7 Apps That Help You Do Chores (and Prove Technology is a Beautiful Thing)
When you’ve got a laundry list of things to get done around the house (one which consequently includes actually doing laundry), it never hurts to have a helping hand. And with these seven apps, yours might be the only helping hand you need to breeze through your to-do list.
Tody
One of the most stressful parts about dealing with clutter and dirt in your home is figuring out where to start. Tody cuts out this initial step by doing all of the thinking for you and setting up a smart, recurring cleaning schedule that makes it easier to manage your routine. All you do is setup tasks by room -- things like “clean microwave” in the kitchen and “vacuum carpet” in the bedroom -- and then choose how often you’d like those tasks to be completed. Tody then keeps track of each of your tasks and lets you know how many days left before you have to perform any given task, when it’s time to get cleaning, and when a task is overdue.
See how often you should be cleaning everything in your home.
BrightNest
Even once you’ve swept and wiped and dusted, you never feel like your home is truly at its best until you’ve got things organized down to a tee. This is where BrightNest comes in. This app isn’t so much about helping you managing your cleaning routine as it is about giving you tips and ideas about cleaning and organization that you can try around the house. The app is also full of DIY cleaning solutions, like tutorials on how to make your own disinfectant spray, which makes clean living simpler than ever.
Try these tricks to get your home organized in just 15 minutes.
Feast Kitchen
Not everyone can have the luxury of a personal chef, but with Feast Kitchen, you’d hardly know it. This app helps make meal planning a cinch by giving you access to recipes and cooking tips from top chefs, like renowned San Francisco restaurant owner Michael Tusk. The best part is that Feast Kitchen puts an emphasis on quality, and steers clear of anything processed or made with preservatives to offer only the most wholesome of foods.
Edyn
This app requires a little extra hardware, but if you’ve got a green thumb and pride yourself on your vegetable patches and flower beds, it’s totally worth it. Edyn is a smart gardening system that keeps you totally connected to your garden through a sensor that goes right into the soil with your plants. The sensor links up with the Edyn app on your phone, sending over data on things like soil nutrition, temperature, and humidity. This data is then used to give you totally customized gardening guidance to help you keep your garden in tip-top shape. No more, "when was the last time I watered those plants?"
WeMo
WeMo makes it easy to control different household appliances remotely using a a Wi-Fi enabled outlet switch that responds to commands from your smartphone. Use the switch to do anything from turn off your TV or turn on your lights when you're not home, to get a pot of coffee started before even leaving your bed.
See more of our favorite smartphone-controlled gadgets.
iFixit
If you find yourself struggling with a clogged drain or a leaky faucet, iFixit offers a solution to your problem, sans handyman. The app takes a Wikipedia-esque approach to household and other basic repairs by offering user-created, amended, and maintained repair manuals. There are currently over 21,000 guides available on everything from replacing the batteries of a smoke detector to cleaning stains on a baking sheet.
BillMinder
With everything else you've got going on, it's easy to slip up with paying a bill from time to time. Unfortunately, failing to pay a bill by its due date means paying for your mistake by getting slapped with late fees and a blow to your credit score. BillMinder helps you avoid overdue payments by keeping track of all of your bills for you and sending you notifications to remind you when a payment is due. The app also lets you keep track of your expenses with handy charts and graphs, so you're always on top of your finances.
Get all the tips you need on organizing bills and paperwork at home.
