Do You Leave Remote Directions for Guests?

Our friend, a meticulous planner, is leaving her three-year-old with a non-grandma sitter for the first time ever. As you might assume, she's got a binder ready with all the information for the sitter. Included in that binder, surprisingly, is instructions on how to operate the television remotes...

For those of us who rock a wicked (and wickedly complicated) home theater setup, just turning up the volume can be a challenge for the folks who aren't clicking those remotes every day.

Three seems to be the norm for remotes permanently on the coffee table—one for the TV, cable or satelite and the DVD player—but we've seen setups of four, five and even more as you add surround sound, digital music players and video game consoles. (Good thing there's so many stylish remote storage solutions!)

Do you just give them a quick in-person walk-through? Do you let them figure it out themselves? Or do you leave detailed remote instructions for houseguests and sitters?

If so, do you have a super-organized permanent manual like our new mom friend or do you just jot a note down on the fly? Let us know in the comments!

(Image: Flickr member le licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (3)

We use a Harmony remote, which in theory would be quite easy to master for guests and babysitters and so forth. But unless they've used one before it can be a bit off-putting. Then there's the issue of making sure it's pointing at the components for the whole ten seconds or so while everything starts up. If they make a mistake then there's always the help prompt, but again, unless you've become used to that kind of remote set-up, the idea of interacting with a remote is a little strange.

posted by gringcorp on September 2nd 2009 at 4:30pm
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I've made a totally organized binder for remote control instructions (I'm mildly obsessive). I scanned the remotes (four, in my case), and inserted the pictures into a Word document with text boxes pointing to the relevant buttons. The binder also includes instructions for taking care of the cat and phone numbers to call in case of emergency. I figure our friends who are catsitting will spend more time in the apartment (with the cat) if they can make the TV and cable and DVD player work...

posted by Foulard on September 2nd 2009 at 6:09pm
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We have typed instructions that tell how to turn on the TV and a list of channels the guest might want to watch.

The list of channels is helpful for the guest, but a little disturbing, like when you find out that your mom likes to watch Fox News in the morning.

posted by MisterR on September 3rd 2009 at 8:38am
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