Essential pieces of tech for hosting the perfect party

Essential pieces of tech for hosting the perfect party

Everybody loves a party, in fact, studies show that home entertainment is on the rise and many people prefer staying in and entertaining guests rather than going out to a pub or a restaurant. As many as 75% of people would rather have a party at home than go out because it’s cheaper and more convenient. But if you want to host the perfect party, it takes a lot of planning.

The good news is, you can take the stress out of planning and hosting a party if you invest in the right gadgets. These are some of the essential pieces of tech that you should buy if you want to host a great party.

Smart light bulb icon

Smart light bulbs

Lighting is important when you are hosting a party because it helps you to get the atmosphere right. Do you want some nice, relaxed low lighting for a dinner party or do you want some disco lights and a dance-floor area? Whatever atmosphere you’re trying to create, smart light bulbs are the best way to do it. These great bulbs can change to any colour that you like and you can control it all from a simple app on your mobile phone. So, if you decide that you want to change the vibe at the party, it only takes a simple click of a button. They’ll save you a lot of money as well because LED bulbs are a lot more energy efficient. Using smart bulbs to adjust your lighting is so much easier than buying ten different lamps with different coloured bulbs in them.

Smart speaker icon

Multi-room speakers

Music is an essential at a party, so you need some good speakers around the house. If you want to make sure that all of your guests are satisfied, you should invest in a multi-room speaker system so you can have different music playing in every room of the house. Some rooms can be for relaxing while others can have more of a party vibe to them, and you can connect everything to your phone so you can DJ while you enjoy the party.

Robot vacuum cleaner icon

Robot vacuum cleaners

The worst part about a party is setting up beforehand and then the cleaning up afterwards, but you can make life a lot easier for yourself if you get a robot vacuum cleaner. They’ll go around doing their own thing and vacuum the entire house for you, so you don’t need to worry. You could even have it running during the party to keep on top of the mess, just make sure that none of your guests accidentally stand on it!

Smart kitchen scale icon

Smart scales

Preparing expertly mixed cocktails is a great way to impress your guests, but what if you’re terrible at mixing drinks? The good news is, that doesn’t matter any more because you can use a smart scale. They give you simple to follow instructions and the scale measures all of the different ingredients perfectly, so even if you don’t have a clue what you’re doing, you can make professional level cocktails for your guests.

If you’re planning to host a party soon, get hold of some of these gadgets and you can really take your home entertaining to the next level.

Additional image credits:
The Noun Project

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Price Points: Mesh wi-fi routers

Mesh wi-fi routers

Our old Welsh cottage is long & low and has very thick stone walls. This, added to the lack of fibre broadband in our rural setting, means that our internet connectivity leaves much to be desired.

As we work from home and run a predominantly internet-based business, connection speed & strength are extremely important. Sometimes, the sluggishness experienced when uploading, downloading and streaming can mean that tasks take twice as long as they should. We’ve been looking at available solutions; boosters, range extenders and mesh wi-fi routers.

BT is our current land-line and broadband provider, so their bundle seems like the best option for us. They even offer a selector tool to see which of their products would be most suitable.

However, we also have an Amazon Alexa set up; a little Echo Dot that works with our Sonos smart speaker system. As it’s produced by Amazon, the eero would slot straight into that seamlessly.

If you’re more of a Google smart home household, the Nest is an obvious and very attractive choice.

  1. BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3: £74.99, John Lewis

    Get rid of those wi-fi dead spots and stay connected to the strongest signal as you move around your home. Even with multiple devices connected you won’t lose speed. So stream, watch, share and download anywhere at home. Easy to set up straight out of the box. Our intelligent app will show you where to put the discs for the best connection.

  2. Google Nest wifi router: £149.00, Argos

    Nest Wifi is a scalable system that creates a mesh network, which helps deliver a consistently strong, reliable signal. Mesh Wi‑Fi can help provide more coverage than a traditional router by using multiple Wi‑Fi points together to create a connected system that gives you a strong signal throughout your home. Nest Wifi is a scalable system that gives both whole-home coverage and a consistently strong signal. Each Nest Wifi point is also a smart speaker with the Google Assistant. One Nest Wifi router with one Wifi point is strong enough to handle up to 200 connected devices and fast enough to stream multiple 4K videos at a time.

  3. Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender: £179.00, Amazon

    Tri-band speeds: the eero Pro mesh Wi-Fi router connects to your existing modem to bring up to 160 sq.m of fast, reliable Wi-Fi to your home. Works with your internet service provider: eero Pro connects with your modem to bring your existing internet connection to every corner of your home. Set up in minutes: the eero app walks you through setup and allows you to manage and control your network from anywhere. Gets better over time: automatic updates keep your network safe and secure. TrueMesh technology: eero Pro intelligently routes traffic to avoid congestion, buffering and loss of connection. Phones, computers, smart TVs, security cameras and everything else just works with eero. Since eero Pro works with Alexa and more, it’s the best choice for smart homes.

shop mesh wi-fi routers

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Prices & links correct at time of publication.

Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
£179.00
Google Nest wifi router
Google Nest wifi router
£149.00
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
£74.99
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
£179.00
Google Nest wifi router
Google Nest wifi router
£149.00
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
£74.99
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
£179.00
Google Nest wifi router
Google Nest wifi router
£149.00
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
£74.99
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
£179.00
Google Nest wifi router
Google Nest wifi router
£149.00
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
£74.99
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
Amazon eero Pro mesh wi-fi router/extender
£179.00
Google Nest wifi router
Google Nest wifi router
£149.00
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
BT Mini Whole Home wi-fi, pack of 3
£74.99

A platform to improve your mental, physical and social well-being

Win a Smart Home Need subscription

For over a decade, we’ve been small business owners, working from home. Sometimes we feel blessed to be in this position – we spend the whole day together, we answer to no one, there’s no stressful daily commute and we can choose when and where we work.

Often, this freedom can have the opposite effect; we work 7 days per week, we don’t work a traditional 9 to 5 and feel like we’re always ‘on call’. We can’t phone in sick or have a ‘duvet day’ – it can be difficult to achieve a healthy work life balance.

Oh my work-life balance... I wish I were more efficient working from home! - Smart Home Need

Therefore, we see it as timely that this month to be teaming up with Smart Home Need, a platform that aims to help you develop positive lifestyle habits through making your home a more supportive environment. Their mission in their own words…

Smart Home Need is a start up with social vocation. We believe in a well-being centric lifestyle, where the satisfaction of human Needs is the first step towards a more sustainable and healthy society.

Exploring the Smart Home Need website has given me pause to reflect on my work and lifestyle habits. It points to many places where there’s room for improvement to my mental, physical and social well-being. For instance, having a designated place from which to work – bed or sofa should only be for rest & relaxation. In addition, being propped up on either of these do nothing for my neck, shoulders or spine health! Taking regular breaks away from the computer is another habit I need to nurture. Ditto downing tools at mealtimes – I’m a terrible one for eating and working simultaneously. One of my worst traits, however, is that I’m a real night owl and need telling when it’s bedtime!

My digital assistant reminds me to go to bed every day at the same time! - Smart Home Need

In addition, Smart Home Need recommends a number of mobile phone apps and smart home technology solutions (which they call ‘pathfinders’) to help you develop and improve your lifestyle.

I optimised my work at home! I gained in productivity, empowerment and balance - Smart Home Need

Smart Home Need is providing two of our readers with a one-year full ‘Flourish’ subscription (worth 49,99€ each). To enter, tell us in the comments section below what you do to achieve a healthy work life balance or improve your daily routine.

A one-year Smart Home Need ‘Flourish’ subscription

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Why now is the perfect time to make your home smarter

Why now is the perfect time to make your home smarter | H is for Home

Intrigued by the idea of a smart home? It seems that everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon at the moment. However, trying to make your home smarter has many benefits and is ideal for making your home greener, cleaner – and let’s face it – much more fun to manage!

With Black Friday and Cyber Week sales imminent, it’s the perfect time to invest in some smart tech for your home. Take a look at some of the benefits and get ready to transform your home.

Smart home device and smart phone

Why use smart home technology?

There are a lot of benefits that come with smart home technology. Having all of your lighting and heating accessible from your phone or computer can make it easier to cut down on your energy use, as well as make your home smarter for you.

You can put your lighting on cycles to get you ready in the mornings, or settle down in the evenings. Controlling your heating can be much simpler too, allowing you to turn off the heating if you’re going to be home late from work, as well as control different areas of your home. Explore 20 ways to upgrade your home with tech.

And let’s not forget the fun stuff! Virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home are perfect for helping you find the right music and lighting to create a mood at home, or even help you with your shopping list. The great thing about smart technology is that you won’t know how you lived without it once it’s installed in your home!

Smart door security

Affordable ways to go smart

All of this technology sounds like it could get expensive, but there is smart home technology available for every budget. With the pre- and post-Christmas sales on the horizon, you can guarantee there’ll be some bargains on smart home items. From lighting to speaker systems, it’s worth keeping an eye out to see what savings are around.

Don’t forget that there are many items that are compatible with smart home systems. IKEA has a great set of gadgets for your home that offer great value and variety, allowing you to kit out your home for less.

Smart home thermostat

Smart homes and the environment

One of the best things about smart technology is that it can help you cut your energy use. By making smarter choices around lighting and heating, you’re not only helping the environment, but also saving yourself money too. If you’re looking at ways to make your home more eco-friendly, this could be one of the ways to do it.

Going smart is an exciting step to take for your home. By making the most of the best smart devices, you can make sure you have the right tools in place to enjoy your home more and feel more in control of your tech. Get connected and invest in smart technology and see the benefits it could bring to your home.

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