In my shed I am a very messy worker . One reason I maintain this painful approach is I rarely lose anything - if ever. That changed on Good Friday when I lost a pawl spring and a tiny 1/16 bolt onto the floor.
Here is a picture of my work-bench.

You should see the floor!

Anyways I spent hours on my hands and knees searching for the lost bits. I ended up fabricating a new tiny bolt but alas the pawl spring was irreplaceable.
Disgusted with myself I had a big and thorough clean-down - keeping a hopeful eye out on the too numerous to mention sweeping. No dice.
I ploughed on with the job (K6 Strumey Archer 3 speed) on a refurbed man's 1947 Sunbeam to go as a matching pair with the lady's already done.
I reconciled to my loss after a few days and took considerably solace from not falling over crap at every turn and marvelled at my uncluttered floorspace and bench!


1930s K6 in bits minus a pawl spring.
On the third day I had the need for a large screwdriver and fumbled it (my arthritis makes this more likely these days). I irritably retrieved the screwdriver from behind a small cabinet against the wall and went out to use it. Proceeded to attack a struck screw when a valediction forbidding mourning revealed itself on the end of my slightly magnetized screwdriver.

Hallelujah! (good job I didn't hoover up after my clean-down)

My question to the Forum has anyone else found something dropped/misplaced when all hope was lost.