Maybe I’m odd. (Okay, that’s a given.) There are some things I have lots of around the house: metal nail files, scissors, rulers, and flashlights. I’m wondering if others have flashlights stashed in various places for various purposes. (I rarely use the flashlight on my phone so as to preserve battery life.)
I have a small, very bright flashlight in the mail basket next to my front door. (100-year old house-- mail comes in through a slot right into a basket-- condolences to y’all in brand-new houses who have to walk a block to a bank of mailboxes…hehe) That one I use at night when I go outside to search for and bring one of my cats in for the night. When she was younger, she might go all the way down the block where she knew “Nick & Nancy’s All Night Kitty Cat Cafe” would have the buffet line open. Now that she’s a sedate old lady (like me) she’s always right around the porch, but she still waits for me to find her, pick her up, and carry her inside for the night. The neighbors are all used to seeing me out with my flashlight every night.
I have a bigger flashlight by the back door that I use when searching for cat #2 at bedtime-- and also to see if any wildlife is out and about-- skunks, possums, raccoons-- and no, this isn’t the country. It’s a downtown residential area.)
I keep a flashlight on my dresser. My bedroom is pretty dark even in the daytime. Lots of windows, but lots of shade trees, too. And I hate overhead lights. So I use the flashlight to distinguish black clothes from navy blue and also to search for earring pairs in a covered glass dish where I deposit all my tiny earrings. This flashlight is also used for seeing if cat #2 is tucked away in the far reaches of the closet. Or under the bed.
I used to accumulate flashlights (whether I needed them or not) but for years I’ve just used my phone. (And I really don’t think using your phone light is a big concern for your battery life.)
We have several flashlights on a shelf in the living room. They get daily use, mostly by me going out to do barn chores after dark. One of them beams green light, which is used for hunting as it’s supposedly not visible to animals. I think the animals can see it just fine, but I like it because it doesn’t destroy my night vision.
I carry a small flashlight in a pocket most of the time. It’s much brighter and also easier to aim than the one on my phone. I also have several scattered around the house, in case I don’t have the pocket one on me when I need one.
I use them if the power goes out after dark, which happens here from time to time. (I also have a couple of battery powered lamps, but the flashlight’s useful to find those with, and for moving around the house.) I also use a flashlight for peering into dark corners, whether for cats or for something I dropped; to get strong concentrated light on something I’m having trouble reading or otherwise seeing; and sometimes at night, instead of turning lights on and off, for moving around the house. And, outside, for looking for cats, if they didn’t all obligingly come in before dark, which they usually do; or if I go out to the barns or otherwise go outside after dark.
I have one plugged in near my bed that’s intended for immediate need after a blackout. (For example, if the problem is just that the main breaker for the house tripped and I need to get to the breaker box to reset the circuit breaker.)
We have a few flashlights somewhere, but rarely if ever use them. My phone (either screen or flashlight) is all I need. We do have candles for any prolonged outages.
I have a battery lantern in my bedroom, and a very bright flashlight under a table in the room we spend most waking hours in. The bedroom one is mainly for looking in my sock drawer when I get up, which is always before dawn. The other is used daily for checking the outside thermometer at the same time.
In the country, though, there are always outdoor emergencies in the night. It’s good to have flashlights.
We have a fairly prodigious horde of flashlights, and battery-powered lanterns as well. We live in this underdeveloped third world country called “Long Island”, you see, where the damn power lines are still strung between wooden telephone poles, despite having a population that would make us a major city if we weren’t a suburb of New York City, and a ridiculously high cumulative wealth and so on. Oh, and the electrical grid in these parts? Thirty years ago, the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) went all-in on nuclear power, to be implemented at Shoreham. The denizens of this overpopulated narrow island kind of turned against that, nodding to the bumper stickers on the car in front of them that said “Stuck in traffic? Think of Shoreham!” … so LILCO disintegrated and the grid was turned over to some composite entity called Long Island Power Authority which either was or wasn’t the same as MarketSpan (does that name evoke “Company, inc.” or what?) and which has somehow morphed into PSEG (Public Service Electricity & Gas) and they charge a very high rate for very spotty electrical service.
All of which is to say that we’re often in the dark around here.
My favorite these days is a blindingly bright LED wand powered by an array of AA batteries.
Where we live we routinely get power outages if there’s anything more than a gentle breeze, so we have several small flashlights throughout the house, and I have a bright camping lantern I always keep handy. We also have little nightlight thingies plugged into a couple outlets in our kitchen that have backup batteries.
Flashlights are my adult toys, and they are stashed all over the house. Most cost between $15 -$40.
There are torches by the front door, behind the TV, in the stereo drawer, on the nightstands, in my sock drawer, in the coat closet, in the sewing box, by the backdoor, in the shed, in the jewelry case, in the cars, on the bookshelf, and in my tool box.
There are also a dozen battery-powered candles, four headlamps, two camping lanterns, and some portable video lights.
I take my dog out to poop every night and bring a flashlight so I can find it. All efforts to make his poop glow in the dark have failed, and until my mad scientist scheme works, I’ll rely on the flashlight.
We have flashlights here and there around the house. We keep one in each bedroom on or near the nightstand in case the electricity goes out and we happen to awake and need to roam around the house at that time. There’s one by the door, so we can check for skunks, etc before we let the dogs out at bed time. The others are in various closets. The only other time I use a flashlight is to look under the couch for whatever toy the dogs are trying to get at.
I also have head lamps that use for walking the dogs in the dark, winter mornings. I feel sick just typing that line.
We have combination flashlights/flashing strobe devices in several rooms as backups in case of power failure, which will help in setting up the portable generator when it needs to go online. One flashlight gets regular use, to check on what’s happening in the garden at night and to see if coyotes or other possibly malign species are in the area when I’m ready to give Pluto his final outdoor excursion of the day.
I have one by the back door (and called a ‘torch’ this side of the pond). It’s basically so my small dog will go outside to pee in the dark without me having to go with him - he’s scared of the neighbour’s dog, which he can’t see but can hear, so I stand at the back door in my bare feet and point the torch down the garden for him to prove the other dog hasn’t broken in.
I used to just turn on the outdoor light, but it broke and I can’t be bothered to get an electrician in just for that one tiny job.
Used to have a lot of flashlights around. There’s one with a magnet stuck to the fridge, 2 big Maglites that need batteries on a shelf, and a bunch somewhere we’ve forgotten about. The rest of the time we use our phones.
I have literally dozens of flashlights and lanterns around Casa Silenus. Extra bright taclight in the nightstand. From my desk right now I can reach a 5 cell Maglight, a small adjustable taclight, 2 headlamps and my phone. In the various cabinets are multiple small lanterns for power outages. The camping boxes contain another 6 or so lanterns, headlamps, etc. But the one that gets the most use is the Ridgid Shop Light on the hutch. That sucker will light up an arena. I also carry a Slughaus light on my key fob.
I have one that plugs into an outlet, so the battery is always charged. Also, if there is a power cut, it goes into nightlight mode, so it’s easy to find.
