Setting Up CONDICE in a New Apartment

By GETAUVE Editorial Team · Published October 26, 2026

Setting Up CONDICE in a New Apartment

Eleven boxes, no curtains, one working outlet. Here's the ten-minute version.

A short setup sequence for a new apartment, in the order that actually matters, plus what to change once the boxes are gone and the door closes.

The Short Answer

Unpack the device last, not first. Wash it, charge it for about 90 minutes, and put it in a closed drawer that isn't the bathroom. Use the first session in the evening, with a fan or a towel under it, and keep it to 10 minutes. A new apartment is a bad place to test a new routine, so treat the first week as a placement exercise rather than a performance.

The Ten-Minute Setup, In Order

Minute one: find the pouch and the cable. Don't plug anything in yet.

Minute two: wash the tip with warm water and mild soap, 20 seconds, and dry it. New places have new dust, and the first session shouldn't involve lint.

Minutes three to five: charge. A full charge is about 90 minutes, so this is the long block. Use the time to find your sheets.

Minutes six to eight: choose a drawer. Not the bathroom, not the kitchen, not the windowsill. A bedroom drawer that closes fully is the goal.

Minutes nine and ten: put a towel and the pouch in that drawer, and leave the device there. That's it. The setup is done before the kitchen is.

Where It Lives Before the Furniture Arrives

Empty apartments are dusty. Silicone picks up dust and holds it, which makes the tip drag and makes the device feel worse than it is.

Keep it in the pouch, inside a drawer, until the floors are done. If you don't have a drawer yet, use a lidded plastic box. The requirement is a lid, not furniture.

Avoid the bathroom for the same reason you avoid the windowsill. Steam, hair, and dust are all things the housing will collect, and the 4.7-inch body has more surface than you'd think.

One detail worth knowing: a magnetic cable on a bare floor gets stepped on. Keep it in the pouch with the device, not loose in a box of cables.

The First Week in an Unfinished Apartment

Say you get the keys on a Friday and the bed shows up on Sunday. By the time the boxes are gone, you've spent two nights on the floor and you're not in the mood to learn a new device.

Pick one pattern and level 2 of 5. Ten minutes, in the evening, before you're too far gone. Then stop, even if it's going well.

The reason is simple. You're trying to learn whether the drawer location works, whether the room is private enough, and whether the noise carries. Those are all location questions, and you can answer them in 10 minutes.

Esther Perel's point about anticipation applies to apartments too. A routine that has a place and an hour is easier to return to than one that happens wherever the boxes aren't.

Sound, Doors, and Neighbors You Haven't Met

At about 44 dB, CONDICE is in the range of a quiet conversation. In a building with concrete floors, that's nothing. In a converted house with a shared wall, it's audible.

You won't know which building you're in until you've lived there a week. One night with a fan will tell you more than a month of guessing.

The downside is that you'll spend a week guessing about sound. A towel under the device kills the contact noise, which is the part that travels through furniture. A fan covers the rest. If you have neither, run the shower for two minutes first, and the bathroom fan will do the same job.

Also check the door. A hollow-core bedroom door with a half-inch gap passes more sound than a solid one, and that's a 10-second inspection that tells you where to sit.

What Doesn't Transfer From the Old Place

The drawer height, mostly. The place you kept it in the last apartment was probably chosen around furniture you no longer have.

The habit transfers. Wash, dry, charge, drawer. That sequence works in any floor plan, and it's the part worth keeping.

The other thing that doesn't transfer is your sense of how loud the room is. Old apartments teach you a false confidence, because you knew exactly which floorboard creaked.

When to Wait a Week

Skip the setup entirely if you're still sleeping on a mattress on the floor and the door doesn't latch. Privacy is the one thing you can't improvise, and a week won't hurt.

Skip it too if you have movers, family, or a friend staying over. The device is small and easy to hide, but the charging cable on a counter is the part that gets noticed.

And don't buy anything new for the apartment's sake. A 2.8 oz device doesn't need a shelf, a case, or a dedicated corner. It needs a drawer that closes.

Sources

• Cleveland Clinic — general patient education on personal device cleaning.
• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — guidance on extension cords and outlet safety in new homes.
• National Sleep Foundation — general information on bedroom environments and sleep quality.

This article is general education, not medical advice. If anything hurts, stop and talk with a clinician.