One of the many fun aspects of remodeling or building a home is trying to come up with cool new stuff to put into it. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to conserve energy, solar panels, how to get the best possible airflow, the best natural lighting, and so on. And I’ve probably watched 100 hours of youtube videos on smart home gadgets.

Here are some of the items we have purchased over the past year. A few we already use, and some will be installed over the next several months. 

Most of these products are cheaper to buy in the US, so as I go through each item I’ll give you the cost in the US as well as in Mexico. If you are interested in any of these items I’ve attached my links so I get credit for sending you to the seller. Maybe, just maybe there’s something here that you haven’t thought of and would work well in your Mexican or US casa.

We always load up on merch to mule down here from the States. You can bring up to $500 in duty free merchandise per person in your luggage when you come into Mexico by air, and Ali and I have never not hit that $500 mark each. Until the last year there really wasn’t a lot of oversight on this and you didn’t need to plan too much for how much value your items had. But Mexico has cracked down on getting their tax revenue, so if you do bring a box of stuff for your home, or gifts, or whatever, then you’ll want to have your receipts in hand.

Okay, so a garbage disposal isn’t really a smart home item, but I bet 99% of homes here in Mexico don’t have them. So if you want one then better make sure you can easily install it under your existing sink, or plan ahead with the electrical.

We really enjoy our smart door locks. We went with the Ultraloq Smart Door U-Bolt with WiFi Bridge Adapter ($129.99 US, $175 Mexico). You can open or lock your door remotely through the app. You can set up one time use codes, or codes that are only valid during certain times of the day, like for housekeeping. And the best part is you don’t need to hold onto a house key.

The Sensibo Sky Smart Home A/C control system ($99.99 US, $150 Mexico) is a smart control for your AC unit. It’s simple to set up. You can also remotely turn on or off the A/C, and it’s voice activated. It helps us better manage our A/C and conserve electricity.

We purchased wifi extenders to use in the condo, but the TP-Link Deco S4 Mesh WiFi System ($129.99 US, $150 Mexico) is a lot better for our house here. The wifi extender works fine for instances like pushing your wifi a little further out, like on to the balcony. It’s a different wifi name, so you have to click back and forth through your phone depending on where you are in the house. But with the mesh system, it’s all the same great wifi signal. We hardwired the system, and set up separate wifi accounts for each unit. It’s worked perfectly thus far.

This Propane Tank Gas Level Indicator is a game changer. We have a 180 liter tank in a hard to get to spot in our house, and with the Mopeka app I can see exactly how much gas is left in the tank. I purchased a 2nd one for our gas grill tank. This is a simple but awesome product at only around $40.

I bought this Eufy Robovac 11s ($200 US, $300 Mexico) about 6 months ago. With our animals and the amount of sand and dust it’s great to be able to turn it on once or twice a day.We weren’t sure how much we’d like it but it’s pretty awesome.

Most TV’s now are Smart TV’s, but the Amazon 4k Fire TV Stick ($40 US, $70 Mexico) works better than most Smart TV’s. We don’t have cable right now, and who knows if we’ll get it again, and we watch a lot of Netflix, Amazon Prime video, YouTube, and so on. Plus it’s another access point to communicate with our other smart home devices.

I bought the Amazon Echo Show 8 ($129.99 US, $150 Mexico) for a few reasons. It was on sale. It’s the perfect size to fit in the kitchen as another entertainment hub. We can use it to access our security cameras. And it’s another way to communicate with family as it has a built in camera for video calls. We also have an Amazon Tap which we mostly use as a bluetooth speaker, but it’s also good for communicating with the other smart home items.

We just installed this Eufy Security 2c Pro 4-camera kit ($519.99 US, $650 Mexico) here. And they work well with the Wasserstein Floodlight with Camera Charger ($59.99 US, not sold in Mexico). The cameras use rechargeable batteries. And apparently the wireless systems are harder to hack into, so the floodlights will give us an added layer of security and the cameras can be plugged into power so we won’t have to ever charge them. Both work great.

I really liked these SnapPower Guidelight 2 pack ($26.99 US, $45 Mexico). I bought 8 of them to start, and they work well in the hallways, bathroom, and so on.

And then these Treatlife Smart Light Switches (4 pack for $39.99 US, $65 Mexico) are cool to remotely turn on and off lights or by voice when you enter or leave a room. We use one for the outdoor stairs, so they automatically go on in the evenings and back off in the early morning.

I also bought a 4 pack of the Kasa Smart Plugs ($25 US, $35 Mexico), and will probably use them with the floor fans and a couple lamps. You can activate them by voice, or for example set it up to turn on and off the lamps while you are away from home.

These multi-port USB Wall charging hubs are great for using beside the bed.

You can also buy USB Wall Charger Outlets (6 pack for $59.99 US, $80 Mexico), which we use near work stations and in the kitchen.

Okay, what did I miss? What else should we be doing? I’m sure a lot, so we’ll continue to look for cool new stuff to use in our casa.