Late last week I pulled a dummy move and washed my phone with a load of laundry. I got it out when the cycle was done (so about 50 minutes later) and gave it my best shot, but the gadget’s definitely got some battle scars and now it’s just a step above a throw away phone with a messed-up monitor to boot.

It was an interesting undertaking to go without a phone for a number of days during the revival process — because while I absolutely hate the thing, I do use it a fair amount. But I think it helped that I’m not a much of a phone talker, so although I’m into texting in a big way, by cobbling together Facebook and Gmail communiqués along with the phone of a friend I borrowed when calling was essential, I felt sort of liberated by the experience as opposed to isolated. However, because of this little foray into the Land of Limited Electronics, I decided to do some digging to find out if my phone-saving game plan had any obvious flaws, or if different strategies could have brought about better results.