This is a collaborative post. All opinions are my own.

It's just a fact that we are living in a tech generation. There are constant upgrades on the market and new gadgets that claim to make life easier or solve problems that we didn’t even know we had. In the household, there are tons of home tech devices that didn't exist when I was a kid--or even five years ago. Are they necessary? No, of course not...we existed just fine without them. But can they make life easier, safer, more enjoyable and exciting? Maybe! I'm curious how many home tech devices you have in your home. Are you a fully tech integrated "smart" household? Are you still resisting? Or have you dipped your toe in a little bit? We don't have an Amazon Echo or a Google Home so I kind of feel like our house is still somewhat tech-free...but as I thought about it I realized that we actually do have a number of various smart devices that we like.

1. Home entertainment

If you're still using old-fashioned cable, this is one category where you can probably drastically reduce your monthly bills, while improving your experience overall. With Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, a combination of those may be all that you need to stay up-to-date with your favorite shows and gain access to new ones. There are also cable alternatives like Sling TV where you can still watch live, just like with cable.

Entertainment isn't just TV, of course. We've resisted getting an Amazon Echo or Google Home because they are always listening in, which kind of creeps us out. BUT they can do a lot of things to make life more convenient and entertaining. They can play music on your command, order your shopping, check the weather, and even tell you jokes!

2. Making housework easier

"In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun"...or so Mary Poppins tells us. But when you’re vacuuming for the second time in a day or ironing tricky shirts, then it doesn’t exactly scream fun. Thankfully, there are some tech and gadgets that can make the task of cleaning simpler and easier for you. We use a steamer instead of an iron, which makes it so much easier and quicker to get rid of wrinkles. With vacuuming, today there are robot vacuum cleaners, which you can set it up to do their thing while you get on with other tasks.

3. Improving security

Having a gadget clean the house or play music easily is all well and good, but being able to make your home a safer place is far more important. A smart home reduces the risk of things like break-ins and package thefts. So it makes sense to be looking for ways to integrate tech to make your home safer. CCTV and cameras near the door can act as a deterrent, as well as using timers on lights and remote systems to keep an eye on your home when you’re not there. They can be pricey to get installed but are an excellent way to protect your home. If someone is caught on camera, it can put them off before even attempting anything.

We have a Ring doorbell, which shows us video footage when someone is at our front door and allows us to talk to them through the doorbell if we don't want to open the door. We can do this from anywhere--even if we're at a friend's house or out of town. I think we got a deal on Black Friday so it wasn't too expensive, and I do find it helpful and reassuring.

4. Controlling lighting

Another way that tech can make your home safer is by controlling your lights. It can be very obvious to a burglar that no one is home if the lighting doesn't change throughout the day. With smart tech, you can set your lights up to a timer so that you can arrange them to turn on and off whenever you like, so from the outside looking in, it will seem like the house is being lived in.

I also like dusk to dawn lights that automatically turn on at night. This way you save energy and keep your house safer. You never forget to turn your exterior lights on in the evening, and you never forget to turn them off during the day.

5. Mobile apps to connect everything in your home

These days, there’s an app for almost everything...including apps to link all your smart home devices to your smartphone. We have a LUX Geo thermostat, which connects to our phones. It's convenient and saves us energy--an upgrade that was totally worth it in my opinion. Through the app, we can adjust the thermostat from upstairs in bed (lazy!), and more importantly we can leave the heat or AC off (or very low) while we're on vacation, and turn it on when we're heading home so we still arrive to a comfortable house. The app also gives us visibility into the energy and cost savings.

Our phones are something we're already carrying around and checking frequently, so it makes sense to make them the hub for other tasks. Apps are much more convenient and easy than having many separate devices to keep track of. And with deals such as https://smarty.co.uk/sim-only, you can make significant cost savings on data and minutes, so you don’t have to worry about using your apps without WiFi.

These are just some of the areas that tech can be used around your home to make life a little easier. How many of these categories have you jumped into already?? What other ways do you use smart tech in your home?

As technology develops and innovates, I know our lives will only get more and more integrated with tech. It's crazy how much things have changed during my lifetime (30 years) and they're accelerating too. I'm sure our lives will be even more wrapped up in tech in the next 30 years. It blows my mind (and scares me a little) to think about it!

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