5 Easy Smart Home Improvements for Beginners

Starting a smart home can seem complicated because of the many options you have, but several upgrades work great for beginners. In effect, they help make your home smarter without the complicated process required by some automations. So the ideal approach is to focus on the basic things at first to improve your routine.

For example, instead of trying to automate your lights, temperature control, and security devices all at once, it’s best to start simple. The simplest upgrades for anyone starting a smart home aim to make everyday life more convenient, providing ways to control everything with just your voice or through a single device.

That is why we have selected a few options that allow you to transform your home into a smart home on a limited budget and without going into all the complexity of things. On the plus side, you can quickly make everything more connected and turn some activities that would otherwise interrupt your routine into simple, everyday things that you can ignore.

This was my first purchase when I was thinking about starting to automate parts of my home, and it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made. A smart speaker can become the heart of any smart home, and for this reason, it should also be your starting point if you are a beginner. Simply choose one of the leading smart speaker brands available, like Amazon Echo, Google Nest or Apple’s HomePod, and start enjoying many features.

Personally, I still keep the first Echo Dot I bought with me, and it’s a favorite in my house. My mother doesn’t know how to use Spotify on a smartphone, but by asking Alexa, she can listen to her favorite songs using only voice commands. This way, it can do a lot of things that would otherwise be difficult on a smartphone.

So aside from being a simple upgrade that anyone in your home can easily use after installation, smart speakers are also useful in another way. They also serve as the brains of your smart home. So when you buy smart gadgets, you can control them all with your voice and without the need to have your phone nearby.

Smart displays are the next logical step if you already own a smart speaker. They work as a single device, responding to every voice command and helping to control other smart devices. However, these devices come with a screen that can add many other features to your daily routine. Models like the Amazon Echo Show or Google Nest Hub let you watch step-by-step recipes while cooking or have a video call with someone without touching your smartphone.

What is worth the investment is the effectiveness of these devices in daily life. You can use these devices to tell you the weather while getting ready, ask them to call someone, or, when they’re idle, turn them into a digital photo frame. They work like your smart speakers, but now with a screen, which means more context and a good upgrade for a smart home beginner, but also at a higher price.

While it’s not as cheap an investment as many other options, for anyone looking to get into the smart home segment, a robot vacuum is one of the best investments you can make. This is because it helps keep the floors of your home organized and free from not only dust but also other dirt that can accumulate over the course of the week. Even a good entry-level model can clean the house at specific times.

There are many models available online, so choosing one from the best big robot vacuum brands is a good way to go. They often vary in quality and functionality, but even the simplest ones can work on their own. So anyone working outside the home can leave it running or turn it on remotely and come back to a clean home.

Many of them also connect to your smart speaker, so you don’t need to depend on your phone to use their app at all times. In my house, for example, I have already asked it several times to clean the kitchen only with my voice and in times when my hands are busy, which makes it a great investment even with the higher price.

Assuming you still don’t own a smart TV and want to watch movies and shows on a bigger screen, you can get a dongle. If you’re not sure which product fits your setup, Roku’s streaming sticks and some of its alternatives are usually worth purchasing. Simply connect them to your TV’s HDMI port and you can access most mainstream streaming services, such as Netflix, Prime Video or even other popular apps like Spotify and YouTube. Some of these dongles also support voice commands which make it easier to find content without typing. On top of that, they tend to run for a long time with updates.

Even if you already own a smart TV, this dongle is still worth your money. Over the years, many smart TVs can become slow due to outdated hardware and ending software support. A dongle can therefore help maintain smooth performance. This way, you don’t need to replace your entire TV when it starts to age.

Replacing your regular light bulbs with smart versions is one of the best budget upgrades a beginner can make to a smart home. The process takes just a few minutes and requires no wiring modifications. Many models, like Philips Hue, fit into a regular outlet. So all you have to do is make the switch, and then you can control everything through your phone or smart speaker.

What I like most about this upgrade is the convenience, especially for someone like me who tends to leave the lights on all the time. So even after leaving the house, you don’t have to worry about whether they are still on, because everything can be checked on a phone. Beyond all that convenience, smart bulbs are also an energy-saving upgrade. You can set up routines that automatically turn off the bulb during the day. So even though the price of a smart bulb is higher at first, you save money later.

A smart home can seem complicated at first, and depending on the automations you want, that really can be true. So when we looked at the best upgrades, we looked for ones that anyone could install themselves. This has become the first criterion: the ease with which it is possible to buy a product and have it ready to use in a few minutes without spending a lot of time adjusting the settings.

Another important point was how these smart devices make daily life easier. With a smart speaker, you can control everything with your voice, which works great for anyone who doesn’t have a lot of experience using phone apps. Another useful item is the robot vacuum cleaner. Although we prioritized cheaper gadgets, we made an exception with the robot vacuum because it can be a simple and productive upgrade for most households.