apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i have a flash light that you keep plugged in 24/7. If the power goes out, it instantly turns on, so you can find it. It's great.

Sounds like the power outages we had growing up in Pennsylvania. We never figured out what caused it, but our entire neighborhood's power would randomly go out all year round. Since it got so hot inside during the summer, at night we'd all hang out in our driveway. After a while the neighbors would all show up and BAM! Instant block party. :)

Winter ones were great too. We'd gather around our fireplace and share stories or just enjoy eachother's company.

Maybe we should all try this once a week, on purpose. All kinds of good things might happen...

Amen, dhm :)

oh, I also keep "wind up" flashlights in my home---they don't use batteries so you never have to worry about running out ....if it dies, a quick lil wind-up of the knob keeps it going for another 6 hours or something.

I put together a candle bin. I had new candles in various places in the house. Now I have one bin with a flash light, candles and matches all tidy in one place.

I like that idea dhm, plus it would be good on the environment!

I keep a well stocked supply of candles and mini lanterns (that run off simple AA batteries) for this purpose. Once most are on and spread out, there's plenty of light to see by and a nice grouping can give you enough light to read by, which is what I normally do.

Here in Florida during bad hurricanes we are left without power for days even weeks at a time. For those of us who have been lucky enough to not have any major damage done to our houses the first thing everyone says (aside from how hot it is without AC) is how nice it is to escape to your porch and actually talk to neighbors, play board games, have hurricane parties and take a break from technology.

Me and some of my friends try to do an anti-tech night. Where we just light candles, make some food (luckily most of us have gas stoves so we trade off on cooking) play board games, drink some wine and talk. No electrical/battery operated devices are allowed. All phones are turned off and left by the door. You'd be surprised how many times we had to do this before the anxiety of "missing a call or text" went away. It's an amazing release to truly not worry about e-mail, texts, phone calls, tv, news...etc.

We have a gas stove so when power goes out we just cook something good and easy, read or chat by candlelight, and snuggle.

when I was a kid I loved power outages... when ever the lights would go out we would pull out the board games and crowd around the coffee table by the fire and play games by candle light.

I still love power outages :) Especially when you have friends with you, to spend the time with

Flashlights in everyroom of the house and in the garage. I check 'em every 6 months. Love that their are wind up models available and definately will be added to the survival kit.

I have one of those flashlights with a hand-cranked dynamo so I don't have to worry about batteries. But something I instantly worry about is always the ice-cream in the fridge. So just to make sure it won't go bad, I eat it. It's an emergency, right? ;o)

@WeHoGal: Anti-tech nights sound fun!

I just remembered that story about the New York blackout and the baby boom 9 months after, and Wikipedia says it's an urban legend. Oh noes! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_1965#The_myth_of_the_blackout_baby_boom) Still makes a good story to tell during a blackout, though.

doro - Hilarious about the ice cream.

I don't know if I understand why people have survival kits - but yet I'm from the midwest. I keep plenty of flashlights and mini-lanterns and a stocked first aid kit...and that seems to be fine for here.

In college, my roommates and I would have a no-tech night once a month or so. We'd mostly just hang out in the living room reading together. Great way to unwind during the middle of the week.

I live in Norway, and we only have electric heating in our modern apartment and no fireplace. That means that when the power goes out in the winter and it is -20 celcius outside we spend the evening wearing all our winter clothes, huddled around a few candles for warmth working our way through the contents of our liquor cabinet. Thankfully the power companies always seem to get the power back on after a few hours...