One peaceful night, you are sitting at home watching your favorite show on TV. Suddenly, the power goes out. You reach for your handy flashlight. You flip the switch, and…nothing. The battery is dead, having lost its charge over time, and now you are left groping in the dark for a candle and a match.

Everyone has been in this situation at one time or another, if not with a flashlight, then perhaps with a CD player or a travel alarm clock. The results can range from inconvenience (being left in the dark by a dead flashlight) to disaster (if, say, your alarm clock’s battery dies and you are an hour late for an important business meeting.)

You can easily avoid having to experience these inconveniences. Simply label your battery-operated devices with the date whenever you change the battery, then check the package the battery came in to see when you need to replace it. This will keep you from falling victim to a battery that fades from old age.

Test your devices regularly as well, particularly things such as flashlights which are for emergency use, and thus are not used often otherwise. You may also want to consider buying a battery tester, which can be found at most electronics stores, that will quickly tell you when a battery is running low.

Keep a supply of spare batteries all in one place, so you will not have to search high an low for a new set of batteries just to listen to your new CD. Keep a list of your battery-operated devices and what type of batteries they use with this supply of batteries, so you can easily tell how many things you will need to buy batteries for when your supplies begin to run low. You may also want to keep a set of batteries with important devices (flashlights are, again, the perfect example) so they can be replaced quickly.