Any organization ideas for Mom that leaves her everyday clutter on chairs or side tables, but calls daily with 'I can't find it' items?

Oh Kellse gosh I'm sorry. It's great for them that they don't place value on 'stuff'' but it's hurtful for us.. I bought my Mother a beautiful opal ring from a cruise, "oh I dunno where it'd be, haven't seen it n'awhile ..." I keep trying to stuff it down and be grateful she's still here, and how excited she was to get it at the time.

Good luck with trying to get mom organized ! So far this month my mom has lost 2 checks and an expensive silver bracelet.

I think color coding the baskets is a good idea,everyone like colors around them. I think if they (even me) know that they have not misplaced anything they will feel much better.Ideal would be if we can classify the baskets as mail.other papers ,one miscellaneous,but they may get confused,and that is not a big deal. I don't think they like clutters around them either. I think if we get upset they getsad and scared that is worse.

My aunt saves everything for me to look over but it's not that bad. She always puts her mail on the sidetable next to her chair. I just file and trash each week. Not a big deal. Maybe your mom has more mail? I liked Jesse's answer. You could have a basket. Let's say a red basket. You could say just pick up everything and put it in the red basket. It will appear. Of course the next call will have to be take it out of the red basket and do it again. Lol
Some folks are just neater than others.

It is amazing how they can live like this, and if I mention it... big mistake. Chandana I'm thinking of this basket and how it could hold it all, and clean the tables and leave it all in there! Just to see how it works out- bet she could find anything! Thanks everybody!

I usually keep a laundry baskets next to where the elderly sits(or are around) . A larger one in the family room,smaller ones in kitche and bedroom ,which is visible and ask them to keep(as opposed to throw ,since they don't like to throw) and the n sort out at the end of the day (or two /three times a week) and keep them in respective places.

I have my own way of handling this. When my mother says she can't find something, I just say, "Well, it's somewhere, so just look for it." It's magic. She finds it pretty fast after I say that. Maybe it reassures her that it is close at hand and not tossed out.

Some behaviors of our senior loved ones are so very in common! My mom always had newspapers, mail, etc surrounding her chair like an island of clutter. I picked it up, the caregivers picked it up, I reminded, scolded, nagged, ignored - nothing helped. So yes, after repeated warnings my mom slipped on a magazine, fell and hit her head and ended up in the ER. It's a very real, valid concern and danger. I just never figured out how to resolve it. It finally resolved itself - the hard way.

I think there are a lot of ideas that could be tried, but the underlying problem is that the elder probably would not remember to put things in a specific place, and immediately they're lost or misfiled.

Sometimes there's just too much on their mind and it's so easy to just set something done before realizing that it's going to hide someplace until it's not needed, then magically re-appear.

(I've gone through this too and am still trying to address the underlying issue.)

I can relate to that. I would come in to visit my Dad, and all around, under, and behind his recliner would be old newspapers, mail, important papers, etc.

I tried one of those plastic rolling bins with drawers, but Dad never used them. Eventually I brought in a small table with three shelves so Dad can at least put some of the newspapers on the shelves, so far that is working at the moment.

What happens with my Dad, he will be holding an important piece of paper, then he would get side tracked, and the paper will land where ever. Some people are real organization [I am to a point of being OCD about it] and others just put things where they may.