In December of 2013, about a year after I moved to New York, I found an apartment through a friend of a friend in the southern section of Bushwick, Brooklyn. If you’re curious how this scintillating piece of advice came about, read on.

Your apartment might become a bit messy as you empty your drawers and cabinets. That is, proceed as if the alarm could be anywhere.

Pretend the alarm is an old wallet, or some other long-lost object that doesn’t make noise.

So, for now, ignore the beeping and wherever you think it might be coming from. Since you’re reading this article, this method has likely failed you already.

Stop trying to locate the alarm with your ears.

The following solution to this problem will sound counter-intuitive, but it’s worked for me and others ( Taylor Berman), so I’d like to share it with you:

If you’re reading this article, you’re probably frustrated by the fact that, somewhere in your house or apartment, a smoke alarm with a dying battery is beeping, and beeping, and beeping-usually once every 60 seconds-but you cannot figure out where the alarm is located.

Where is the sound coming from