Test: Do You Remember Your House?

Take this extremely short test for your “bad” memory, and find out you remember plenty of things. All over your house. How bad is your memory? I guarantee that if you’re reading this, your memory is astounding, but let’s take a simple example. Imagine your bedroom. What does your bed look like?

You may not remember whether you made it or not, or even the color sheets right now. But you remember what your bed looks like, and exactly where it is in your room.

Now move around your bedroom. Take your time; even if you get a blank at first, you will quickly pick out all sorts of details.

Your “Bad” Memory Remembers Your Whole House

Move out of your bedroom. You know exactly whether it opens into a hallway or another room. You can move into other rooms, all around the house. You know where they all are. Look around, and you’ll see more and more details. If you want to, you can imagine and pick out details for the rest of the day.

“Mundane” details, perhaps. But the original Latin mundus doesn’t mean “boring.” It means “world.” You remember the world.

And that’s it. That’s the test. All done. You remember thousands of details, without even trying.

Did you have to cram for that test? Did that feel like repeating a phone number so you don’t forget it? Not at all. Those are short-term memory. Moving around your house is long-term memory. It’s more like seeing.

While you’ve been busy living your life, your memory has quietly memorized all kinds of things. You never even knew.

Now you can use that power to memorize deliberately.