Most households end up with one big dashboard that does everything badly. Smaller dashboards, each built for one place or one moment, are easier to make and much nicer to use. Here are the ones we've built, or would build next, and what earns a place on each.

1. The kitchen wall

For: a glance while passing through. Show: the weather, the family calendar, anything that needs attention (leaks, open doors, finished laundry) and the porch light. We wrote ours up in detail: A kitchen dashboard and a Home Assistant theme.

2. "Right now" on your phone

For: the first view the companion app opens to. Show: who's home, whether the house is locked, the two or three lights you actually switch by hand, and the thermostat. Everything else goes on a second view. Keep it short enough to need no scrolling.

3. Bedside, at night

For: an old phone or small tablet on the nightstand. Show: the time, tomorrow's first calendar event and forecast, and one large Goodnight button. Use a very dark theme with dim text, and let the kiosk app turn the screen off until it's touched. Nothing on this screen should ever be bright.

4. A guest page

For: visitors, signed in as their own limited user. Show: the Wi-Fi details as a QR code, plain-language controls for the guest room's lights and heating, and how to work the TV. A QR code image saved in /config/www/ can be shown with a picture card: 

- type: picture
  image: /local/guest-wifi-qr.png
  alt_text: Scan to join the guest Wi-Fi

5. Leaving the house

For: a screen by the front door, or a phone view. Show: a checklist that is only green when it's safe to go: doors locked, windows shut, garage closed, oven off. Add a count of lights still on and one button that switches them all off and sets the thermostat back. 

- type: markdown
  content: >-
    {% set on = states.light | selectattr('state', 'eq', 'on') | list %}
    {{ on | count }} light{{ '' if on | count == 1 else 's' }} on

6. Energy at a glance

For: keeping an eye on usage without opening the full Energy dashboard. Show: today's and this month's use, with statistic cards, plus the biggest consumers right now from your energy-monitoring plugs. 

- type: statistic
  entity: sensor.home_energy
  name: Used this month
  period:
    calendar:
      period: month
  stat_type: change

7. Weather and garden

For: deciding whether to water, cover the tomatoes or bring in the cushions. Show: rain in the last 24 hours, soil moisture from a couple of cheap sensors, tonight's low with a frost warning, and the forecast's next rain.

8. Network and homelab

For: whoever looks after the network. Show: whether the internet is up, the last speed test, whether each self-hosted service is responding, NAS disk space, and when the last backup finished. That last one is the card that matters most and gets checked least. Ping sensors or an uptime monitor integration cover the "is it up" part.

9. Chores and routines

For: kids, or anyone who likes ticking things off. Show: a shared to-do list card, the bins schedule, and a few streak counters. To-do lists in Home Assistant can be shared between the dashboard and everyone's phones: 

- type: todo-list
  entity: todo.chores
  title: Chores

10. Home maintenance

For: the jobs that happen too rarely to remember. Show: days since the furnace filter, water filter and smoke-alarm batteries were last changed, each from a date helper that's reset with one tap when the job's done. A template sensor turns the date into "47 days ago", and an automation sends a reminder when it passes a limit. 

template:
  - sensor:
      - name: Furnace filter age
        unit_of_measurement: days
        state: >-
          {{ (now().date()
              - strptime(states('input_datetime.furnace_filter_changed'),
                         '%Y-%m-%d').date()).days }}