Depending on one's degree of cognitive impairment, there are LOTS of things that can be done. As noted below, I am mildly cognitive impaired (MCI) and the overriding rule is to unburden my cognition. We MCIs have no cognition to spare. So, everything goes on MY table next to the kitchen: books, notes, mail that I want to look at again, and--in a basket--key fobs, my wallet, extra eyeglasses, and lots of other small things. On this table are a charging cord for my phone and one for my chromebook. I keep 3 $150 chromebooks thru the house and I ALWAYS put them back by remembering to connect them to their chargers.

The chromebooks and phone raise the issue of notetaking. I use Google Notes for everything--grocery lists, pool chemicals, and more. I rely on Google Calendar for appts. I lose paper notes and always have my phone (or a chromebook), so I always have my notes. (I am unaffiliated with Google.)

Household and yard clutter are prohibited. The table and basket spare me the frustration of looking for something. (With my impairment, I can't see pliers if they are on the opposite side of the drawer where they are kept.) Clutter raises the lost-item issue, but more importantly draws cognition just in living with it and navigating thru it. It bears repeating, we MCIs have no cognition to lose.

Cognition is learning, recalling, reasoning, problem-solving and attending--the last being the precondition to the rest. For the MCI, attention precludes multitasking, pressured conceptual processing, and distracting or overstimulating settings. Reading instead of tv. Prayer, meditation or well-written poetry instead of the news. Humming and singing (which promote the rest-and-relax parasympathetic nervous system over the fight-or-flee sympathetic nervous system). We MCIs must find the joy of sensory vs conceptual processing, the right brain instead of the left brain all the time.

Hope this helps.