Had a little fun this weekend and created a smart laundry system.
I’m always forgetting to hang up my laundry, and nobody likes the smell of milldew, so I thought I’d get Home Assistant to help me out. I have a standard, “dumb” washer, so I had to get creative…
Hardware used:
- Tapo Smart Plug - monitors energy use on the washing machine
- Aqara Motion Sensor - detects when I enter the kitchen (I am in the UK - this is where we keep our washing machines)
- Aqara Door Sensor - stuck to the washing machine door
- Google Mini - for voice updates
I have an Input Select helper that tracks the state of the laundry…
Washing - Ready - Reminded Done
- When you start the washing machine the smart plug detects the spike in energy use and sets the helper to Washing.
- When the energy use drops it sets the helper to Ready and sends a notification to my phone.
- When the motion sensor detects me entering the kitchen it fires a voice message to the nearby Google Mini: “Hey! Your laundry is ready - don’t forget to hang it up!” and sets the helper to Reminded.
- HA will wait 30 minutes and then switch back to Ready so I don’t get spammed with reminders.
- When the door sensor detects the washing machine being opened, it marks the helper as Done.
I used a pretty basic system of Automations to get this up and running. The only tricky bit was monitoring my washing machine to see what power levels would give me a reliable read on its status.
For the UI I used a Vertical Stack of conditional Mushroom cards (one for each state) and these fun animations to make the icons wobble and pulse appropriately.
Let’s see if this will help me get better at doing my laundry! 
