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Posted by Kris Krieger on March 23, 2008, 6:29 pm
>
>> 5b6a85aaf8f3@s12g2000prg.googlegroups.com:
>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> In my computer science program i had to take a course about how to
>>> design stuff from a point of view of how people think and how the
>>> mind works. One of the assignments was to create a panel or a remote
>>> controll for controlling things in the home such as the light,
>>> window shutter, fridge and so on.
>>>
>>> It was fun to come up with one crazy idea after another but for me
>>> the intelligent home means something else. I don't mind getting out
>>> of my chair for turning off the light when a film starts. What i
>>> would appriciate a lot is not having to clean the house. The real
>>> intelligent home would have a button some where and when you push it
>>> the house would be cleaned! And when i say cleaned i mean vacuumed,
>>> dusted and dishes done. Maybe even laundry but i don't dislike doing
>>> that so much. I know that there are vacuums now that don't need
>>> operate yourself. It goes over the floor on it's own and if it hits
>>> on obstacle it turns or around and goes the other way. But what
>>> about dusting shelves? i don't see a robot doing that yet. So my
>>> question is, is this something that could be designed when the house
>>> is first being designed? I would like to be able to push a button
>>> before i leave the house in the morning and when i get back home the
>>> house is cleaned. It would make my life a lot easier.
>>
>> IMO, teh best idea is to not have exposed shelves in the first place.
>> If art is to be displayed, have a reasonably well-sealed cabinet
>> either of all glass (or other celar material), or an enclosed cabinet
>> with a transparent door. Dust isn't any good for art, anyway. Same
>> goes for most things - dust isn't good for either their longevity, or
>> their appearance. The Japanese ahve the right idea IMO, where what
>> look like walls are very often cabinets. If this were done, there
>> wouldn't be a lot fo small surfaces/nooks in which dirt could
>> collect.
>>
>> If ther were positive pressure in the cabinets, supplied by a
>> filtered source, the interiors should remain very clean.
>>
>> A major surce of dust is wall to wall carpeting. I personally hate
>> the stuff, it's a pain in the ass because the corners, and the area
>> where the carpet tucks under mouldings/walls, get black pretty
>> quickly if not well- vacuumed. It puts out fibers, plus it collects
>> dust and crud. Also, not evena Roomba can really deal with it.
>> Roomba is designed for hard surfaces, because to really clean a
>> carpet, you need powerful suction *and* a beater. It's hard to pack
>> all of that in a small self-mobile unit. So, an INtelligent House
>> would prob. skip the wall-to-wall carpeting in favor of something
>> like bamboo flooring or tile.
>>
>> ANd it'd prob. have under-floor heating. Forced-Air gas heating is a
>> dust-generator. ANd it never does really warm the floor.
>>
>>
>> IOW, the idea is not to have "push button cleaning", so much as it is
>> to have a place that eliminates as much of the *need* to clean as
>> possible. COnsidering that dust-sources also tend to be fume sources,
>> you get the bonus of cutting back on potential fumes/outgassing.
>>
>>
>> Now, what I'd like to see is a combination dishwasher/cabinet that
>> transfers teh washed and dreid dishes right into a cabinet ;) Maybe
>> some sort of "dumwaiter" type of system ;) I'd have to think about
>> it some more, but it might be possible to set up a rotating
>> arrangement...I can sort-of picture some possibilities, but the
>> problem would be sealing the Wash part so that you don't get water or
>> even steam/heat through the entire place...
>
> How about this?
> 2 dishwashers.
> 1 to put the dirty dishes in, at countertop height so you don't have
> to bend over, then after they are clean it would move to another
> location on its own and the next dishwasher would move into place
> where the 1st one was, ready for a new load of dirty dishes.
I *like* how you think!!
<G!>
Esp. the countertop part. I saw something like that somewhere, a little
countertop unit...can't recall where :(
> Thats what you have now except that a person has to move the dishes
> from one location to the other.
> This method would require a little more coordination on the part of
> the occupants of the home so that the DW was loaded properly so that
> the dishes, after being cleaned, would be able to be conveniently
> accessed for use. They way your DW is currently loaded is probably
> quite a bit different from the way they are when they're stored in the
> cabinet or pantry. Silverware for example.
> In the DW its all sort of lumped together but in our case the cleaned
> stuff is stored in 3 seperate drawers - std silverware, knives,
> accessories (spatulas, gravy spoons, whisks, etc)
It's all of that "putting away" of stuff that IMO is the biggest time-
waster. And part of what often gives em the urge to just rent a big
dumpster and throw most of my stuff out the window and right into it.
>> Laundry is something that I don't knwo how it could be automated,
>> unless everythign you wear can be washed the same way. I still wash
>> some stuff in hot (165 deg) water, heh, because there are certain
>> things I want to sanitize - but certainly not everything can take
>> that. Maybe there is a way to do it, but I can't imagine it.
>> Personally, I don't even care about the washign part so much - it's
>> the folding and putting-away that takes the longest, and is also
>> brain-meltingly boring...
>
> Similarly to the DW fiasco, I like the idea of the clothes storage
> facilty also handling the cleaning chore.
> 2 closets, one for clean clothes storage and the other for cleaning
> dirty clothes, and they would be on a conveyor so the dirty clothes
> would move, after being cleaned, to the clean area.
> But I can see all kinds of personal issues with it.
> Underpants for example, how would this mesh with the whole thing?
> I can't see me hanging my underpants on hangers.
> Or sox.
Clip hangers. I hang gloves up that way - keeps them together, and it's
out-of-the-way.
> But doing laundry is one of the worst chores, for me, I can't stand
> it. Because I wear shorts and t-shirts all year long and most of the
> time they are dirty from the projects I'm working on, I'd just as soon
> buy shorts and t-shirts on a roll, like paper towels, and just tear a
> new one off the roll everyday and then throw them away when I take
> them off. They'd have to be made from some sort of organic, cheap,
> resilient material, (hemp?) and look halfway decent.
Oh yeah, that'd be handy, to be sure. Have to add jeans for me, tho',
since they're somethign of a "bug barrier" ;)
> Do that with shirts, shorts, underpants and sox and there ya go, most
> of my laundry issues would vanish.
You know, it makes me wonder whether such disposables really would be
less energy-efficient (which is the general argumant against
disposables).
> Oh yeah, bath towels too.
I satarted using a hair-dryer. I hae this thing where I get unbnearably
itchy if my skin remains damp, and towles don't do it for me. Hair dryer
works pretty good, got a "travel" think at WalMart for under $10. A
small hand-towel suffices for getting the wetest bits, then just a couple
minutes with the hair dryer, and back into a long t-shirt.
> At the very least I'd like to have a large machine that could handle 2
> full loads at one time, would wash AND dry, and would also hold about
> 5 gallons each of laundry detergent, rinse and bleach.
> Then I could just dump all the stuff in one machine and an hour or so
> later go get all of it out.
> Like you, folding and hanging all the stuff is the worst part, I can't
> stand it!
> Then I have to lug all the stuff upstairs and put it all away.
> Arrrrrrr.............
THat's why I liked my house's floor-plan - the laundry and my BR+closet
are only steps apart. With the largeish MBR closet, I even started
hanging up t-shirts because it's so much faster than folding, and I don't
want to have to buy a dresser just to store that sort of inane stuff.
There's a special being shown periodically now on either the History
Channel, or Nat.Geo., can't recall which, but it profilesseveral
architects in Tokyo and how they save space (given that square footage is
at such a premium there). One fellow set up *all* the walls as storage
cabinets, and then, for the subsequently-deep window openings, he brought
in light by lining the windowsills/openings wiht stailes steel polished
to almost a mirror-like reflectiveness. I liked that *alot* - the
cabinets were set up so that there wasn't space (or at least, only just
enough for clearance) between the doors, and they weren't covered with
all sorts of geegaws/molding, so teh did look like walls rather than
cabinets, and the simple lines wouldn't collect dust or crud, so it'd be
easy to clean.
What I'd add to that design would be an option for a way f mounting
artwork - either a glass/plexigalss box that'd go over teh work and
frame, or maybe a glass door that'd allow framed art to be mountd behind
it - not sure, haven't worked that out yet. But the idea would be to (1)
create a more controlled climate for the artwork and (2) easy cleaning
(even tho' damagning dust/dirt is kpet off artwork that has glass mounted
in front of it, frames still collect dust and have to be kept up with).
What I try to envision are ways to still have artwork (chachki's,
memorbilia, etc.) around to personalize and humanize one's space, but to
have convenient, well-designed, built-in options to *both* protect the
items from damage (dust, dirt, potential for dropping them while
cleanign...), and make the home *easy* to keep at least reasonably clean.
THe more bits of stuff thre are that stick out, the more time and work it
takes just to keep up with that, which means less time availabe to \more
productive (or even merely fun ;) ) pursuits.
IMO, furniture is not very efficient...
OTOH, another thing that the above-mentioned program briefly touches upon
is "transformer" furniture. I've also seem soem innivative folding
furniture. HAve ot look into that more deeply, although "innovative"
unfortunately always ends up meaning "expensive as all bloody
hell"...same for "contemporary". Just go and try to buy a satin-neckel
(""silver"-color) towel bar - the less fromage that's on it, the more it
costs, and a plain metal rod ends up costing 4 times as much as something
covered in geegaws... Go figure...
>> But generally, cleaning is an after-the-fact action - what'd be ideal
>> would be to reduce the *need* to clean. Whcih also would reduce
>> allergens and general pollutants.
>
> There ya go, the best way to deal with a problem is to NOT have the
> problem in the first place.
> Maybe Kenny's right, just go naked......and stay home.......on a
> deserted compound.......
Hey, there are worse ideas ;)
And heck, it'd also be a real incentive to lose weight <LOL!>
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