We tend to the drop thing also.....the shed porch, the picnic table and the carport are favorite drop zones for things we are using for various projects.
Eli was working on the tractor the other day and was asking where something was he couldn't find and I told him, "It's right back where you FOUND it in the first place....I spend most of my days putting things back where you found them." He's got a bad habit of just dropping things wherever he last used them and, if I want to find things ever again, I go around putting these items back where they belong.
Then there is me, who has a bad habit of leaving things in mid-project, with full intensions of getting to them "later" but then rarely ever get back to them for a few months down the road.....meanwhile, I'm having to walk around the mess of the half built object.
So, like you, I have to periodically clean up the property, making a big sweep of all the outside surfaces to find all the stray tools, scrap lumber, pieces of wire and fencing, etc. It looks soooo much better when I'm done and each time I swear I won't let it get so bad.....and then it just....DOES.