I bought my first smart plugs after reading a piece on Next Home Gadget about small automations that do not cost much. I only wanted one thing: the living room lamp on when I get home in winter. It took a few evenings to get it right, and now I would not go back.

The lamp is the easy part. Dusk setting, done, it turns on by itself around the time I start thinking about dinner. What surprised me is the second plug, the one on the TV stand. It cuts the power to the box and the console at midnight, which felt drastic the first night, and it turns out those two things spend their nights doing nothing but glowing, waiting for a remote that is under a cushion.

Forgotten devices were the real discovery. My wife's hair straightener, the charging brick under the desk, the old speaker in the spare room. I put plugs on two of them and set a schedule so they go off after an hour. Not because I am paranoid about fires. Because I was tired of finding them warm for no reason.

Keep the schedules boring. One at dusk, one at midnight, one for the coffee machine in the morning. When I tried more than that, I started forgetting which plug did what, and I would stand in front of a lamp pressing a button that no longer worked the way I expected.

Which brings the thing I insist on: a real switch. A plug that only obeys an app is a plug you cannot use when your phone is charging in another room. All of mine have a button on the front, and the lamp by the sofa is on a plug I can still click with my foot.

Automation is nice. A lamp you can turn on without thinking is better.