My garage camera makes sure I never forget bin day

I’m not built for routine. Bin day always sneaks up — and once the truck rolls past, you’re stuck with a full bio bin for another two weeks.

So I taught the garage camera to do the remembering. The evening before pickup, it grabs a snapshot, runs it through GPT-4o vision asking “which of the four bins are visible inside?”, then cross-references with the trash pickup calendar. If today’s pickup bin is still inside, Telegram fires off the actual photo — not just a text alert. Photo proof so I can’t gaslight myself.

Setup:

• Reolink garage cam (24/7 RTSP feed)
• GPT-4o vision call with the snapshot
• Waste collection schedule integration in Home Assistant
• Telegram bot with photo attachment

Two weeks in, zero missed pickups. One genuinely satisfying “told you so” from the smart home each pickup evening.

Full write-up with code & setup: how-i-taught-my-garage-camera-to-remember-bin-day