Make It Vivid and Absurd

The secret to a great memory palace is making each placed image as bizarre, exaggerated, and sensory as possible. Your brain ignores the mundane and remembers the outrageous. To remember "inflation" at your front door, picture a giant balloon blocking the entire doorway, swelling and squeaking loudly.

Engage every sense you can: what does the image look like, sound like, even smell like? More senses mean a stickier memory. Champion Dominic O'Brien won eight World Memory Championships using palaces packed with images exactly this strange.