How to set up an Organized home: Your Tech Spots
An organized home has 4 important components for living an easy, organized life. These areas are zones that help you accomplish the basics: being on time, feeling in control by knowing where things are and working together as a family team. These components will make life better! The second step is having your technology organized.
Technology can rule and ruin the day in your home. There’s so many devices, so much connectivity and so much that needs organizing. Get your tech organized with a plan.
Common charging spot
Common charging spots make life better. A good night’s sleep comes from no blue light before bed or distractions during the night. Create a common charging spot for all of your family. That’s where you and your family all plug in at night, overnight, to be sure that every sleeps undisturbed. All your devices are ready to go and in one place to take off for the day. Use alarm clocks for wake up for all of you. It’s an inexpensive option as a replacement for your phone.
Labeling
Our devices have lots of pieces, cords and accessories. Break out your labelmaker to know what cords are needed for what devices. Have sufficient cords for yourself and your family. If you are a frequent traveller, have a duplicate set of cords to travel with in a small zipper case or grid it case.
Smart home stuff
Thank you to our friends Alexa and Siri for helping us each day! Smart home features are on our devices to make life easier. There are small ways to get started and most sites state that the most bang for your buck decision is your therostat. Choose a strong password for your smart home stuff to avoid being hacked.
With your Amazon or Google assistant, place this in a well supervised area of your home. Just like any other device connected to the internet, there’s possibilities for your kiddos you may or may not have imagined.
Tech during homework or work time
All of us get easily distracted on devices. There’s ways to help you stay focused with apps. If you want to track your use, check out RescueTime. If you want to block segments of the internet, use StayFocd. Keeping on task means staying organized and productive.
Tech graveyard
There comes a time when your tech dies. It’s reaching epic proportions in homes with computers, laptops and devices. There’s ways to sell and recycle tech without much work. Sites like Gazelle and Decluttr to buy back your tech. There’s kiosks in your mall or your cellphone provider will buy back new-ish devices. Don’t create a tech graveyard and take action when you get a new piece of equipment.
What’s best about your organized tech spots? It is using your tech for what’s best in your life!
Hooray for getting rid of dead tech! Get that stuff out (and all of the associated cords). Each family member over here has his/her own charging area. There were too many cords for all of us to use one spot. That said, I totally agree with keeping tech out of the bedroom. This has been more challenging now that my husband reads on an e-reader. Sometimes he falls asleep and the screen stays on for awhile. I also noticed how distracting it was when we were on vacation and his devices were all over our hotel room. I close everything up but he doesn’t. Meanwhile, he falls right asleep and I’m getting up to shut off audio alerts and close up laptops:)
Tech “stuff” has become such an integral part of our lives. It’s hard to believe how much things have changed over the past ten or so years. There wasn’t a need for the strategies you shared a decade ago. I have to admit that while I use Siri on my phone to help me make calls or do research, I’ve been a lot more wary of extending AI to our home. I need to do some work on the “tech graveyard.” I’m pretty good about releasing my old devices, but my husband finds it more challenging to take the time to wipe and recycle his old ones. I’ll remind him about some of the resources you mentioned, that process bit easier.
@Seana, wow! You and your DH have collaborated well on tech. That’s often the key too. It takes cooperation and collaboration.
Thanks @Linda! It’s true that there is so much more to know and often we have to find those who can share easy to use resources with us.