New York Renovator

I’ve been on the prowl for cool lighting gadgets ever since I found and bought the Touch&Glow set (I blogged about that here). I am having waaaay too much fun with lighting gadgets. I’m beginning to wonder about myself…

ANYWAY! Who cares! I found ANOTHER really, really cool gadget! This time it was at the Dollar Store. I was shopping for bird seed for our new bird feeder when I saw….. THIS!!!

Oh it doesn’t look like much. Um, actually, there WAS something in there. I took it out. I always do that, darn! I always wind up taking photos of empty boxes. But I am so eager to try the thing out when I get home, I just can’t help myself!

This was $5 at the Dollar Store. Yes! A steal! (The Touch&Glow thing was $15). Of course,this gadget is not as high quality, but it does do the job. I plugged it into my outlet receptacle, and plugged in my lamp. I have a lamp in the Laundry Room because the ceiling fixture doesn’t work. I’m still working on the electric in the house, so we have all these lamps. These gadgets are perfect because 1) I hate touching lamps when my hands are wet, and in the Laundry Room and Kitchen my hands are always wet. 2) The touch-y gadgets are very convenient so we aren’t groping in the dark. 3) We are not wearing out the switches on our lamps anymore, which is a huge plus. Lamps are $25 or more, and I was buying new ones every few months.

OK, so here is the Easy Switch gadget in action.

It is a wireless connection. The package says the components can be as far apart as 60 feet. I installed the switch about three feet from my lamp. (There’s a little hook you screw into the wall, and the switch can be used as a “remote” when you unhook it from the wall hanger). However, I did walk around the house a little, to test out the reception. It does work from long distances! You have to point the remote toward the lamp for it to work best. (And this could be soo much fun, shutting the lights on and off by remote when someone is in the room, heehee).

For $5, you really can’t go wrong. I love this gadget! And now I won’t have to do laundry in the dark!

I found the absolutely COOLEST thing at the home improvement store last week! I am still congratulating myself for finding it.

I was looking for a lamp to replace the bad one in our bathroom (YES we have a floor lamp in our bathroom, because we still have no electricity for the room yet! I’m getting to it…). The lamp switch was going bad, and I wanted a touch lamp to replace it. I figured a touch lamp would make it easier than fumbling around for the switch in the dark. I went to several stores, and just couldn’t make myself spend $35 for a touch lamp that I just wanted as a “kick around/temporary” thing in the bathroom. I asked the salesman if he had any other touch lamps, and he showed me an aisle where— lo and behold– there were all these little gadgets and attachments that you could connect your existing lamp to and make the lamp a touch lamp! Wowee!

The package is empty because I was so eager to try out the gadget that I didn’t take time to shoot the photo first. Here’s a better photo of the actual gadget.

This particular gadget plugs in to your receptacle, and you plug your lamp cord into it. The gold-colored disk has a lead line (ten feet long). You can place the disk anywhere. I put the disk near the entrance to my bathroom. Ignore the staples. And yes, that is duct tape holding the disk to the wall. I was in a hurry, ok?

You leave the floor lamp switch in the “on” position, and touch the gold disk to turn the lamp on. The disk has three settings- dim, halfway lit, and full lit. The neat thing is that you don’t need a 3-way bulb– you can use a regular 60-watt and this thing will work with those settings. To activate each setting, you just touch that gold disk each time! I just love it!

I don’t think this gadget works with the newer CFL bulbs; I think it only takes the incandescent. So the downside is that I will soon be unable to use this lamp– New York State is making it illegal to buy incandescent bulbs soon (dumb, I know). So either I get on the ball and start wiring this room for electricity, or I stock up on incandescent bulbs. Or, I can smuggle them in from Pennsylvania or New Jersey, maybe…