Some smart home tech feels like it’s solving a problem that doesn’t exist. Does your fridge really need to be able to tell you when you’ve run out of milk? Used well, however, smart home tech can help to solve some of the problems you face every day.
Knowing when to water your plants
I love houseplants, but I completely suck at keeping them alive. I buy a new plant with the best of intentions, and then before you know it, the plant is a shriveled husk in the corner of the room. I’ve tried buying plants that are idiot-proof, but I still somehow manage to kill them.
My biggest issue is not just remembering to water them, but watering them at the right time. I’ve never really understood the advice to water when the top inch of soil feels dry. It feels dry every time I stick my finger in, even if I’ve just watered them.
Thankfully, there are devices that can help people like me who weren’t born with green thumbs. You can purchase dedicated soil sensors that you shove into the soil of your plant and which measure things such as the soil moisture level, temperature, humidity, and more. I use these sensors to send me alerts when the soil moisture drops below a set level, ensuring that I always water exactly when the plants need it and never too early or too late.
Forgetting to take the trash out
This is something else that I used to be terrible at. Almost every Friday, I would only remember that it was trash collection day when I saw the truck pull up outside. It was then a complete panic trying to remember whether or not it was recycling this week or standard trash.
Originally, I built my own automation that took the information from a published schedule for trash collections. Whenever I first entered the kitchen on a Friday morning, a spoken announcement would tell me which type of trash needed to be put out. It worked reasonably well, but I’d have to update the automation each time a new schedule was released, and I’d sometimes still forget by the time I’d eaten breakfast.
Thankfully, I discovered the Waste Collection Schedule integration in Home Assistant, which automatically pulls the data from my local waste collection schedule, so I don’t need to touch a thing. I added a repeated reminder until I confirm that the trash has been put out, and now I no longer miss trash collections at all.
Leaving wet clothes in the washer
We have a utility room in our home where the washer and dryer live. The room is quite a long way from the main body of the house, down a long corridor. You can hear when the washer or dryer is running, but only if you really stop to listen.
This meant that often, the washing machine would stop running, and neither of us would hear that it had stopped. The wet clothes would then end up sitting in the washing machine, slowly going musty. Sometimes we’d need to wash them all over again.
Smart washing machines can send you alerts when the cycle is finished, but you don’t need a smart washing machine to know when your washing is done. You can use an energy-monitoring smart plug, for example, to see how much power your washing machine is using. When the power level stays low for long enough, you know that the cycle is done.
You can also use options such as vibration sensors that can measure when the washing machine is moving and when it’s still. While the washer will pause at points during the cycle, once the vibrations have remained low for a set period, you know that your washing is done. You can then have your smart home send an alert and never have to worry about musty clothes again.
My kids getting up too early
This was something that was a real struggle when our kids were younger. They would wake up at crazy hours of the morning and come into our room to ask if it was time to get up yet. This wasn’t great for our sleep.
When the kids were too young to tell the time, having a clock in the room didn’t help. In the end, the solution was incredibly simple. I put a smart bulb in each of the kids’ rooms and set up an automation to make the light turn blue each morning at 7 am.
If they woke up and the light wasn’t on, it wasn’t time to get up yet. They could get out of bed and play if they wanted, but they had to stay in their room until the blue light turned on. If they turned their light on to play, it would still change to a blue light at 7 am, at which point they would know they could leave their rooms. It worked far better than I had hoped.
Having too many remotes
I’ve always hated having to switch between multiple different remotes to control all my AV devices. There was a remote for my TV, another for the surround sound system, another for the Apple TV, another for the Roku, and so on. I initially had a Logitech Harmony universal remote that could control all the devices, but mine broke after Logitech had stopped making them.
I ended up creating my own universal remote using a wireless remote that I found online. Using Home Assistant, I set up an automation that would perform the relevant actions based on whichever key was pressed.
The beauty of making my own universal remote was that I could tailor it to my exact needs. I added features such as a dedicated button to automatically enter the PIN codes for my streaming accounts, and another to automatically skip through the typical length of ads. Now I have one remote that does everything, and all my other remotes are safely tucked away out of sight.
Tinkering with your smart home is fun, but ultimately, it’s meant to make life in your home smarter. One of the most satisfying ways to do so is to find a pain point and use your smart home to solve that problem. I still get a smug smile every time I take out the trash, thinking about the bad old days before I set up my automations.
