We all have a shoebox or drawer full of old technology and miscellaneous junk that you haven’t looked at since 2018. Whether it’s Arduino Nanos, dusty ESP8266s, old PIR sensors, or just a bunch of tangled jumper cables, there’s probably a lot of technology in that old drawer that could be put to good use rather than just sitting around collecting dust.
The problem is that coding them in C++ for every minor task is a major chore, and it ends up leaving them unused because the effort-to-utility ratio is just too high. ESPHome completely removes the code barrier by using simple YAML configuration files. You can turn a $4 chip and $2 worth of sensors into a device that rivals a $50 commercial product, with no cloud required or subscription in sight. ESPHome has become a powerhouse that supports not only ESP32/ESP8266, but also RP2040 and even some RISC-V chips. It’s the ultimate digital glue that turns a drawer full of old development boards and sensors into a local-only, high-end smart home system.
Curtain automation is fun, but weird smart home projects are where things get really useful
Make your smart home work for you.
There are countless projects you can take on
And you can adapt them to your needs
One of the first projects you can tackle is a room occupancy sensor. By combining an old ESP32 and that human presence sensor you bought on AliExpress but never used, you can create a radar that detects when people enter a room. This is ideal for more than just a standard PIR sensor, as it can track whenever you’re in the room rather than just when you enter or when you move.
Unlike a PIR sensor that loses you if you sit still, this setup attracts X and Y coordinates and speed. This way, you can use it to keep your office lights on while you read or to trigger a private notification if someone enters your room while you’re on a video call. There are many great uses for a occupancy sensor that enable countless forms of home automation, so you can stop thinking, every time you enter a room, about the smallest of tasks you need to do. Instead of walking into a room and having to set the temperature, adjust the lights, and open or close the blinds, your occupancy sensor can detect your entry and ping your smart home to have all of these tasks done for you.
Another interesting project you can undertake is to create a multi-room audio node using an ESP32 and an old pair of computer speakers. You can create synchronized multi-room audio nodes. Using the new 2026.3 media player architecture, you can enable ESPHome to now support high fidelity I2S output.
As a result, you get Sonos-style synchronized multi-room audio nodes, and because ESPHome runs at the processor’s maximum frequency, which is 240 MHz by default, the audio synchronization is tighter than almost any commercial Wi-Fi speaker.
If you want to receive alerts on your phone when the wash is finished, you can use a device monitor using the old trash that is in your drawer. A $1 CT clamp and an ESP8266 are a great combination. Attach it to the power cord of your washer or dryer, and then the ESPHome will monitor the device’s heart rate, which is basically how much power it uses. When the power consumption drops to zero for five minutes, indicating the cycle is complete, it will send a notification to your phone that the laundry is finished. You just gave a stupid 10-year-old device a $2 digital brain, so you no longer have to listen to the endless chime or worry that your laundry is simply dormant.
Aside from these examples, there are countless other projects you can take on depending on your needs and your smart home setup. If you’re looking for more automation, this may be it. If you just want to take on a small project, then using the ESP series is a great choice.
But what are the advantages of ESPHome?
You get much more than before
ESPHome has been significantly improved over the past year. Using it now feels like a major performance gain. 2026.4’s performance improvement has increased it tenfold: ESPHome now uses zero-copy APO scores, making sensor updates up to 46 times faster.
You can even use old ESP32s as Bluetooth proxies. This means they can take signals from your toothbrushes, thermometers or any other Bluetooth-only device in your home and then transmit them to Home Assistant, effectively extending the range of your smart home for free.
You can even perform updates over the air, meaning your junk drawer nodes are actually more secure than any of the commercially available IoT devices you can get these days.
Not only is 2026 the year of the smart home, but it’s also time to move to local-only devices. This way you don’t rely on the Internet and you don’t pay monthly subscription fees either.
Also one of the benefits of choosing local only is that you don’t have to worry about companies terminating their devices and them becoming real electronic waste in your home because the company decided to turn off the service. When you use local devices or even ones you’ve built yourself from old junk you’ve already installed, the hardware is still yours and you can still use them.
Don’t let your old technologies become e-waste
Give it new life
The smart home market is currently obsessed with monthly fees and cloud locks. However, ESPHome is the antidote. You might look at your junk drawer and think it’s full of junk or feel anxious about starting projects using all the old technology because it’s just too much effort for very little results. In reality, it is full of unlimited potential. Stop buying plastic boxes on Amazon and start building a home that actually belongs to you.