January is upon us: the start of a new year that offers a natural opportunity to consider setting aspirational and impactful goals. Whatever yours are, your home can make all the difference when it comes to achieving them. After all, it’s where we spend so much of our time – keeping fit, trying new diets, working on wellness, and socialising with family and friends. Increasingly too, we’re working from home more and attempting to balance work-life boundaries.
Whether you are creating a smarter home office, more separation between work and personal time, or a dining space to impress your guests, there are endless ways to make your home work more for you in the year ahead. Thankfully, EE makes it easier, with smarter broadband that’s fast and reliable, and keeps up with your whole connected lifestyle.
Here, we’ve rounded up five New Year’s resolutions for a high-performing home that will help you achieve a space that works smarter for everyone.
1. Do a digital declutter
Beginning 2024 with a digital declutter can set you up well for the year ahead. Not only will it feel satisfying to purge your passwords, upgrade your cyber security and clear out older, energy-hungry devices, but you’ll be making sure your whole network runs more efficiently too. Start by considering what tech items actually add value to your home, and which can be given away, handed down, or recycled. Don’t forget to also sort through your charging cables – which can really pile up over the years and add to the clutter. Take this idea a step further and aim to declutter the content on your devices, from clearing out apps on your smartphone to sorting through your photos in order to free up memory and feel more organised for the year ahead.
2. Get smart around energy
Being more mindful of how much energy your household consumes can not only have a positive environmental impact, but it can also save you money. Simple steps like installing a smart meter mean you can see at a glance how much energy you’re using and look at ways to reduce it. And while the upfront cost depends on your chosen tech, many homeowners have certainly started to embrace smart heating, lighting and appliances. In fact, it’s never been more popular to switch on the heating via your phone, use your voice to turn lights on or off, or put your washing on a spin from the comfort of your sofa. By having more control over your devices in one place, you could be running the whole home more efficiently, helping to save time and money.
3. Set better work-life boundaries
We’re all better connected these days, but that can also mean a blurring of the lines between work and family time. Creating a home office, or zoned-off area where you can set yourself up for a productive day is the first step to laying down healthy boundaries. But if you’re working in a different part of the home, it could be that your Wi-Fi isn’t as strong – so use EE’s Smart Wi-Fi to get a stronger signal in hard-to-reach places. And that’s before we mention how disruptive it can be when your video calls glitch because multiple devices are connected to your Wi-Fi all at once. Thanks to Wi-Fi Enhancer, you can select Work Mode in the app and prioritise your connection for the moments that matter. Like having a crisper call with your team, or a job interview. And when you need to switch off and avoid doing overtime, with Wi-Fi controls, you can even schedule a Wi-Fi pause to ensure some digital downtime, and even a proper night’s sleep. It’s ideal for children’s bedtimes too.
4. Make every room smarter
January is the perfect time to consider redecorating rooms in your home that are in need of an upgrade. And while you’re designing a kitchen with space to entertain, or a living room perfect for kicking back and streaming your favourite shows, why not use tech to take them to the next level? For example, keen cooks – or those who want to improve their culinary skills this year – will want their space to be functional as well as stylish. And these days, it’s not just about the layout or worktop finishes. By opting for a smart oven for example, you’ll be able to monitor and regulate controls from the convenience of your smartphone; and by dotting smart speakers around the home and connecting them all to the Wi-Fi, your music, podcasts or audiobooks can follow you from the living or dining room into the kitchen.
5. Improve home security
The options for home security are now more varied than ever. What used to be a complex process in choosing a wired alarm system, then having it installed and monitored, has become a whole lot easier thanks to wireless video doorbells, cameras and sensors from EE that connect to your home broadband (with automatic 4G or 5G backup). These allow you to check on your home from your smartphone while you’re out, such as seeing who’s at the front door, being alerted to unwelcome guests, or even knowing if a smoke detector has gone off. EE has partnered with Verisure to offer a range of packages to suit everyone, and with professional installation and 24/7 monitoring as standard. So now you can keep an eye on your pets, as well as your parcels.
For more ideas to make your home run smarter, visit EE Home. Plus, save £20 a month on new, unlimited mobile plans, when you choose EE Broadband.
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