How do I even start checking standby power with all these smart plugs?

I wouldn’t stress about chasing every tiny load with a basic meter. Mine was good enough to spot the obvious offenders like the old cable box, and the rest was noise. You’ll drive yourself nuts trying to get exact numbers on stuff that barely registers.

Just unplug the whole strip and see if the meter moves at all over a day. That tells you whether the pile is worth chasing. Half the time the answer is no and you can move on.

I went through a similar thing when I got a batch of cheap smart plugs. My take is the opposite of what seems to be the popular approach here: I don’t think the pile matters nearly as much as which specific thing is actually running. My basic meter was useless on the low stuff too, so I stopped trying to measure every little adapter and just paid attention to what stayed warm and what had a light on all the time. The plugs with a little LED and a relay that clicks were the ones that actually added up, not the phone chargers sitting in a drawer. I’d rather put one decent meter on the whole strip at the wall for a week than chase individual plugs with the cheap one. But that’s just my preference. I also don’t like the “add it all up over time” method because it makes everything sound worse than it is. A few milliamps here and there is not the same as a box that’s genuinely drawing power. So if you want my blunt answer, start with the stuff that has a display or a motor or runs warm, and leave the little wall warts alone. The basic meter will tell you enough there.

I’d pick one room and just go outlet by outlet for a few minutes. It’s kind of like checking which lights are left on before bed, except the “lights” are little boxes that never really turn off. That gives you a rough idea without dragging every plug into one big pile.

My preference is to skip the cheap meter entirely and just swap the smart plug for a plain one on whatever I actually care about. Those little loads are so small that chasing exact numbers is a waste of time. If something still feels warm when it should be idle, that’s my signal, not a reading.

I mostly just unplug stuff I don’t actually need plugged in 24/7. The smart plugs themselves still sip a little even when off, so if it’s not something I use daily, it just gets pulled from the wall.

I grabbed a cheap meter from a friend and it was basically useless for the small stuff, so I just started unplugging things I don’t use daily and calling it good. The little wall warts for old phones were the ones that surprised me, not the smart plugs themselves.

Your basic meter probably won’t read the tiny stuff, so don’t trust it.

Mine are all over the place too, but the only thing that actually surprised me was the older chargers that stay warm even with nothing plugged in. Those got yanked out of the wall quick. The smart plugs themselves are a small enough draw that I stopped losing sleep over them.