We introduce and study a combinatorial optimization problem motivated by the question in the title. In the simple case where you use all objects in your room equally often, we investigate asymptotics of the optimal time to clean up in terms of the number of objects in your room. In particular, we prove a logarithmic upper bound, solve an approximate version of this problem, and conjecture a precise logarithmic asymptotic.
Keywords: search with cleanup,combinatorial optimization,coupon collector’s problem,sequential occupancy,Stirling numbers of the second kind,[INFO.INFO-DM] Computer Science [cs]/Discrete Mathematics [cs.DM]
Funding:
Source : OpenAIRE Graph
Rigidity theorems in geometry and topology; Funder: National Science Foundation; Code: 1104352