Glass Tupperware, if you look all your plastic ones I bet they are scratched - melted or otherwise damaged. All those missing parts end up in the food.
The glass ones are so nice and you can use them to heat things in the oven (without the lid) in a pinch as well
Absolutely, almost the best upgrade of anything in the kitchen.
Quick Release garden hose fittings.
You can get them for about $8 at harbor freight and it makes switching hose attachments easy!
Attachments? I just vary the position of my thumb like a pleb
Adjusting the thumb to vary spray type is an essential part of learning basic hose operation.
Hahahahah, enjoy the upvote.
This one is way below $100, but about ten years ago I bought a roll of twist tie wire at a dollar store. It’s fifty or a hundred feet, with a little guillotine cutter. It’s still just a bunch of twist tie, but it punches WAY above its weight with quality of life improvement. No more hunting for the one you dropped, or wondering how you’ll close up a veggie bag. Also good for (fairly light) pictures that use wire instead of sawtooth hardware, and I’ve used it in a pinch when I didn’t have cable ties. I dunno. It’s just an oddly useful substance to have lying in your junk drawer.
If you double it up and twist it together, it’s way stronger.
I’ve used it forever for the garden.
Another one in the theme: Fishing line or nylon string. A transparent fishing line can hang pretty much everything and supports 10kg or more.
Need to cut a cake into top and bottom halves? Fishing line can do that too. Do a hitman choke thingy around the cake.
Keychain? Can be done, why not.
Nail is too far to hang stuff? Just tie a fishing line between the things
Cracked plastic needs extra support? Fishing line.
Out of zip ties? Fishing line.
In this theme, you can get so many rubber bands for cheap.
Just be careful of the material you get. There are some that degrade over time. That said, I loved playing with bags of rubber bands when I was a kid. I’d stick my hands all the way in the bag and just squish them around. It feels great!
or wondering how you’ll close up a veggie bag.
Get yourself some of these for all of your bag-closing needs: https://www.ikea.com/se/en/p/bevara-sealing-clip-anthracite-dark-yellow-90524179/
Costs just above 1 EUR for a set of 6, so you can probably even afford to get 2 or 3
I had that same revelation decades ago, and always keep a roll in the junk drawer.
One day, I was out with my father-in-law, and I saw a twist-tie roll for sale and bought it for him. It was only a couple of bucks, but he received that gift like it was a bag of gold. He immediately thought of how handy it would be.
Funny how simple things like that can excite us when we get older.
I’ve just been hoarding all the twist ties that come with other purchases. Only costs me a little bit of sanity every time I look in that drawer.
A bidet
Add me to the list of folks preaching the bidet
I should really get one. Blasting my ass with water sounds cool.
It’s refreshing on a hot day in the summer
What about a cold day in the winter?
Mine has a warm water feature so yes
Yes
Lol
Cheap plastic bowl scrapers. Like these:
I use these every time I cook. I use them every time I clean the kitchen.
Yes, man!
You can probably make this for free from some plastic packaging. I have some cut out from the lids of ice cream boxes.
Baby wipes are really useful to just have sitting in your car, and next to your bed for those lucky enough to have nocturnal company.
Just don’t flush them. Even if they say they’re “flushable”, they most certainly are not.
To anyone wondering why: they’re more akin to large cotton pads than toilet paper. They don’t break down.
Over time it’s like flushing a bag of t-shirts and wondering why your pipes get clogged. Draino ain’t fixing that.
Just to expand on that municipal sewage gets clogged by them because they turn into rock after some time and need to be removed with a jackhammer. Can also happen on a smaller scale before it reaches the municipality and then it’s on you.
Sounds like words of experience
Learned this shortly after our first kid. Baby wipes have a million uses. For generic cleaning, cheaper is better, as they won’t cover your car in lotion.
Just make sure they’re disposed of properly.
Yea, I get the fragrance and extra bullshit free ones. Just something simple to wipe up a mess.
and 100% straight to the garbage.
Cooking thermometer probe. Take the guesswork out of cooking and never overcook and dry out your meats again.
An oil sprayer. I was looking for gift ideas and came across a “misto” brand oil sprayer and now I use it all the time! No more spray cans of oil and God knows what else, you just fill it half way with whatever oil you want (except coconut oil for some reason) and you pump it to pressurize the oil so you can spray whatever you want.
Coconut oil is solid at room temperature.
Well that certainly sounds like a good reason for it to cause issues lol good to know
I’ve always had these fail within months, just using olive oil.
Thats not good to hear lol hopefully mine holds out!
I’ve had it for almost a year now, but I’ve only used vegetable oil, only fill it half way, and I depressurize it when I’m done. Not sure if there is much of a difference between the two oils or if I just got lucky.
They work great until they don’t. I’ve had the same experience, be prepared to replace it occasionally because it’s usually near impossible to disassemble and clean the pump mechanism completely.
No coconut oil because it will solidify at room temp.
I inherited one of those but stopped using it because I had no idea how to clean it. I also don’t often run into situations where I need to spray oil.
Why do you need to spray oil? Just seems like another way to make a mess.
I use those basic restaurant supply squeeze bottles that you can fill with anything. I squeeze a few dabs to a few tsp of oil depending on what I’m cooking and away I go. I’ve never needed to spray a fine oil mist to cook anything.
It makes coating a pan or bowl easier so I don’t end up using too much and I use it when I make seasoned chicken! :)
I just use a few drops of oil from my squeeze bottle and then spread it around. Oil is easy to spread around and it sticks to everything (which is why we need soap to wash it off).
A shoehorn.
Yep. I’m never going back to balancing on one foot while I awkwardly smush my other foot past the back of my shoe.
French press. Didn’t even know what one was until I was around 50, thought it was some fancy, complicated thing I wouldn’t care about.
My wife drinks coffee day and night so we have 4 methods of making it. The cheapo French press is the best IMHO. Use whatever coffee grounds you like, make it as strong or light as you like.
Mine was $11 on Amazon. Finish wore off, looks like shit, works fine.
IMO Aeropress males a better coffee than a French press. Have you tried that?
That’s a lot of work to aeropress as much coffee as a french press. I love my aeropress, but it can only do one cup at a time
There’s an Areopress XL model now that can make more at a time https://aeropress.com/products/aeropress-coffee-maker-xl
Ah fair. You can do multiple cups if you top up with hot water. But for volume pour over or French press is the way.
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I don’t like french press coffee, it’s too oily. For my money pour over is the way to go.
How does that work?
Hario V60 with a #2 coffee filter. Manual drip coffee. Is very good.
That’s my exact set up!
I have a French press but a stovetop espresso maker is my favorite
I used to have a thing for coffee brewers. Would try out so many different options and spend a lot of money on getting them (second hand)
I eventually settled on my Moccamaster. Tis the best coffee brewers I’ve had and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else by now
I got lucky and found a mocha master uno at a garage sale. I really like it but occasionally it gets clogfed by a single grain of coffee and makes a mess does the full size one potentially do the same?
I have had no issues with the large one whatsoever. I have a friend who has had issues with his, but it just needed a good cleaning and has never done it again.
I like the idea of the uno model, but i can make one cup in mine too, and i found the idea of those mini filters unpractical. I also never make just ine (small) cup. I usually make 4, when i wake up and 2 when i just need a single mug. And it is just so fast!
Yeah I had always thought of it as a dream coffee maker so when I found the small one for 5 bucks I was not passing it up. One day I’ll upgrade
I found the large one for the equivalent of $7.70 on the local marketplace
I messaged the seller to check if the price was right, and she said she wouldn’t go lower 🤷
So I went and picked it up the same day. It was even in the original box with the original measuring spoon included!
Hell yeah, 100x better than a drip.
A portable power bank.
My work gave me one a few years ago, and while I only end up using it a few times a year, when you’re in an airport or on the road somewhere and you need to charge a device, it is glorious to have. Cheap and exceedingly useful.
I’m actually planning to get a bigger portable generator, just as planning for climate change, as I expect more outages in the future and want to have access to power regardless.
I have one with 65W USB-PD and it’s a lifesaver for work travel. But lately I’m hesitant to take it anywhere outside of the US even though it’s under 100Wh, airlines are cracking down significantly on power banks particularly in Asia.
Last time I was in China I noticed many power banks have integrated video game systems on one side (a basic NES/GBC emulator). I wonder if that’s to get around the difficulty of travelling with them?
I have one with a solar panel on the side, very useful to keep in the bag if you need a charge. I’ve found out that some lights will also charge it, having a power bank you can borrow juice from a plant light is quite handy
I also got one of these recently, and I also charge it with my plant light. It’s great.
Would you mind sending me an order link for this item? I’d like to research it further.
Thanks!
The flashlight and compass are rather handy in the woods too.
Rope.
Buy some rope, like 3 different sizes: 1-2mm, 4-6mm and 10-12mm. Watch a few rope videos and then throw the ropes in some drawer. Every now and again you will have an issue that the ropes can fix.
As a kid I once got a 15mm*40m rope for my birthday from my uncle, I thought it was the weirdest thing, but over the years I used it so much that these days I consider it to be one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. And as long as you don’t need them for anything related to safety, they basically cant expire.
What are some things a person can fix with rope?
Attaching things, hanging things, making custom items such as a keyring, lifting or carrying things, dog leash if you find a stray, and more.
That’s why there is a rope issue part of a standard adventurer’s kit in dnd.
Silk pillowcase. Absolute game changer for my hair and face.
Quality dust mite pillow case and bed covers, was a game changer too for people allergic to it, and unable to entirely avoid dust mites. allegedly it helps /reduces bed bugs from hiding
Various I²C compatible chips from Adafruit + a raspberry pi zero. Endless possibilities.
A 10,000 mAh power bank with attachments to jump start your car or charge your phone. Also has a built in flashlight. It’s come in handy on a few occasions now.
I understand that there are new ones now that also have a built in air compressor for pumping up your car tires, but I don’t know how good they are.
I always have a compressor, but not really for the car tires. Ive had three blowouts in my life and they were blowouts: nothing a compressor can help with. I’ve occasionally had a tire with a slow leak but could usually get to a gas station to fill it up. Portable compressors can’t really handle the volume: they take forever and overheat. They’re just not useful.
From time to time i run into an inflatable or bicycle tire or sports equipment, and the compressor is much more practical for these. It’s important to have all the adapters and that it can push sufficient pressure for bicycle tires
Portable compressors can’t really handle the volume: they take forever and overheat.
Do you specifically mean battery powered compressors? I have a portable one that plugs into the lighter socket and works fine. I end up using it periodically when the weather turns cold and the pressure in the tires naturally drops. I’ve never tried putting more than a five or six pounds of pressure in though.
No I’ve always had ones that plug in to the cigar lighter, and always get ones that claim higher specs
I’ve probably tried with more volume though. Same goes for inflatables: the compressor gets really hot by the time it inflates an air mattress. I used to have inflatable kids toys tha would take multiple sessions to give the compressor time to cool
