Make Your Home Work For You
Running a household is not an easy thing to do, especially if you have children. From when you wake up in the morning to the moment that you collapse on your bed in the evening, there will always be something to do. In the first few hours of a regular day, a parent has to get their kids up from bed, make sure they are washed and dressed, make them breakfast and then take them to school. Just that routine can be enough to exhaust you. If you work full-time, you still have all of your professional responsibilities still ahead of you. If you are a stay at home mom or dad, your list of tasks is no less daunting. There is the laundry which never ends. There will never be a time when a person finds that there is nothing to wash or dry or iron because as soon as you think you have caught up, the pile grows again at the end of the day. There is then the cleaning, which is another Sisyphean task: the process of cleaning itself can sometimes make a mess around the house. If you are vacuuming, for instance, you have to move everything around to get to those hard to reach places, which means that you have to put it all back. There is then the issue of preparing food for your children when they get home, not to mention whatever it is that you want to do for yourself. It is important to remember, however many children you have, to make time to take it easy sometimes. No one can work forever without a break. You need to pace yourself or else you’ll fall behind.
However, it does not need to be so difficult. The modern world has provided society with so many wonders that some young people do not have a frame of reference which would allow them to see how easy some things are now. In a report published by the Pew Research Centre, it was revealed that 77% of Americans now own a smartphone. That figure has more than doubled since 2011 when only 35% had one. Not only that, 69% use social media and an incredible 88% of Americans now use the internet. These figures may seem rather familiar and passe today but that is exactly the point. Twenty years ago, when the Millennial generation was being born, if you wanted to be able to take photos, send emails, surf the internet and call anyone in the world, you had to bring several different devices with you at the expense of a few thousand dollars. All of those functions are now ably performed by a small, reasonably inexpensive device. It is strange to think how easy it is today to get a ride home after a night out, or read breaking news wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. Smartphones are just an example though. Technological advances have improved people’s domestic lives too.
Every generation makes predictions about how life will be after they are gone, and some get it right, and lots of others fail completely. However, if you were to ask someone a hundred years ago whether they’d believe that you could clean your entire house without getting up from your chair, they would like not believe you. It is a reality of the modern world though. While the devices may still be reasonably modest and not as efficient as just doing it yourself, robotic vacuum cleaners can be an easy way to reduce your workload. Roombas may be something that only a few people can presently afford, but they said the same thing about automobiles and personal computers, and today nearly everyone in the country has one of both. The problem is that there are so many different models, each with different benefits, that it is hard to choose which is the best. You can find out at smartrobotichome.com by checking out their review section. Another cool innovation that can help save you time at home is robotic lawnmowers. They are still quite expensive but as the technology becomes more refined and they become more popular, the price will come down significantly. They are good because you do not have to go out every week during the summer and put it on. The machine works by itself. If you put its docking station hidden amongst some bushes, the machine will come out automatically and start mowing the lawn. When it has done it, it will return to the station and recharge. It requires you to set it up and that is all. You can relax for the rest of the year safe in the knowledge that your lawn will always be immaculately neat.
It is not just small, mobile robots that can help around the house now. Many modern appliances have the capacity to be programmed to start at whatever time you’d like. For instance, if you want to wash some clothes but you will not have time to wait for the cycle to end by the time you have to go out to work in the morning, you can program the machine to start a few hours before your alarm goes off. All you need to do then is hang out the clothes. It is perfect. However, it gets better. Companies like Samsung have now developed machines that can connect to your smartphone. If you download their app, you can remotely control your washing machine or dryer. It will send you a notification when the process is complete, so you will not forget about it and have to wash them again to get that stale smell out of your clothes. You can also get a similar thing except with an oven. You will no longer need to worry about forgetting about something and coming back to find it burnt to a crisp, that is as long as you don’t forget about your phone too.
However, it is not just chores that technology can help you with. There are now smart security systems that can tell you instantly if something is not quite right at your home. They too can connect to your smartphone so you can contact the police in the event of a potential crime. Many now come with environmental sensors, and most do not require professional installation. In terms of security, you can also now get smart locks. You do not need a key anymore since you can control your doors with your phone. If you are out at work and one of your family is locked out, you can just open the house remotely. It is incredibly convenient. Perhaps the most important gadget that you can invest in though is smart carbon monoxide detectors. It is a silent killer, and if you want to protect your family, you need to know straight away if there is a leak. Smart detectors will send you urgent messages directly to your phone.
Another thing that you can now control remotely is the temperature of your house. If you are coming home from work on a cold, miserable winter evening, opening your door to find that the house is cold is no fun at all. You could leave the heating on all day to get around the problem, but that is a massive waste of money and energy. The smarter solution is to invest in a system like Nest. It too responds to an app on your phone which means that you can have your home perfectly warm for when you get back and you can control it from wherever you are. If you are worried about your utility bills though, there are lots of things that you can do. Installing double glazed windows and insulation in the loft and walls of your home is a good start. You should also consider something like MeterPlug. Like nearly everything else today, it connects to your phone and will tell you how much electricity you are using. It will also turn off devices that you’ve left on which will save you money and reduce energy going to waste unnecessarily.
Finally, all of these devices could easily seem quite overwhelming. For instance, if you come home to find both the robotic lawn mower and vacuum going, as well as the washing machine and dryer, you may feel as if the technology has taken over. That is why you need to make your home smart with systems such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Home. Both are digital personal assistants that you can speak to. They recognise multiple voices and will respond to demands such as lowering the lights or playing music. It is great because it is always there, listening to you. As soon as you think of something, you can just ask, and it will be answered. Both will connect to your phone, so you can control them as much as you’d like. The future is here, and it is going to make your life easier. All you need to do is embrace it.