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submitted 7 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I need some holiday gift ideas (that I will probably gift to myself as well)!

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[-] whofearsthenight@lemm.ee 16 points 7 months ago

a few random things:

  • $5.99 magnetic measuring spoons. They stick together and nest.
  • $18.99 MagSafe phone car mount. I use iPhone and my car supports Android Auto/Carplay, but there isn't really a good place to stick your phone. This thing is basically a big magnet, I plug my phone in, throw it on this thing, and we good. Worth noting, even if you have CarPlay (guessing Android Auto as well) even though you don't need to use your phone, some apps have some functions when you're using them in this manner. EG: maps displays the next few turn by turn directions on the phone screen, and the overview of the map on the carplay screen.
  • decent/good chef's knife. I think the one I'm using now is about $30, but you can get the ol' reliable Victorinox for around that price or a little cheaper.
  • cabinet lighting pucks. I think Walmart has them for like $12 for two, but they are basically stick somewhere, motion activated lights that are battery powered. Paired with rechargeable batteries, I can now see the food that we push to the back of the cabinet to die.
  • new streaming stick thingy. Though I greatly prefer Apple TV, it's hard to justify the price of those compared to Roku/Fire TV. That said, if you're hanging on to an older version of the Fire TV/Roku, upgrading helps the annoyance factor because it's just far less slow. We just added a $24.99 4k Fire TV stick, much nicer.
  • Wireless chargers for phones. You can get them for like under $10. Buy 5, put them where you generally set your phone down. Or more simply, right next to the bedside. I generally only charge at night, so much nicer to be able to just drop it on a pad/magnet, etc.
  • $9 dimmer switch. Our master bath is weird. The toilet/shower area has a door. The sink area connects directly to the bedroom with no door. The sink area has large mirrors and massive amounts of lighting. Fucking sucks if you're just getting up to pee and you now have the light of the sun on you and your partner at 3am.

more niche, bunch of smart home shit:

  • just think about how $10-$20 and a little bit of thought can improve your life. I have a switch connected to my espresso maker, now I can yell in the shower to turn it on to pre-heat. If I had a regular schedule, I could automate this further just on time. I have it set so that once I tell it to turn on, it turns off after 20 minutes.
  • motion sensor lights. though technically you don't need a smart home for this, there are some lights in my house that I only want to turn on when someone is there. I have a hallway, for example, that is more or less a cave tunnel. Any time I'm in that hallway (or anyone else) I want to have some light. So I have a motion sensor that turns the light on, and based on the status of the sun, it dims accordingly. When I walk into my garage, there are a few lights that turn on in sequence and it feels like you're walking into the bat cave.
  • buttons! You can buy many different remotes for < $20. Pretty much anything you automate via voice you also need a button for. Pro-tip, use in-wall switches where you can, but in my case I didn't have a neutral wire because it's an older house, and my options were pretty limited/expensive.
  • last example: my entryway lights. I have a door sensor ($10-15) so if I open it I can perform an action. My entry light has a smart bulb ($9.) I also have a floor standing lamp adjacent to this that has a smart bulb. What this allows me to do is check when I've recently arrived, and if it's after sunset and the bigger light isn't already on, turn on this entry light. If my TV is playing a movie, the light goes on in the dimmest setting so arriving people don't disturb.
[-] raptorattacks@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Loved this list and just added those measuring spoons to my house's wish list. To the home automation front, for Home Assistant users I really like IKEA's line of zigbee controllers. With HA and a cheap dongle you can control any smart device with them, not just IKEA stuff.

  • I have one of their speaker controllers hooked up to my partner's Google smart speakers, so I can turn down the volume and play/pause without shouting at the voice assistant.
  • We have a five-button light controller on each of our nightstands so we can control our lamps and overhead lights (on/off, brightness, color) without getting out of bed. Great when my partner leaves their lamp on - I don't have to reach over them to turn it off. (Now if only I could turn off their TikTok stream when they fall asleep watching it...)
  • Their $10-$12 light switches to control the lamps and overhead lights in all of our rooms. Tap once to turn everything on or off, double tap to turn on just the lamps for some gentler lighting.

And this isn't IKEA, but I need a colder bedroom to fall asleep, and my partner wakes up pretty early and wants it to be warm. I have a space heater connected to a smart outlet and a Bluetooth thermometer. At 4am it will start heating the room until we reach a comfortable temperature, idle until the temp drops, and turn itself completely off after I'm out of bed at 9am. If you need to buy the space heater or equipment to set up Home Assistant, this definitely breaks the $50 budget, but if you've already got those the thermometer and 15A rated smart plug will be maybe $30 total (cheaper if you can wait for longer shipping).

[-] whofearsthenight@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

This is the way. Though this isn't exactly cheap to start, I have a $50 eBay thin client (including the price of throwing an ssd in there), a $30 sonoff zigbee controller, install Home Assistant, and boom you're off to the races. Ikea's stuff (as well as Phillips hue, which I was able to snag some deals on clearance for) and Lutron Caseta are all zigbee so I have complete local control over most things in my house, minus a few wifi pieces that I've been replacing over time. We do similar with the 5 button remotes, and I also have a few different button controllers from sonoff. Ikea's motion sensors have also been rock solid for me.

And yeah, heating is currently my white whale. My home has electric radiant heating which leaves my only option for thermostats down to one or two units that are $120 or so, and I have like 7-8 in total in the home so that's just going to have to stay manual for now. Space heater isn't a bad idea, though.

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this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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