Your home is a place where you want to be able to relax and unwind. No matter how hard a day at work or in life has been, you know you can come back to a home that requires a minimal amount of effort to maintain and look after. Transforming a property into a smart home is a thing that many homeowners and renters are doing in order to make their lives a little easier. It’s an investment that can be made in a variety of ways, so here are some tips to help transform your property into a smart home.
Replace Any Dated Fixtures
It’s worth starting out with any existing fixtures that might be a little old and could do with replacing. Depending on when you purchased your home or however long you’ve been living in it, there’s likely to be some fixtures and fittings that are outdated or aren’t what they used to be. This can be through the usual wear and tear but also advancements in technology and design in general. It’s mind-boggling to think that so much has changed, and it’s a good idea to replace any dated fixtures with new ones. For example, smart light bulbs are a popular pick for most households nowadays, especially when you can control them from your phone. Being able to adjust your light brightness or even the color of the light all from your own electronic device can be handy. Take a look around your property for anything that could do with an update and a new lease of life.
Operate Everything From Your Phone
Your phone is a wonderful piece of technology that’s only getting better and more advanced as newer models come out each year. With apps being very popular, you’ve also got the ability to control a lot more from your phone than ever before. Whether it’s your lighting or any household appliances with Bluetooth or wifi connections, you can use your phone to control them. That also means you can do it from wherever you are with a signal, even if it’s out of the property itself. You no longer have to worry about leaving the house and thinking you’ve left a light on or your straighteners on in the bedroom, for example. It’s giving you ease of use and a better way of keeping your home in order from an electronic point of view. Make sure you have an unlimited data sim on your phone, just in case your WIFI ever drops out.
Purchase Plug Sockets With Bluetooth
Talking of technology operated from your phone, a lot of the ways we can add more appliances to your home is through plug sockets that have Bluetooth capabilities. It probably won’t be long until these become the norm in most households, but for now, you simply plug these devices into your normal plugs and then plug in your device from there. That way, pretty much anything that you have in that plug socket is going to be controlled to some extent, whether that’s simply something as basic as switching it on and off. It gives you more control over your devices and not just those typical items that connect to devices automatically.
Replace Your Thermostat
The thermostat is something that you’re probably used to manually controlling or setting on a timer. However, the thermostat can be replaced by an electronic option that gives you more scope in how it’s controlled. Electronic thermostats can help you control it through an app on your phone or electronic device, and then with some, it even monitors and then sets your heating at a level that’s both eco-friendly for the environment but also saves you a bit more money in the process. By replacing this, it can be beneficial for you, especially during the winter when you don’t want to come home to a cold house. Why not switch it on when you’re on your way home? That’s something you don’t have the ability to do so easily on a regular basis.
Add USB To Charging Points
Plug sockets don’t just have the usual plug entry anymore and some will come with USB entry points. These can be really useful for when you have those occasions where you might have a limited amount of chargers in a plug form or simply that the plug sockets themselves are all taken. This is usually the case when you have friends over or a party with a big group of people. This extra option to allow you and guests to charge important devices like phones and laptops can be very useful to have, and it’s just another way of making your home life that little easier.
Upgrade Your Sound System
Sound systems within your home are a great way to elevate your viewing experience in front of the television. It can provide you with a cinematic experience that’s unlike anything you’ve had previously, and choosing the right sound bars, and speakers can help provide you with the very best in entertainment systems. Think about your current sound system and what’s lacking in what you hear. It could be that there’s not enough volume that surrounds your living space, or it could just be the quality of the sound. Whatever it may be, investing in a new sound system might be just what you need in order to provide a better entertainment experience.
Install CCTV Or A Smart Doorbell
Keeping your home under lock and key is important because we all want to help keep our home as safe as possible. You never really know how safe you are until something happens where your home becomes compromised, or you get a scare. It’s definitely worth installing a CCTV system or smart doorbell. This can help provide video footage so that in the case of anything happening, you’ve got evidence to back it up. Having video camera surveillance can also deter those individuals who may be looking at your property as an opportunity.
Get A Personal Home Assistant
A personal home assistant is a popular feature in the household because it can provide a lot of help and assistance around the home. You can connect it up to different devices, and it can be your personal help for asking pretty much anything. It can play any of your favorite songs, and in some setups, you can even get it to call friends and family members. There are a number of personal home assistants available, so be sure to do your research in order to figure out which one is the best for you and what you need it to do. It might be something you really get a lot out of, although it can sometimes risk being something you rarely use. It depends on how active you can be with it.
Streamline Your Devices
Streamlining your devices so that you’re operating off one or two only can make it a lot easier for you to run your home efficiently. If you have several devices that do the same thing, then it can often be a waste of money and of your time too. Try to keep your electronic devices to the necessities of what you need. It makes sure that you are keeping most things on the one device, rather than spreading them over several different ones. This only creates more hassle, and that’s something you want to aim for less of when you’re trying to make your home a little easier to manage.
Buy A Robot Cleaner
If you’re not one to do much cleaning around the home, or you find you’re constantly chasing after your household to keep it in order, it might be worth getting an extra helping hand. Leave the hoovering to a handy robot cleaner who can simply go around your home, cleaning anything you or your household drops on the floor. It’s a great way to keep on top of the minor debris that tends to fall around the home, and that is caused on a daily basis. That way, you’ll find you don’t need to do as much when it comes to the cleaning. They can be an investment but a worthy one, especially if you can get a couple to do the various floors on your property.
Transforming your home into a smart home is definitely something you want to do when making it a more efficient and easier place to live. Remember that as time goes on, a lot of homeowners would prefer to be able to live with more comfort and ease. Therefore, installing and investing in some smart home goodies could add some value to your home if they’re left in the property when you leave. So make things easier with a robot cleaner and a personal home assistant like Alexa. Use your phone to operate all your appliances and add extra tools like plug-in Bluetooth devices and USB charging ports. They can certainly make a difference to your living.