Want to know where something goes? That's easy.
1. Pick it up. Hold it in your hand.
2. Pretend you don't know where it is.
3. Go Look For It.
4. First place you look - that's where it goes! Now put in there, consistently.
Note: this won't help you find something if you don't know where it is. But if applied consistently, you won't have to worry about that ever again, more than once! Because going forward, it'll always be where it goes.
1. Pick it up. Hold it in your hand.
2. Pretend you don't know where it is.
3. Go Look For It.
4. First place you look - that's where it goes! Now put in there, consistently.
Note: this won't help you find something if you don't know where it is. But if applied consistently, you won't have to worry about that ever again, more than once! Because going forward, it'll always be where it goes.
Comments
I think in those cases where there's one overpowering place where things feel like they "go," you have to fix in your mind your house in all its nooks and rooms and shelves, and all the places in it that naturally call for things to live there, and kind of get a feel for each of those. THEN, you go back to the kitchen counter, you pick up the first thing that needs a new home and you ask yourself: "Where's the second place this goes?"
Some people may need to perform a ritual, you don't have to, you could skip it. But it could be something like, "Oh candlemaking machine, you have chosen the kitchen counter as your home. I honor you and ask permission to relocate you to your new home, which is a fine and worthy home for appliances that have not to do with food preparation. I take you now to the hall cupboard. The kitchen counter is forever your first home, the home of your childhood as an appliance - ever will I look there for you first, and my wistful eye will miss you! But you and I will both remember and find you at home in your better and more suited place: hall cupboard."
The ritual isn't because we must debase ourselves to ask permission of inanimate objects; it's just a nifty mnemonic to set and reinforce the wheres and wherefores. You have to say it out loud, though.