eventually, that just became a part of life.

Macmex: Designating a place for each tool is the best way I know of to keep track of everything.  If it's not in your hand it's hanging in the tool crib.