I always thought that was the joke?

What people really mean when they say this is

it’s in the last place you think to look

This again is a misnomer because, not just because you stop looking… but because people find it hard to admit things are lost. All part of the half serious, half ridiculous psuedo science of Findology (disclaimer: my own blog)

Embarrassingly it took me years to realize what that quote meant. I had always interpreted it to mean that the item is found in an unexpected place. But of course what it really means is that you stop looking once the item is found, therefore that's the last place you looked 🤦

And it is a false statement:

sometimes you stop looking without finding anything so in those cases it isn't in the last place you look

so the clam "It's always in the last place you look" is obviously false.

otherwise you could say up front "I'm only gonna look in one place!" and then you would HAVE to find it in this last place you look!

One time I kept looking just to prove that statement wrong. I think I was 4yo.