In this day and age, there are people against these little listening devices that can automate the areas of our life as well as get hacked and let malicious people spy on us, learn our daily living patterns, and potentially take advantage or harm us. We're the type of people who aren't thrilled about the negative consequences, but also willing to adopt a few of life's efficiencies. We've slowly transitioned into automation and did not pay exorbitant amounts of money. Every Black Friday after Thanksgiving we debate whether a smart device that I covet would be worth the spend. Almost every year my husband is not a believer and says no thank you, but then eventually after passing up an opportunity at least 3 times, I'll be the one to cave on the 4th year and will make the decision regardless of whether the item is truly life-changing.
I'm going to list items as generically as I can since there are so many versions and improved models since we've made the switch. I can link to the ones we've gotten and you can laugh at how "old school" we are or give me a suggestion on whether the later model is really a game changer.
Smart Items for Drastic Life Improvement
You know that haunting feeling one might get when leaving the home and wondering whether or not one remembered to close the garage? Just check your app and you don't have to worry anymore! For an anxious person like me, this is why this item is number one for me.
Most deliveries go straight into our garage keeping our packages safe from theft.
I love being able to control my garage from anywhere in the world.
Smart Thermostat - Honestly this should just be a feature every home has.
We live in a very hot area so we turn on our AC before getting home so it can be comfortable, but we also make sure it's off when we're traveling so we save on our bills
I really think we should have gotten one that isn't battery operated since my husband once took it off to replace the battery, but didn't put it back on right away, then dropped something heavy on top of it shattering the glass plate. How annoying to pay for a replacement for the one we got since it's expensive. However - Amazon does sell these cheap refurbished Amazon brand ones that most likely work just as well for $40!
Front Door Smart Lock - My first splurge
I love the autolocking feature. If I left my house for 5 minutes and forgot to lock the door, it will automatically lock my door. It might be a little annoying if you're just taking the pup out to potty for 5 minutes, but it puts my mind at ease if I left the house and wondered whether the door is locked.
I made the mistake of not getting WiFi extenders so the WiFi connection option did not work for me so I can't control this anywhere in the world. I can now if I want to buy the adapter, but I already got used to not having it and didn't want to spend the extra money.
The fingerprint feature never works for me but works for my husband. How annoying. The person who makes fun of me for buying stuff like this has the easiest time accessing our home. It's still top 5 since we never have to carry around our house keys.
This took the longest for us to upgrade since we already had the smart lock and didn't think being able to see a person from our phones was necessary. However, the app also has a community of users that posts videos of theft, footage of the thief and lost pets. It helps us feel both safer & less safe at the same time. It feels less safe knowing that bad things around an area we live in can happen, but it makes you feel safer that you're warned about the thief with actual footage and that can be submitted to the police.
My husband literally laughed at me when I got this while we were dating and judged me for being too lazy to turn off my own lights. Then he got used to it. HAHA jokes on him. When we're traveling and at hotels that do not have voice-activated lights he says the voice command to turn off the light to signal to me to turn off the lights or gets really disappointed that he has to get out of the comfort of the bed to turn off a light then stumble back into bed.
Honorable Mentions - Items I take for granted and love having
We got this when it was $40 as a baby camera since it moves 360 and has night vision and can work with both Google Home and Alexa. It was such a good $40 spend that my husband got another one for our dog. There are all types of baby cameras on the market with all types of bells and whistles at various price points. We got the cheapest we could find with the functions we wanted thinking we would have to upgrade, but never did and would recommend this to anyone! We also brought this on vacations so we can watch Abigail from another room on our phones.
I almost forgot about this since we take this one for granted and have the very first version of this item so that I can turn my not so smart tv to a smart tv that can be voice activated. This should have been in the top 5, but all tvs are "smart tv" now so I'm not even sure this is necessary. We love this because we can turn the tv on for our toddler with Google Home or Alexa while we're in the kitchen cooking.
Google Home, Google Hub, & Alexa Echo Dot
It seems almost unecessary to say this is necessary as a one stop shop hub to control all your smart devices, but maybe this is another item we take for granted! It's pretty annoying that all smart devices all come with their own app that you have to create a username and password for, so controlling it via Google Home and/or Alexa is much more efficent. We have both and don't really have an alliance to one or another. It's a bit annoying that if we get an item that only works with Google or only works with Amazon. We usually go for 3rd party smart devices that can be compatible with both companies unless one brand was just so much cheaper like the Ring Doorbell. We really do like our Alexa, but I think the Google Home app is a lot more user friendly.
Smart Watch (This is truly #1)
I almost forgot about this daily used item that I can no longer live without. We're on our 2nd watch since the first version was too slow. Technically my husband is on his 3rd since he used to have the Garmin when he was still training for Ironman. I literally look at my watch every single day so that I won't be late to meetings, know the weather, track my steps, know what time the sunset is, and know the calendar day and time. I use the timer function whenever I'm cooking and when we had a newborn we clocked when she slept and fed with our watch. The best feature though is that it pages my phone so I can find it. If it wasn't for that feature, I would probably have ditched the watch before it was fast enough to do most of the features I mentioned above. My husband likes to use it to track his sleep, which I don't do as much, but that's helpful too. This literally is the second most useful smart device after our actual smartphone. I think there's no point in mentioning the smartphone since it's the single most important invention in our lifetime.
I honestly like the feel of real books more, but I also like being able to have many choices based on my mood when I'm traveling. The fact that the screen is not super reflective makes a huge difference and why I can't just use the iPad or iPhone. I probably have the first black and white version and I didn't get a cover for my Kindle so it got scratched within the first week! It made me sad since I like my devices pristine looking, but I didn't get a new one because I didn't think I'd use the Kindle enough to make it worth getting a new one. Someday I believe I'd gift my children their own and get a protective cover for theirs.
After reflecting on my top 5, I wonder if smart home items are for anxious people like me who are not anxious enough of hackers due to the fact that we don't have many valuables. I would still feel very violated if there was an intrusion, but my husband and I always joke about how the thief would be sorely disappointed since we strive to live a fairly minimalistic lifestyle and don't chase the latest trends on anything.
Although some of the items in the honorable mentions I truly can not live without, it just seems as though we all already have those items other than maybe the indoor camera.
Smart Devices that were not life changing & expensive
Roomba - we actually returned this. Maybe we got a lemon, but it always errored out and got under our Peloton. Pretty annoying if you ask me. Maybe we need to get the highest tier version, but honestly at that point, our cordless Dyson vacuum cleaner probably cleans better and isn't that hard to use. Maybe we'll try Dyson's version someday when we're rich.
Dyson HEPA Air Purifier Heater & Fan - It took awhile for this device to work with both Google and Amazon so I had to use the Dyson app. I'd prefer to use one app for all devices, but the Dyson app serves as the remote control too. I honestly have no idea where our actual remote is since we're so dependent on our phones for anything that is a smart device.
Peloton Bike+ - We bought this during the pandemic and loved it so we have no regrets, but it's like a piece of furniture now since we don't use it often. We still keep the membership in case we do work out. We still love the convenience of working out at home, but the reality is in our life stage, we rather be at a gym that has a nice pool and kid daycare. I still like the trainers and wouldn't want to give up our membership unless we found a gym we love much more, but we're not quite sold on the gym yet.
Air Quality Monitor - My husband got this to detect off gas of items in our home due to wanting to make sure our newborn isn't exposed to harmful toxins, but I think we forgot about this when the battery ran out. Maybe it's only something we care about with a baby? Or maybe it's something only he cares about haha
Smart Clock with Sunrise Alarm - This is so extra, but didn't bring my life to the next level. My husband gifted this to me on my birthday and I like it, but don't really use it other than having a clock to look at if I were to wake up in the middle of the night or by our toddler. It has a night light feature, relaxing music feature, and reading light feature. To this day, I ask Alexa for the time since I don't really want to open my eyes if I don't have to. My Alexa also plays soothing night time music if I really want it to. I guess I should pick up reading before bedtime more than being on my phone to make use out of this and improve my sleep habits.
Contemplation List of Smart Devices
Smart Car - Can someone make the Tesla look better? It's so plain, but it is essentially a smart car that does everything you'd want a car to do. It's a bit cost prohibitive. We want to wait a couple more years to see what other makers will come out with, but this would probably be the most coveted item we have not transitioned to despite living in the Silicon Valley.
Robot Mop - When we change out our carpet, I think I'd really want something to constantly clean our hard floors since dust and dirt is more visible
Outdoor Security Cameras - We don't know how useful this is for us. Our home setup requires you to climb a ton of stairs so one would need a lot of strength, time, and planning to steam from us. We also don't carry many valuables that are lightweight. Maybe our laptops? But who in the Silicon Valley does not have one these days?
Pet Feeder
Hydroponic Indoor Smart Garden
Sous Vide - We'll probably never get this unless it was a gift
Smart Blinds
Smart Irrigation Control - Someday if we have a yard
Smart Diffuser - We'll probably never get this unless it was a gift
What are items that we haven't tried, but should? At this point I almost feel like there's not much more we can do to improve our lifestyle!
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