According to Barbara Flanagan, a “smart home” only needs 98 essential products for comfortable, responsible living.
The writer and designer tested home products and consulted with experts to find out exactly what every home needs.
The results may surprise you. Here, Flanagan talks about her favorite money-saving items, which are covered in her new book “Smart Home: 98 Essentials for Starting Out, Starting Over, Scaling Back” (Workman).
Q: Do you mistrust conventional consumer product ratings?
A: The usual magazine ratings base their criteria according to what is the largest, glitziest and most glamorous product. Their ratings will tell you to buy the Lexus, but maybe it’s silly and wasteful to have a Lexus. We are all trained to go for the brand name and whatever the next fancy thing is that we’ve heard about. What I wanted to know is what we actually need for each task and according to how we live.
Q: What is the aim of your book?
A: I wanted to suggest that if we all did our homework about products and found out what we really needed, we would buy things according to those real needs. Then manufacturers would make stuff that was good and lasted — if we demonstrated that we would only buy those things that were durable. That would be the trend that would get noticed.
Instead consumers are so used to being entertained by innovation, electronics and novelty that manufacturers often have to fake innovation to keep the customers interested. New features, new speeds, new buttons — everything is what have you done for us lately? I studied the function of each product I have listed in my book, and chose the ones that (offer)— some pleasure, (are) reasonably priced and have certain green features.
Q: What mistakes do people make when it comes to purchasing household products?
A: People go in either one of two extremes. Either they will get some cheap thing, thinking they will just replace it later. Or they will think a product must be really good if it’s the most expensive because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to get away with that kind of price. People are unwilling to do the research on most household products (save for electronics).
Q: What are your favorite cost-saving items?
A: Cotton waffle weave towels because you spend less on washing and drying them.
An electric blanket, especially if you turn the thermostat down in the evening.
Cast-iron cookware because it allows you to forgo having a ton of pots. Plus, you can buy really inexpensive cuts of meat, throw it in a cast-iron dutch oven and everything comes out great.
A microwave saves money because it allows you to quickly cook things you just pulled out of the freezer. You aren’t using gas to heat it up the way you would a pot on a stove.
Sheba R. Wheeler: 303-954-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com.
