I have those remotes too, and I love them! I usually buy them around Christmas when they have lots of choices out. You can't beat the price for the convience they give, not to mention the security. I carry one remote on my key chain, so when I am driving up to the house at night time I can turn on the inside light before I walk into a dark house, makes me feel so much more secure!
As for what else I have that makes life easier....hmmm, I have a shower head that is one of those hand-held ones so when I want to rinse my hair well it just removes from the base and I can use it to do that. Plus it makes cleaning/rinsing the tub so much easier too.

Where did you get the remote? I've been thinking I want a motion activated thingy for a lamp so it will come on when I walk through the laundry room from the end opposite the door.

One thing we did recently to make our life easier was a timer light switch. Since we are remodeling, we haven't got an outside light at the backdoor and when we come home at night, we have to walk in the dark to the door and fumble with the lock. We put this timer in the garage so we can open the garage door and turn it on before the garage door opener light goes out. It has buttons to set for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 60 minutes or just on.

Steph, strange you should mention it today, because I was just thinking about that last night! Not exactly a subject on the top of the pile, don-cha-kno.

I have something made by Amertac. It is a WIRELESS REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM. It comes in two pieces. You can plug the receiver portion into an out-of-the way wall plug, then plug your fixture (up to 960 watt appliance) into it.I bought Model RFK100L at Lowes. It says on the packaging,"Add the convenience of a switched outlet without any wiring--just plug it in."

The second piece is the transmitter which is a wall switch. It looks like a regular single wall switch, with a 12 volt battery in it, and you can put it wherever you want. It will transmitt up to 100 feet indoors, not outdoors.

Up north I have one of these in the sun porch. The rope lights going around the top of the curtains out there is plugged into the receiver in a corner out of sight, hidden by the long curtains. I mounted the transmitter wall switch portion on the wall near the door. It is about a half inch thick, and it looks like a regular wall switch.

In case you have several such wireless systems, you can get them with different channel codes. I am going to use for my closet lights (when I get a closet),a unit with code A, and the other for the rope lights around the sun porch (in Alabama) with code B.

Nothing says you cannot stick the switch portion of this remote control thingy onto the side of your headboard.Or maybe stick it into the "remote pocket" that you keep tucked between mattress and box springs? I would not use a remote to turn off my computer or printer since it says not to use a power strip or other ways of turning them off. It messes with their brain, I suppose.

I think these kinds of remotes are good for lights, and maybe for simple radios. Perhaps for box fans. I just wish they had the dimmer feature built into the remote. The package says: "Turns On/Off Lights, TVs, Audio Components and Small Appliances. Hmmmmm, cannot think of much besides lights that would work properly with a remote.

I don't know if this will count, but I have a 'comfort height' toilet. I would not ever go back to the lower model! I'm pretty tall and it always seemed like I was sitting on the floor!
Also, I have a one cup coffee percolator. I only drink one cup a day and I prefer fresh coffee, so its perfect for me.

marti - "Where did you get the remote? I've been thinking I want a motion activated thingy for a lamp so it will come on when I walk through the laundry room from the end opposite the door."

I got it at W. while there the other week I decided to look in their electrical aisle - and there it was! They had motion sensor ones also.

judith - carrying a remote with you is a great idea! there are times I've taken my small flash light with me if I think I won't be back before dark. that isn't often because I seldom drive much of anywhere after dark. I might run down to W - taking the back road behind me - I never have to go on a main road or see much traffic. or if i've stayed too long at my sister's. I don't mind so much if I'm within about 10 miles of home because I'm used to these roads. I don't feel insecure coming home after dark really - just afraid I'll fall into one of the holes my dog dug...lol!

I do plan on one of those handhelds in my new place. I bought one yrs ago but could never get it hooked up here - hope I find it soon.

moccasin -
"Steph, strange you should mention it today, because I was just thinking about that last night! Not exactly a subject on the top of the pile, don-cha-kno."

lol! I know - I even debated myself on posting about it, then decided 'oh what the heck - that's how we learn' and figured I'd learn about something from you all!

a light switch type would have been fine also - I've seen those in ads on tv.

An extension grabber is my favorite tool. It is not the $10 one you see every Christmas in the corner pharmacy chains, it is the one they sell at the medical supply store. The $10 "Gopher" extends your reach maybe two and a half feet, but it has metal springy ends with suctions cups that you are supposed to center onto the thing you want to pick up. I had a "Gopher" and it broke in only months, the springy thing holding the suction cup just broke. My new one is a lot more solid and has curved plastic ends that grip around the thing you are picking up and is much better made, like the Pik Stik in the link below. It was $20.

Here is a link that might be useful: grabber comparison

Thanks Nancy, I figure my gopher has a little more life left in it, but it just won't pick up some things and I'm always afraid that hinged part is going to break.

my sister gave me a grabber thing last yr. don't know why I didn't think to get one. she had 2. she gave it to me to pick things up when my back was in pain. I use it a lot now. mine is real sturdy - don't know where she got it tho.

being short, I should have had one of these many, many yrs ago! it's great to pick up something that falls behind a chair, the sofa, behind anything.

That's the best part steph. It's the only way I can get things from behind the dryer. What I got it for was to reach cans on the top shelf, but it can't do that.

I have one which folds in half. That makes it handy when I put it in the car and drive down to my river lots to pick up trash. The smaller stuff anyway.

Also, I use the Gopher to pick up those annoying cigarette butts which people toss out of car windows. Cigarette trash like filters persist in the environment since they are a form of plastic. Ever notice how they collect in parking lots where folks have a way of dumping out their gross ashtrays? Eeeewwwww. Seems small, but it mounts up.

When I was with Keep Mobile Beautiful, I purchased a lot of these picker-uppers and gave them to the folks in my district who cared enough to pick up trash along the roads. They were that florescent orange and gave an extra measure of safety to them as they walked.

Taking things down from the top shelf is a real problem if you are short, or if you get dizzy on ladders or have any other mobility issue. I THINK I saw a product similar to a picker-upper which had a couple of tines on each side instead of just one, and that is probably more secure. I'd hate to drop a jar of pickles on my head. Or a can of beans.

Steph, probably good to drag things out from under the bed too.

Nancy, does the link also show the grabbers at medical supply stores? Are they similar to these?

ML - Just had a thought. Are you aware of the LST that sailed from Greece to Mobile in 2000-2001?

yes - things that end up under the bed! it's amazing what crawls under there to hide...

I need to remember to take mine outside and get the food dish that my boy scootched (?) under the wire fencing of his pen - that puts it behind his pen and under the trailer. ugh. I can't reach it unless I crawl down there on some dirt etc. I"m not doing that.

he's lucky I have several food dishes to put his food in - it's been back there a long time now.

Seriously all the remote doesn't really makes your life easier.

Wantto, yes, I knew about the LST being returned to the US from across the Atlantic. The elderly crew came into the boat supply store where I was working at the time. And they were a chipper bunch of old guys, and I was so pleased to meet them.

After WW2, the company that my dad worked for used some of the WW2 large landing craft to load highway vans on, and then ply between Apalachicola FL (eastern end of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway) all the way to Brownsville TX or Port Isabel TX, which was the western terminus for the ICW.
This was the beginning of the "container freight" concept. The company was bought out by Federal Barge Lines, and then by one of the big cargo companies like PanAtlantic Steamship, and then the rest is history.

Steph, would you define SCOOCHED? Interesting term. :)

In one episode of HOLMES ON HOMES where they redid a kitchen for a handicapped woman, they put some kind of hardware in the upper cabinets which would come down to counter height so she could reach them from a wheel chair. I think REV-A-SHELF makes such a mechanism. I would think that in a kitchen with really really high ceilings this would be a good thing, even for a person who was not disabled, but just vertically challenged. :)

OK I am going to admit I am gadget challenged. The other day DH was off riding his four wheeler and I wanted to watch something on the TV. Well this is so embarrassing. I did not know how to make the remote work. I just do not get it. When he goes to bed he puts it on my channel and from there I can sort of make it work if I want to change it but to get it started I was a total loss. And what he left it on was too depressing. The ongoing discussion of economy and oil spill. WWWAAAAHHHHH

Not to mention I can barely dial the cell phone. I CAN work the computer and am the geek in our house. that is not saying much.

Chris

"Steph, would you define SCOOCHED? Interesting term."

what? you don't know that word? it's in MY dictionary!

scootched - a form of scoot. I think maybe it's a regional word or one someone mispronounced as a toddler and it became THE word for the family. my family. used that word all my life, never thought about others not knowing what it means...

to move along... more over... he pushed his dish as he was eating and it moved - right thru a hole in the back of his pen.

OTOH - there are other words like that in MY dictionary...lol!

Heheheh and when I misspelled a word on a check one month the Mayor pointed it out to me and I quickly told him that is the way Midvale spelled that word this month. Hehehehehe

I know scootched.

Chris

I also know scootched. Past tense of scootch, as in "Scootch over here on the couch more so I can hold you as we watch TV." or "Scootch that plate of cookies closer so that I can reach them, please."

I'm glad others know 'scootched' also!

I made up a lot of words when I worked - cracked everyone up. I always told them 'it's in my dictionary'. I should have written them down for real because now I can't remember them. I probably use them all of the time and just forgot i made them up... dbf asks me about my words rather often - like 'what's that mean'. maybe I should rethink the weird look I give him - except that I met him at my work (he was a city bz owner) so he should already know I make up words.

"I did not know how to make the remote work."

lol, shades my DH is so into technology and our tv setup became so complex I had to push buttons in a certain order on 3 remotes to turn the tv on! talk about madness! so he bought a universal remote for each tv and programmed them so that I can just push a couple of buttons and it all just lights up and comes on (I dont know how it all works but I dont need DH around to turn on the tv anymore :)