Upgrade Your Share-House With These Tech Hacks

You might be living in a sharehouse that was built in the 1920s, but that doesn’t mean you can’t live a 21st-century lifestyle! There are cool hacks and bits of tech for just about every part of your life - and for a few bucks you can transform your sharehouse into something from a science-fiction movie.

Bill-splitting Apps

There’s nothing more annoying than chasing your flatmates up for the internet bill, only to realise that you actually owe them money for the latest power bill! Thankfully, there are plenty of apps that can help you figure out who owes what, and settle up fuss-free.
One of the most popular of these apps is Beem. It’s had the ability to send and request money for a while now, but you can now set up groups to help you split expenses across several people at once. It also settles up your debt in real time! For example, if you owe your mate Jenny 50 bucks, but Jenny owes Ethan 50 bucks, if you’re all in the same group you can just pay Ethan directly to cut out the middleman (or woman, in this case).
It’s also based on an account, so you don’t have to chase everyone up for their latest account numbers and BSBs.

Smart Devices

When we talk about ‘smart home’ stuff, we’re usually talking about everyday devices that have the ability to connect to the Internet or to your home network. They form something called ‘the internet of things’ - it sounds a bit academic, but it’s a way of looking at how all of these devices work together at home, at work or just out in everyday life.

So what’s in it for you? Have you ever wondered if you’ve turned all the lights off in the house before you go to bed, or wish you could have a hot meal waiting for you in the morning when you wake up? Having smart devices means you can control everyday devices and appliances like toasters, house lights or your sound system right from your smartphone.
You can either buy smart devices outright, or you can buy special plugs for your powerpoints which you can use to turn your regular devices into smart ones.

Smart Home Management Apps

If you build up a few smart devices in your house, the next step might be to set up a home management system. If you use iOS or Android then you probably already have apps such as Apple Home or Google Nest installed, which you can use to create a smart home network with your flatmates. This allows you to assign things like lights and devices to certain rooms, so you can easily turn the living room lights off for a movie, or just turn a few lights on for a midnight snack.
If you really want to get fancy with it, you can set up devices to automatically take action based on things like the weather, sunrise or sunset, or whether people are home or not. At my old place the courtyard lights would automatically turn on as it got dark, and if nobody was home, the lights would automatically turn off too! Pretty cool huh?

If This Then That

We’re getting a little more advanced here, but if you’re someone who wants to cut down on your everyday life admin, this can be a great shout!
If This Then That is a method of automating apps based on what are called ‘conditions’. For example, what if you wanted to upload every photo you posted on Instagram to Dropbox? Or every time you successfully studied for two hours uninterrupted you transferred $5 to your ‘treat yourself’ bank account?
ITTT allows your devices to ‘talk’ to one another, so that you can use the data from one app to trigger an action in another. It takes a little more set-up than the pre-built automations you’ll find with something like Google Nest, but you’ll be able to customise your experience exactly how you want it.

Raspberry Pi

Let’s say you’re not satisfied with using a pre-built app, or maybe you’re thinking about creating something totally new. Enter the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pis are very small, very basic computers that you can buy fairly cheaply. The upshot is that you can install a huge range of programs and software on them to help you build exactly what you want.

Doing a bit of inspo-hunting on places like Reddit or TikTok unlocks a treasure trove of amazing projects where you can learn a bit of programming, UI/UX design and classic DIY at the same time!
Wanna show off the album art of your favourite tracks while you play them on Spotify or Apple Music?

Or take your house parties to the next level with a sound system that syncs up to your fairy lights?

Or build your own smart mirror for a stylish daily download?

As you can tell, when it comes to tech, learning more skills gives you the tools to customise more, and be super-creative with your devices. Doing stuff like home projects can be a great incentive to learn a little more about the devices, methods and technologies that we come across and use every day, and might even inspire you to go pro!

If you’re a bit of an aspiring tech head, make sure you check out our Academy DigiSkills. It’s all about how important digital skills are, and are going to be for your next career. Plus, we’ll show you a few great resources to learn about tech and get more qualified too!