Once you set foot down the Home Assistant rabbit hole, you’ll reach a stage where you want to automate everything. As a result, many genuinely useful automations materialize alongside a handful of useless ones that are quickly discarded or never triggered again.
It turns out that the best automations are the simplest ones.
Every day a light switches on before sunset
It doesn’t get much simpler than this. Since the porch connects directly to the living room, having a light on next to the TV is handy for a variety of reasons. It lights the way when I arrive home in the dark, and it makes it seem like someone is home if anyone happens to show up after dark.
A simple automation turns this light on every day, 15 minutes before sunset. I added the offset since waiting for sunset means the house gets a bit too dark before the automation kicks in. It also means our cats aren’t sitting around in the dark while we’re out, and even if they don’t care, this makes me feel better.
A battery-powered motion sensor triggers the laundry light at night
At the back of the house, off the kitchen, is an enclosed laundry room that’s pretty much open to the elements. This isn’t uncommon in Australia, though we’ve taken things a step further by not only putting a washer and dryer out there but also the trash can, recycling bin, compost bin, and our fridge freezer. Suffice to say, the area gets plenty of use at all hours.
I have an automation that turns on at sunset and turns off again at sunrise to automatically trigger an overhead light. It’s perfect when you’re walking through with your hands full of laundry and don’t have a spare hand.
Passive infrared motion sensors get a bad rap, but the only thing I’d consider replacing this with is a combined infrared and mmWave sensor (and even then, it would need to be wired in).
My IKEA remote gives me a dedicated HomePod controller
While automations probably make you think of things that happen in the background, one Home Assistant automation that I use every single day puts an IKEA Rodret Zigbee remote to use as a simple HomePod remote control.
One tap of the “On” button increases the volume, while a tap of the “Down” button reduces it. I can also press and hold the “On” button to start and stop playback. I listen to music all day long, with my Mac as a source, and this means I don’t have to mess around dragging fiddly sliders.
Though the Rodret has been discontinued, IKEA’s Bilresa is a fine Matter over Thread replacement.
- Connectivity
-
Matter-over-Thread
- Color
-
White
The IKEA BILRESA is a smart remote with two buttons that can control Matter devices or trigger automations. It’s powered by a AAA battery and comes with optional adhesive on the back for mounting to a wall or furniture.
Laundry reminders mean I never forget to hang clothes up
Ever since I started using an energy-monitoring smart plug to notify me whenever my washing machine has finished, I haven’t once forgotten to hang a load of laundry up. I’ve even added a contact sensor to the door so I can have repeating alerts, since I inevitably ignore the first one.
Best of all, I didn’t have to design the automation from scratch since the perfect Home Assistant blueprint already existed.
My garage door notifies me it’s open too long
After a bike was stolen from the garage when I forgot to close it one night, I set up an automation that now tells me if the garage door is open at 9 pm every night. Not only does this send me a regular notification, it triggers a critical alert on my iPhone so I can’t accidentally miss anything.
I also have another automation that sends me a standard mobile notification if the garage door is left open for longer than 10 minutes. This means I can happily ignore the alert if I’m doing something like cleaning the garage.
Mailbox alerts are nice but ultimately pointless
I set up mailbox alerts using the same kind of motion sensor I have in my laundry, and the logic is sound. The style of mailbox I have means that the sensor consistently triggers when the mail arrives, and I use two automations to manage it. The first sends me an automation whenever movement is detected, then turns itself off. The second turns the first on again at 6 am the following day.
This cuts down on double notifications whenever anyone checks the mailbox, though there are probably more elegant ways of achieving this (like a binary sensor).
Even though it works, it’s not exactly life-changing. I work from home but leave the house anyway in the afternoon to go to the gym or head to the shop, and I rarely find myself desperately needing to check the mail before this, even if I get an alert. As a result, I’m going to repurpose the motion sensor for something else.
In time, I might just use object detection and a camera to achieve a similar result.
My DIY alarm system hasn’t seen much use
As a proof of concept, I used Home Assistant to make a DIY alarm system that relies on contact sensors. It’s cheap, and it works, primarily because nobody is going to be able to climb through my windows or doors without properly opening them.
As happy as I am with my work, I haven’t really used the alarm system. I find myself in need of more contact sensors to make it watertight, and I’m not sure it’s really worth the effort. This has been compounded by the existence of dedicated integrations like Alarmo which seem far superior to my hack job, and the fact that my next big smart home addition will be security cameras that use object detection.
I wouldn’t go as far as describing this one as a waste of time, but it’s not developed enough for me to want to invest in it further at this stage. There’s also the small matter of someone usually being home; perhaps I’d feel differently if we spent weeks away at a time on a regular basis.
Automations are a huge part of Home Assistant, which is why the team in charge of the project introduced a new way to build them in late 2025. Despite the increasing level of complexity that is possible, it’s usually the simplest automations that are the best.
