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7 Smart Home Hacks for Simplifying This Holiday

Nick Dalsin, Director of Strategic Partnerships talks about his favorite solutions to juggle the to-do list and keeping your home comfortable this season.

Nick Dalsin, Director of Strategic Partnerships @ Resideo

Updated on November 30, 2018

While some view November and December as months riddled with food comas and holiday stress, others hunt for "hacks" to simplify and embrace the holidays. Whether entertaining, traveling or just trying to be present in the moment, the following are a few of my favorite solutions to keep your home comfortable this season.

Entertaining Hacks

My wife and I entertain our friends and family frequently around the holidays, and those final moments before guests arrive are a bit hectic. Luckily, our smart home solutions offer a few hacks to maximize those final minutes.

1. About an hour before our guests arrive, we ask Alexa to turn down the temperature in the home 2 degrees. For every 10 guests we’re expecting, we lower it by 2 degrees to keep our home comfortable as body heat warms up the space.

2. We can put the final touches on our charcuterie plate AND keep an eye on our front porch with the Honeywell Home motion viewer, which will send an alert to our smart phone when our guests are arriving.

Traveling Hacks

When we hit the road to visit my large extended family, our smart home gives us peace of mind when we’re away.

3. The Honeywell Home Water Leak Detector from Resideo will send us an alert to my phone if temperatures drop or if a pipe in our home as sprung a leak.

We lower the set point of our smart thermostat to 55 degrees Fahrenheit to save energy and prevent our pipes from freezing, and we turn up the heat on our way home.

5. During the holidays thieves know there are gifts in the house, so we appreciate having our Smart Home Security System armed so I can keep an eye on the home when we’re away.

Simplifying Hacks

As holiday to-dos stack up, our family takes time to relax and cherish our family time and our memories.

6. My girls love holiday movies! After one simple voice command, we cozy up on the couch and make instant holiday traditions! We use a “movie” scene to arm the security system, turn off the lights, lower the set point on our thermostat, and turn on the Christmas tree lights.

7. One of my family's favorite things to do is read holiday cards. To keep those memories safe, one of my Resideo colleagues converted the Smart Home Security package into a holiday card storage box - which I think is super creative. Oh what fun!