LPO Clutter Scavenger Hunt 12 – Go Automatic

Welcome to the Laurel Plum Online Clutter Scavenger Hunt.

Today I want you to start thinking of the many things in your life that you can put on automatic.

For a fraction of the price of the drive through or convenience store coffees, you can get an automatic coffee maker with all of the flavored syrups and fixings. This will not just save some cash. Add up the time you spend going that little bit out of the way then sitting in line each day.

There are a lot of other gadgets that I would love to have. A couple that I am actively saving to buy. I’m sure I’m not the only one that jumped for joy the first time they saw a commercial for the automatic vacuum robots. (Was I ?) There are a lot of other cool automated gizmos. Litter boxes,  pet feeders, sprinkling systems and self watering devices for plants, just to name a few. What about audio books? I think those count. Look for the low tech alternatives to the gadgets, too. An empty bottle can be used to water your plants to save you a few extra trips with the water can.

I am sure several of you have used timers for lights when you have been out of town to thwart burglars. Why not set them to turn the lights on in the morning or when you usually arrive home, and off when you leave or after bedtime? They can be used similarly to the programmable thermostats to save energy (and coin).

You do not have to go out to purchase an appliance to make some automated changes in your life. Many are more about taking a little extra time now to save you a lot of time in the future.

How about setting your fixed bills on automatic payment through your bank? Most utilities offer the option to make the payment based on the average monthly payments over one year. We have chosen the option and have been very pleased with the way it has worked for us. Our budget has stayed more consistent from month to month throughout the year. We really noticed the difference that first Christmas season. We never before realized just how many of our bills were stacked during the fall to winter months.

Speaking of which, you can also set up a separate account(s) for the infrequent bills like property taxes, your various insurance accounts, the fees that come up at the beginning of each school year, a Christmas account, etc then set up automatic frequent transfers to those account each pay day from your main account. Taking smaller chucks of your paycheck over time will feel less painful than coming up with the whole payment at once. Figure out the yearly expenditure and divide it by the number of paychecks your household brings in. Then set up those automatic transfers into a separate savings account(s) at your bank. (You may need to make partial transfers each month this year then supplement the rest next year or to start making larger transfers after your last big payment of this year to make this work.)

There are a lot of things you can automate on your computer. Set up reminders and alarms for birthdays and appointments. Use a calendar/task program that uses repeating event occurrences so the regular chores on your to do list come up as scheduled instead of continually rewriting them just so you can mark them off. (Am I the only one that likes to do that?) Use an RSS reader to grab the articles from your favorite websites as they are published.  Have your computer scheduled to make back up copies of your most important files or the entire hard drive so you don’t have to worry about losing all of those precious pictures!

There are a LOT of things you can automate to save you time, trouble, money, or even to add safety.

This is another one to revisit from time to time to keep making little changes. But do see if there is something you can do right now that would make a difference in your life.  Then make sure to tell us about it so we can cheer you on and follow your example!

What things do you already do, use or want to try?