Man's elaborate bin night trick stuns Aussies: 'Best thing ever'
Remembering to take the bins out is something millions around the country grapple with, now one man has come up with a 'genius' solution.
An Aussie man has been branded a "genius" after sharing with the community the creative and "clever" way he remembers to take his bins out, with people online branding the idea "the best thing ever".
Western Australian man Simon Gie, from Hammond Park in Perth's south, told Yahoo News Australia how by programming his "home automation platform" he was able to set up special lights on his garage door to remind him of bin night — and even which one needs to go out that week.
"It's sort of a homebrew solution, really," Gie told Yahoo. "It runs on a home automation platform called the Home Assistant.
Aussie man's 'homebrew' solution to bin night dilemma people everywhere face
"Basically, you can use this platform to automate jobs around the house — it's kind of like a combination of that and an LED controller. Home Assistant checks the calendar that I created in Google Calendar... it just takes that and then applies certain presets to my LEDs above my garage.
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"It's not really something off the shelf at all. I get a notification inside the house, like a little voice broadcast on all the Google Home speakers an hour before sunset reminding me the bins need to be taken out."
Gie said not only has his system helped him out on bin night, his neighbours also praised the idea. "The neighbour across the road really liked it, he said it reminded him a couple of times," Gie said.
"It's a newish neighbourhood, so we don't really all know each other that well yet, but I'd like to think that I'm doing my bit for the community."
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Online, people were impressed with the system. "Definitely doing this to my facade feature lighting", one said. "This is the best thing ever! All the neighbours must love it," another said.
"Brilliant idea, have been thinking of how I could do some kind of lighting to remind me which bins to put out," a man wrote.
"Wonderful to see creative thinking," a woman said.
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