A Smart Garage
The first time I heard about Wi-Fi, I remember thinking: “I guess it would be nice to be able to send my document wirelessly to a printer in another room.” That was my entire vision of how I thought Wi-Fi would be utilized in the future. And when I heard about having a myQ-connected smart garage, it was roughly the same: “I guess it would be nice to use my phone to open and close my garage door instead of an opener.”
And then I realized…
The benefits of being able to control our garage door with our phones could make our lives so much easier. These are the top three things that my family is looking forward to using our myQ-connected smart garage for. I’m sure we’ll think of more uses as well. And if you have ideas, please let me know!
Amazon Prime
As Prime members, we place orders through Amazon all the time. Since I work from home, it’s usually not an issue to grab packages as soon as they’re delivered. However, we travel a lot (New Zealand this month is our 60th country with kids), and it’s not as easy to bring packages inside when we’re 5,000 miles away!
Why do we continue to shop while traveling? First, it’s because we’re constantly taking cooking classes and exploring local markets, and while we like to buy spices and other local ingredients overseas, sometimes it makes a lot more sense to bring up the Amazon app and have them delivered to the house. I know I wish we had done that this summer with our Turkish pomegranate molasses that opened up in our suitcase!
Second, we always seem to travel before and during holidays. When we’re traveling at Thanksgiving, we miss the big online sales at home. Of course, I always advocate spending money on travel and not things, but nevertheless there are things we need to buy (especially travel-related things), and if there are Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, we’re happy to take advantage of them. Likewise, last year we were in the Maldives and Singapore for the 10 days leading up to Christmas, and even though we had planned to largely ignore Christmas itself, we had second thoughts and ordered a few things to quickly wrap up for Christmas morning.
What does this last-minute vacation shopping have to do with having a myQ-connected smart garage? When you connect the Amazon Key app with your myQ App, all of a sudden Amazon will have the ability to leave your Amazon Prime packages inside your garage. No more worries about packages being damaged by rain/snow. How cool is that? All you have to do is select “in-garage delivery” during Amazon Prime check out. And if you have additional instructions, like a request to place your packages on a shelf by the door, simply add them in the delivery notes field when you’re ordering. So awesome not having to worry about deliveries when we’re away!
Note: In-garage delivery is currently available to Amazon Prime members in 50 cities and surrounding areas and is expanding – check to see if your area is eligible here.
The Pet Sitter
When we’re away, we have a pet sitter who takes care of our two cats, 17 chickens, rat and hamster. She no longer needs to have a key because we have the ability to open our garage remotely to let her in. Or we can also add her to our myQ App, and she will be able to open the garage from her phone too. The same is true with guests. If we’re traveling and want to let friends stay at our house, we no longer have to worry about how to get them a key – we can simply open the garage for them and/or add them to the app. This is also great around the holidays for those that have guests staying with them!
Fires and the Unforeseen
We live in California and there’s constantly fire danger. Two years ago, we evacuated for a full week when fire was approaching, and we could only fit so much into our cars, including a few pets. The next several days friends and family stopped by to rescue our other animals and important documents. In every case we had to coordinate a way to let them into the house – while we were far away. It would have been much easier if we had been able to open the garage remotely. And although our house survived, it unfortunately wasn’t an isolated event, and I am relieved that if there is another fire near us today or tomorrow I will be able to control access to the house from my phone.
What Else?
Per my introduction, there could easily be more uses for our smart garage that we haven’t thought of yet. Please let me know your ideas! How would remote access to your garage make your life and travels easier?
FYI, my post on installing the myQ Smart Garage Hub is here.
Note: This post was sponsored by Chamberlain Group. The excitement is all my own.
Leave a Reply