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….
How to add better bedroom lighting without drilling, hardwiring, or giving up precious space A small bedroom can have plenty of lighting problems even when it has a perfectly good lamp. Maybe there is no ceiling fixture. Maybe the only place for a bedside lamp is already occupied by the alarm clock, flower vase, phone…
There’s a particular kind of closet problem that ordinary decluttering advice doesn’t solve. The closet is overflowing. Getting dressed in the morning involves moving things to find other things. You know, logically, that there is too much in there. But every time you try to declutter, you hit the same wall: you actually like your…
A bedroom can look perfectly nice and still feel terrible to be in. The bed is made. The surfaces are relatively clear. Nothing is obviously wrong. And yet you walk in and feel restless rather than calm. There’s a difference between a bedroom that looks relaxing in a photo and one that actually functions as…