How do you guys lay out your routes and loci so that you don't get confused or lose track of where you stored specific memories?

The key is to start with a physical place you know so well that you don't actually have to actively "visualize" it—like your childhood home or your daily walk to the train station. If you want to learn how to structure it properly, you should definitely read about the Sherlock Holmes memory palace technique in https://memoryos.com/article/sherlocks-mind-palace. It explains how to translate a spatial layout into a highly organized mental filing system. Instead of trying to invent a fictional palace, you learn to use your brain's natural spatial mapping to anchor facts, numbers, or vocabulary to specific physical objects in your chosen space.