4 things I’m doing to make my Home Assistant setup even better in the new year

A new year is a time of new beginnings and, as corny as it sounds, a great excuse to look at areas of your life that need improving. As someone who jumped headfirst into Home Assistant in 2025, I’m looking to make some changes to improve my smart home in 2026.

Sorting out dashboards

Credit: Home Assistant

Dashboards might be my most neglected Home Assistant feature. At present, I only use the default “Overview” dashboard (which is automatically populated by Home Assistant). It basically includes everything I’ve ever added, whether it’s useful or not.

This is mostly a product of my preference for controlling my smart home with Apple’s Home app. I use HomeKit Bridge to connect Apple’s smart home platform with Home Assistant, bark orders at Siri, and even design my scenes in Apple Home. I’m the only one in the house who ever needs to venture into the Home Assistant “backend” to add devices or tweak settings, so it’s essentially the digital equivalent of a messy room that nobody else ever sees.

Despite this, I feel thoroughly inspired by the beautiful dashboards posted by members of the Home Assistant community on Reddit and the official forums. The smart home platform received a new dashboard earlier this year, and I’m not ruling out building some sort of dedicated dashboard device even though I definitely don’t need one.

My plan is to start by creating a few blank dashboards in Home Assistant using the Settings > Dashboards menu to conglomerate my most useful controls, sensor readings, external services, and more. I’m also looking at adding some community-contributed dashboard integrations via the Home Assistant Community Store.

Testing sensors and checking batteries

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

Boring as it is, testing your most important sensors is something you should do at least once per year. Since I live in sub-tropical Queensland, where we’re currently entering the height of summer, the rains are on the way. That means it’s time to make sure that my water leak sensors are working correctly.

Testing these cheap sensors is a simple case of shorting the contacts on the back. Since I’m using IKEA sensors that are connected to Home Assistant via the Zigbee Home Automation integration, I don’t see an accurate measure of battery usage on the dashboard. It still reads “100%” after around six months of usage, so I’m currently checking functionality every six months and replacing the batteries at least every two years.

Some IKEA sensors, like the Vallhorn passive infrared sensor, seem to report accurate battery statistics. Hopefully, the company’s new range of Matter over Thread devices that arrive in 2026 will include good Home Assistant compatibility.

Tidying up integrations, scenes, and automations

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

Since installing Home Assistant, I’ve tested a lot of integrations. I found no long-term use for the vast majority of them, and they’ve managed to accumulate since I’m especially bad at deleting things. It’s time to venture into the Settings > Device & services menu to ruthlessly remove any integration that I’m not using or have no plans to use any time soon.

The problem is compounded by the fact that I spend a lot of time on the “Overview” screen, on which everything resides. I even have two weather widgets right now, and I don’t even use Home Assistant for any weather-powered automations.

Scenes are another aspect of a smart home that you’ll want to keep on top of. Even though I don’t really use scenes in Home Assistant, I do in Apple Home. However you do it, now is a great time to make the changes you’ve been thinking about. I moved some furniture around recently, so I need to change the behavior of a few smart plugs to reflect the new bedroom layout.

I also need to change the color and intensity of the accent light behind the TV in my “Relax” scene, since its dull, warm, orangey glow makes it way too easy to fall asleep on the sofa.

Lastly, my automations are starting to get a bit out of hand. I’m always switching things on and off, so it’s time to create groups to keep these organized under Settings > Automations & scenes. When I added my “Holiday mode” automations to a group, I promised myself I’d do the rest of them too. The time is now.

Looking for blind spots and next steps

Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek

Even though the period immediately following Christmas usually feels like a good time to heal your bank balance, it’s good to have a roadmap for any future changes you want to make to your smart home. I still have several blind spots within my smart home setup that I need to think about filling in, with home security at the top of the list.

My 2026 smart home shopping list consists of a few Power over Ethernet security cameras, an injector with enough juice to power them, enough CAT6 cable to wire everything up, and a crate of beer for whoever’s brave enough to help me complete the install. In all seriousness, I’m also budgeting to pay someone for their professional services if I keep putting the job off.

It’s also probably time to get serious about Thread. Though I’m very happy with my Zigbee setup, IKEA’s looming lineup of new toys has me intrigued. I’m probably going to go with Home Assistant’s new ZBT-2 adapter because, although it’s not perfect, I’m happy to support the project financially wherever I can.

Home Assistant is the single most transformative bit of software I used in 2025, and I’m really looking forward to going a layer deeper in 2026. Much like the many DIY odd-jobs that seem to accumulate around the house, there’s always something to fix, change, or tweak on a smart home!