"Alexa, Mow the Lawn": How the Smart Home Revolution Left Your Yard Behind
In 1950, a father joked in a public service announcement that kids had "so much free time these days." Fast forward 75 years, and Americans now spend more time on household chores than ever—unless they've embraced the smart home revolution.
We tell Alexa to dim the lights, ask Google to start the dishwasher, and let our Roombas vacuum while we're at work. Smart thermostats learn our schedules, and our refrigerators tell us when we're out of milk. Yet somehow, millions of Americans still spend their Saturday afternoons pushing heavy mowers across hot lawns, breathing gas fumes, and losing precious weekend time.
Why did our yards get left behind in the smart home revolution?
The Smart Home Timeline: Everything But the Lawn
The transformation has been remarkable:
1901: First electric vacuum cleaner
1950s: Automatic washing machines and dishwashers
1975: First microwave ovens go mainstream
2002: Roomba launches, robot vacuums take off
2010s: Smart home ecosystems explode (Nest, Alexa, Google Home)
2024: 69% of American homes have at least one smart device
The one glaring gap? Lawn care. While we automated indoor chores decades ago, most homeowners are still using the same basic mowing approach from the 1950s.