Spring cleanup –
Things your smartphone and computer have replaced.
Recently while spring cleaning I was reminded of things I no longer keep or how I use technology to help me in new and different ways. Here are some of my most common/favorite changes:
Throw out all your user manuals – most new items don’t come with user manuals anymore including computers. Everything is online. And admit it, you have never actually taken that stereo user manual out of the plastic since the day you bought it. Just dump the entire 2-foot stack of these items. Not only are the manuals online but places like ifixit and YouTube show you exactly how to deal with your particular issue.
Emergency weather radio – they have an app for that now so the old emergency radio that our local news friends program for us, no longer necessary. Last year I had to laugh when I had about 6 cell phones in my office all go off at once for emergency weather statement – I don’t need another device chiming in.
Take a picture of it – I have a folder in my camera pictures for household items I need to remember like furnace filters, generator battery, dog collar battery, water filter cartridges and more. Just take a picture of the important part of the item and store it under “HOUSE” or whatever you want to call it. Then when you are at work and need to order fridge filters, just check your phone for the right product and number.
Sell your CDs – CD collections are now a thing of the past with all our music streaming from Alexa and such. Amazon music is $25.00 per year (price of one CD). They play any song you can think of, a trick that really amazes the kids that visit me.
Get rid of your landline and clock radio – if you haven’t already. Your smartphone does all that. I got rid of my landline about 7 years ago and have never missed it. If you really need to fax something, FedEx store is far cheaper than monthly bills for a landline.
Dictionary – we don’t use those anymore.
Phone books – ditto on that one. The phone book folks pretty much put themselves out of business by doubling the price for advertising every year to businesses while the landline phone base shrank. It became 1,000 per month for 100,000 home to $2,000 per month for 50,000 homes and then 3,000 per month for 25000 homes. At some point, most business owners jumped off that crazy train. If you have an old phone book you may find us in it but we were one of the first to go with online advertising only. Covering a $2,000 a month bill was a LOT of service calls!!!
Password notebook – here is some paper I want you to keep! Passwords written down and stored in your password notebook at home is the best way to store passwords now. (other than a password generator) so ditch the word document or the spreadsheet and go ahead and write them down!