Smart-home technology can get a little strange when you live in a small apartment. You don’t have endless rooms to automate. You probably don’t need six smart speakers, a complicated network of sensors or an app-controlled version of every appliance you own. And you definitely don’t need another collection of gadgets taking up the limited…
Living in a rental can make smart-home upgrades feel more complicated than they need to be. You may want lights that turn on automatically when you walk into a room, blinds that adjust themselves during the day, better control over your air conditioner or a smarter front-door lock. Then you remember one small problem: You…
When you live in a small apartment, there is a simple rule that applies to almost everything you bring through the door: It needs to earn its space. That applies to furniture, storage bins, kitchen appliances and smart-home gadgets. A smart device might look useful when you’re shopping online. But once it arrives, it still…
You don’t need hundreds of dollars, a complicated hub or a house full of gadgets to make a small apartment feel a lot smarter. In fact, if you’re renting or simply don’t have much space, starting small is probably the better approach. A smart home should make your apartment easier to live in. It should…
Smart sensors can make a small apartment safer, more comfortable and easier to manage without filling it with gadgets. You might want to know when an accessible window opens, have a light come on when you walk into a dark hallway, get an alert if water appears under the kitchen sink, or keep an eye…
There is a particular kind of bedtime annoyance that happens when you have already made it into bed. The lamp is still on. Or the curtains are still open. Maybe you forgot to turn off the little light by the dresser. Or perhaps your favorite bedtime sound isn’t playing yet. And now you’re faced with…
You already have curtains you like. They fit the room, they give you the privacy you need, and you probably have no interest in replacing them just because you want them to open and close automatically. And if you rent an apartment, replacing the entire curtain system can be even less appealing. You may not…
Living in a rental doesn’t mean you have to accept whatever level of security came with the apartment. The problem is that many of the obvious security upgrades involve changing door hardware, mounting cameras to walls, running wires or making permanent changes that your landlord may not allow. In a small apartment, there’s another problem…
Living in a small apartment usually means you don’t need more technology. You need fewer things to remember. The lamp that gets left on. The fan that runs long after you’ve fallen asleep. The decorative lights you switch on every evening. The bedroom light you wish you could turn off without getting out of bed….