# Memory palaces - I keep going left **URL:** \ **Category:** General Memory Chat\ **Created:** [November 16, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palaces-i-keep-going-left/44073 "2019-11-16T02:24:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boulderKC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@boulderKC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/boulderKC)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palaces-i-keep-going-left/44073/1 "2019-11-16T02:24:41Z")
I am new to this. I’ve learned (mostly) major system images for 00-99, and I feel that I am ready to start stashing real, useful memories in palaces. I’ve been avoiding palaces up until because I wasn’t ready to start using them for real, and I didn’t want to clutter my real-world palaces with practice garbage. But I am a bit confused by the routes. So far, I’ve tried to follow routes in my head without actually placing any images yet. I just wanted to see how it feels to walk around a familiar place in my head. I’m finding that if it is a large place, I have no idea which direction to go. So, I go to the left. I keep going left. In essence, I’m going around the perimeter of the palace. I’m missing major landmarks in the palace because they might be to the right, or they are straight ahead (when there is still something else pulling me to the left). If I don’t keep going left, how can I possibly remember my route? When I roamed through my first complex palace, my former home, I was up to 60 loci, and I still had two more floors in the house I hadn’t covered. But I kept going left, so I missed huge landmarks and parts of the house where I have a lot of memories and deep familiarity. To me, there doesn’t seem to be a natural flow of walking through a big house with many landmarks and objects. How do you remember your routes if you don’t just keep going to the left? ---
**Author:** ![GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/gibtsdochgarnicht/32/6734_2.png) [@GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/GibtsDochGarNicht)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 6:43am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palaces-i-keep-going-left/44073/3 "2019-11-16T06:43:08Z")
> [@boulderKC](#): > > So, I go to the left. I keep going left. So where’s the problem? (and I say that in a friendly helpful way) Build all your palaces to the left IF that works for you. Simples. Try it with a ‘journey’, pick the main street with all the shops where you live, go to the left and use each shop front as a loci, when you get past all the shops cross the road, turn around and go to the left again back down the other side of the road. Or ‘peel’ all your interior MPS into one long strip of ‘peel’ going to the left. > [@boulderKC](#): > > I didn’t want to clutter my real-world palaces with practice garbage. You have an almost unlimited supply of memory palaces/journeys. Plus that practice ‘garbage’ might be important. I found that simply by designating an MP as ‘temporary/practice’ that it becomes reuseable very quickly. Recently I did a test on a ‘proper’ memory palace . I memorized 50 lines of poetry using a memory palace and then stopped reviewing it after I no longer needed it. Took about a month for the poem to fade out of the palace. I think most memory experts i have heard on the subject say the same thing “the answer to most of your memory palace problems is to build more!” ---
**Author:** ![boulderKC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@boulderKC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/boulderKC)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palaces-i-keep-going-left/44073/4 "2019-11-16T16:20:09Z")
Ok. Build more palaces. I like that. As Rajadodve786 says, there are endless possibilities. Since I’m new to this, I have plenty of empty palaces, I won’t reach the point where I need new ones yet. But from now on I won’t be timid, I’ll use them at every opportunity, and I really like the idea of designating a few of them as temporary holding spaces. I also use an alphabet peg list for temporary storage, but a memory palace might be easier. On the topic of going left, I’m not sure if it is a problem. The very first “for keeps” MP I used (just yesterday) was to store my two credit card numbers, their expiration dates, and security codes. I generally stuck to my left while encoding, but I placed two of my images in unmistakable loci to the right. When I later went to recall my credit cards, I kept forgetting the images I stored “to the right”. After several reviews, I no longer forget them, but - I’m unsure if this should make even more of a left-only guy, or if I need to loosen up. What I’m wondering is how other people handle complex routes. When you mentally enter your own house, there are some obvious starting points, like a front door or other entry. But when you enter your living room, where do you go? In real life, all of the loci are relevant, depending on whether you are about to sit on the couch to watch TV, or head towards the kitchen to grab some food, or sit on the recliner to read a book. How do you choose a memorable route, when all routes are valid? ---
**Author:** ![GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/gibtsdochgarnicht/32/6734_2.png) [@GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/GibtsDochGarNicht)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palaces-i-keep-going-left/44073/5 "2019-11-16T16:46:05Z")
> [@boulderKC](#): > > How do you choose a memorable route, when all routes are valid? All routes aren’t necessarily valid, you should try not to cross the streams (who ya gonna caaall ?) or rather your own path-saves on confusion according to Anthony Metivier and one doesn’t just choose a memorable route, one makes it memorable . _Personally_, and **i am in no way an expert,** I mentally put my left hand on the wall to my left as I enter the Palace of Malice -ooops sorry I meant ‘Memory Palace’ and work my way round the first room always with the wall on my left hand. Once I get to the door out of the room into the next I go through , again to the left with my left hand on the wall. When I reach the end of the palace I simply turn around so my left hand is now on what _was_ the right wall and go back. Sorry can’t explain it better than that and I’m no great shakes at sketching. ---
**Author:** ![cameri](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@cameri](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/cameri)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palaces-i-keep-going-left/44073/6 "2019-11-16T17:03:40Z")
> [@GibtsDochGarNicht](#): > > “the answer to most of your memory palace problems is to build more!” Yes yes yes yes and yes! But it’s also exactly what happened to me. It’s great to know that what you think is a problem is often actually just something that can work! @boulderKC you’re discovering yourself in the Palaces and sooner or later, like me, you probably won’t even think about it anymore; it is part of what can be learned through practice I guess. Just trust you gut and don’t even think about it, and little by little I have confidence that you’ll just use whatever works. > [@boulderKC](#): > > How do you choose a memorable route, when all routes are valid? You don’t. I don’t, I just go with what I have to place in there and trust my moves. We have to go back through it again pretty soon anyways right ? so you’ll know if it worked and how it worked so you’ll build that confidence as well as the skill to choose what works. Run wild! That’s what I often tell myself to get into it. I won’t go into the details as to where and with whom and how 🙈