I hate to think how many hours I’ve spent hunting for lost stuff. So when, in one of his many gadget magazines, Peter heard about a product, called Loc8tor, that’ll help you find missing objects, I was more than a little interested.
It works like this: you buy several tags, which you attach to the objects you don’t want to lose, and enter their ID (i.e. wallet) to a base unit. Then, when you lose one of the tagged items, you instruct the Loc8tor to find it. By sending a signal in three directions, Loc8tor guides you to it by showing whether you’re closer or farther away from it.
My question was not whether or not we should buy Loc8tor, but how many tags we should by with it. I wanted tags for everything I’ve ever had to go hunting for: my wallet, my keys, my cell phone, my backpack, my kids, my favorite jacket, the book I happen to be currently reading, etc. Peter pointed out the base unit, at $100, came with only two tags, and additional tags cost $25 each, so I settled for just getting tags for my wallet and my keys.
It may have been expensive, but Loc8tor has more than paid for itself in saving my time and sanity. Going to the grocery store used to mean running around the house hunting for my wallet, which might have been in the kitchen, on the bookshelf, in my back pack, in my car, or on my desk, if it wasn’t somewhere else. Oh, I know the rule of “always put something in the same place so you can find it later.” I have a key rack by the door for just that reason. But the moments inevitably come, especially when getting assorted objects and children into the house is a factor, that the keys end up on a table, or in a jacket, instead. Now, when that’s happened, all I have to do is turn on Loc8tor, and in a few minutes, I knew exactly which one of those places that was. Believe me, when I have to get Neil to school on time and I can’t find the keys, Loc8tor is my hero.
The only thing that would screw us over is if we misplaced the base unit. We velcroed it to the wall by the door, and we have been religious about returning it when we’ve found what we were looking for. So, so far, so good. My only wish would be that the tags were cheaper, so I could attach them to more things.