For your create url you don't need the $item variable and also the method isn't needed.

Just do

Route::get('items/create', function() {
    return View::make('items.create');
});

Thanks for the quick answer, but that doesn't answer my real question: Why the order of the routes in the routes.php file affects the way the project works? I think that it shouldn't matter how they are set up. If I try the URI /items/create I should go to the app/views/items/create.php file. However, changing the place the routes are in the routes file produces an error.

Yes because its looking for an {id} if you place create after the items/{id}. So thats working as expected.

@eriktisme @desharpen Thanks a lot! I can see the light now...