Why we write location codes in pencil first

Last spring a client in Jung-gu taped index cards inside every drawer before our visit. By the time we sat down, two cards had swapped places after a spring cleaning. If she had inked those codes into the folio on day one, the register would have lied about where the steel capsule lived.

We now teach a pencil-first week: assign tentative codes on sticky notes, live with them through one laundry cycle and one grocery restock, then ink the index once everyone in the house has opened the right drawer at least twice without help.

Pencil marks also survive the awkward conversation when a teenager admits they moved an envelope to “a safer spot” without telling anyone. Erasing a code hurts less than crossing out a permanent entry that future readers might misread.

After seven days, we gather at the table with a sharpener and a ruler. Each code gets a one-line description—not the recovery content, just “steel capsule, backup B, verified Sunday.” Only then does the bound register earn its numbered pages.

If you are starting alone, try three locations maximum for the first pencil draft. More than that and the index becomes wallpaper nobody reads.