For me, it’s an electric toothbrush. It doesn’t matter if you go with Sonicare or Oral-B, once you start using an electric toothbrush, regular toothbrushes don’t ever feel like they clean your teeth properly. The smooth plaque-free top layer of your teeth that you can feel after using an electric toothbrush can’t be replicated with a regular toothbrush.
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I am currently in the process of making an arcade cabinet for my Steam Deck! I bought it for my wife, but she basically stopped gaming for now. So, I decided to turn it into an arcade cabinet instead. Love that thing
20 computers. I can’t stop getting more computers I need help there’s so many computers they’re in every room and they’re computing aaaaaaaa
I had this same disorder. I cured it temporarily by giving them away to everyone I know. Christmas, birthdays, Thanksgiving, everyone’s getting a computer, doesn’t matter if you already have one.
They’re starting to pile up again though and now I don’t know what to do because all my friends and family won’t talk to me because I keep giving them computers.
Wait, when did I leave this comment?
Someone I know (who isn’t close to me geographically) said their laptop just broke and now they only have their phone… I wish I could get to them. I have like six computers waiting to be used for stuff, the rest of them I’m playing with/learning with!
Electric kettle. Fast at boiling water, especially if your stove heats slowly. Great for things like tea or instant noodles/lunches.
This is quite a strange comment to see as there isn’t a single house in the UK that doesn’t have an electric kettle in it.
Are we both thinking the same kind of kettle or is it British/American English different? What I’m talking about is a pitcher with an electric heating unit in the bottom?
Not a fan of microplastics or extra unnecessary gadgetry…
Seems like silly waste to be the next lemming without any substantial difference to the age old system of boiling water, same with rice cookers.
Unless I don’t hav a stovetop they’re basically not needed, a waste of money and another point of plastic contamination.
They come in glass or metal aswell, rice cookers always have an aluminium basket, the lid might be plastic and rubber but those parts are usually not mechanically strained. The microplastic argument seems weird here
I don’t see how that it’s weird but to each their own. Every plastic and/or polymer based product sheds/leeches microplastics, especially heated or constant usage.
Aluminum is hardly better and health wise causes other harms and contaminants in the body.
Glass, stainless, cast iron is gtg…plastic and aluminum not so much.
Whats wrong with aluminium, like 80 of the earth’s surface is basically some aluminium oxid
Iirc there was something about aluminium in deodorant sprays a while ago that turned out to be not that bad, but what’s wrong with solid sheets of the stuff?
Not arguing, but I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a plastic one. Mine has a plastic lid, but the inside is still sheet metal. I can’t even imagine one with plastic parts that aren’t just cosmetic. Plus they’ve got to adhere to some kind of safety regulations lest they be penalized by some federal agency. 🤔
Most (though not all) in the UK since at least the 90s are plastic except for the heating element and electronics, microplastic concerns aside they’re considered more efficient since it’s a better insulator. Regardless of material every home has one I can tell you that.
i was always totally with you on the rice cooker, then i got a tiny one from aldi for my partner who doesnt cook much. now i use it all the time. haha
They heat efficiently rather than transfer through the stove and the pot, etc. And so fast.
I can confirm, pretty much every UK household has one of those, they’re just one of those things you have in the kitchen.
Australia also. It’s like owning knives and forks. It’s a basic necessity
I think this must be an American thing, because I have actually never known anyone who doesn’t own an electric kettle. It’s just so much more efficient!
Does a bicycle count? Changed my life.
As a Dutch person I would assume everyone already owns at least one bicycle.
_At least _ one.
DNS filtering. I’m using NextDNS, because I can’t be bothered to be my own server admin.
Why? It does a great job at filtering out ads, tracking the rest of internet cancer on mobile devices. Works no matter where you are. With pihole, you get the filtering only when you’re at home, not when you’re scrolling funny cat videos while waiting for the train.
I know it’s an annoying cliche answer at this point but I really do love my air fryer, it got me out of a cooking rut and made me more creative. I’ve had it for a year and a half an use it 3-4 times a week.
Even just throwing tater tots into the air fryer makes 'em crispy on the outside with zero use of oil. About as healthy as you can eat potatoes and as easy as a microwave. Love it.
Aren’t those ultra processed potato nugget things? Why not mashed potato
Depends on how they are produced
It’s nice to have 2 extra mini ovens and my kitchen is small.
- Warm white christmas lights. Diffuse lighting is so much better.
- Induction cooktops. Because gas cooktops are toxic both inside and outside the home.
I found gas struggles to do low temps too, minimum power in the smallest ring is still too hot for rice unless you want to keep stirring it. Induction I just get it to a boil then leave it on low and it won’t burn without stirring and leave it for 15 mins.
Second the warm white Christmas lights.
They can quickly make a depressing apartment feel like a warm home.
I still suggest a plug-in induction burner, because they have temperature and autooff timer.
Instantpot. I live in a teeny studio apt and the Instantpot puts in work daily.
I live in a tiny studio and am considering some sort convenient cooker. What do you cook with it?
Not the person you’re asking but when I used to travel for work all the time and I was so sick of out food, I got the smaller instant pot and brought it with. I made rice, beans, potatoes (a lot of potatoes lol), spaghetti, I think I made taco meat in it a few times, and a few other things I can’t think of.
Most of them have settings for rice, for simmering, pressure cooking and some other fun stuff. Instant pot and air fryer, you can make just about anything.
Agreed. If you get an instant pot that is part airfryer, you will be set
I forgot they made one that was both! I just have one of each
Thanks
I used a slow cooker when renting a bedroom. Leave it it on all the time and just top it up with ingredients after having a portion.
Lol “perpetual stew”.
Yeah, works pretty well in a slow cooker. Plus without a fridge it’s the only real way to store meat which is nice when the corner shop is selling a pack of sausages for £0.19 at 23:45
There’s actually a pretty cool community sort of tangentially related to this! !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
Anyway, my pick is definitely just a GOOD mp3 player. Whether that be an open hardware one you can crack open and repair, a proprietary one that can at least be Rockboxed, or bare minimum a proprietary one with a good iFixit rating.
What’s the advantage over a smartphone?
- Better quality DAC
- Don’t have to drain my phone’s battery
- My music collection is big enough to fill my phone’s storage, and they don’t come with SD card slots anymore
- Smaller and lighter than a phone
- Definitely will last way longer and is easier to
- My phone doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack 😭
That’s everything I can think of right now
well yeah. But most phones w/o a 3.5 mm jack don’t have an integrated DAC anyways, so the choice is up to you.
But the storage and the fact that it’s all in a light weight bundle, that’s indepedent of your phone is pretty convincing.
I remember having on, back in the day, that ran on a single AAA battery for a week an was marginally larger than one of these. Unfortunately I tinkered with trying to run it on an external power supply when I knew to little about electronics and ran a few too may Volts through it. Otherwise this thing would probably still work fine. I kinda never looked back since was content enough with my phone for listening to music. But I do have fond meories of those things, and I miss the 3.5 mm jack on my most recent phone, maybe I should reconsider…
Maybe so! If you do pick one up, you’ll have to tell us how it goes, I’m curious
I guess it’s not for everybody, but for my specific context it’s pretty great. I think if I did have a phone with expandable storage, a 3.5mm jack, and still had an unlockable bootloader I could run Graphene/Lineage/Postmarket/etc on, it could probably replace the music player easily enough. I’d probably still end up eating a lot more battery that way though
Also wondering this, VLC can run so many formats too
Durability I imagine. My 10+ year old MP3 players still work fine. My phones from 5 years ago don’t.
Stick blender! I delayed buying one because I thought the regular blender I had was enough, but this one is so convenient for sauces and soups.
e-reader: another item I delayed buying for too long because I believed paper books were better. I bought a Kobo and ended up reading more often.
Digital bath thermometer. I love my baths and I can get to my exact desired temperature of 43.5 degrees c every time. Great 5 quid purchase.
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Portable Bluetooth label maker. Not a necessity, but you can use it outside of typical application for lots of fun things!
Somebody park like an asshole? Leave a fun message for them!
Got something you want to personalize? Custom stickers of whatever you want!
Wanna leave memes around in public for people to find? You already have templates saved!
Want to advertise yourself or someone/something else? Boom, instant QR codes.
I’ve been having fun with the mini I originally got for work, about to buy one that prints larger labels.
I disagree on the toothbrush. The problem is all the e waste. Everything else being equal I would love it and my wife won’t give it up but basically the manufacturers change and you can’t get heads that will work and you end up having to buy a new brush every few years which is almost worse with rechargeables.
Wife and I have had our Sonicare toothbrushes for something like 15 years and never had trouble finding replacement heads. In the event Phillips stops making them I’m certain 3rd parties will still make them.
must depend on model because one was definately soniccare.
You should take a look at Suri. I had the same annoyance and objection fo oral b and philips and their lazy lack of any form of effort to improve or innovate or be environmentally responsible. Been very happy with a suri for a couple years now, I send heads back for recycling and the battery lasts months at a time. https://www.trysuri.com/
But you could just go with Phillips? They have been using the same heads for a long time I believe. I buy mine from Costco in bulk.
Im not sure who I started with but initially there was no rechargeables and then like the first rechargeable I got had to be replaced because we could not get heads. I gave up at that point. I just don’t trust them to keep the things going. A few years is not enough for me its gotta last minimum a decade and preferably a few.
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Like five wireless chargers scattered through your home wherever it is you usually just drop and forget your phone
Also, a little frame-controller for your phone, you can play warframe on that thang
I just install HomeAssistant. Seems like a good choice.
I had smartthings for YEARS but I left it all in place when I moved. Home assistant will be my next adventure.
