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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
Not to sound like one of those people, but a bidet. It hasn't eliminated my use of toilet paper, but certainly has reduced it, while leaving a squeaky clean feeling. I miss using it while away from home nowadays.
Other things are eye masks (I have sleep quality issues) and ereaders (never moving with ten boxes of books again).
I can’t recommend a bidet enough. I’ve stopped using toilet paper all together and just use soap and a towel to dry off.
It’s especially amazing if you get the hot water hooked up to it.
Electric toothbrush.
Invest in your teeth. Trust me.
Waterpik is also the bomb
YOU’RE NOT GIVING AWAY OUR WATERPIK!
My rice cooker. Doesn't really matter which one. If you like rice, this will make your life better
It's funny how every time someone asks this question there's at least one guy in the comments praising their rice cooker, lol
I also choose that guys rice cooker
No joke. Every time someone comes in praising their $200+ Zojirushi rice cooker telling me how if I really liked rice I would see the light.
No fool. My in-laws are rice farmers. The $15 rice cookers are fine (ok. They’re probably $30 at this point).
Also, reheating rice is not going to poison you.
sync for reddit was
€1.5 for 10 years of joy
In the same vein, I caught Relay Pro for $0.99, 11 years of daily use out of that one. 🥺
Air fryer
Although it's slower than deep frying, you don't need to babysit the food and can use the time to do something else. It also much easier to cleanup
Electric kettle. Saves so much time and energy boiling water with electricity in a couple minutes vs 10min of burning natural gas. Hoping to get a new one during prime days this week since my wife put it on the gas range this weekend due to motor muscle memory taking over during multitasking. Luckily she didn't burn the place down.
E-Reader, I've put hours and hours into that thing and it's still going strong. Maybe I'll upgrade it at some point, but it's showing no signs of ageing yet. I love reading, but I don't have space for a huge library of books (believe me I wish I did).
But do you really have the books? Or are you hooked up to some cloud service of some asshole company?
10h a week of my life back. It cost me about 500€ a month, but it improved my mental health immensely.
Moved closer to work?
Close, I moved to a smaller and cheaper apartment and reduced some other costs, then I found a job where I work 30h a week.
Each month when I get my wage now I think "I bought this time and I best make use of it" and so it changed my mindset to one where I enjoy my free time a bit more, maybe cause I‘m aware of the price I pay for it.
An ereader that supports the epub format. Getting all my books from Anna’s Archive saves me hundreds of dollars each year. If I absolutely loved the book, I buy the ebook to support the author after all.
Instant pot/air fryer combo - I like that I can make one-pot meals in it as I really don't like cooking, and anything I make in there cooks fast. Pasta, rice, meats, there's so many recipes.
Bissell Green Machine - it can wash furniture/carpet. Great for spills, if you have pets. Wash the upholstery in your vehicle. Small and compact. I use it a lot.
Large Honeywell air purifier - my husband smokes a fair amount of pot. I really don't enjoy my space smelling like it all the time. This thing sucks up the smoke and I don't have to deal with it. I buy the replacement air filters on Amazon.
Steam Deck - I love this thing. I love gaming but I'm tired of sitting at my desktop. It's like a small handheld computer too, so you can do other things on it besides run Steam. Right now I'm using it to stream CraveTV to my TV since my Raspberry Pi streaming box isn't working.
Probably a bidet, I hate going to the bathroom at other people's homes now.
I went 6 days a couple weeks ago without power due to a massive storm. After a few days I purchased a small solar panel that has a USB port in it you can plug in anything that needs a charge. Works really good! It’s only 10 watt so charges pretty slowly but when you’re fully cut off from the grid, it’s a life safer. Definitely my most worthy purchase in quite some time.
Bidet, don't poop like a neanderthal
Android phones because of their open ecosystem and customization. Very easy to get all forms of entertainment for free.
A Kawasaki ninja 650. It might not sound like much. But, its given me something to look forward too. Before I was really lost. I thought life just isn't worth living. But now? I still feel like that. But, its given me such a sense of freedom, and, whilst I haven't actually met any other bikers yet. It just feels a lot nicer. Like, when I'm out and I see another, its just a simple not. But, I feel apart of something now.
I've been riding around 2 weeks now. But I still get giddy when I ride. I love it. More than anything I've had before. And I haven't felt like this since I was with my first gf.
This became quite long. Sorry.
Both specific and in general 1.) Nectar mattress. The only mattresses i'd ever bought were from amazon and very on sale. Important Life Advice: whatever you have to do to make i happen, get a good mattress. Even my bed approves and it thinks everything is beneath it, including me.
2.) My bed.
Oh boy, here we go. This goddamn bed.
I bought it roughly twenty years ago and it literally took my entire tax return at my first job and then some to get it and the very first piece of furniture I personally picked out and bought for myself which may explain absolutely nothing about how I ended up like this.
It's fairly straightforward, plain four poster queen bed but so incredibly melodramatic no matter the room I put it in, this thing will dramatically not fit and carry on like it's actually in a castle tower in 1700s Frances waiting for a princess to sleep in it (it did not act like this at the store, okay). It has an unnecessary number of parts (some really could have been consolidated and a couple I'm not sure even have a function other than to add time to assembling it) every piece of it is awkward to move, even the parts that have no reason to be and don't look like they are, and every single piece is ten times heavier than than look or is reasonable, sane, or really should even be possible. The wood is dark and does a very cool dark gleaming thing, and it takes hours to clean and oil it to a soft gleam (so. goddamn. many. parts). Twenty-four hours later it's sitting there dull and dramatically telling everyone who sees it I never clean it and also use substandard wood oil
It takes a very base minimum of two people to even attempt to put it together and you better not have plans for the rest of the day because it doesn't matter how many times you have done this, somehow, you will always get six parts wrong because whoever designed this has another job making complicated puzzle locks that you will never solve and will die mad about it (this person is a sadist). Just looking at it in any given bedroom I live in, it makes me feel I should be wearing something long, white, and flowy while waiting for my angsty vampire lover to visit me in the dead of the night and not taking my night's sleep shorts and a tank top.
This bed is a snobby, judgemental asshole who acts like I didn't buy it at the goddamn Roomstore at ten percent off because it was a floor model.
But. it's a goddamn tank that's been in substandard moving vans and the backs of multiple trucks and dropped down stairs and sometimes forgets to at least look scuffed. It will survive all the wars and still give its occupants a great night's sleep. Those deceptively slim posts are strong enough to joust with a burglar, beat him to death, and then put back and rehang my very melodramatic bed curtains on them (though I'll need a little hysterical strength to hold them up for very long; I am not kidding how stupid heavy those thing are and should not be). I love this bed, it is my soulmate, and it is where I will sleep until I move to a convenient grave. I hope all of you are able to have one of these in your life and if you already do, you have my condolences; but it's ride or die now.
3.) The best headphones I can afford and a budget for potential upgrade/replace every two years (you don't have to use that timeline,but it works for me). Related: Sonos speakers. No, they are not the best in any class but they are good to really good in multiple speaker classes and are affordable--if you budget strictly and buy a piece at a time or watch for amazon sales like it's your job--for normal people.
4.) Kindle may actually be the most important single decision I have made in my life. I like books; I didn't want to use a screen. I did it and a decade and change greater with slowly degrading eyesight I bless the day I decided to try it every day. Currently on an Oasis.
5.) Giving up and budgeting specifically to pay a ridiculous amount of money for my jeans. Sure, the receipts legit horrifies me, but they fit perfectly,, are crazy comfortable, can pretty much survive anything I do to them (and I am hard on my clothes) and some have been with me since before the Obama administration and don't even have a loose thread on them. I have literally every single pair i ever bought and they still look great (and I never add up the cost of them all and what thing I could have bought with that much money, God).
Filco Majestouch mechanical keyboard.
I code all day every day. I would burn through a cheap OEM keyboard in a year, and the keys would get stiff and cause massive hand strain.
$200 on one good keyboard. You're set for life.
Cast iron skillets ($10-$35 each). My kids joke that they don't know whether I'd save them or the skillets in a fire.
Smartwool socks. I do not understand - all other wool is hot & itchy but these socks, I can be sweaty all over but my feet stay dry. I just bought my second round, looked at purchase history, my old ones were twelve years old before they started getting holes.
Linen clothing for hot weather, it provides shade and I am cooler wearing it, than not. (Moisture wicking fabric doesn't work where I live.)
Metal roof (20 thousand dollars) on both the houses I have 'bought' (mortgage) over my life. Not quite 2x the cost of shingles but never have to think about it again. The first one was 30 years ago and still absolutely solid no maintenance yet.
You should tell your kids that OF COURSE you'll save them over your skillets if there's a fire.... but only because the skillets will probably survive the blaze
Silly kids! The cast iron would survive the fire! Ha-ha-haa! Now if there was a sinkhole in the kitchen during breakfast...
A Zojirushi rice cooker. For years, I had been using the crappy $20-30 ones, and they just don't make rice as well. And they tend to break. The Zojirushi makes perfect rice every time and I've had it for more than a decade now.
A $50 calf stretcher from Amazon. Rounded bottom, you stand on it and it flexes your feet while extending your heels.
Cured my plantar fasciitis and allowed me to run again.
A sewing machine, for sure. The amount of clothes I repaired, the amount of creativity I release after buying it makes it absolutely worth it.
my sleep 8 heading/cooling bed last year. was tired of sleeping crappy, had tried just about everything from supplements to saunas, exhausted all other ideas ... out of desperation decided to throw down for it.
seriously life changing. no matter what temp the room is at the bed is always perfect. takes a while for the auto pilot to learn your likes but when it does ... oh man.
much love for my smart mattress ❤️
My Italian five-ply stainless steel frying pan was a game changer for me. Mountains may crumble, but that pan will be with me forever and making cooking in a pan an absolute joy.
My 512GB Steam Deck, easily. I've used it almost every day for going on a year now, and the novelty of playing things like Witcher 3, or Mass Effect, or a fully modded Skyrim anywhere I want still hasn't worn off.
A $100 brother laser printer (2280dw but it has been discontinued). It's like a printer from an alternative universe where printers aren't evil.
Had it for about 6 years now. Printed thousands of pages and only needed to replace the ink cartridge a few times. Had no issues with 3-rd party cartridges. Surprisingly never required any maintenance.
Other laser printer brands that can probably perform similarly, but I can only vouch for this one.
If you don’t have a cordless vacuum yet, it’s an awesome investment. Got one from Costco that has a smart setting for sucking up pet hair and other detritus that typically lives deep in the carpet. I have no problem vacuuming daily now because it’s so easy to just pick up and go. I’ve also heard people with wood floors say that roomba has made it so they never have to swiffer a day in their lives and that sounds pretty rad.
Adjustable bed platform has also changed my life. Don’t wait until you’re 50, get it whenever you can afford it. I swear to god it’s a game changer.
Standing desk (electric, not crank operated) + tiny under-desk stationary bike. Sitting the whole day working/gaming and still getting to do some physical activity is great.
3D printer (I've got Prusa MK4+MMU3). It's an amazing versatile utility, great skill to have, and a fun hobby. Don't buy cheap chinese clones, it's not worth the hassle.
A passport.
