This week on the IDLE podcast, I’m talking about old phones.
So, let’s walk through the IDLE process and investigate how to create your mindset for how you deal with old phones.
Step 1: Identify
First, we need to identify what item of clutter we want to change our mindset for. This week, we are talking about old phones.
Step 2: Decide
Next, we need to actually make the decision of what we are going to do in our home the next time we see old phones.
There are two different kinds of phones that we are going to be talking about today, home phones and cell phones.
Home Phones
Ironically, my family no longer has a home phone line. Yet I still kept our home phones for a while before getting rid of them.
If you have home phone service through a telephone company, you may want to keep a plug-in-the-wall type of phone for emergencies. After we moved to all cordless telephones in our home, I kept a phone that could be plugged into the wall in our basement for a decade. Whenever the power would go out, I could plug that phone into the wall and still make a phone call during a power outage.
Now that we all have cell phones, I do not feel that I need to have this extra measure. And we got rid of our phone service and now only have cable. If you have a cable home phone service, that will not work in a power outage no matter what kind of phone you have.
Cell Phones
I find I always have a growing collection of cell phones that no longer work. I really don’t know why I hang onto them. Sometimes I think that I might use them in an emergency if my new cell phone stops working, but that has never happened.
By the time I am done with a cell phone, it is dead. I do not trade in my phones often, so I use them until there is no use left.
And then, for some unknown reason, I keep them. In my mind, I know that you can sell old cell phones, and some places will take old cell phones to use as a donation towards a charity. I have not been organized enough to donate my phones in such a manner.
In our family, my husband and I and our son all have cell phones. We have no home phone. And our daughter uses face time to contact us when she needs us. So, my decision is that I am getting rid of all old home phones and all old cell phones.
Step 3: Locate or Let Go
It doesn’t matter where you locate the old phones, but make sure that they stay in just one location.
So, while I have been hanging on these old cell phones, I have kept them in the electronic organizer on the back of my laundry room door.
Today, I’m going to locate them in my car so that I can donate them and let them go
Step 4: Evaluate
The last step in the IDLE process is probably the most important. On a regular basis, you will need to reevaluate and make sure that your mindset has not changed on your clutter in order to maintain an organized home.
Now that our family has switched over to all iPhones, I may keep one of our iPhones when we upgrade when our contract is up. If I do, I will locate that old phone on the back of the laundry door again.
The pace of technology is changing at such a rapid rate that I really do not see the need for holding onto old cell phones anymore.
The Podcast
So, what did you decide? Are you going to keep your old phones? If so, how many will you store and where will they be located?
