God mode use on the produce keeper. My husband straight up took it blackberry picking with them. And a water bottle. They picked, rinsed right there on the trail, and ate! Then were able to put the bottom on and take the refill home too, crush proof and straight to the fridge. 
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Ok… I think this post belongs here, if not, let me know 
Unintentionally, I realized that when my income increased about two years ago, the things I started investing in were things that potentially enabled me to have more free time. Working multiple jobs, I rarely have free time so automating tasks that must be done but that I do not enjoy is becoming key.
• Two years ago, I started paying a neighbor to mow my front lawn, I still take care of the back myself.
• One year ago, I purchased an automatic chicken door to let the girls in and out of their coop each day.
• About six months ago, I purchased my very first dishwasher.
• This week I purchased a refurbished robot vacuum because I like to keep my house tidy and vacuuming every day is something I don’t enjoy. Robot in the box pictured.
These were under $150/$200 investments that I’ve made a positive difference in my life.
I’d love to hear lower cost automation ideas from the group! I only recently realized I was doing this, and I think it indicates where my values are when I have more discretionary money.
Perhaps this is lifestyle inflation, but I think it’s more just targeted value-based purchasing – I still have a fairly shitty car because I don’t care about cars, I still have like six outfits that I rotate because I don’t care about clothes, etc etc.
Anyways, I’m rambling! I’d love to hear some fun automation things people have done or have shopped for!
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Hmm this is a great question! The main one I can think of at this point is our coffee maker we got when our daughter was born. We used to hand grind and do pour overs each morning. This one instead is an automatic pour over machine, the OXO barista brain, so we still get our boujie happy coffee but way less time involved.
The other thing is we USE our dishwasher more. We run it each night now, no matter how full, and unload in the morning. Just makes life much smoother.
Oh wait! I got extra vacuums! They’re on each level of the house so I don’t have to lug.
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I love this!
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Mostly this is making me realize that I have very little automation in my life! I find robot vacuums to be a very interesting concept, I don’t want to have to corral Wizard’s cords constantly, or the cat’s toys.
The electric kettle and the toaster oven are probably the two tools that most make my life better on the day to day… hot water for tea and hot food without needing to turn on the stove/oven (so necessary in hot weather). Not exactly automated but a case where purchasing an electronic thingy has made my life way better.
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Oooh yes our ninja foodi air fryer/toaster oven has been a big life improvement. No preheat time, smaller space to heat, etc.
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I really love my little robot mop. I vacuum fairly regularly and then send the mop into the dining room to clean without me having to move chairs around. It’s tiny and since it’s a mop - if I don’t pick something small up, it just pushes it around rather than sucks it up.
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This may be a fairly niche one, but the timer shutoffs on my oven and stove are the sleeper features I didn’t know I wanted.
I make my own granola every 2 ish weeks and I can throw it in the oven, set the oven timer for about 10m under the regular baking time and be off to do whatever else without worrying about missing it and I’ve got perfectly done granola. I’ve started putting the timer on for almost everything, roast veg, etc
The induction stovetop also has timers for each burner, so when I’m drying my cast iron, I set the timer and it’s dry but doesn’t overheat if im doing something else. I don’t use it as much for actual cooking, but use it a little.
Eta: drip irrigation+ electronic timer that has a schedule function. Lets me run the system for 15m every other day and I never think about it except to do a little fertilizing sometimes and take care of the things that don’t have an emitter yet. 10/10 life improvement, my lemon tree actually makes lemons now.
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This is BRILLIANT
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Oh my gosh, your post is brilliant, and absolutely tapped into a fantasy that I have.
I wish, in the morning, I could dump dirty clothes in my laundry, and they would start on a timer so that they would be finished right before my lunch break when I have time to hang them up right away.
I also wish I had a cooktop a timer, a dishwasher timer, and something that automatically adjusted the temperature on my thermostat throughout the day.
^ I am sure if I really sat down I could think of a lot of opportunities for a strategic timer on many of my appliances
At one point I used a holiday light timer to turn the lamp in the living room on and off, but the tiny faint ticking sound kept me up at night, so I had to stop using it.
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Good to know! I probably won’t have time to unboxed my vacuum and set it up until this weekend, so I wasn’t sure if it’s capabilities – I’m hoping it doesn’t get completely jammed up if I accidentally leave a dog toy out on occasion. My goal is for it to take care of the main flat vacuuming daily and about every two weeks I can get in and do the crannies and corners.
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Not sure how much you care about cooking or kitchen gadgets, but I love both my InstantPot and an extremely cheap dryer I picked up from goodwill. The first makes it extremely easy to do meal prep for the week as well as almost totally avoids the use of the stove/oven in the summer for me, and the latter means I’ve got a pretty constant source of dried fruit for snacks (although it does by definition generate hot air, so in the summer I only run it at night next to the window).
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You can definitely get a thermostat that works on a schedule. Ours does and it isn’t a “smart” one in case you don’t want to deal with networking in your thermostat. Different schedules for weekdays and weekends.
On the “Smart” side, we got a bunch of Alexa plugs for lamps and have them on a schedule to turn on at dusk and off at 11pm. It’s nice to not have to go around turning on lamps, especially since some of the lamps have switches that I can’t manage. I can also change the timing just by using the Alexa app on my phone or asking Alexa. We also use this for our Christmas trees and lights at the end of the year. No coming home to a dark house!
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A programmable thermostat might be very possible/cheap!
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I can’t remember if you were one of the people looking at the induction hotplates, but I’m 60% sure this is a feature most of them have, if that makes them more appealing. Downside, your pots have to be induction compatible, but most pots are these days, so it could potentially be in the budget window.
I’ll also do a +1 for semi-smart plugs. My friends have used them a fair amount for lights, and while I don’t love ““smart”” stuff, it does do the thing and you don’t get the ticking noise that the mechanical timers do.
You might experiment with your washer and see if it will resume it’s cycle after a power interruption. If thats the case you could put it on an outlet timer (smart or otherwise) and it could do the thing for you (start the cycle, turn the smart plug off, and set it to turn back on at the relevant tieme)! I also feel like your dishwasher should have a delay start since it’s been a feature of most dishwashers I’ve seen, but i don’t actually know how common it is.
And you want a programmable thermostat! I have one from what appears to be the 80s and while I don’t use it’s program function, it doesn’t even know the internet exists.
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WiFi smart LED lights (Hue and similar) can probably do this with no ticking and are <$10-15 apiece now (there may be some quality differences, cheap LEDs can be prone to flicker). My spouse sets this isht up for us so I’m not super knowledgeable. I think we currently have ones from Costco and they’ve served well.
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Good point! My washing machine is literally brand new and maybe I just need to sit down and read the booklet – perhaps it even has this feature and I just haven’t figured it out intuitively!!
A few years ago I was, yes. I have one now that I’ve been using for several years and I like it very much!
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Thank you so much! Unfortunately, I am one of those butt heads that still has gas heat, so I’m not eligible, but I am slowly converting & might be using the program to switch from a gas to electric water heater soon!
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Good point! Every few years I remember that Instapots exist and consider getting one, and then I don’t 
maybe it’s time!
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Automatic cat feeder. No 4am begging wake up calls! Huge life improvement. Our cat also did better with many small feeds and we could not keep a schedule that firm 
AM and PM feedings, maybe, but not like 4-6x daily.
I wish a robot vac would work for us, but we leave too much stuff on the ground routinely 
. But, I have stolen @Bracken_Joy 's strategy of a vac per floor, and also love my cordless stick vac (grab and go!) and my Bissell vac/mop (one step clean floors! Even does rugs in a pinch).
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