My favourite home automation
- andreakristin
- Jul 24
- 4 min read
A few simple automation gadgets go a long way to help your home run a bit more smoothly and help little that metal load of open tabs in your brain. These four things fit easily into your existing home. Doesn’t matter if your own or rent - no drilling, no permancy. They do the simple jobs when and how you like them.
Curtain robot
Yes! Did you know you could automate your existing curtain tracks??!! I know you may think, I don’t need this, pulling the curtains isn’t that hard. I used to think the same! But all the small things add up when you are running the family home. To just take this off your list does help so much. I walk into the living room in the morning to make breakfast and at 7am the curtains open up, I am starting dinner, it is getting dark and off the shut. It just being ease to the daily rhythm of the house instead of staring at me, reminding me of this other thing I still haven’t done.
These little guys are called the SwitchBot and I have been so impressed how they can easily move my over 3 metre long sheers. They come with an app so you can set up schedules for opening and closing and also has a slow and quiet mode for a gentle way to wake up and close down for the night.
Besides the app, you can simply give them a tug and they will start, or you can control via voice commands by also getting the hub.
They simply click into your rail hidden behind your curtain and have a long battery life, you will only need to charge every 3 or so months, if not longer.
Purchase them here:
Smart Plugs
We all know that accent lamps and lights are a must have to make your house inviting and create ambience. The reality is they are annoying to turn on and off all over the place that you don’t end up really using them nightly. That’s there these handy little smart plugs come in.
Turn all your lamps into smart lights, these link with all the home automation systems - google, Apple, Alexa. You can set them up on schedules, voice control and through apps.
It’s so nice to be ready to go to bed and tell Siri to turn off all the lights and it’s just all done. I also have mine turn on once the sunsets and it just another thing I just do t have to think about and it’s just done and exactly how I like it.
Purchase them here:
Skylight
So you have your entire calendar and schedule in your phone, you know what’s going on, but your kids don’t. Long gone are the days of having the flip monthly calendar in the wall of your kitchen, and using those whiteboard ones is doubling the work and making rooms for errors. This is why I went searching for a better solution and found Skylight. Each family member has their own colour code to easily see what’s happening for them day by day, week by week. All while being totally linked to your phone calendar.
What’s better is that is also manages each family embers routines and chores, With emojis it’s easy for even the smallest family member to visualise what they need to do mornings and evenings plus chores to be done on certain days. Allocate stars for each one and they get excited to collect their stars and then redeem them in. Ask your kids that they want to do, maybe it’s go to the zoo, have a daddy daughter day, etc. Things you would probably do anyway, you now can make them work towards it by getting their chores and basic routines done without the never ending nagging. It’s honestly been a game changer in our family.
Beyond this you can write shopping lists, to dos, store recipes and photos to display when not in use - an unexpected delight to see photos that are normally tucked away in your camera roll, which your children never get to see either. It’s been one of the best buys for our family.
Purchase them here:
Mova
After renovating our home, we now have a large amount of wooden floor. To vacuum then mop, it’s a huge undertaking and any help with that is welcomed! I have never had a cleaner, so this Mova is the next best thing! It’s sweeps, vacuums and mops at the same time. It knows when it’s on hard floor to mop and when it’s on carpet to raise it’s mop up. It auto detects how dirty the floors are and adjusts its intensity.
When it’s done, it also fully washes and dries its mop. Leaving only a dirty water tank to empty. No other clean up required.
I have it running every day and while I will still need to go in and deep clean areas it can’t get to (such as behind the pot plants), it does get to a lot of areas that are difficult to me with a vacuum or mop. As it’s so low it cleans under all our furniture and under the beds, which is such a win - no more hidden dust.
Purchase them here:
So these are my top home automation gadgets. All were purchased in full by me from my own research and exactly what I use in my home.
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