5 Essential Gadgets For New Homeowners

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

When you buy a new home, the spending has just begun. Whether you're settling into your own place for the first time or just switching spaces, a new home comes with a whole list of things to buy that will make it feel like home. The furniture you have now might not work with your new place. Things might break during move-in day and will need to be replaced. In many cases, you'll have different needs in your new home than you did in your old one, and some purchases just can't wait.

For new homeowners, a few essential gadgets can go a long way in giving you peace of mind and helping you make your space your own. These gadgets can make daily life easier while helping you learn the ins and outs of your home and the surrounding neighborhood. Think beyond the basics like cleaning tools and scented candles. These five gadgets can be game-changing for new homeowners and help to make your first few years enjoyable.

During the search for a new home, you've probably gone through a whole checklist of due diligence to-dos. This usually includes scoping out the neighborhood and checking crime reports to ensure you're moving into a safe building that lets you sleep soundly at night. Still, the reality is that crime can happen anywhere at any time. And yes, that includes your new place.

One of the first things you should probably buy is a smart home security system. This might be a complete package, or piecemeal items like a smart doorbell camera and indoor or outdoor security cameras. Surveillance items like these can help you keep tabs on your home when you're not around and help you get an idea of the neighborhood and its patterns. For example, you'll learn when the mail usually runs, how much foot traffic or car traffic travels in front of your house during the workday, and whether the neighborhood kids still like to play "Ding Dong Ditch." It's a little peace of mind that can go a long way when you're in an unfamiliar place.

Every home has a smell. Some are better than others. If you want to change your new home's scent (and do so quickly), a smart air purifier is like pressing the reset button on your home's indoor air. Air purifiers are highly effective in removing old smells or the feeling of stale air. They pull in contaminants, leaving behind fresh, clean air that can give your new home a new life.

Smart air purifiers like the Rabbit Air and the Airthings Renew Smart Air Purifier let you control your air purification from your smartphone. You can get real-time insights into air quality, set schedules for your air purifier to run, and get alerts when it's time to change the filter. Air purifiers come in various sizes and are usually portable enough to move from room to room, so you don't need one for each room in the house. Focus on cleaning up one room, then move it to the next. Smart purifiers are typically whisper-quiet, so you can run it day and night and still get a full night's sleep.

You probably know about basic energy vampires — appliances and other items that "suck" power and run up your bill without a second thought. But those aren't the only things you need to be concerned about when you move into a new home. The monthly energy bill in your new home might look drastically different than it did in your old home. This might be because of changes in square footage (a bigger home consumes more power than a smaller home), the energy efficiency of your appliances, or how well insulated your home is, for example.

To avoid potential surprises when you open that first bill, consider getting a smart home energy monitor, like the Sense Energy Monitor or the Emporia Vue Energy Monitor. These monitors give you detailed insights into how your home uses energy. For example, you can see energy use at the whole-home level or for individual appliances. When you have this data in hand, you can take steps to reduce how much power your home consumes. You might swap out energy guzzlers for more efficient solutions, or see how switching to LED lighting affects your monthly bill. Using a home energy monitor, at least for the first year, will help you predict how much to budget for each month and make impactful upgrades that really do save you money.

When you move into a new space, internet reliability is always a concern. You want to feel confident that you can connect to your home's Wi-Fi no matter which room you're in. For smaller homes, this usually isn't an issue if your router is centrally located. But for larger homes or those with multiple levels, finding the best place for your router for ongoing connectivity can take some trial and error.

That's why a mesh Wi-Fi router system is one of the best assets for new homeowners. Systems like the TP-Link Deco Mesh Wi-Fi System let you extend coverage from your router to ensure Wi-Fi coverage to every room. These systems include multiple devices (called nodes) that work together to extend your Wi-Fi coverage. The devices are small and easy to place just about anywhere. They connect back to your main router while carrying your Wi-Fi signal farther. This way, you can keep all of your devices connected regardless of where they're located in your home.

You've probably already taken care of utilities before you move into your new home, so that you aren't met with a dark place with no airflow. However, you never know when you might experience a surprise power outage, and that can put a damper on your plans (and your finances). New homeowners are often cash-strapped after spending so much money on the house and furnishings. That's why a battery backup system can be one of the most essential gadgets in your new home kit. Options like Dabbson's 2000L offer enough power to keep a refrigerator running and operate a box fan to keep air flowing, as well as multiple fast-charging ports for all of your devices.

When the power goes out, you're at a loss as to how long it usually takes to restore power to your neighborhood. You don't have the benefit of hindsight, since you haven't lived there long, and you don't know how frequently these power outages might occur. If saving money is a top priority since you just dropped some serious cash for the home, you'll have an easy way to keep the fridge running and help preserve your groceries. It will also help you mitigate small inconveniences, like if you're in the middle of home improvement projects or just need a reliable source of energy to charge your phone or tablet.