Posts by Sharon Lowenheim
Too Many Remotes
One of my five basic organizing principles, as you may already know, is “Store things where you use them.” As a result, I was keeping my remotes neatly lined up in the same place where I keep the devices that they work with: the cable box, the TV, the DVD player, and the Apple TV device. I bring the appropriate remote(s) over to the sofa when I’m watching something, and then when I’m done, I put them back in that spot.
Recently, I was tending to something else that I keep near that space, and I noticed that some of the remotes were dusty. It was then that I realized that I only regularly use two of the four remotes: for the cable box and the Apple TV device. I never use the TV remote anymore because the cable remote includes all the basic functions that I need to control the TV, and I use the Apple TV device for streaming rather then turning on the smart functions of my TV. As for the DVD player, it rarely gets used.
I dusted the two unused remotes and then checked them to make sure the batteries still worked. One of them needed new batteries and I replaced them. Then I put those two remotes in the cabinet right underneath the TV and its peripherals. If I need either of them, I can get to them easily.
Now that spot looks a little bit neater with only the two frequently-used remotes lined up next to my TV and devices. It’s a small change, but it reduces visual clutter (and dust!)
When It’s Time to Upgrade
I’m not the kind of person who needs to have the latest, greatest electronics. It’s more my style to hold onto something for as long as possible. I have to have a really good reason to upgrade my device. But sometimes the device tells you when it’s time to be upgraded.
I bought an iPad Pro in 2018. I was about to start a 3-year term on the national Board of Directors of my professional association, NAPO. Since I use a desktop computer, I couldn’t bring along a laptop to the multi-day meeting. I decided that an Pad Pro would be a good substitute, and a lot lighter, too.
Once I had the iPad Pro, I found that there were a lot of other things I could do with it in between board meetings. For example, I had been reading books on a Kindle since late 2011. However, the iPad Pro had a Kindle app that was smoother than the clunky Kindle interface. In 2020, when the pandemic prohibited in-person visits, my personal trainer and I started meeting via FaceTime. We have continued to do our workouts via FaceTime, since he never moved back to New York City.
It was FaceTime that first alerted me that it was time to upgrade, although I didn’t realize that this is what my iPad was telling me. Suddenly, FaceTime didn’t work anymore. I did some internet searches to troubleshoot it, and I tried everything that was recommended. I put hours into trying to get it functional again.
Finally, I admitted defeat and took my iPad to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. The tech expert told me that my iPad was running an older operating system and that’s why Apple wouldn’t allow it to connect to its server to run FaceTime. I was puzzled, as I always kept my iOS and my apps up to date. He explained that my 8-year old iPad was not capable of running a higher operating system.
I saw the handwriting on the wall and went to the Apple Store the next day. I bought an iPad (not even an iPad Pro) and I’m amazed at how great it is. First of all, the camera on this device is fantastic. The quality of the picture and the wide angle of the lens have greatly improved my communication with my trainer. Second, the Kindle app displays so much more of my book than the old iPad did, even though the devices are about the same size. Third, the new one actually remembers my fingerprint, which the old one had stopped doing.
I had a similar experience last year when I bought a new Apple TV box. I bought my first Apple TV box in 2013. It was a great interface for streaming. But over time, the channels I liked started disappearing from my device. I did some research on the newest generation of Apple TVs and decided that I needed to upgrade. Once I had it set up, I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner. The new box is so much easier to use, as is the remote. I held on to that old one for 12 years, which is probably a few years too long.
The guy at Best Buy told me that 6 years is a good time to think about upgrading a device. In retrospect, I realized that I’ve upgraded my iPhone every 4-6 years. Because the iPhone is in my hand every day, doing a lot of different functions, I’m more aware of when it could be doing a better job.
After replacing my iPad, I took my old iPad Pro, an even older iPad Mini from 2013, my Kindle from 2011, and my husband’s recently replaced Apple Watch over to Staples for electronic recycling. I reset them all to factory settings first. I also was able to recycle a bunch of cables that I no longer need.
Here’s an amusing coda to this story. The day after I took the bag of e-waste over to Staples, I got an e-mail from Amazon saying “we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier.” In other words, the Kindle I just recycled was about to become obsolete anyway.
Break Your Shopping Habit
I’ve been down on shopping for a while now. You can see my disillusionment in my post from six months ago, The Burden of Ownership. I guess that’s what attracted me to the book “No New Things” by Ashlee Piper. The subtitle of the book is “A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity”.
Piper’s method is chock full of sensible suggestions. Her “no new things” challenge asks you to commit to only 30 days in which you buy only what is absolutely necessary. Each week has a theme and a series of actions that increase your awareness of the effect your shopping habits are having on you, your space, and the planet. She also includes some fascinating history on the evolution of shopping and how we arrived at this level of over-consumption.
Part of what makes shopping so compelling these days is that it is so easy. Because you can store your credit card information on shopping websites, the act of shopping becomes what she calls “frictionless”. One way to ensure that you purchase more mindfully is to delete that information from the sites, requiring you to get up out of your chair and take the card out of your wallet in order to buy something. Slowing the process down just a little will give you time to think, “Do I really want to buy that?” Another way is to put something in your cart but not buy it right away. If you still want it 24 hours later, go back and buy it.
I loved this quote, as it dovetails nicely with my thoughts about the burden of ownership: “For every item we bring into our lives, we become its inventory manager. That’s right: from the moment of purchase, you are responsible for the upkeep, repair, and end life of your things—and that, my friend, is more of a full-time job than we often realize.”
Even before reading this book, I had started canceling the few mail order catalogs that I was still getting. I found that browsing a catalog often led me to visit the site and buy something, even if I wasn’t in the market for anything. By eliminating the temptation of the catalog, I plan to go to those sites only when I am truly in need of something. So often, we go to shopping sites out of boredom.
If you feel that you have gotten into a shopping habit — either on-line or in person — give Piper’s “No New Things” method a try. It’s laid out clearly and only requires a 30-day commitment. I’ll close with another quote from the book that is one of my favorites, for obvious reasons:
“Science supports that organizing our spaces boasts unexpected benefits like healthier bodies, better sleep, enhanced cognitive function, and even fewer accidents.”
What Season Is It Today?
It’s hard to know how to dress when the weather can’t make up its mind what season we’re in. I did my laundry yesterday, and I observed that over the past week, I wore one turtleneck, three long-sleeved shirts, and three short-sleeved shirts. There were two pairs of shorts in the load as well. We went from winter to summer (with a short stop at spring) in less than a week. And today we are back at winter.
I feel very fortunate that I have easy access to all of my clothing, regardless of the weather. That enables me to pivot from cashmere and boots on Sunday to shorts and sandals on Wednesday. But this doesn’t happen by accident.
I decided that I wanted to write an organizing tip about this, but I knew I had written about it in the past. I searched the archives on my web site and then I found it: “Making Our Closets Work Year Round.” I wrote that post on April 5, 2010, which was a surprise to me. I thought the seesawing weather was a more recent phenomenon but apparently it was common enough 16 years ago that I was motivated to write about it.
In that post, I gave some advice that I think is still sound: “As you make your spring transition this year, I recommend that you spend some time reviewing all of your clothes and getting rid of those that you seldom wear. This will free up space for the items of clothing that will help us through the awkward transitions between seasons. Identify which winter clothes you didn’t wear at all, or wore but didn’t enjoy, as well as the summer clothes that you forgot you had and really aren’t looking forward to wearing. Give those away, and use that empty space to keep more of your off-season clothes accessible.”
You can read the post to learn strategies about what to do if you still don’t have enough space to keep everything at your fingertips. Some apartments really are too small to keep all of your clothes available at the same time. But having fewer clothes helps a lot. The less you have, the more you can keep accessible — and the easier it is to find what you are looking for every time you get dressed. Having too many choices really doesn’t make you happier.
Like a Kid in a Candy Store
Earlier this year, I was one of several volunteers from my local chapter of NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals) who greeted customers at The Container Store and offered free organizing guidance. This was happening at The Container Store all over the country on that same day.
Spending hours at The Container Store is dangerous for me. I wanted to buy almost everything! I’m sure many of my colleagues felt the same way.
The Container Store is jam-packed with fun and interesting gadgets. It’s hard not to see something new and say, “I could really use that.” But could I really? I’ve been alive long enough to know that I have already figured out how to do most of the things that I do on a regular basis, using the tools I already have.
There have certainly been times when I went in search of something that would make my life easier, sometimes not even knowing what that something would be until I found it. But I always had specific requirements in mind that eventually led me to the right product. A good example is the napkin holder that I wrote about in When You Don’t Know What Product You Need. I bought it not to hold napkins but to keep a food scale upright in my cabinet.
If you sign up for my mailing list, you’ll receive my article “The Ten Biggest Organizing Mistakes…and How to Avoid Them”. One of those mistakes is “Buying organizing products first”. Some people think that an organizing project starts when you bring home a lot of empty containers. But you shouldn’t buy containers until you know what you want to contain and where it is going to go.
Walking around The Container Store that day, I had to keep reminding myself that the bins and boxes were very cool but it made no sense for me to buy them unless I had a plan for them already. However, I did have one problem in mind that I wanted to solve: how to store my dark chocolate candy bars in my deep snack drawer so that they didn’t get lost at the bottom. I was using a clear plastic bin that was purchased for another purpose but ultimately decommissioned. I thought I could make it work in that drawer, but it was longer than necessary and it made everything else in the drawer too crowded.
With that in mind, I spotted the perfect size bin for my candy bars. I was so happy that I managed to think of something that I could really use. I would have hated to come home empty-handed.
I am pleased that I resisted the siren call of all of those products. Next time I set foot in The Container Store, it will be with a well-defined list of items needed by me or one of my clients.