How do you remember what you've bought?

Tonight I shopped around for sport coats, turtlenecks, hushpuppies, basically the Carl Sagan professorial look I still favor in real life. I stumbled upon a nice sportcoat - sweater outfit that looked like just the thing for when fall comes to the northern hemisphere. I right clicked and looked at what came with it - then started to hit [Buy], but something stopped me. There was something about the name that bugged me. It has the word "autumn" in the name and that rang a faint bell.

I did a quick search of my inventory for "autumn" and sure enough, there it was! I had bought it last fall and totally forgotten.

Now - I only have around 6k in my inventory. I can't imagine what it would be like with the astronomical numbers of items I know many of you guys have. Do you run into this problem and do you have ways of avoiding it?

Happens several times a year. What sucks is when the item cost 700L+.

Hmm...a beagle in a sports coat. Cute.

The only time this has happened to me was when I bought a duplicate skin from Second Skin Labs. I had thought that I bought the skin for an alt, but had in fact bought it for my main an hadn't worn it because I didn't have any clothes that went with that skin. I discovered my mistake when I went to wear the skin and put on my new outfit that I bought to go with it.

Not an inexpensive item to purchase twice, but fortunately for me when I explained what happened to Namssor Daguerre, she was kind enough to send a copy of the no-trans skin to my alt for me

.

It happens occasionally. I try to keep items in their original folder name, so if I am in doubt, I can search to see if I have it.

I have a very good memory.

Pep (Not senile yet. )

I forget the names of stuff that i want to wear- but i have never bought the same outfit twice- i do change the name of stuff so at least i can find it- like hair i bought recently at Bewtiched was called Hiromusi - oh yeah like I can really find that when looking for hair- so-- added the word hair - shoes get shoes, etc...

I try! to keep my items moving, placed in right folder as I buy things.
51 k I rebox up a lot of things! I've taken pictures of me lost in a walls of prims reducing my inventory.
I keep a sort of last bought folder.
I have 26 of them after 3 yrs. Most of thes are outifits, shoes, belts.
The rest are vague, jewelry, avies, wolfy things, hair, sub cat, New Hair, AOs, tatts, piercings, body folder (more sub cat. of skins, eyes, diff body parts, etc.
And! my default fav folder of what I'm armed w/ every day and a low lag outfit to throw on!

It's easy to keep track of stuff, some is lost forever in my method of madness filing system. I just open 2 Inventory windows and drag and drop from recent as I go.

Autumn?
Search is a joke, snow, ice, black, wolf, moth, leaves, autumn etc might as well bring up my whole inventory!

I joked w/ a friend, I have seriously gone back to transaction pages on SL and XStreet website to recall the name of something I have bought and can't remember.
They laughed and said they had done the same thing!

That's how i keep up too, lol, folders... and sub folders, and sub-folders to the sub-folders, lol I am in the habit now before i buy anything to put the name in my inventory search to double check

~brie

I have a pretty good memory when it comes to clothes. I keep things organized by store name in the inventory so I can check on things pretty quickly.


I have gotten duplicate hair though. There was this really big hair sale and it got confusing after a while.

it's easy for me... I buy only what I will use and/or can't make (or don't have the time to) myself.

Yes I've bought the same thing once or twice before. I avoid it now by keeping the essential part of the item name but renaming the rest and sorting it into folders.

For instance, let's say the item is originally labeled as:

.::. Amazing Stuff! Autumn Lime Flower Superstar .::.

As a lot of clothes or other items are - flashy but fairly vague. I'd rename it like this:

Amazing Stuff! Autumn - green floral mini dress

Store name, item name, then actual, plainly worded description.

Then I'd put the whole folder into a folder I have already titled:

Clothes - Dresses - Mini Dresses - Nice/Pretty

That seems to help a lot.

Those little flourishes usually go quickly since they take up space that key search words could occupy instead. Putting different ways I might search in there instead, such as color, type of fabric, length of hem, and type of garment (dress or pants or shirt or top), helps a lot, too. I will wear it more often if I can find it quickly and then I will remember it when I shop again.

The reason for naming the folder by general category, then less specific, then so on, is so it all stays somewhat alphabetised. All clothes folders begin with Clothes, all Shoes folders begin with Shoes, then are broken down more specifically.

as one of those with an astronomical inventory, i usually do what you wound up doing, running a search before i buy.
i also have an SL notebook with pre-production sketches (which sometimes have builds that match up to them) but also has various texture names, sounds, animations and products that i want to not forget. this, along with having specially coded folder names help keep things in line. now, if only i could keep my mental SL inventory in such shape, i could cut my searching by half...

I don't buy a lot usually, also I have a top memory... If I do go on a rare spend up it is usually a heap of the same thing..

Sometimes I put the main word of the object at the beginning of the name so I cna find it quick.

I use search with a single word a lot too.

I keep my inventory very organized, at 65k items that is very important! The only time I have bought a duplicate item is when the item is trans, and I am purchasing extras to use as give-a-ways.

Although when there is a major sale from a creator (like the 10l skin sale at Sin Skins), and the place is laggy, I will get some dups just cause I am buying everything in range while fighting lag.

Sorting things into folders works here, as long as I take the time to actually unpack new purchases and sort them to their appropriate folders. I've also started making screenshots of clothes (when the sellers didn't include a picture with the purchase >.< ) and put that picture both in the item folder AND in the parent folder.

I'd still like to see a "preview" button, which shows an outfit in a little popup window, worn by a clone of mine. Something like that at least. Like a ctrl-click on a piece of clothing (whether it's inside someone elses vendor, or in my inventory, just *any* piece of clothing) brings up that popup and shows how the piece of clothing would look on me, ctrl-click another piece of clothing to add/replace with that piece of clothing, and some quick buttons on the preview window, like some for rotating and also "reset to currently worn" and "undress all".

Yes organization is the key for me. I dont have 65k but clothing and hair and accessories are organized. Course I love to organize my inventory lol.

Are you quite certain about that?

Truthfully, I am quite "foggy" in real at best of times. I have a very limited short term memory so I am often surprised when I relog on to sl and find I have bought something I didn't need.
I try and organize my real schedule as best I can with all types of menomic devices and mindjerkers. I lost a dinner plate in my garden a few years ago and found it last month. I often forget I have invitations. In sl I use folders if I have the time. Then I lose that folder.

Yes!

To the extent that when I am asked what my hobbies are I reply that the main one is "finding things other people can't".

Pep (I even have to remember things I never knew, for my wife, kids and work colleagues. )

PS If you'd asked me I could have told you where your dinner plate was.

I have a nearly photographic memory when it comes to visual details, so I don't usually forget that I have already bought a particular dress or pair of shoes in a particular color or style. Assuming I unpacked it and wore it or used it at least once. And I will generally remember the name or visual details of of any item I already purchased, if I am looking at buying it. And yes, that includes remembering which account bought it and which did not. If I am not sure, I'll do a quick inventory search first.

I do, on occasion, buy something on impulse, get busy, forget to unpack it, and then forget I have the item until much later, when I am sorting and cleaning my inventory. Then it's sorta like getting an unexpected present! "Ohhh! What's this?" *grins* I'll usually recognize the name, and then unpack it to see what it was and to sort it to where it belongs.

I might forget that I have something.....but I have never bought the same thing twice.

If I haven't worn or used something in a while.....and I see it somewhere else....it will immediately trigger with me that I have it. I am forever looking for new designers and creators so I don't go back to the same places except to see what they have 'new' on the shelves.

My memory is pretty good.....IRL and SL. When I think of all the 'things' I have accumulated over the years......many gone...many not.... my 20,000+ SL inventory is nothing. I might forget about what's stored away in a box somewhere.....but I'm not likely to forget that it 'exists'. I can still remember all my fave toys as a kid......right down to the little bone china animal figurines I used to have on a shelf......they are in a box somehwere still......

I frequently forget what I have. Quite often while browsing my inventory, I'll come upon something fascinating. Or I'll look at it and wonder where the hell it came from since it's obviously something I'd never accept from someone or even pick up from a freebie box--let alone actually buy it.

most things i remember when i see them..but if in doubt i open my inventory and go to the designers folder and see if it's there..
If it's not there then it won't be anywhere else..i have a shopping folder that every thing goes into when i buy them..then when i get the chance i sort them..usually as soon as i get home..

I seriously dont remember anything like that. My sl partner larfs when I keep telling him the same joke over and over since I've forgotten I told him. I think its a hilarious one about the FooKaWee tribe. But apart from one about a road that like a drink its the only one I know.

I take my anti-alzheimer prim with a wittle bit of water.


(yes, i'm weird.....so what?)