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Doing Chores is a Breeze in the HGTV Smart Home 2014

January 22, 2015

By: Carley Knobloch

HGTV 2014 Smart Home proves that you can avoid stress while tackling traditional household tasks. Living smart can make completing time-consuming chores easy.

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Photo: Eric Perry ©

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Mowing the Lawn

Why have a wide patch of shaggy or browning grass when you can enjoy easy-maintenance evergreen shrubs? Smart garden design covers part of the lawn with water-wise plants, so there's less grass to cut, but all the green you could want.

Photo: Eric Perry ©

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Receiving Packages

How many times have you fallen over yourself racing for the door because you're dreading a missed package notice? You can see when it's the UPS guy and when it's just a solicitor without getting up, if you have a tiny, HD camera like this to monitor the door.

Photo: Eric Perry ©

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Maintaining the Exterior

Wooden shingles wear out, paint peels, and even vinyl siding needs regular power washing to keep it from looking faded. But this gray brick is virtually maintenance-free, and strong as a “brick house”.

Photo: Eric Perry ©

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Doing Dishes

It's not quite as tempting to avoid this chore if you have a deep sink for pots, and a touchless faucet makes it easy to rinse anything, fast. With these high-tech features there’s no more banging elbows as you work, or fishing for icky lost ladles trapped beneath stacks of soaking cookware.

Neutral Laundry Room With White Cabinets and Front-Loading Appliances

Photo: Eric Perry ©

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Doing Laundry

Doing laundry can feel like a Crossfit session with all of the heavy lifting, bending, and squatting. These sleek, front-loading machines are placed high, so you can save your workouts for the gym. Plus they're super powered, so laundry doesn't take all afternoon.

Photo: Eric Perry ©

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Cleaning the Toilet

I know you'll think I'm crazy, but this computerized toilet is so much fun. With a warming seat, remote or sensor-operable flush, and warm water washing, you might not even mind cleaning it.

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Brewing the Morning Coffee

This gorgeous breakfast bar with a built-in coffee station means everything’s within arm's reach and ready to go, making bleary-eyed mornings so much easier to handle. The machine is programmable, so it can be set to wake up and start working a few minutes before you do.

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Making the Beds

Simple but beautiful matching linens make dressing a bed much more enjoyable. And the well-placed nightstands, dresser and reach-in closet offer plenty of room to store extra sheets, pillowcases and duvets, while the nearby washer and dryer make changing the bedding a breeze.

Touchscreen Security and Entertainment Center

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Turning Off Lights and Securing the Home

When it's time to say goodnight, one button gets it all done. The security system touchscreen not only controls the lights, but sets the alarm, locks the doors and offers secure video of entrances and exits, so you can really sleep tight.