My quilting corner is a complete disaster right now, but we are still doing The Great Purge, so I'm expecting it to be that way for a few more weeks. When I do lose something, that means its time for me to reorganize and regroup, I'm pretty careful with where I put things, generally. If I don't find something in a couple of hours, I will stop everything and start reorganizing. Nine times out of ten, I usually find what I was looking for within an hour, then I'll finish reorganizing and figure out a better place to put whatever it is I lost to begin with. If I don't find it after I've reorganized, I usually fold up my sewing machine into the cabinet and start pulling everything out away from the walls because it somehow ended up on the floor behind furniture.
If it's still gone after all of that, I put it to the back of my head and just start keeping an eye out around the house. I once found a pair of snippets in my canned goods cabinet. Still don't know how they ended up there, but I found them.