Defaults or Checking

[livingdeb]

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?

Comments

[tamara knox (from livejournal.com)]

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.

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Nice!