I have recently made changes to increase productivity and reduce friction to prepare for a child that will be born soon. We now have made tons of convenient upgrades, and are looking for more. Robot vacuum was for instance a worthy upgrade, even if I thought it was gimmicky initially.
Any ideas?
Stupid one but it fits: added a third switch to my kitchen lights (aka four-way switch).
There are three rooms adjacent to my kitchen: family room, foyer to the front door, and hallway to the bedrooms. Only two of those exits had switches. Anytime you entered or left the kitchen by the foyer you’d have to go to one of the other corners of the kitchen to turn off/on the lights.
Minor inconvenience, granted. But if you’ve got a baby in one arm and a diaper bag on the other and you go to walk out the front door, you’d have to turn around, walk through the kitchen to one of the other lights, turn it off, and walk back across and out. The flow was all messed up. Three exits, three switches.
Think about the flow of your house. Where can it be made to reduce effort and friction? Even where you keep things. Dust pan in the closet at the end of the hall? Maybe instead keep it next to the garbage where you’re more likely to need it.
Did you wire it or use a wireless control?
Wired it. I fortunately have attic access over that part of the house. Getting frustrated when a wireless inevitably stops working for some reason was not something I was signing my future self up for.
That makes it easier!
I set up homeassistant with a bunch of smart switches and have moved mostly to motion sensing but being able to add a switch anyway cheaply is great. Or linking one to switch to many. Lots of flexibility.