What Are the Best Smart Home Gadgets for an Apartment?

Since we live in an apartment, I am always looking for the best smart home gadgets that we can use in our rental. 

Unfortunately, some of us don’t have the opportunity to build a fully automated home due to leasing agreements which may limit installation, but there are still smart home gadgets you can use to build the best smart apartment.  

In Today’s post, I will share some basic smart home gadgets for a beginner to turn their rental into a smart apartment. 

Here is a short list of the best smart home gadgets options for your apartment that are fairly easy to use and install.    

• Smart Speaker   
• Smart Plug 
• Smart Bulbs 
• Smart TV Streaming Stick 
• Indoor Smart Security Camera 

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Best Smart Home Gadgets for an Apartment 

Smart Speaker  

Smart speakers are so much fun and entertaining for you and your guest. I remember when we purchased our first smart speaker, Google Home mini, we would ask Google, almost every question we could think of. There were so many questions I put a list of over 300 commands to give away for free.  

Now, Google Home is a great smart speaker but in terms of home automation, at this time the Amazon Echo has more to offer. I would recommend the Amazon Echo Plus 2 or the smaller or cheaper echo dot. You can find both you can find on Amazon. 

To keep things absolutely simple because it can get more complex, you can control a ton of different products by adding skills from the Alexa app and you’re ready to go. 

The Echo is also compatible with smart hubs like SmartThings, so you can control routines with just your voice. 

Smart Plug 

Now, smart plugs are AWESOME and so far, one of my favorite smart home gadgets for an apartment. I brought our first smart plug for our dumb TV because of the lack of support for HDMI-CEC, (check your TV manual for more information). Since then I never look back and continue to buy a couple more smart plugs. 

The smart plug we use is the WeMo Mini which I did a review on. It’s an inexpensive smart plug compare to many of its competitors and easy to use from my experience. WeMo Mini works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Home Kit.  

What makes a smart plug smart? It has Wi-Fi capabilities, it can connect to your smartphone and enable you to turn your dumb appliances, such as a lamp, TV or coffee maker and turn it smart. You can control things remotely or create a schedule and get your home automated without spending a whole lot of money. 

Smart Bulbs 

I will say LED smart bulbs are one of the simplest gadgets to set up next to a smart plug. There are several smart bulbs on the market that are pretty pricey but there is the good one that is very affordable.  

One smart bulb, in particular, is called LIFX mini smart bulb (Find on Amazon), a high-quality, temperature changing and color light bulbs. It has a powerful app control and supports every voice assistant (Google Home, Amazon Echo, Home Kitand Apple HomePod). Plus no hub needed, just the smart bulb.  

If you’re looking for a smart bulb with a near range control options, some cool modes and voice assistant at an affordable price, then this a perfect smart bulb for you.

Smart TV Streaming Stick 

We have been streaming videos in our apartment for at least 10yrs, from our Apple TV, Roku and Google Chromecast streaming stick. We cut the cord over 2yrs ago and haven’t looked back since.  

We went from paying over $200 per month for cable service to now only paying for Hulu TV, $39.99 and Netflix for $9.99 all from our streaming devices. A total of  $49.98 per month on TV services. 

But now with 4K resolution and High Dynamic Range (HDR), we want to make sure we have a streamer that is compatible with the latest TV.  

The latest streamer on the market with 4K resolution and hands-free streaming media player is the new Fire TV Cube with Alexa which you can find on Amazon.com.  

Fire TV Cube can also control your TV, sound bars, and A/V receivers all by voice commands. Plus, if you are still using cable service you can tune to live cable or satellite boxes from providers like Comcast, DISH, DIRECTV/AT&T U-verse, and more. You’re able to control just about everything in your home entertainment center with minimal need for a remote. 

This gadget will be a great benefit to your smart apartment.  

Indoor Smart Security Camera 

A few years ago we had an incident with our old landlord going in and out of our apartment without our permission. It was so bad we end up going to court and later moved out.  

This was a huge security concerned for us and pray never to go through that experience again. But now we have an opportunity to equip our home with security, such an indoor camera.  

If you’re concerned about your home being guarded while you’re not home, an indoor camera can help relieve some of that stress.  

One camera in mind is the Logitech Circle 2, an indoor camera which is designed for indoor and outdoor use and can withstand of water from rain and can tolerate temperatures from –4 degrees to 122 degrees.  

With Full HD 1080p resolution and include motion detection, up to 15 feet of night vision with two-way audio. This great indoor camera also comes with 24 hours of free storage for your surveillance video clips and so much more features. Logitech Circle 2 works with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and The Google Assistant.

I can definitely say this is one of the best smart home gadgets for an apartment that you can buy to keep your home safe. You can find Logitech Circle 2, an indoor camera on Amazon.com

Conclusion   

There are some great chooses to pick from in this post to help you build your smart apartment. If you are on a budget, check out our best smart home gifts under $50.

Living in an apartment doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the lifestyle of home automation and hopefully, this post will motivate you to start your journey in building your smart home.  

Hope you enjoyed reading What Are the Best Smart Home Gadgets for an Apartment?

Please e-mail me (rodney@automateyourcrib.com) your opinion, comment or if you have any ideas for a future post you would like to read, drop me a line or two as I appreciate my audience. Thank you again for reading this post.      

Until next time, Happy Reading!!       

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