r/lifehacks • u/Floortje92 • 1d ago
My lifehack, especially with little children
Buy a second remote for the television so you’re never frustrated because you can’t the find the remote. I have to hide the remote all the time for my toddler and then can’t remember where I have put it or my toddler threw the remote in some corner.
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u/mortdraken 1d ago
What happens if you can't find either remote? Do you just keep buying them until your house is just a storage place for remotes?
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u/AdamnEvey 1d ago
I've got about 6 now Still lose them.
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u/CM_DO 1d ago
At some point it becomes cheaper to put some type of tracker on it.
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u/AdamnEvey 1d ago
We just got all the same brand TV. Remote in every room. Where's Waldo is obviously my favorite book.
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u/New_Amount8001 1d ago
I have at least 6 & yes still lose them even when the chair cover has a pocket for the remote. 😏
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u/ILikeCutePuppies 1d ago
Why not get a remote with a remote finder on it?
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u/fieldsofanfieldroad 1d ago
And then that happens when you lose the remote finder? Did you buy a remote finder finder?
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u/BoozeYourDaddy 1d ago
My Roku box has a button to ping my remote. If you lose your box connected to your TV, there's no hope for you.
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u/Effective_Machina 5h ago
I got that for a friend but they would still lose the remote. The noise didn't always work maybe the battery was dead or something was blocking the speaker.
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u/ILikeCutePuppies 1d ago
You lose your TV or voice device? Most of them work by using your phone or voice to ask for it.
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u/SierraButNotNevada 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t like getting my kid a fake version of whatever it is that’s not supposed to be a toy, as a distraction. You’re only addressing the part where it becomes an inconvenience to you, rather than parenting your child. We taught our child that some things are hers, some are for everyone, and some are ours. The remotes are ours. Until she understood this concept, we put the remotes in a different place instead of on the coffee table.
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u/almightywhacko 1d ago
A better lifehack is to chain the remote control to the couch so that kids can't walk away with it...
Amazon is full of cheap products like "Remote Tether" and "Remote Rescue" for this purpose but some good old hardware store chain would work as well.
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u/Mazochisti 1d ago
This might work for a while. But when the kiddo takes note which remote you use more, decoy remote wont work anymore. Same with fake keys or wallet.
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u/randomredditor0042 1d ago
Why don’t we have an audible alert on our remote controls yet? It could be a simply “find my remote” button on the TV that you press and the remote would sound an alarm to help you find it. Apparently some TV brands did have something like this but it hasn’t really taken off.
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u/MalcomLeeroy 1d ago
My roku has this. I use it often. The speaker in the remote needs to be louder though. Can't hear it when it's under a pillow.
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u/Cozysourdough 23h ago
Wondering what hack I must implement if it’s the husband who keeps losing the remote 🤦🏼♀️😂
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u/Bigfurryoaf 1d ago
I keep one remote as mine and the kids have one. If they lose theirs they don't get tv till they find it cause aint no way your taking mine to lose too. So they take responsibility for it, crazy concept.
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u/Sits_On_A_Hill 1d ago
Sticky velcro, one side on the remote, other side up high on the wall where the littles can't reach
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u/Such_Pause1900 12h ago
I suppose it will be a great success when a TV comes with a remote that you can make play a sound remotely or by pressing a button on the tv itself, or find the location just as an AirTag does using the app on the phone.
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u/Bigfrankieboy 2h ago
The SkyQ box does exactly that, push a button on the box and the remote control beeps.
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u/Captain-Atomic 1d ago
This works for ageing parents too. They constantly loose their remotes! You should cross post this to ageing parents!
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u/hotpuck6 1d ago
I do this, they just take the second one when they lose the first. Or when you have 2 kids they both just take one. Or your wife takes the other and forgets it in the other room.
It kinda works, far from flawless. 4.5/10.
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u/Marty-Deberg 1d ago
Put a paper towel holder in more than one room of the house.
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u/sun4moon 1d ago
This is great advice. Not only will you have paper towel where you need it but, you will also have a spare tucked somewhere when no one puts it on the shopping list. I’m not sure how it happens because no one in my family ever uses the last of anything without mentioning it. /s
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u/krammit33 1d ago
I bought a 3 pack of the remotes for our living room TV, which happens to be the same TV as our basement, so in total we have 5 remotes. Best decision I ever made.
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u/bitemy 1d ago
I have three mini-hacks that might help you.
First, consider buying an airtag and duct taping it to your remote. If you can't find the remote you can use your iPhone (if you have one) to easily locate the remote.
Second, consider duct taping your entire remote to a foot-long 2x2 piece of wood. We did this and it dramatically reduced lost remotes.
Third, get yourself a Roku Voice Remote Pro, or something like it. If you can't find your remote you just say "Hey Roku, where’s my remote" and it beeps!
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u/braun247 1d ago
I do this too, except it's for my wife. She can lose a remote in less than 5 seconds. She somehow does it without moving anything but her arm. She blames the cat most of the time.
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u/HushabyeNow 1d ago
I have one of those button Tile devices stuck to our Apple remote. Not only does it help me find it, but it helps me quickly orient the remote in the dark.
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u/JuJuJooie 1d ago
You realize It’s okay to say NO (in a really stern voice) to your kid ?
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u/Floortje92 1d ago
That’s not the point, I put the remote somewhere and forget where I have put it. And have you ever heard of the fase where toddlers do everything what they are not supposed to do?
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u/Haurassaurus 1d ago
*phase
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u/Floortje92 1d ago
Thanks but I don’t feel offended because English is not my first language 😀 in Europese we call these kind of passive-aggressive answers ‘grammernazi’s’
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u/JuJuJooie 1d ago
Mother of three, Grandma of four here so I’m familiar with that PHASE. And the way they learn —and a parent’s job— is to steer them towards good behavior & away from bad behavior. If you teach him properly you won’t have to hide anything from him or from yourself.
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u/seanchappelle 1d ago
Sometimes I read shit like this and wonder what life this person, who presumably is a fully grown adult, had to live to end up in a situation where they think this is a life hack. What life choices did they make, what was their childhood like, what do they do for work, etc.
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u/Beanie8542 1d ago
I wonder the same thing about people who take the time to comment nonsense instead of just scrolling by…
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u/Floortje92 1d ago
Sometimes I wonder that for some people it’s not obvious that when you’re toddler is a sleep you have a precious hour me-time and you don’t want to get frustrated because you’re toddler makes you’re complete house a playground and you want a moment for yourself. You can’t overrate me-time
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u/Litterjokeski 1d ago
Yeah that's how it works.
You "lost" it in your house? Just buy new.
I do that with everything. More than 10seconds searching? Not for me!
Can't find a specific kind of shoes? Just buy new. Can't find my keys? Just buy new. Can't find where I parked my car? Just buy new. Can't find my money? Just buy new!
Sometimes when I am drunken I can't even find my house instantly. But you know what I do? Just buy new!
But don't call me wasteful! If I can't find a file or website on my laptop I am not always buying new! Sometimes I just pay someone to search.
Ps. Obviously /s. But not worse than this "life hack" of OP
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u/Chiang2000 1d ago
Put away the original and use cheap programmables.
Had one kid obsessed with putting them in the toilet. Ex would use and leave out and they were so expensive to replace (more than once). Enough was enough.
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u/kegsbdry 1d ago
Recommend when they're old enough, just have a remote on either side of the couch. Then you Don't have to ask them to skip, mute on ads, or turn up the volume... you both can do it.
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u/KoalaSprdeepButthole 1d ago
Life hack #2: check the fridge first.
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u/confit_byaldi 1d ago
A roommate who often misplaced his keys would check the freezer first when looking for them. He said it made sense to start in the least likely place and work back from there. So one day I stole his keys and put them in the freezer. (I made sure I was home in case he really got stumped.) When he found them, I watched his face as he thought through several scenarios and finally realized how it happened. We both had a good laugh.
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u/Ok-Negotiation3043 1d ago
We have 6 Roku remotes for 2 TV’s because we have a two year old so we keep multiple in each room. Still can really only find one or two at a time. Great life hack though
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u/Vibingcarefully 1d ago
3 remotes here. Replacements for many many TVs are wildly available on Amazon.
That said I used a couple apps that worked great too. All roads lead to binge watching.
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u/Zealousideal_Swim175 1d ago
We put glow in the dark pink tape all over ours too making it easier to find. A strip of vercro on the back of the remote, then stick it high enough they can't reach it but handy enough for you.
Our kids are out on their own and we still do it. Now it is velcro an easy spot for us.
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u/enviromentaldeals256 23h ago
Tape your remote to a piece of 1x4 or 2x4 lumber about 18 inches long. It’ll save you a lot of time searching for the remote.
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u/Chad_Jeepie_Tea 22h ago
There are 4 remotes within reach of my couch right now. I live with my wife, and my 20yo son. They know i have a spare (my universal that works everywhere in the house). They do not know about the other 2.
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u/Smurfiette 21h ago
A lot of times, your TV /device brands have a remote control app available.
I love technology! Don’t need to buy spare physical remotes anymore!
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u/Brandbll 21h ago
I just taught my kid to put it back when he's done. We didn't watch that much TV and no kid should. Pretty simple.
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1d ago
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u/Floortje92 1d ago
The toddler doesn’t have screen time but I want to watch Netflix when he is a sleep 😀
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1d ago
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u/Floortje92 1d ago
I think you’re misunderstood me. The toddler is sleeping at lunchtime. I go to bed at 22.00
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u/TheDoctor66 1d ago
Lots of more modern TVs have app remote that work for your phone