What would you invent for your home to make life easier? | Ad

If you could invent one device for your house – something that would make your life easier, safer and in general better, what would it be?

And don’t say Ipad to let your kids watch endless kinder surprise egg opening YouTube videos because that’s already been invented and yes it does make your life easier, safer and better.

I’m talking things that you could control about the house with a click of a button, that could definitely save you getting up off the couch a lot. Like another invention as good as the remote control. Lately we added the Apple TV remote to our smartphones after our eldest hid the real remote in the toilet cistern for the three weeks. It’s the business!

That’s my first device invention please. All of the TV remotes, including the old Playstation controller (for the Netflix) on my smart phone. Remote controls are so hard to make pretty in the sitting room, don’t you think?

My next invention would be some sort of smart meter that would heat the shower water to the temperature I like (hot) before I got in the shower and keep it running the whole time I’m in the shower. Not for the seven minutes that it currently allows no matter how long we leave the immersion on.

And speaking of the immersion, a timer to switch it off. (I’m sure that’s been invented, but we don’t have it.)

Another device desperately needed in this house would be an electric swing lid for the laundry basket. Any time a dirty sock or underpants was swung near the blasted thing it would open, like one of those giant sunroofs on a massive football stadium. We have a serious case of, I’ll just pile everything on TOP of the wash basket-itis in this house. WHY? It takes half a second to lift the lid. Do it!

The reason I’m even pondering these things is because of a new campaign by AIG to get people thinking about how smart devices will in the long term bring down the cost of house insurance. The idea is that if you have devices that prevent accidents or save costs, it will help bring house insurance down for everyone. We’re talking remote controls that switch off cookers for example or devices that send alerts to your phone if  a fire breaks out. I’d love to see thermostats that switch irons and hair straighteners off after half an hour. (Can I patent that?) Imagine the calmness of leaving the house, realising you’d left something on, sighing at yourself and taking out your phone to switch if off remotely. That day is coming. It’s probably here. An antidote to baby brain.

As someone who has yet to work out how to schedule the heating to come on, it’s likely I’ll need a bit of training and probably, a brand new house with smart wiring. But still, with the installation of our electric laundry basket swing lid, we’ll save a fortune on A&E fees. For himself like. (Laundry basket lids can be dangerous when thrown at high speed at husband’s heads).

If you could invent one piece of technology for your home, what would it be? I’d love to hear from you.

*This is a collaborative post with AIG

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