In the modern age, so much can be done to make your own home a place filled with the best, most user-friendly technology. It can seem like a daunting task, too complex for the average homeowner. But if you dip your toe in the water with a few of these ideas, you’ll find out just how accessible smarter living really is!

Get a Smart TV

You almost certainly already have a smart phone, so make the first small step into the smart-verse and upgrade your TV. Smart TV’s are the television industry’s response to a world where people depend much more on the internet for their entertainment and news than the old-fashioned cable. “Smart TVs will still give you access to your old channel, but most have a built-in capacity to offer you your favorite streaming sites, YouTube, online games and more all through an application interface much like the average phone”, says Edward Caudill, a Lifestyle blogger at Writemyx and 1Day2write.

Hire Your First Virtual Assistant

This is the step that will really make you feel like you’re entering a whole new world. Virtual assistants haven’t reached the level of fluency that is shown by the AIs in your typical futuristic sci-fi or space adventure, but they’re still incredibly valuable tools to have on hand and will shock you with how advanced they are: whether that be scheduling meetings for you while you brew your coffee, or turning the heating off in your house when your at work. Popular virtual assistants to check out include Alexa, Google and Siri.

Install Smart Lights

Getting smart lights is a more intuitive step into the smart-world than most, with smart lightbulbs being a pretty valuable piece of hardware. You can control the brightness and color of smart lights from your phone or tablet. You can even play around with strobing effects if you’re in the mood for being adventurous. Smart Lights are also smart in another sense. They can help you save money on electricity, deactivating when you leave a room for example. Smart Lights make for a nice gift for a friend or relative who’s knew to the idea of making their house a Smart Home.

Put in Smart Cameras

Whilst putting in a fully fledged CCTV system in your house might be a bit over the top, installing Smart Cameras can be a great way to monitor your property’s security, you children’s safety or even as a Smart replacement for the classic front door peep-hole. What’s more, smart cameras offer you the ability to monitor your house visually through your phone. So, if you get a message from your neighbor while you’re away that someone was seen snooping around your house, you can open up your app and double check that all’s well, from the comfort of the beach.

Get Yourself a Smart Sound System

Until the time comes when we become dependent on our virtual assistants and our optimized, smart systems part of the central appeal of all these gadgets is that they’re fun. Nothing says fun more than a fully customizable, remotely operated sound system embedded into the very walls and ceilings of your own house.

Smart sound systems allow you to isolate music to different rooms in your house, so if someone’s in the mood for some dancing and someone else wants to meditate that can be a reality. “What’s more, with no bulky speaker set up the system becomes a space saver and eliminates the need for unsightly cables sprawling across the living room. Smart sound systems can also be connected to your smart tv to give you that immersive, cinematic, surround sound experience,” explains Joseph Hernandez, a Design writer and editor at Britstudent and Australia2write.