Lost and Found: Stuff Hopelessly Misplaced at Home

But I guess that despite a propensity to leave my iPhone under a magazine, or on newel post or in the car, I have a little longer attention span for the hunt than my two boys, ages 11 and 7.

Like so many other children, I’m sure, my kids find it easier to ask me where things are than to look for them for more than, say, a nanosecond. If an item they want is not hovering, ghost like, in front of their eyeballs, they want to know if I’ve seen it. Before they’ve looked on the shelf where it goes, for instance, or before they’ve plumbed the depths of a dresser drawer more than two T-shirts down.

When they were younger I was forever being called upon to locate tiny Lego swords or helmets upon which all happiness hinged in that particular moment. For awhile I had them trained them to acknowledge my Jedi-like efforts by chanting, “Thank you Master Finder.”

Today it’s stuff like iPods and team jerseys that I’m asked to summon from the chaos of their bedroom, the laundry baskets not quite fully put away or the front-hall closet.

That’s why I was curious when I heard that Torontonian Ryan Lamanna has invented a simple gadget that helps you find the keys, phones, tablets or—heaven forbid—television remote you’re forever misplacing. Lost and Found is a rare 2015 invention that does not involve an app. It uses really simple paging technology (remember pagers? Me neither) to direct you to whatever missing possession is holding up your departure for school and work in the morning, or your House of Cards binge when you finally get some time to yourself. I wanted to know what compelled a handsome young man like Ryan, who doesn’t even have a house full of kids and Lego, to invent the Lost and Found. Here’s what he had to say:

When I was in Grade 7 we had to complete a class project to come with an idea or invention that would help people. In my homework diary, we had quotes and facts printed on every page. One fact really grabbed me: apparently the average Canadian household loses their remote up to eight times a week. That was catalyst for my Grade 7 project. Back then I called it The Beeper, and I guess the idea stayed with me all these years.