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Top Spots to Enable Touchless Control in Your Home

The 4 easy solutions for going touch-free in kitchens, bathrooms and more.

April 27, 2022

For years, touchless technology has been a glorious gift for germaphobes in public places, through things like automatic doors at the grocery store or the motion-activated sinks and towel dispensers in airport restrooms. But thanks to continuous improvement, and creative implementation, touchless control has now evolved to fit easily and affordably into our homes. 

Whether you are a self-proclaimed neat freak or just want to make it easier to keep up with the messes of daily life, here are some ideas for where and how to add the cleanliness and convenience of touchless control.
Touch-Free Faucets for Kitchen, Bathroom, Laundry or Utility Sinks
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Just about anywhere you can have a sink, there will be times when you need to wash something off of your hands that you’d prefer not to get onto the faucet. From prepping chicken for dinner before it’s cooked to getting paint or grease off your fingers after a project in the garage, a touch-free faucet can be a game-changer for minimizing mess. As a testament to a touch-free faucet’s usefulness and wide-ranging applicability, a plethora of options are available to help fit your particular room, style and preferences. For touchless kitchen faucets, options that feature sensors both on top and at the base provide more flexibility for the variety of cleaning, cooking and general living tasks that happen at the kitchen sink. For touchless bathroom faucets, check out versions with easy-to-set temperature controls to ensure your most comfortable hands-free handwashing experience.
Touchless Lighting Controls 

Another clever addition for kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms or literally anywhere your hands might get messy or full, touchless lighting controls also come in a variety of forms to cater to specific areas and needs. 

Perfect for your bath or powder room lights, as well as that switch right by the kitchen sink, the sleek Wave Switch – available from both Legrand’s adorne® and radiant® Collections – lets you turn lights on or off with a simple wave gesture, no contact necessary. This simple swap to a more modern light switch can help contain mess as well as reduce the spread of germs in high traffic areas of the home.

Automatic as well as touchless, both motion and occupancy sensor switches will turn lights on for you as you enter a space, making them a big hands-free help for spots like pantries and laundry rooms where you often carry in bags of groceries or an overflowing hamper. Similarly, timer switches can be a good add for basements or garages, as they automatically turn lights off… without having to remember, let alone touch, the switch. 

Lastly, upgrading to smart light switches or smart dimmer switches in any area of your home can also mean touchless control through the creation of schedules or connectivity with smart home assistants like Amazon Alexa that provide the ease of voice command. Check out Legrand’s offering of touchless switches and hands-free lighting controls here for more upgrade ideas and style options.
Motion-Sensing Exhaust Fan

A nice hot shower after a long hard day can do wonders for your mental health. Unless of course, you forgot to turn on the bathroom fan and now you’re worried about mold, mildew, peeling paint and any other home hassles excess moisture can cause. But, with a motion-sensing exhaust fan, you can autopilot your way into and out of the shower every morning, noon and night without issue. Like several of the other touchless technology options mentioned in this post, this bathroom upgrade can increase your energy efficiency as well, automatically shutting off the fan after a preset time instead of it running long after the steam has cleared and the room is no longer in use.

Trash Cans with Motion Sensors

While the previous suggestions are all upgrades that can easily be DIY projects with the right tools and can-do attitude, there are still ways to add the convenience of touchless control without having to even grab a screwdriver. As the tech-enabled upgrade to those trash cans with the foot pedal, modern and mess-free models featuring a built-in motion sensor can help make the act of waste disposal both cleaner and easier in kitchens, garages, even nurseries. While touchless or pedal-operated trash can options keep your hands off the germ-laden lid, those clunky pedal versions get stuck easily and can be broken by any kid, spouse or roommate who steps on it just a little too hard. By contrast, trash cans with motion sensors pair the sanitary benefits with a smoother user experience and also offer additional feature options for controlling odors or keeping pets out of the garbage. 

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