Blinded by My Refrigerator; My Mom's Silver Service
Some product features are so painfully obvious that it is impossible to understand why they don't exist.
It has been maybe ten minutes, and I can still "see" the blindingly bright light from the refrigerator when I close my eyes. Whether the sun is streaming in through the windows, or it is pitch-black in the house because it is pre-dawn, the refrigerator light still as bright when I open its door.
Why?
A simple little light sensor on the exterior of the fridge would give it all of the information it needs to know to dim the light a bit.
I guess it's just one more thing to break, but that doesn't seem to be a concern as they attach touch screens and computers to fridges and charge $10k for them.
But, anyway.....
I wage this battle, constantly, of wanting less stuff. I want to be better optimized, better streamlined, but I also want to be always prepared. Years ago I took these several tubs of miscellaneous cables and got rid of more than half of them. It wasn't more than a few weeks later that I needed a cable and realized it was one I had deemed "never going to be useful again." Of course.
Told my son if he can convince me I don’t need something he can sell it on FB Marketplace or eBay and keep the money.
— Austen Allred (@Austen) May 2, 2026
Extremely effective for a boy who wants an e-bike. https://t.co/2yoYzcalHr
My kids aren't quite old enough for this responsibility, but I love the idea.
But what about things like family heirlooms? They really aren't marketable; minimal actually monetary value. Lots of emotional value. I can't just throw away these things, but I really don't want them.
I actually lucked out in that regard, recently, we discovered. S and I were going through some old boxes and found a heavy tub filled with this ugly, ugly china dishes S had long ago decided we did not need to keep (family heirlooms or not). So, why did we still have them? Also, where was the my mom's silver service? S sits there for a moment and coyly explains, "I bet I took the wrong tub to Goodwill." I could be angry because THAT WAS MY MOM'S SILVER SERVICE. But if S hadn't accidentally donated it years ago, (1) I would definitely still have it, (2) I would rarely (if ever) find any use for it, and (3) I would never choose to get rid of it. And now I don't have to. And we can still get rid of the ugly, green china dishes.