We have a decorator lamp in our TV room. It's a hand-painted figurine of a 16th-century acrobat. It is colorful and rests atop a tall floor speaker in a corner between the entertainment center and the wall. The lamp is unusual and, therefore, a conversation piece. That's the good part. Turning it on and off is the bad.

The lamp switch is on the cord instead of on the lamp itself. Getting to the switch is awkward because we drape the cord over the back of the speaker to keep it concealed. And, the area surrounding the lamp is congested...television cabinet, speaker and lamp all crammed in a corner. That's why getting to the switch is a big pain. We've found a solution to our problem, one we think you will find interesting.

Recently, a company that makes unusual electrical products contacted us about their wares. This company makes, among other things, motion-activated light switches. We checked out their products. There were switches galore. As we were rummaging through them, we noticed a box that looked like a wall receptacle. It was packaged in a plastic container side by side with a device that looked like a garage-door opener...gray with a white button.

We realized it was another form of an electronic switch. However, it wasn't motion-activated. It was button-activated...remote button-activated. Wow! What a discovery...an adaptor for a wall plug that could be switched on and off remotely. A few hours later the two-piece contraption was in our house and plugged into the receptacle where our showpiece lamp with the inconvenient switch control was connected.

All we had to do was plug the adaptor into the receptacle and the lamp cord into the adaptor. The switch on the lamp cord was turned to the ``on'' position, and from that point the remote control did all the work. How nice to have a remote control for lights and other small appliances.

Come December, it was time to put up a tree. Only that year we had help from a device we previously didn't know existed. What a kick it was to arrange the lights on the tree, plug them into our adaptor and flick the tree lights off and on with a remote control.

By the time Christmas rolled around we were intimately familiar with their other products. We had learned that they also offer a similar unit that was developed for use outdoors. Want to turn your decorative house lights on and off at the flick of a switch...without opening the front door?

And that's not all. Did you ever wish that a certain light fixture in your home could be controlled from more than one location? You know, like from a three-way switching system? It's possible, and without any wiring. You now can purchase devices that look exactly like wall switches. They can remotely control lamps, ceiling lights, wall lights...practically any kind of electric fixture...and from up to 10 locations. Not that one would likely want to control a light fixture from that many places, but it's possible...and without wiring.

Remote-control switching uses radio-wave technology to turn household power to a specific appliance on or off. We couldn't believe it when we discovered how inexpensive these units were...a mere $12.