[Mezzie]

I do the same. My other rule is that wherever I look for it when I've lost it is where it belongs.

It causes a fair amount of friction with housemates, though. Have you figured out any way to alleviate that when it comes to areas used by multiple people?

[AmpsterMan]

In some sense you have a race condition. By taking the item and misplacing it, you've caused a deadlock. Solutions are kinda the same: have a copy of the item for every person that might use it, or be strict about freeing all locked resources.

[Mezzie]

In my case the problem is that I need things to be where they make sense for my brain or I lose them, and my sister (who I live with) has the type of anxiety that manifests as needing control over and having a 'tidy' space. So it does end up in a deadlock because she wants things all nice and 'organized' but then I can't see them and have no idea where they are.

[RheingoldRiver]

That sounds like something I do; if I can't find something I don't think "where should it be" but rather "if I were going to put it down right now, where would I put it"

Honestly, I'm still pretty shit at finding things, but this strategy has helped considerably.