Your first Home Assistant automation shouldn’t be lights — it should be the thing you keep forgetting to do

Published Aug 18, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT Richard is the PC Hardware Lead at XDA and has been covering the technology industry for almost two decades. He's been building PCs since young, and when not creating content, you can often find him inside a chassis somewhere. There's a very good chance the first thing that was automated when you set up Home Assistant is a light bulb. It was the same with my home, and I feel like a betting man when it comes to everyone else. It's the easiest thing to control and automate, not to mention there's a visual response. But lighting isn't where I've found Home Assistant to be most useful. The first thing to automate is something you repeatedly forget to do. Build a truly smart home Don't just chase pretty dashboards The dashboard can become a convoluted mess with enough devices and entities from countless integrations, but even if you spend hours perfecting the interface you interact with on Home Assistant, it may not be any more functionally complete for your home. And by that, I mean it may not actually help with making your life easier, which is the entire point of using such a platform. I've transitioned from worrying about how Home Assistant looks to more about what it actually does for the household. Even the smallest, recurring failure of forgetting to do something can transform your daily life when removed thanks to Home Assistant entirely. It's also where such a setup can go from a small evening hobby on the side to something that's genuinely useful. Before getting onboard with Home Assistant, I almost despised the smart home ecosystem. I thought it was largely pointless, was expensive, difficult to use, and was fully walled up between brands. It wasn't until I started using open Zigbee hardware with Home Assistant that everything started to click into place. But the thing that really stuck with me was solving our issue of forgetting to put the bins out. No matter what we did, we would have the odd week where we'd forget to put them out the day prior. Alarms and calendar entries didn't help. Sure, we were notified that the bins needed doing, but we'd have to then work out which bin was to be collected that week, as it switches between general waste and recycling. I needed some way to not only notify us that the bins needed taking out but also the type to ensure we no longer have excuses. Ask yourself, what do you keep forgetting? I'm forgetful when it comes to the trash, but it could be something else entirely. Maybe the windows keep being left open when leaving the house locked up. Perhaps the oven is running, and you forget, popping out to the shops for the last few bits for dinner. We're fantastic when it comes to recalling memories, but humans can struggle with low-priority tasks, which is where Home Assistant comes in. Instead of having to remember that the trash needs taking out and to check our local authority website to see which bin is being collected, I had a local LLM build an app that scrapes the website and keeps track of everything, updating the local database if holidays or events and problems affect the waste collection schedule. This then offers a local API for Home Assistant to use, which then helps me know on a Sunday evening which bin needs to go. After a little tinkering and fixing, it works better than I thought it would. Home Assistant is great at routine tasks From taking out the trash to knowing when to send out a robot One of the best parts about Home Assistant is the underlying capabilities of the platform. The automation is powerful, entity support is vast, and there's almost an integration for just about everything. If not, simply build one yourself. Armed with an arsenal of sensors, Home Assistant can know when you're home, which room you're in, what time it is, what the weather is like, and so much more. Instead of an alarm reminder on my smartphone stating "Take the bins out" each Sunday at 8 pm, I can have Home Assistant communicate, "Take the bins out. Recycling is to be collected tomorrow morning." It can send the notification if I'm home, if tomorrow is the collection day, and if I haven't already taken the bins out. It also depends on how deep you wish to go. A video feed of me taking the bins out could change a state so it knows the task is complete. And that's much better on its own, since not only is the reminder based on whether it needs doing and if I'm home, but it's also better at grabbing our attention. Instead of simply stating the obvious fact that the bins need to go out, Home Assistant can decide whether we should be notified at all, and if it does, it's one we'd read since it has all the necessary information right there in the reminder. Then there's the fact we can use other smart devices to relay this information. If we don't respond to something or if Home Assistant detects we still haven't taken the bins out, one of the speakers could then play an audible reminder that the bins need to be handled. Don't go big too quickly The thing to know with Home Assistant is that it's a very deep rabbit hole and one you shouldn't dive right into from day one. Spend some time getting to know how everything works first. See how it all comes together and where everything is positioned within the web UI. Add a few sensors, some smart devices, and have a think about what you could use the platform for to help with your daily life, which could hopefully solve some of the routines and tasks you often fail to complete. Don't just buy something and add it to Home Assistant for the sake of it. It's absolutely possible to worsen the experience and overload the platform with input so that it can become overbearing to use. Ensure the smart home solves frequent annoyances and problems you may face, and it'll become a reliable companion for the household.