The Netflix Home Organization Revolution

Do you remember late fees? It does seem like a distant memory, but it used to be the bane of my existence. So much so that I pretty much didn’t go to Blockbuster at all because, well, because I knew I’d never return the movies on time and would always be battling that late fees. It’s kind of the downfall of many an Organic Freedom — and often Smart Freedoms and Funs — and it’s is also the reason that I eschew the public library as well. But thankfully another visionary came along and changed all that, well, at least where movies are concerned.

Understandably, everyone has been focusing lately on the genius and visionary that was Steve Jobs, but I want to talk about the other visionary Reed Hastings…he’s the guy who created a company called Netflix, even though he was just hawking rental movies through the mail. I mean Netflix? The name never made any sense until the broadband technology became widespread enough for anyone to be able to watch movies, streaming live on TV. So that’s a perfect example of forward, big-picture thinking and so we can easily assume Reed Hastings is a Smart — although many might question the use of that particular word anywhere in the vicinity of his name after Netflix’s recent price hike and their awful idea to split the mail and streaming businesses into two entities. Netflix & Quickster. Quickster? Really?? Quickster???? Kelly knew that was the dumbest business name she’d ever heard for a business the moment she opened Reed’s “personal” email to her.

So what has Netflix done for home organization? It has helped us get rid of all those old VHS and DVDs because you can pretty much rest-assured that you can find those old movies on Netflix’s library — or the libraries of other companies like Amazon and Hulu — and not have to rely upon keeping them yourself. But most importantly for me and all the other Smart Freedoms, Organic Freedoms and Funs — no more late fees! But frankly, even with no late fees, I still had a tendency to hold onto the DVDs, lose the envelope, or the sleeve, and then I would never get what was next on my queue. Nope, the real revolution started when you could just go online and watch a movie or television show without having to deal with the physical DVD. Nothing to return and no need to remember anything after you’re done with the movie or have fallen asleep!

So, streaming is the obvious choice for our personality types. What’s the best way to be able to watch a streaming movie? There’s always your computer, but I find that it doesn’t always work as well. Last Christmas we bought a Wii video game console for the kids and that also has the ability to work as a device to stream home movies through Netflix which has been a Godsend since I can’t seem to return a DVD from this household to save my life — no need to mock us Classics and Funs. If you don’t have need of a Wii or other gaming system, there are a lot of other options out there and here’s a great blog that details them.