Is it just me ??

Or are you tempted to purchase 2 to 3 tape measures at a time on your next trip you make to Homedepot/Lowes/walmart or whatever your flavor is. Im pretty disorganized at times , esp after the wife cleans up- but for the life of me- that damn tape measure is one elusive critter........
I HATE when its not where I know for a fact I left it.
So lets hear it- whats the tool / device / item that you search endlessly for - only to discover its right in front of you . Glasses dont count

Not just you. Someday I’ll find where all the tape measures and carpenter pencils go.

And #2 Phillips screwdrivers! I probably have ten #1 Phillips screwdrivers because I bought sets and lost the #2s.

It's the #2 Phillips screwdriver for me....but I suspect Wayco of taking mine when he loses his.

I pretty much have used the Stanley Powerlock tape measure for almost 40 years, I must have 10 of them but can never lay my hands on more than 2 at any one time....until I clean the shop then they get lined up on the shelf like beat up little soldiers to start the hide and seek game again. My wife has here own tapes and wont touch mine (thank goodness), its not #2 Phillips screwdrivers for me its the 6" long #2 Phillips bits for my Dewalt Drill Drivers....
The Stanley Powerlock is starting to get harder to find, I guess they aren't sexy enough for the new generation of carpenters/handy persons, cant remember which but my local Lowes or Home Depot quit carrying them.

And 10mm sockets!

My money...always seems to disappear right in front of me...for rocket stuff

Pencil(s). Hardly use them, mostly for marking BT fin and LL lines; but when I need one it's not where it's supposed to be. Argh! Had to resort to asking wife. "There's one right here", she says. Arghh again.

I have at least 6 model knives, so that I can find ONE in 1/6th the searching time.

Not really kidding....

You are not disorganized unless you buy a back up to the backup to the backup.

Oh, yeah, tape measures!!
I must own 7 or 8 of them, but right now I only know where 2 of them are!

I live in fear that one day I will open a closet door or cabinet and all my missing tools will all fall out and kill me.

I could find my screwdriver if I could locate my house. (Checks back pocket)......nope, not there. Checks Z4 trunk, nada.

My micrometer. Last Thursday, I got a shipment from Mustang67. I'm wanting to sim up the ESAM-58 he sent me, so he can use it for his 16' upscale, and I need to take some measurements on the new engine retainer set, but I can't find my micrometer... It lives in 4 possible places. Place one, just glance, I can see nothing on the location (literally, nothing). Place 2 is rarely used, I open the drawer, it's practically empty, and it's not there, the 3rd location is on the top bunk of my bunk bed. Cluttered, but it's not there (after nearly pulling every possible hiding place out and looking (totally messing up my apartment)). Location 4: the drawer at belly button level in my desk. I pull it out, really cluttered, but nope... Now I'm tearing my apartment apart looking for the ******* thing. Finally, I'm out of time. I have to go to work. While I'm literally about to walk out the door, I remember something I need to take with me, it's in the desk drawer. I pull it out, and there, plain as day is the micrometer. It was hiding behind and under something. When I pulled it out the first time looking for it, I was seated. Only because I was standing was I able to see it.

Andy Greene said:

So lets hear it- whats the tool / device / item that you search endlessly for - only to discover its right in front of you.

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Everything. Every - Damn - Thing.

Zeus-cat said:

I live in fear that one day I will open a closet door or cabinet and all my missing tools will all fall out and kill me.

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Carpenter's pencils. It seems like I buy them six at a time, see them every time I don't need them, but when I need one, I can't put my hands on one.

Tape measures, not any more. The last couple times that Harbor Freight ran a special on them and I could get them for a buck apiece, I bought a TON. My plan was to give them to anyone who came with us on our last mission trip. But I forgot to give them away. So now I have a Tupperware in the garage with twenty or so brand new ones that I can grab anytime I need one. This, of course, also means that I can always seem to find my regular ones and don't need to open the new ones. Weird, right?

I had to clean my parents garage a year or three back. Its a 2 car garage that you couldn't walk through. Part of that process was to gather all my dad's tools and put them in a tool box. Once everything was done, I had found over 10 different tape measures. I asked him about it and he said that he couldn't find the last one he was using and on his next trip to the store he'd buy another one. I was in the garage last week and hes down to 3. No one knows where the others have gone.

Reading glasses, unfortunately.

I have many, many tape measures and LED flashlights from harbor Freight (all free). I give them away at launches, usually when people get a launch set with our educational packet (which includes a clinometer and sheet showing how to measure altitude.).

My caliper. At least once a day. There are three places it should be. I'll look and look and look. Finally I sit down in one of the three places and it is right in front of me. I don't know how I possibly could not have seen it the several times I just looked. Weard.

I am well-versed in the practice of buying yet another of those items I can't find. Finally I got a tool bag, semi-rigid open-topped with a handle. It's stored in a cubbyhole of the kitchen, the most commonly used tools go in there, and I make sure they're returned to that bag when I'm done (or when the wife is done, as she uses them too). Still, I have two 25' tape measures in there...

BTW the FatMax tapes are very nice in that they're far more rigid than your standard tape measure. I can easily extend a 7' length without it doing the bend-snap thing.

Best -- Terry

jqavins said:

Everything. Every - Damn - Thing.

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That was kinda of a creepy episode for the perpetually sweet Dick Van Dyke Show. And Mary Tyler Moore was great in it. I always have to look away when she parts her hair even though you know there is nothing to see. If you have never seen this episode it is very good.

For some odd reason- small putty knives. I must have 7-8 of them and would be doing good to find one at any given time.

Side cutters and scalpels I have trouble with. I normally have two side cutters but both are currently AWOL, as are my three scalpels ☹. I am resisting the temptation to buy more.

Im feeling much better knowing Im not alone - esp with that pesky tape measure

I've got a couple of these Starrett tape measures. They've got both metric and inch marking and are solid for under 4$ a pop and they small and light enough to not be a pain to use on smaller projects. I've got one that's a little over a year old and it's held up well. The review complaining about it being .001" short over 10" gave me a pretty good laugh.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ELMQZOI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Zeus-cat said:

That was kinda of a creepy episode for the perpetually sweet Dick Van Dyke Show...

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It was your comment about the missing tools falling out of a closet that put me in mind of it. And you know the episode. Coincidence? I think not.

KC3KNM said:

I've got a couple of these Starrett tape measures... The review complaining about it being .001" short over 10" gave me a pretty good laugh.

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I would agree that 100 ppm is not really important, but it is a little surprising in a Starrett measuring tool.

jqavins said:

I would agree that 100 ppm is not really important, but it is a little surprising in a Starrett measuring tool.

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Sure, it says Starrett on it, but it's also 4$, a class II tape measure (Good to +/-.9mm over 3m, so according to that review it's within spec. There is a second review about one that seems to be defective, though.) and made in China. I'd wager most people are introducing a larger amount of error by not holding the tape measure dead square than it actually has.

I cleaned up my shop recently. Actually, I was looking for a motor case but that's a different story. I found seven Number one hobby knife handles of various persuasions. What bothers me is I have no idea where the other half dozen or so are. Hey I work in a hobby shop and they're cheap.