-Not being able to turn on the lights while holding a basket full of dirty laundry

-Forgetting to turn off said lights before leaving for work

This ringa true for many of our friends, too. And that's why I installed a motion sensor light switch in our laundry room.

I chose the Lutron Maestro because I heard great things about it on a few podcasts and you can find it in any hardware store. The installation is super simple if you have a single-pole switch but it can also be used in three-way switch situations. You can program the switch to turn on and off automatically. What I like best is that you can set it to turn off after 1, 5, 15, or 30 minutes.

Lutron's website has a few nice videos explaining the basic installation but I put together a tutorial that goes a bit more in depth and shares basic wiring tips. In case you're interested here's the link to my blog post http://www.homerepairtutor.com/maestro-motio...

My wife was skeptical of how well the Maestro would work but now she's requesting a second one for our closet!! If she's impressed I think you'll be too.

I found solar lights at Walmart that were pretty much the same size as the top of a canning jar. I bought a box of a dozen clear generic canning jars at Walmart. And I bought bags of flat florist gems at the dollar store.

I removed the cylinder with the ground spike from the solar light and put a thin line of clear silicone caulk around the outside of the jar ring then put the light on top. After the caulk dried attach flat florist gems around the jar ring and around the little edge at the bottom of the clear shade of the solar light. Then I threw in about 50 florist gems inside the jar for stability outside along my wall. I wanted to use red gems but they didn't have any. Next trip to the Dollar Store :)