I was thinking about how I missed having an indoor thermometer that measures humidity. It’s such a small specific thing, one I’d never think of getting unless pushed to it (which I was by one particularly dry winter). But I like having one now.
What are your small, “random” or “junk drawer” type of gadgets that you actually use or like having around?
A bit on the costly stuff but I find the vacuum cleaner robot (not sure it’s called this in English) very useful. The house is cleaner to be vacuumed every day (even if it’s not as efficient as manual vacuuming or cleaning). Especially with pets and children.
My circle unfortunately calls it a Roomba, even if it’s off brand.
Kind of like how sometimes we call tissues Kleenex.
As soon as I find a decent mop and vacuum that doesnt require the internet for full features I am buying it
If you’re willing to put in some work https://valetudo.cloud/ is a great project that takes an off the shelf vacuum and de-internets it.
You can also make an IoT special WiFi connection without any links in the rest of the home network.
Some routers have this or at the very least a guest network option.
Its more the data getting back out of the house i dont want so the guest wifi woupdnt work. I will look into the IOT network.
I make sure to remind people mine is a Conga (real brand)
Those are great! I loved having one. Unfortunately my wife hates the noise they make, so we stopped using it.
It’s indeed noisy, we schedule it to run when we’re not at home.
I would do that, but we’re never not home on a schedule, since we work remotely. I suppose I could always just manually start the thing when we’re leaving the house.
I automatically set to start at a time I am likely to be away.
In case I am at home I just override the cleaning run and command it to return to the base. In my case it’s rare.
Maybe you can set it at the time you typically go to the supermarket?
We live an hour outside of town, so we do most of our shopping in big runs once per month. I’ll just manually start the thing whenever we’re leaving the house. Thanks for the ideas! I get to start using my Roomba again now!
As a European city dweller the concept of leaving 1h outside town is impossible to wrap my head around 😅
But okay fair enough in the absence of a routine no much of a choice:).
We’re city transplants and honestly, I can’t see us ever moving back to the city unless we are forced to. I’m so glad to be away from the noise, the traffic, the crime, and the filth. I wake up in the morning, open my bedroom window, and look out at a beautiful forest. I walk outside to have my morning coffee and listen to the birds chirping, watch the rabbits and the deer, and completely love every minute of it.
We’re also very glad to have some space to spread out on, an abundance of gardening options, and we like being mostly off the grid. Our only external connections are electricity and Internet, and we’re talking about getting solar, or a residential wind turbine. We have a backup generator for when power goes down, but that definitely can’t meet our needs long-term.
We thought the long drive to the city and reduced access to easy amenities might be a major concern, but it ended up being totally okay for us. The drive is pretty, and relaxing, unlike my commute in the city was, so I don’t even really mind it. There is a small 20,000 person city about 25 minutes away, and that has most of the stuff we need. We do still have to go to the big city if we want high culture experiences, or want to shop at fancy places, or even just Costco, but it has just become part of our lifestyle and we don’t mind at all. This would have never worked for me as a young man, but as a middle aged couple it’s just our speed.
Safe Cut Can Opener, traditional can openers should be extinct. It unrolls the original seal so there’s no sharp edges. It also doesn’t leave a lip, so none of the insides get stuck on the ledge. Then, if you don’t use all the can, just plop the lid back on and throw it in the fridge.
Technology connections convinced you too?
Lime and lemon squeezer, since I like to make cocktails this was essential.
I have a counter top commercial grade juicer and it is an absolute pleasure to use. Manual citrus juicer
Is there a specific model you’re talking about? I’m getting a lot of different results searching online and I’m not sure they’re the same. I’m not a fan of the can opener my wife has, though; its cuts are jagged and uneven and sometimes gets the outside dipping into the food.
I have the following and it works really well.
https://www.starfrit.com/en/mightican-can-opener-with-soft-grip-3
If you like boiled eggs, you need a boiled egg timer.
It’s a clear “egg” made of heat-tolerant plastic with a color-changing temperature gauge visible inside. You throw it into the pot when boiling eggs and it lets you know when the eggs are soft boiled, medium boiled, or hard boiled. It’s very readable even in boiling water, and the results are always perfectly accurate. These things are totally worth the few dollars they cost.
May I suggest an actual timer? Almost all of us already have one, it’s even more precise, and does not require additional plastic waste. 7:30 makes a perfect medium egg every time.
Can confirm. Elevation may cause variance though.
I got an egg cooker that came with a small measuring cup for water, which told you how much to put in for soft/medium/hard-boiled. It’s about $10 and cooks up to 7 at a time. Others can do more. I’m never cooking eggs in a pot again, as long as I have this.
I’ve seen those, and while the appeal of something I can set and not have to turn off at an exact time is there, I always felt like cleaning it looks like a bigger hassle than cleaning a small pot.
The one I remember seeing had you puncture the base of the eggs, and then they sit on a plastic tray over a heated metal pad. The metal pad is attached to the heating element so you can’t just scrub that with soapy water if any egginess sticks to it. The plastic tray also looked like it had a lot of nooks and crannies where all sorts of eggy proteins can get stuck.
That and single-purpose appliances don’t really appeal to me as I don’t have much space. Not to discount how helpful they are for people with different physical needs than me, but I don’t know.
I eat enough hard boiled eggs that I consider getting one every so often, which is why this comment is as unnecessarily long as it is.
If you’re just hard-boiling, it shouldn’t get dirty at all. It just steams the eggs, and I keep the side with the hole facing up so nothing has come out. I’ve only scrubbed it once, and that was from the hard water buildup I got.
huh. We always just toss our eggs in the kettle and boil them in there.
Got a few cheap ones from Amazon Each one worked once and the egg still came out harder than was supposed to
Indeed, being Belgian and an adept of the real French fries (double cooked) I was not convinced at all. In the end, I still prefer real fries but I find the air fryer very practical to cook (or warm up quickly - unlike microwave oven it does not make stuff soft) all sort of food.
I’m an American, so I can’t say how they’re cooked in Belgium, but I can say that boiling them in water for ten minutes before frying reduces the workload significantly and produces similar results.
Belgian fries (and any good fries in America) are fried once in low heat for a little while to cook the potato through. Then they are allowed to cool, and they can be frozen to use later, or you can fry them again at higher temp to crisp them up.
I’m aware of the double-fry technique, I’m just saying that similar results can be obtained by boiling in lieu of the first frying step
Small electric fan oven doesn’t sound as magical as air fryer. Good product, great marketing.
Came here to share air fryers.
I hate kitchen gadgets. Even toasters.
But I like this!
My kitchen has a solid ban on any product with the word “maker” in the name. They’re all junk that take up space and do a worse job than conventional methods.
An air fryer though. That was money well spent.
I was gifted an air fryer a while back. While it’s generally useful, cleaning if after each use is really obnoxious imo and so I hardly ever use it.
It’s a lot easier to clean a pan I used in the oven because I can just pop it in the dishwasher. I can’t pop the air fryer in the dishwasher. It would destroy it.
You can buy air fryer liners to minimize cleanup.
I recently found out about these and they have been a huge help, but I found that food still manages to make it’s way into the rest of the basket, even if it’s not as much.
Mine came with a little pan or tray that we can line with foil easy peasy. Much less to clean.
A night light that turns on automatically as it gets dark. No more stumbling around when I have to pee in the middle of the night.
When we built this house we specified power outlets in each toilet for exactly this reason. The low light levels from the motion sensor lamps we have don’t sear your eyeballs when you get up in the middle of the night to pee.
I think I’d like to get this; do you have a brand you can recommend?
I’ve been using this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074N9LRCQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1. Fun to choose which color or let it change colors on its own.
I got a set of metal picks from Harbor Freight for like 3 bucks. They’re similar to the pick tool that a dental hygienist uses. I use these things nearly every day to scrape stuff out of a crevice, retrieve something out of a narrow hole, pull stuff out of a tube or straw, precision clean corners of things, etc. I love them.
Can confirm, I have the same set, and I do probably use them every day. It’s one of those tools that you don’t realize how often you need it until you start using it.
I wish you would clean my house with those things.
Those are the ones!
Seriously the most useful thing I ever bought for around the house is barely even a gadget. It’s literally just a screwdriver where you can flip the tips and the shaft so that it has four tip sizes; two Phillips and two flatheads. Oh and also a tape measure. That tape measure will save you literally all of the headaches when it comes to purchasing furniture. A good socket set of Allen wrenches for assembling set furniture too.
. A good socket set of Allen wrenches for assembling set furniture too.
I’ll push back and say that the 3-pack of imperial, metric, and SAE hex wrenches you can get these days are better than a socket set
Sure, ratcheting is nice, but the ability to rapidly service ANY hex item without dicking around with my sockets or having to memorize which exact size a specific screw has been amazing
Just grab the matching collection of wrenches (idk what to call them, Swiss army wrench?) for the size you’re working in, or all 3 if you’re unsure, and you’ll be done in no time!
For me ratcheting is way more important. Trying to get one of those stupid little Allen wrenches to turn in the space you’ve got to maneuver is oftentimes a pain in the ass, and of course the thing gets tighter to turn with that silly little no leverage piece of crap as you drive it in.
I don’t think I’ve encountered one that’s hard to reach with my folding set, actually. Probably the one time I’d want to get my socket set, so fair enough if you encounter it more often
Bamboo tongs for taking hot things out of the toaster. They even have magnet built into the handle so I just stick it on the side of my fridge when not in use.
That’s a great idea! I haven’t burned myself lately reaching into my toaster oven, but it’s only a matter of time
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I bought a variety pack of scouring pads and brushes that I can attach to my cordless drill. Super handy for cleaning stuff that would otherwise take some major elbow grease. Probably bad for my drill, but it’s worth it to me.
I made one of these years ago with a round dish brush and a long bolt. One of the most effective cleaning tools in the house. That plus “barkeepers friend” cleaner will take care of any hard-to-scrub grime.
InstaPot. I hate gadgets and things that have limited purpose so when this was gifted to me I planned to regift it. I use it so often I got an upgrade model. Totally worth the counter space!
What can you do with those?
- Put a layer of frozen meatballs on the bottom. I use Trader Joe’s party sized balls.
- Add dry pasta
- Pour sauce over dry pasta.
- Fill sauce jar with water and dump that in.
- Put the lid on set it to go for 8 minutes on high pressure. Wait for it to finish and then release the pressure.
- Yum yum in the tum tum
We mostly use ours to make rice, potatoes, and artichokes. Not all at once but I guess we could. Oh, and for hummus we get the perfect chickpeas in like 45 minutes from dried. It’s amazing.
On top of the other reply, soups, chili, ribs, whole chickens, the filling for chicken pot pie, pulled pork, shredded chicken for tacos, and so on.
On top of the other two replies: Mine has a setting to make yogurt. You just add milk and about a tablespoon of active culture yogurt
edit: oops wrong reply
Extendo arm. It’s goofy as hell but it’s a god send when there’s a bunch of random crap on the floor. They also have deceivingly good grip strength too.
Hand held vacuum. I don’t think this is that niche anymore but it works really well for cleaning tables, random tight corners and I park it next to my clothes dryer to easily clean the filter. I also use it a TON for sucking up bugs. Buy a corded one since battery operated ones die fast (I went through 2 or 3 of these personally)
Bench scraper. Easily removes 90% of any grime on hard surfaces. Honestly more effective than a rag and detergent. When I bought mine I decided to try it out on my “thoroughly cleaned” kitchen counter and removed a disheartening amount of grime. Afterwards I use some detergent just to sterilize everything.
I use my grabby arm thing constantly because bending over kills my back. Sometimes I’ll dual wield the things lol
bend your legs
Having worked in restaurants I am amazed that more people dont use scrapers to clean counters etc. It does such a better and quicker job than scrubbing.
I bought mine as a paibt scraper at a dollar store. Works just fine.
Yeah, I actually use a cheap kiwi nakiri and flattened the edge 😆
I clean up my toddler’s mess every day and those extendo arms have saved my back
Hand held vacuum
We splurged on a Dyson battery powered vacuum that can transform between a floor vacuum, and a hand-held vacuum. I thought it was going to be a goofy novelty, but my wife really wanted it, so we got it. It’s awesome! We completely stopped using our corded vacuum, and eventually donated it. It was just such a hassle compared to the Dyson. The Dyson is expensive, but it is so very useful and convenient.
The idea of getting something before I know its usefulness confuses me. Do you mean finding that something is more useful than you expected?
If that’s the case, I once had an alarm clock which curiously had a thermometer in it to measure the temperature in the room. I was able to use it - for years - to hold my landlord to account for being shitty on the heat during the winter.
Sometimes its a gift. My bread maker was a gift, and it brings me a lot of value, but I prob won’t pay for it.
Other times it’s something pushed on you for fun. My wife made me buy a thermostat gun and now I love it. I test it on the kids too for fun.
I have a digital clock with thermometer feature and a dedicated thermometer. I’ve been logging the measurements every half an hour for months. The clock is ~1.5-3 degrees off (or the other way around, who knows). Just be aware they are not always super accurate.
The idea of getting something before I know its usefulness confuses me.
My spouse buys things because they seem neat. Uses them once or twice, then not again.
A good pair of titanium scissors. They aren’t very expensive, but cut things far better than cheap scissors. They last a lot longer, too; I’ve had mine for a few years, and they’re still sharp enough to cut my skin if I get a little carefree. I got a two-pack and keep a pair with my lunch box for foodstuffs I need to open at work. I even carried a pair around at work for a while when I needed them to cut zip ties, shrink wrap, and banding.
Alternatively, a good pair of hand-forged, high carbon, Japanese steel scissors. They are very expensive, but they cut like a dream and I feel like a bad-ass every time I cut something.
A Moka pot, it’s the best coffee I’ve tasted, I’ll never go back to using those coffee machines with the basket and the glass carafe.
Also, a really good chef’s knife, kept really sharp. I use a couple of Global ones.
Same, but Aeropress for my coffee. I haven’t yet tried a mocha pot, though I’d like to.
Aeropress coffee was always the best tasting. But I found I just didn’t have the patience for making it that way every morning, especially since I drink four cups at least.
Right? My friend talked me into getting a full pour-over setup, and it’s tasty, but I’m not doing all that shit in the morning when I need coffee. I went back to my drip machine after two days. He says that he loves the process in the morning, and that’s cool I guess, but that shit isn’t for me.
That’s fair, it works for me because I just have one cup but it would be tedious for multiple cups each morning.
Battery powered handheld vacuum cleaner. Though I’d only use it for bits and bobs and still use the big Dyson for most of the cleaning, but the hand vac gets used a lot more. Also, a spot cleaner for carpets/upholstery. I did expect it to be useful, and it means we no longer periodically hire a rug doctor, but i hadn’t appreciated how useful a wet vac is for spills, not to mention the time the dishwasher drain pump failed and I didn’t have to mess around bailing it out.
My power tools in the garage are Hitachi, and they make a stick vac that takes the same batteries. We call it the electric broom, and it’s a game-changer for cleaning up the kitchen.
Same, but Makita. My parents had a handheld Dyson, and it was a pain at times because they had to charge it when it died, or you found no one had charged it at the worst times. Because I always have a spare Makita battery it’s just a case of swapping them over and sticking the dead on on the charger while you continue vacing
Ha! I just posted the same thing. We have the Dyson V11 and eventually donated our corded vacuum because it never got any use.
