I already mentioned how our memories are fragmented. That's not just true for distressing past events, but for recent memories too. To top it off many memories need a physical "anchor", something that reminds us of it, or the memory is just another piece of clutter in the messy mental attic, only accessible by sheer chance.
That's why the kitchen looks like it does. The cupboards have no doors, pots and cutlery are stored in wire drawers, the fridge is tiny and the dry good shelves vast and well organized. If the fridge gets full to where I can't easily recognize what all is in there at first glance I will plain forget what we have (with the usual disgusting discoveries at fridge-cleanup-time, mold sadly does not have mercy with the quirks of a multiple personality).
It also means we're a bit on the obsessive side. Things need to go back to where they came from or it's all too easy to totally forget about them. Writing shopping lists is essential or we have ten packages of butter but not a single piece of bread in the house. After a shopping trip everything needs to be sorted neatly onto the shelves, so everyone can see them and pick what they want to eat. Usually the person to take the last of something writes it back on the list, or even a bit before we really run out or it's perfectly possible that we stand in the pantry, stare at an empty spot and can't remember at all what belonged there.
Less is better here. With just six plates in the cupboard it's easier to realize that one is missing so I can go hunting for it (the last one had wandered to the neighbors with some muffins, the one before that had disappeared into the painting supplies, sometimes it takes a while to find them, sometimes it takes a while to remember that I should be searching).
At times we can pull cute little tricks with the help of this amnesia. Around Christmas I noticed how much the little ones enjoyed a special kind of chocolate. It was really just a tiny thing, but I wanted to do something especially nice for them too. So I went shopping and didn't let them see what exactly I got. Hiding it was easy as the kids rarely go get their own food but ask one of the older ones to please fetch it for them and the older ones knew about the little surprise. The kids were so happy when I pulled out the extra treats for the celebrations.
One of the good things about being many, you get the joy of making a child glad and feel this child's sense of wonder and giddy happiness at the same time. Makes you wanna make up for all the times they didn't get this love.
