I have an apron that is worn around my waist and the bottom is attached to the underside of the workbench providing a hammock to catch dropped parts. It works well. However you do have to take the time to wear the apron! Now where is that darn thing?
I tried one of these, works great until you get a phone call or yell from the Mrs and forget you have it tied into the workbench. 
You have to laugh just picturing that in your mind! 
I have an apron that is worn around my waist and the bottom is attached to the underside of the workbench providing a hammock to catch dropped parts. It works well. However you do have to take the time to wear the apron! Now where is that darn thing?
I tried one of these, works great until you get a phone call or yell from the Mrs and forget you have it tied into the workbench.
You have to laugh just picturing that in your mind!
Yeah it was like Americas funniest videos, especially since I was working at a card table... the patient was fine, however I am still looking for some tiny little Lionel truck screws. 
At this stage of my long scratch building career I have learned to look for the part right away. Then sweep the floor. If it's metal I use a magnet. If that does not work I make another part or go on and come back to it. What I know is that eventually most items do turn up. Sometimes right in front of your eyes like a gremlin put it there. The same gremlin that hides tools from me while I am working with them. When I do a general sweeping of the floor I put the dirt in a dustpan and go through it with a tweezer. Another place is the inside of my small shop vacuum. The large shop vac is no mans land, but in desperation I have been there as well. I have found stuff in my shoes, hair and clothing pockets.
Nate
All I know, is the next owner of my mothers house probably had a big surprise when they took up the black shag from my bedroom. Every nut and screw I lost from my erector set, probably fell out. Even the vacuum cleaner couldn't find them.
I always felt that dropped parts grew legs on the way down and quickly scurried to some unimaginable hiding place.
Yep! And if you listen very closely, you can hear them laughing at you too.
The likelihood of finding a dropped part, screw, bolt or nut is proportional to your having a matching part in your parts supply.
At this stage of my long scratch building career I have learned to look for the part right away. Then sweep the floor. If it's metal I use a magnet. If that does not work I make another part or go on and come back to it. What I know is that eventually most items do turn up. Sometimes right in front of your eyes like a gremlin put it there. The same gremlin that hides tools from me while I am working with them. When I do a general sweeping of the floor I put the dirt in a dustpan and go through it with a tweezer. Another place is the inside of my small shop vacuum. The large shop vac is no mans land, but in desperation I have been there as well. I have found stuff in my shoes, hair and clothing pockets.
Nate
OH! Don't get me started on the tool gremlin!! Especially tape measures!! If i EVER catch up to him....he's a goner.
I have found that when a part hits the floor it doesn't bounce up...
It bounces sideways about 2x the height from which it was dropped.
Lets do the Math
Where X is the height and D is the distance from contact with the floor.
D=2x (x 360). The 360 means I have no idea which direction it went when it hit the floor, but odds tell me it is usually under the non-movable piece of furniture!
I find more parts clinging on to the speaker inside the shell. Always in the hidden spots.
Rus
That's no moon! A space train station it is.
I just did it myself tonight. I was down in the basement and was cleaning up stuff on the train display shelf that I have things on instead of trains while I am building the new layout. It was 2 blue flashing led with the (resister/diode I can never remember witch is witch)connected together. They are sort of in A round shape to touch the 2 ends to A 9 volt battery. They came from Patrick H. from some of his stock he gave me for in A welding shop I am going to have on the layout. They were in A bag that had A piece of blue flexable neon tubing in it that I am going to put around the roof of A gas station. As I puled out the neon the led were caught on it and fell off when I had it out of the bag. they hit the carpeted floor and were gone. An hour later I found it 7 feet away behind A support leg for the opposite side of the layout. How could it roll that far? 
Take care Choo Choo Kenny
The more important the part, the less likely you are to find it.
Just today I dropped a little screw, I looked and looked, and looked............turns out it went into the cuff of my pants.
Somewhere - maybe on a woodworking forum, I just don't recall (speaking of losing things - I'm way into CRS...) someone had taken a shop apron and attached a couple of pieces of velcro to it and the matching pieces to the underside of his workbench. So if you are working with small parts in one place, that seems like a pretty clever solution. Of course it means remembering to 'disconnect' yourself when you move away from the workbench. Hmm, maybe a couple of small 'button' magnets would be better - they'd certainly disconnect when you walked away...
Dropped part frustration is only exceeded by the mystery of where socks go in washers and dryers. Presently I have 247 single, unmatched socks.
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