What cheap tool/gadget do you use that greatly improves your daily life?
Just went down the aliexpress rabbit hole again. Theres really everythinf for some of really niche things that i wouldnt ever buy, but some things really do look appealing. I wonder what do you guys use daily thats worth lets say under $20
milwaukee fastback with screw driver attachment. I’m no contractor and use this thing all day everyday. Primarily as a knife but the screwdriver has came in clutch countless times. You can get a two pack for under $20
Was coming here to post this. I cannot overstate how much I use this thing daily. Bought it to help with some diy projects, and ended up carrying it everywhere I go. This is one of those few items less than $20 that I honestly can’t see being without anymore.
rice cooker. i have one that i use like a fancy crockpot so i can leave the house and come home to hot food. mandolin or a food processor is a close second, makes chopping veggies a breeze
i use a mini kitchenaid i got for $50 a few years ago. its easier to store n clean bc its tiny. it isnt good for big batches but is perfect for a few carrots and onion, or a handful of spinach. then i usually just swish it all with warm water and im good to go. i clean while i cook so its basically all done by the time im eating.
I guess I just don’t find it hard to chop things with a knife, which is very easy to clean. I have a food processor, but getting it out of the cupboard takes almost as much time as dicing an onion with a knife.
i think for me is im a disaster and usually will end up with veggie particles all over the counter and floor and then have to spend time cleaning that up else the cat gets his far face all over it. on top of that i have a super tiny food processor which makes getting it in and out super easy. if i only had my larger one i could not see myself bothering with it.
They’re insidiously clever. It’s not your fault. Better humans than yourself have gone their whole lives assuming those fuzzy bendy things were just for preschool craft projects. 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah, if you can’t soak it, get that food off before it dries. This is why I prefer kitchen tools that you can take apart. I replaced my Foreman grill with a griddle with removable plates and love it, even though the Foreman had a bit more cooking area. Plus I got waffle plates and also got rid of the waffle maker that I rarely used because it was such a pain to clean if you ever overestimated how much batter it needed.
Speaking as an American - an electric kettle. Just a thing that plugs into the wall and boils water.
I use it for tea, of course, but I also use it any time I need boiling water for something, because it’s faster than a kettle sitting on the stove and it doesn’t use gas.
As a Brit, it’s always weird as fuck to see people in American movies boiling an old tin kettle on the stove like they’re stuck in the 1950s.
Even if you’re living in London’s smallest flat, and all you’ve got is a microwave, a mini fridge, a bed and a cupboard with a toilet in it, you’ve still got an electric kettle.
power determines the boil time. power is voltage times current. its usually said current kills and not voltage, which is what you’re thinking. (which is not even entirely correct)
Overall power would determine boil time, but the issue is that at 120V you need twice the current of 240V to deliver the same power. The wiring in American homes isn’t rated to handle the amount of current it would require to deliver the same amount of power as most 240V electric kettles.
There’s a relation between voltage and current you don’t quite understand. They both matter. If you’re interested check out ElectroBoom, learnelectronics, and Great Scott on YouTube. Watch enough and you’ll get it.
Also remember that American homes are quite literally wired different, and kettles aren’t as efficient fast as they are on the UK’s electric grid. They’re still far better than the stovetop, but the combined one-two punch of less need and stoves being “good enough” for most people most of the time just kills the idea in its tracks.
As a Canadian I now have 2 Electric kettles. Replaced my traditional electric kettle with a Gooseneck kettle for my pour over coffee. Still works great for tea. Also have a stove top gooseneck kettle for the camper when camping.
A pocket knife and a small flashlight. You don’t realize how often you could use either until you have them.
My knife is an Opinel #8 ($20) and my light is an Aurora A33 ($20).
I carry a bag most of the time, so I’ve got a little extra room than most, but I’d probably still carry both if I didn’t. The pocket knife is the size of, well, a pocket knife and the flashlight is only the size of a sharpie.
No I agree with you perfectly, but it was a choice between making it semantically correct, and making it more readable / understandable to most readers.
Lol it’s an old story from reddit. Allegedly, this guy was at a friend’s house and he went to the bathroom. But he couldnt find the poopknife and called out for it. He was mortified to learn that the average family did not employ the use of a poopknife.
If you ever have to resort to the knife resist the urge to push it against the toilet. If it cuts through suddenly the sharp impact from the blade could crack the porcelain.
Carabiners. I bought a bunch for accessory and gear hauling when climbing long routes/distances. They’ve since been used for a lot more. I find endless use for them and usually have one clipped on a belt eyelet.
Well, just earlier I used two to extend a dog lead and tether it at the pub.
In sight of me, a couple are looped through jacket tags holding them onto a skinny rack clothes hangers don’t fit on. My house keys hang off a small one so I can clip them on and off my car key and 4×4 key. I clip on lock keys as well if I’m going mountain biking. Another has a dog training clicker and treat bag on the outside of my backpack. There’s a few holding up shoes and accessory ropes on my outdoor/climbing gear rack.
Other common things, though… Holding up things like lighting, bins, cooking stuff when I camp. Clipping through tied up bin bags so I can take them all outside easier and cleaner—basically anything with a small loop, they become a clip in handle. They’re great for undoing tight knots instead of finger nails. Switching weights in and out of my harness for different exercises on the pull-up bar or hangboard.
Most situations needing a handle, hook, ring, or knot, but faster and easier. I have a lot of very strong climbing ones, but decent ones that’ll statically handle up to 100kg—but try not to ever go half the Max static rating for safety—are light, tough, and very cheap.
That should give you plenty of ideas to work with :)
Local DI (deseret industries-a Mormon goodwill equivalent) has them for $1.50. Pick your lid, thermo flask, size, straw or naw. Get 6 for $9. Or buy 1-2 a bunch of times. My only transportation is cycling (other than busses/trains). Hydration is essential for proper functioning on all of these.
How does it reduce dishes? Water bottles are one of the more annoying things to wash, in my experience, because my hands aren’t small enough to fit anymore.
Edit: Yes, I have a bottle brush. It’s just that it’s a bit of a hassle to soap it from dry and then have to dry it somewhere before storing it again. I wash everything else with a rough sponge normally.
It would only smell if you stick your mouth to the bottle ( the bacteria from your mouth will transfer to the bottle ). But if you drink it the other way, you don’t need to wash it ever.
I mean it’s just storing water. You do have to wash it if you store other liquid beverages like coffee or juice. But if you use it just for water, I don’t see why it would contain any bacteria or scum or whatever.
I have not! In fact, I’m usually the one carrying around water glasses because they’re less hassle to drink from and far easier to (visibly) clean than any other vessel is. I try to limit myself to two or three in the house though…
This doesn’t work for everyone obviously, but I leave my blinds open at night so that the sun will wake me up. Works for me when I don’t have to be anywhere before noon.
I had one before but the light was so weak and if you were sleeping on the side with the back of your head towards it, it did nothing. Though to be fair I do have a smart light in my nightstand lamp to do the same, but it is more like extra.
On a similar note, I have an alarm clock that has a thing I can put under my pillow that vibrates to wake me up. (The box said it’s made for Deaf people, which makes sense lol). As someone who doesn’t wake up to ANYTHING, this works for me almost every time.
Is the vibrating of your phone not enough to wake you? I just use my phone as an alarm clock and keep it by my pillow. All my alarms are set to vibrate so it doesn’t wake my husband.
The phone vibrating on the bed doesn’t wake me up, nor does the sound at full volume. And the alarm clock is super aggressive lol. It has 15 levels, and I turn it up all the way. The whole mattress be shaking
Floss picks. Flossing is actually more important than brushing and it’s really nice to have a pack of floss picks at your desk so you can floss absent mindedly while watching a video or even in bed.
I started doing this a few years ago, and it made a world of difference. I dislike the whole process of using regular floss; having to wrap it around my fingers and then try to maneuver it around inside my mouth, all while staring at myself in the bathroom mirror is a mental burden. Now I just keep a bag of floss picks in easily reachable places where I tend to spend the most time, and I’ve ended up with really good flossing habits.
I’m in the same boat. I didn’t floss until I started using those little picks. I’ve looked into reusable floss holders, but none of them seem like something I want to regularly stick in my mouth.
A year’s worth of floss picks is the same amount of plastic as just a couple of bottles/containers. If you feel bad about the plastic waste but can’t find an alternative, you can always focus on getting fewer single-use plastic containers.
There are also wooden ones; still making trash but at that point it’s equivalent to a bad toothpick habit lol
It’s so much wasted plastic though. I 3D printed a handle and with a little sandpaper to smooth the handle out, it’s super easy to floss. Using this one currently: www.printables.com/model/…/comments
Feel free to google whether you should be putting petg in your mouth and then giving it time to grow bacteria and then putting it back in your mouth again.
If I could injection mold it out of polycarbonate, I would. I’d still rather use this than mindlessly buy 150 plastic prongs, only 5% of each disposed piece being actual floss.
I don’t think anyone is shocked. PETG is probably the best solution here since it can be food grade and transparent to help with disinfection via UV. Would probably be a good idea to limit each one to a month of use or something but it’s still better than the wasteful alternative.
Awesome! Thank you so much, I have floss picks that I hate as they’re crappy and break or stretch out before I can do my whole mouth so I end up using two. Definitely printing this when I get home!
I also thought that too and I’ve been looking for a reusable one now. I bought one but it’s too much of a hassle and frankly takes more time to change floss than actually flossing (have to unwind, remove from track unwind again, pull floss, rewind, align with track, rewind again and trim)
There’s always a tradeoff: security or convenience, environmental destruction or convenience, healthy life or convenience…
I don’t mind at least trying to do something right. But I don’t know other people’s lives so most I’ll do is ask them to consider or try something new.
I’ve got one that’s basically a handle that dispenses the floss, so you just use it and then click a few times and there’s new floss ready for next time. Makes it a lot easier to get done.
Dentist hate this one little trick… because it is not actually as good as flossing. Floss picks tend to have a very tight piece of floss. It is good for cleaning the surfaces directly between your teeth, but not the curved parts of the teeth.
I hate regular floss (or rather sticking my fat fingers deep into my mouth), so flossing sticks are better than nothing.
What I do to mediate that is sticking in the floss pick, turning it and pulling it out while under tension and whatever it doesn’t get will be removed by brushing. My dentist told me I have very healthy teeth (I actually don’t even brush very consistently (please don’t do this even though it happened to work out for me (I was depressed, just listen to your dentist))). I also floss the gap between each tooth twice, once applying pressure to one side and vice versa.
Literally the top choice for beater chefs knife in kits around the world. My Henkles and Globals are nice knives but if Im splitting up a partly frozen whole chicken Im using the victorinox because it is made to be abused
I personally really love my Babish Chef’s knife. I generally avoid buying content creator merch, but all the reviews I read for the knife seemed overwhelming positive for the price point
If you’ve got an Asian market, look for “Kiwi” brand knives there. Usually sold in big bins without packaging (maybe a plastic sleeve if you’re lucky). They’re sharp, but they do wear so also grab a cheap pull-through sharpener
Boneconduction earphones. They are cheaper than you think and I use mine to listen to music while swimming. Also great for music when you need to be able to hear to things around you (it doesn’t block any external sound, so don’t use in noisy environments)
I don’t think that they would be able to cancel the noise of an industrial environment and it would end up being a case of blasting sound into your ears to try and cover up the noise.
These with ear protection saves your ears a lot more.
Noise cancelling earbuds or similar do not protect your hearing.
They do not make a loud noise quiet. It does not matter if they are working or not. All they do is make noise seem quiet, you are still being exposed to the same level of noise.
While noise-canceling technology can effectively reduce the perception of external sounds, it does not necessarily eliminate the potential for hearing damage.
In noise-canceling headphones, a microphone captures external sounds, and the internal speaker generates a counteracting sound wave that is 180 degrees out of phase. This process effectively nullifies the external sound at ear level. However, it is important to note that the sound pressure from external noise sources still exists even with active noise cancellation in place.
They do, but not in the intuitive way one would think. They work because there’s a passive seal around the hearing, thus the headphones only have to cancel the smaller amount of noise that gets into your ear, not the full loud noise outside in the environment. This is why ANC need to have mics inside your ears.
The problem is actually that the louder the noise, the louder the noise canceling would have to be. And at a certain point the passive seal cannot stop much of the outside noise, and if poorly designed, if the speaker tries to cancel that noise, it would be blasting massive soundwaves into your ears. But most consumer speakers can’t achieve that and don’t even try. So after a certain threshold, they won’t work and can’t help you with the noise. And the passive noise block is not even remotely good enough as a straight up earplug. So they are not considered protective gear, at least not the consumer devices, only aviation grade ANC is considered protective gear. But you’ll see that they have massive ear cover,s with huge speakers and drivers, and elastic tensors on the headband to absolutely seal your ears and some truly state of the art audio processing that would make the most snob audiophile blush in envy.
They do make some of those for ground crews, construction sites and heavy machinery, but they insists that they are only effective if paired with a sound baffle earplug.
No, it wouldn’t. When I say I work in a high noise environment I mean that I’m surrounded by enough machine noise that I wear ear plugs to protect my hearing. Active noise cancellation isn’t a substitute for actual PPE. It’d be cool if it worked that way, but sadly not.
Bone conduction works great with earplugs though. The only minor downside is that earplugs make the bass frequencies stronger, so I need to open up the EQ settings and tweak things a bit if I’m listening to music, but that’s not really a big deal. I’m usually listing to podcasts or audio books at work anyway.
My greatest purchase of the last decade I reckon. I first tried them 9 years ago and since then I am onto my 6th pair, no because they break easily but simply because I use them for between 8 and 10 hours every single day.
I do a lot of running and cycling and they allow me to be aware of idiots in cars whilst being able to listen to music or books whilst I ride / run. I use them at work with ear defense in so I can still hear what my machine is doing.
They are light, comfortable and really just the best way to listen to stuff for me.
Not OP but I do use AdterShokz! I bought them during Black Friday sale last year and love them! I also do a lot of running and cycling - very nice to have the background song playing while also being aware of my surroundings! I also do a lot of late night walks listening to podcasts - I feel much more comfortable knowing I could hear someone approaching me.
I listen when to music / podcasts doing chores around the house. My wife doesn’t realize alot of the times and starts talking to me and I miss first half of what she said. I told my wife when buying them I’d be able to hear her now! Turns out I listen too loud still and can’t comprehend what she is saying when first talking while headphones are still playing. So… don’t use that as buying excuse :)
I don’t know if that is volume based though as I do exactly the same and even when the volume is down low it is like my brain is tuned into listen on that level and so I miss the first sentence of what is said from an outside source. At least I can hear they are there however!
They really are great for so many applications. I used to do Acid a lot more than I do these days and they were fucking great for a trip and out walking in the woods. I could have them on a good volume to soundtrack my walk but whilst also being able to hear nature around me. Just perfect for trippy walks.
I would personally recommend the mucai h61 lga 1155 alliexpress motherboard I own one in my own personal rig and have been using it for almost 3 weeks now and it’s been smooth sailing Its £10 less than most other used motherboards and it has an additional m.2/mini pcie slot
A “traveler’s” journal that consists of a cover and replaceable notebook refills. Cheaper than having to buy entire journals once you finish the last one (though uglier, since these refills don’t have cool covers), you can interchange them based on context/what you require and journaling is pretty great by itself.
Seconded - I spent maybe $30 on the journal (might be a knockoff, but it works) and intentionally got one with card slots as well. No carrying a wallet required, self-contained, and when I think of something to do/search/etc it goes in there immediately.
I started with Midori notebooks in A5, and realized I love the paper, but the binding just didn't work for the way I write. Switched to Rhodia spiral bound 80gsm and haven't looked back. Wouldn't call myself "organized" per se, but far more than I ever have been and I no longer lose the random things I think of. or end up with 500 notes on my phone and no idea what's in each.
A decent headlamp. Flashlights are well and good, and sometimes necessary too. But if you’ve ever had to do something intricate with both hands in the complete dark, a good headlamp can be so much better in those situations
I worked with a guy who wore a headlamp nearly all the time. When people would ask about it he would always tell them “There are only two reasons NOT to wear a headlamp. Either you don’t have a head, or you don’t have a headlamp.”
And you can get such small ones now! My spouse has one she keeps in her purse where the strap is just a thin wire that retracts into the unit. It’s not even uncomfortable! Needless to say I’m jealous!
Is it the petzl zipka? Because if it isn’t I’d love to know what it is. I have one, but they’ve apparently stopped making them, and it’s so much better not having an elastic strap.
100%. I found one with grooves, so you can tilt and lock on whatever angle you like. Going to use as secondary light soirce on my bike rides and camping trips
Completely agree on this. For some reason I’ve gone through like four at this point. They seem to break for some reason. Even tried the REI route with the black diamond brand and they don’t seem to last. I need to find a better brand.
In most places, lights are placed on the ceiling. This is fine for generally lighting a room, but if you need to do something intricate that’s not directly under the ceiling lamp it can be hard to see. Even simple things like plugging in some cables under the desk.
I got a Lightbar brand “lightbar pro”, so good. The only downside to it is that there is a design flaw where there is no strain relief on the main power cable so twisting it will lead to failure. I don’t know if they fixed it since I bought mine, but some glue on the power wire should sort it out.
You get a nice wide diffuse light so you can see all around you and what you are working on. It isn’t the best for distance, but most of the time I am working I need to see my surroundings and what I am working on.
Great for walking the dog at night, in suburban or rural settings. A phone flashlight is annoying to juggle while also controlling a leash and impossible when I need to scoop poop.
I second a headlamp. Almost mandatory if you're camping I think. I got some cheap ones and use them around the house / garage too. More useful than they seem at first glance.
Long USB cables can be problematic, and to avoid problems may need to be inconveniently thick and stiff. I’ve taken to using an AC extension chord for most of the length when I need to charge far from an outlet.
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