livingdeb | Defaults or Checking

Certain appliances are usually used at that same setting but occasionally other settings. In our house, those appliances are the toaster oven (usually set to toast) and the washer (usually set for a large load).

But sometimes we bake things in the toaster oven or wash a small load of laundry. What should happen the next time we want to use the appliance in the usual way?

1) The not ideal situation: You bake your slice of bread and it doesn't turn into toast so you have to kind of start over. Or you try to wash a big load and it makes a lot of noise and doesn't have enough water and you run and switch it back to the large-load setting so the washer stops sloshing and starts filling some more.

We are toying with two alternatives. They are not even mutually exclusive, so you don't have to just pick one.

2) Always set the appliance back to the default setting when you're done. I have much more success remembering this strategy with the toaster oven than with the washer.

3) Always check what the settings are before using the appliance. I'm good with this strategy for appliances where I don't usually use the same setting (the oven), but I stink with this strategy for other appliances.

Hmm, I'm realizing that emptying pockets before doing laundry is similar:
1) You could wash things accidentally left in pockets and hope everything turns out okay.
2) You could return pockets to the default setting (empty) before throwing them in the laundry basket.
3) Or you could always check that the pockets are empty before putting them in the washer (or dryer).

I am a well-rounded and complex person and thus do all three. Let me warn you that just because you pulled something out of a pocket does not mean that the pocket is now empty. You must keep checking and re-checking the pocket until it is empty.

Anything else like this? Maybe keys:
1) When you need your keys, try to remember where you last saw them.
2) Always return your keys to the same place when you are done.
3) Hmm, this one's harder. Always check before closing a locked door that the keys are on the same side of the door as you?

Do you have a favorite strategy for this situation?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For toilets, washers and dryers: I check before using.

For keys: I check my pockets before closing the locked door. A few ugly instances of forgetting help me remember this.

For emptying pockets before laundry: I do all 3 that you suggest. *sigh*

Ha, toilets. Yes, I check before using. *Usually* I check for toilet paper in public restrooms before using. If there's a lid, it goes down when I'm done (to protect the bathroom from tiny droplets of spray). And if I'm at my parent's house, I then put it back to my mom's favorite default setting (seat down, lid up). At other people's houses, I put it back the way I found it unless it's a party in which case I leave the seat and lid down.

And keys. I'll always remember the time C. closed the locked door to his car and then immediately said, "Whose got the keys?" Yes, they were still in the ignition.

I just wash what's in the pockets. We both have a pretty good habit formed now to pull wallets, keys, and phones out of our pockets when we undress at night, so the only things that get washed usually are random receipts, pocket change, or candy wrappers. I've learned that money (paper or otherwise)comes out just fine, though the jingly variety makes a racket! Luckily these days, I can't actually lock my keys in the house without having the keys, and my car key remote never comes out of my pocket (and the car refuses to lock if the key's still in it anyway), but I still have a very old habit of the "pocket pat down" whenever I change locations. Long ago, I did manage to lock the keys in the car, with the engine running, in a bad neighborhood, in the rain...

The toilet lit always gets closed, as the medicine chest is on the wall above, and I live in fear of dropping something precious into the bowl!

We don't really use any of our appliances enough to have 'default' settings, so we just set when we use it.

When I end up washing what's in the pockets, I most regret tissues. I end up washing the whole load over again. Nothing too terribly bad. Yes, it's good that our paper money is so wonderfully durable!

We just have a gas heater on the wall above our toilet--nothing could drop from there! The drain screen I have the sink to keep hair out (preventing plumber calls) has the added benefit of protecting against things from the medicine cabinet falling down the sink drain.

Glad you have good systems!

Gas air or water heater? Either way, don't soak for hours in the tub or shower with the heater running and the door closed. They put off carbon monoxide. Not enough to be problematic if it's diffusing through the house, but in a closed room, it can kill. Family friend died that way.

Gas air. When I first heard that these were considered unsafe, I was very disappointed.

Even Robin used to like to get up early in the morning and light it fifteen minutes before getting up so we'd have one warm room. But it turns out that it costs less to heat the whole house central heating.

I suppose I should just remove it. I'm so, so sorry about your family friend. That is just awful.

Thank you. Out was an army friend of my dad and mom. I didn't really know him, but they talk of him fondly still. Glad your heater isn't going to kill you!

I have no trouble checking settings on appliances every time I use them. I can't think of any exceptions to this. The dishwasher is the trickiest since we almost always use it on the same settings, but I still check it every time. I don't think of any of our other appliances as even having any default settings. (We don't have a washing machine, but I don't even use laundromat machines on the same settings every time, so I doubt I'd perceive a default setting if we did have one.)

I definitely leave my keys and wallet in the same place at home all of the time, almost without exception. (Sometimes the wallet migrates to my desk if I buy something online.) My phone floats around with me but I tend to only occupy a few different places in my apartment (the couch, the bed, the desk, the bathroom) so it's usually easy to locate. Also I've found it so many times that I think my eyes are trained to readily pick out that particular rectangle from the environment.

Nice!

Appliances--check
Keys/purse/phone--default locations
Pockets--empty before bed but check before washing--however I almost never put things in my pockets on a daily basis anymore, which is good because my approach still used to mean finding my laundry covered in a finely shredded Kleenex occasionally, which is esp. annoying when you hang to dry instead of machine dry

Sally

Yes, when Kleenex strikes, first I shake as much off as I can, then re-wash the load and sweep up the floor!

Defaults or Checking

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