Click to viewYou've got a computer that backs up vital documents, launches applications at the tap of a key, and effortlessly pulls down the information you need from the web—and yet you spend precious weekend time doing menial tasks like watering the lawn and getting rice ready for dinner. You can apply the same geeky spirit to your home as you do your computer desktop, and we've got a host of projects that take a short time to tackle and free you up for the fun stuff. Check out our favorite home automation projects then tell us how you make your household self-maintaining.


10. Make your money handle itself.

It seems obvious, but a surprising number of geeks still manually shuffle their money around each month, paying bills as they come (or forgetting them) and saving when they think of it (and forgetting to). Your options may vary depending on your bank, but almost anybody can benefit from automating your finances. Think of it in GTD terms—the less time you spend worrying about where your dollars go, the more time and energy you have to spend them the way you want.


9. Back up your computer automatically.

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Maybe you're an avid enough reader of this site to have gotten the religion of Hard Drives Always Fail, so you've set up your Windows or Mac system to automatically back up. You might use a nifty GUI tool like IdleBackup (which we walked through), or implemented a rock-solid tool like rsync. If that's the case, we're still going to suggest you make a weekend project of setting up your spouse, parents, siblings, or friends' computers to do the same. It's one less frantic call you'll receive, and it's one of the few guaranteed ways to feel no worries about the inevitable.

8. Skip unnecessary store runs with Amazon Subscribe & Save.


Not everyone needs or wants to have their paper towels, baby needs, or other dry goods delivered to them on a regular schedule, but for those of us who end up making last-minute drives to the store for something as simple as a cleaning sponge, Amazon's Subscribe & Save program could be a true blessing. It has free shipping, a pretty smart schedule creator, and saves you a bit of cash over buying the items per diem—or at drugstore markup rates.


7. Make your computer get back to work (or play) when you sit down.


Those who work from home, or in frenetic office environments, know that it's almost impossible to actually sit in one place and type for 8 hours—you get up to check the mail, use the bathroom, grab more coffee, chat with co-workers, and so forth. Even if you're just an easily-distracted user at home, Adam's guide to proximity and location-based computer actions can turn your computer into an eerily sentient device. If you're carrying your cell phone with you, the Home Zone software can make your computer wake up, turn down the music, unlock the screensaver, and do other tasks once you return to your system, and go back into security or media center modes when you leave. HAL is here, and he'd like to fire up your Work Music iTunes playlist for you

6. Document your parties without carrying a camera.


Senior Editor Adam Pash throws some mean parties, but he doesn't have the types of friends who bring their DSLR rigs and send him back great shots of the festivities. So he fired up his computer, and imagination, and found a host of ways to effortlessly document his party with simple photo projects, which anyone can implement. Give friends photo-booth-style strips, show pictures from the party as it happens, and forget having to bug everyone to pose every 10 minutes.

5. Turn a webcam into a security camera.


Webcams are a great way to keep track of tempted kids (and their babysitter) or otherwise monitor what's going on back at home. They're a lot cheaper than installing a video surveillance camera, they're so commonplace and small as not to be noticed, and you can access them over the net. Check out Adam's guide to turning a Mac into a FTP-backed-up security camera, or try Windows software like HomeCamera or the motion-sensing Yawcam.

4. Pre-load breakfast and dinner with a fuzzy-logic rice cooker.


A good, timer-driven rice cooker is like a Ultimate Edition of that trusty hot pot that saw you through college, with way more convenience. As readers of Cool Tools point out, a fuzzy-logic model like the Zojirushi 5-1/2-Cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker can be loaded at night to wake you up with hot breakfast, and filled before leaving for work with rice, beans, soup, or another warm side for dinner. There are cheaper and smaller models than the $165 Zojirushi make that can get the job done—anything with a start and shutoff timer will make daily cooking much easier.


3. Find your food easily with a DIY pantry auto-light.


When you catch a late-night cookie craving, nothing's more frustrating than spending precious munching time looking for the goodies in a dimly-lit pantry. Gina's father-in-law refused to stumble about his dry goods in the dark, so he built a DIY pantry light out of a Timex watch holder and some rope lights. It's super convenient, and looks a lot cooler than a bulb and hanging switch.

2. Control any plugged-in device from your computer


Have you ever dreamed of opening a terminal, typing in start coffee , and smelling the hot stuff brewing minutes later? The geeky magic of X10 makes it possible, along with scripts that open your curtains based on the sunrise time, turn off the lights when you leave the room, and much more. Wired's How-To Wiki runs down the basics of X10 in handy fashion. Change a few plugs, learn the software, and soon enough, you're saving time and money with things like a remote-controlled deadbolt.

1. Keep a perfect lawn with automatic sprinklers


Like your garden, your lawn likes to get a deep dose of water before the sun comes out to bake it. You can spend a lot of money or manually drag your sprinkler around the yard, or you can do what contributor Jason did and make your own DIY automatic sprinkler. His total cost was $100; your mileage will vary with your lawn size and sprinkler needs, and you can knock at least $30 out of it if you feel like building your own timer. We know our readers apply the same DIY, make-it-work-for-you spirit to their homes as they do their computers. Let's hear about your favorite and most convenient home automation projects in the comments.