Housing News

6 Gadget Ideas to Help Your Home Glow

Autonomous, robotic vacuum cleaners to suck up pet fur and dander are so last decade.  Now there are robotic lawnmowers to cut your grass and scores of other gadgets and gizmos angling for a place in your home to help you lead a better life of ease, comfort, and convenience.

Here are six of our favorite ideas. Google any of the subject lines to receive several listings for each device:

1. Glowing Toilet Bowls

Nighttime navigation toward the bathroom is only a safe shuffle away when you have a toilet nightlight that turns on and off with your entrances and exits. Some glowing toilets even come with built-in air fresheners and a carousel of colors for your light show.

2. TV Antennas

As you know, lots of folks are ditching their cable, satellite, and streaming packages for cheaper entertainment alternatives. While those wobbly rabbit ear-antenna contraptions are still around – signaling to all your guests that you’re too cheap to pay for cable – there are new antenna versions that come in a variety of stylistic shapes and designs, with many that mount handsomely on the wall.

You’ll not only save money while receiving crystal-clear HD channels (with commercials, I’m afraid), but you’ll also be making a fashion statement.

3. Touch-Free Trash Cans

What’s better than a touch-free trash can? With the wave of your hand or foot (and optional abracadabra), the lid will lift open automatically and you can dump your garbage into the bin, making cross-contamination a thing of the past.

It’s the civilized and sanitary way to dispose of your rubbish.

4. Self-Watering Garden Planters

It’s not enough that when you’re away from your home for days at a time, you have to arrange for someone to take care of your pets. But who’s going to water your indoor plants?

Not to worry. There is a cornucopia of self-watering garden planters on the market that will water and nourish your plants for days or weeks at a time -- no maintenance required. This is a must-have for people who can't seem to keep a plant alive.

5. Acoustic Baths

When the bath is empty, it acts like a Bluetooth speaker. Fill it up and the music waves ripple through the water, allowing you to immerse yourself in your favorite tunes.

Hidden speakers emit sound waves that envelop and gently resound within the body. Choose a soothing spa session with built-in compositions, unwind to your music playlists, or catch up on news and podcasts. Either way, you’ll lift your spirits in a luxurious bath of water and sound.

6. Tree Stands

With the high holidays rapidly approaching, fret no longer about digging out the rickety Christmas tree stand and then tightening and turning the bolts into the base of your wobbly tree to try to steady it.

Now some models come with foot pumps that will tighten your evergreen into place, along with ones featuring high collars to keep your Noble Fir or Blue Spruce snugly upright. Not a fan of stands? They have ones disguised as a small village, the façade concealing those unsightly tree stabilizers.

Get creative this holiday season and think outside the box. There’s the perfect gadget or gizmo out there competing for your attention and promising to add a touch of ease and elegance to your life.