You might remember the meaning of the character 沈 with this easy mnemonic:
There are still droplets (氵) of oil on the beef skewer (巾), can you sink it in some dishwasher? And make sure snakes (乚) don't try to eat the skewer so cover (冖) it up with a lid.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.