Top 5 Things People Lose in Bangkok – And How to Find Them

You know the feeling. You have an important meeting at work and need to leave the house at 7:30am sharp. You have just spent the morning getting the kids ready for school and then getting yourself dressed, barely swallowing some toast and gulping a cup of coffee. As you are at the door, you fumble through your pockets and realize your keys are missing. You look in your drawer and they are not there. Where could they be? Were the kids playing with them this morning? No, they didn’t come into your room. What about last night? You can’t be sure. Suddenly you panic. You start turning the whole place upside down. In your laptop bag? No. Under the sofa? No. In between the pages of yesterday’s newspaper? No. You may not need your keys this instant, but the thought of losing them will be eating at you all day and you know you will not be able to concentrate on anything, let alone your important meeting, until they are found. The sad truth is that this is how most of us live our lives on a daily basis.

Earlier this year, we did a survey and asked Bangkok residents what they misplace most often. While they told us most of these items do tend to eventually turn up, what is most surprising is how often people lose them. Survey respondents told us they misplace things on an average 6 times a day, and the most commonly lost items can disappear up to 9 times a week, which is more than once a day. The other surprising fact is how much time people waste trying to locate things (anywhere from a few minutes to several hours). Let’s take a look at the list of most commonly lost items and our suggestions on how to avoid this frustrating situation in the future.

5 Most Commonly Misplaced Items

1. Keys – Keys rank as the #1 misplaced item, not only in Bangkok but across the globe. Being something you need everyday, you should have a designated spot for them so that you do not have to think about where to put them when you get home, or where to pick them up from when you leave. If you are renting a safe deposit box at CB Lockers, we suggest you keep a set of spare keys in your box so that you always know there is a backup. Just make sure you don’t forget where you have kept your safe deposit box key though!

2. Passwords – As we sign up for online websites and apps almost every day, many of us fear that if we keep the same password for most things and we get hacked or someone finds our password they will be able to access everything else. As a result, we use several different passwords, and try to vary the use depending on how important the security of that information is to us. However, this means that we often get confused and can’t remember the correct password when we need it. There are online services such as 1password which remember all your passwords for you, and although their security level is much higher than having your passwords stored on your computer itself, even large companies with secure networks do get hacked, and it is often too late by the time we find out about them. If you are renting a safe deposit box at CB Lockers, we suggest you keep your most important passwords in your box, either physically written on a piece of paper or stored on a Flash drive, along with other important files.

3. Phone – The funny thing is that the phone is something we spend the most time with during the day, and yet we lose it so often. Almost every smartphone nowadays, whether an iPhone or an Android based phone, has an in-built ‘Find my Phone’ feature that we strongly recommend. Whether you have misplaced your phone within the house or have left it at the restaurant or in the cab, this feature will not only allow you to quickly locate your phone, but you can also wipe your device clean so that it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.

4. Important documents – Although most documents have gone digital these days, we should still keep our originals safe for traditional paperwork such as birth certificates, title deeds, bonds, income tax returns, and many others even if just to save us the trouble of getting them re-issued by a government office. If you are renting a safe deposit box at CB Lockers, we suggest you keep the originals in your box, and keep the copies with you at home or in your office.

5. Cash/Watches/Jewelry – These items can generally be divided into 2 categories:

• Things we use on a daily basis. Some examples are the cash in our wallet or the wedding ring we wear everyday.
• Things we use once in a while, and can usually plan ahead for when we need them. Some examples are the leftover Hong Kong dollars you can use for your next holiday or the diamond necklace you want to wear for your colleague’s wedding reception party.

For the first category, similar to your keys, you want to keep items you use frequently in their designated place so that you do not have to consciously think about where to find them each time.

For the second category of items you don’t need often, if you are renting a safe deposit box at CB Lockers, we suggest you keep them in your box as this will not only reduce your risk but you will always know where to look for them.