Gadgets and gizmos

When we first move into a home, regardless if it is rental or we buy, we tend to look around and make comments on things we need. When time, place and finances are right; we purchase them. (OK, I know there is such a thing as credit cards… but I don’t like them much, besides that is a totally different story.)

So the things we want, and get hold of, are sometimes just fun gadgets which we play with for some time, or they are really useful tools or equipment which play an important role in the maintenance of our homes.

I have to admit I was (by today’s standard) old when I first heard the words gadgets and gizmos. (But then again: I was in my early 20s when I first was online, and if I wanted to find something on the internet; I had to put it out there myself. Yes, that’s how long ago…) A gadget is a small, often funny, tool; a machine if you like, that has a particular function. Often it is thought of as a novelty. Something new we use to solve an old “problem” or to do something entirely new. Sometimes we call the gadgets gizmos. A gizmo is a small piece of equipment, often one that does something in a new and clever way. Apparently very handy, essential and indispensable.  And who doesn't want a few extra little gadgets laying around? They make life easier, and, more importantly, make life a little more fun for everyone

Gadgets make the world go round. They make life more fun and free up time for more important things, like reading or video games. At least that is what the young men in my house tell me whenever I make an attempt to say no to another incomprehensible thing I know will be added to the pile of stuff on my dining table.

I get this feeling we surround ourselves with more and more gadgets. In my house they lay around on the strangest places, never really cleared away, because… well, there is something funny about things which lay around in my house: It can lay put for days… (I sometimes get these fixed ideas of self-righteous stubbornness and I do not remove them. I want the person who pulled it out to put it back in place…) then the first week pass, and I surrender.

I stop nagging and put it where it is supposed to be put myself. But then, like magic, someone finds it interesting again! Suddenly it is back, where it lay for weeks, usually on top of the dining table, because there is space; NOT in the drawer or cupboard or shelf, where I think it should be.

I can’t help but wonder what happened to stereos, with adjustable volume, bass and treble. What happened to the collection of music everybody owned, and which you could browse through and learn about your host/hostess from. Robocleaners which go to their charging station by themselves? Robomowers? Breadbaking-machines? External hard drive for your pictures? (I may be old fashioned, but I LOVE a great photo album with covers and pages to flip through… AND no worries if you will ever be able to open the darned thing again, and your pictures and videos since the last 15 years are STUCK!)

I wonder if I eventually will give up; I still have this plan for my house where everything has its own place, and everything is at its own place. Gadgets and gizmos don’t like it there!

(Wondering what the mug is doing here? It stirrs the contents, by activating a small propeller on the bottom.)