Knee pillow. I’m a side sleeper and my hips began to hurt. It was about $10. It’s amazing to think how much a little knee separation can relieve your hips and lower back.
A multi port charger with a replaceable cord. Went from multiple little power bricks to charge each device or play the swap everything game. Plus I can leave the short cord plugged in at home on the headboard and use another cord while traveling.
A nice fluffy robe with a hood. Get out of the shower when it’s chilly and stay nice and warm.
Buying two identical pairs of shoes at the same time. Got this trick from a roofer. You can wear one pair on one day and the other the next. If a shoe gets wet you just swap to the other pair. Eventually when they start to get worn you will often have one shoe be in worse condition first but still have a pair with a spare in case the other goes bad. Plus swapping the shoes out allows them to fully dry from sweat and keeps foot odor down.
A desk mat. Think mouse pad but large enough for the keyboard too. Never run out of room while gaming and it stays put unlike the tiny little pads.
Definitely agreed on good chargers, but, regrettably, standards keep changing, so here’s my anecdotal experience/advice. I’ve had multiple issues - my pixel 3a charges faster than my Pixel 7 (comparable battery life) and my 7 doesn’t rapid charge on my ~2020 bricks. I have great cables, too (finally) and after swapping bricks/phones/cables, the problem stays with the brick/7 combos. Same for my SO’s S21 Ultra or whatever. So, after years of practice of reading wattage specs, I’m now stuck reading the bullshit product descriptions saying iphone 17/s24 compatible or whatever is contemporary to my devices. I charge slowly nightly, so the ability for proper fast charge is important for the random needs otherwise.
If you’re using a type-c device, you need a C brick and C-C cable. But, what I’ve recently discovered with my latest pair of excellent bricks, is that “dumb” type-C devices may lack the negotiation ability to get C-C power. I must use A-C in that case to charge my flashlights. Probably why they all come with shitty A-C cables. I already carry A-micro for my older devices anyway
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A garlic press. I avoided them for years because of a mixture of guidance saying it’s just as easy to chop it or it tastes worse from a press. I don’t have the tastebuds to notice it being any worse and it’s certainly a lot easier than chopping since you don’t even have to peel it.
How you prep garlic depends on what you are doing with it, or what the recipe calls for.
What it comes down to, the more garlic flavor you want out of a clove, then the more you need to damage the garlic’s cellular walls.
So this means if you want some garlic flavor, then a rough chop would be fine. If you want a good amount of flavor, then mincing is necessary. If you want a metric f#$k ton of garlic flavor then you run it through a press.
Why wouldn’t you just use fewer garlic cloves and just use the press all the time? There are many reasons, but mainly because a pressed clove may be too over powering for the recipe. Also, if you are doing a slow cook, then larger pieces of garlic will enfuse the recipe better over the longer cook time than pressed garlic.
I hope the above makes sense. On the surface it appears that it’s just better to press garlic cloves and just adjust the amount you put in the recipe. However, there are real differences to the final product based upon how the garlic is prepped and added to the recipe.
This is an excellent comment. This isn’t the image you reminded me of, but still helpful.
You’re right. But it has never been an issue in my house nor ever someone ever composed a phrase conveying the feeling that there was too much garlic on the food.
Oh, we have at my house and it was completely my fault.
I was making marinara sauce in bulk for a specific recipe that we make often. At the last minute I decided to press the garlic, but not reduce the amount and the results were not pleasing. It was way too much and none of us are vampires.
I just smash it with a cleaver. Faster than pressing and more fun.
Try a tiny grate for garlic.
Press is too hard to wash after use, but swapping to grate made wonders. I have two now.
Wait, you don’t have to peel it if you press it?
It spits the garlic through the peel
I’ve broken every press I’ve had. Pressed the grate right out of it.
Powerbanks… no more fear of phone dying
Also, power outages don’t seem that scary anymore… at least you can like read an ebook while you burn/freeze to death lmao
Adding extra cables/chargers. One at each desk and each bag, no hunting and losing a single charger and being SOL.
A racket ball. I carry it around and bounce it to myself and play catch when I’m bored or walking somewhere. Way more fun than a fidget spinner and I’m building hand-eye coordination.
I did this for years… Then I started juggling… Now I juggle
Going to rugged phones for me and kids. You get used to the heft but they handle accidental falls like champs. Also can have neat features like 3 day battery, headphone jack, SD card, and fm radio! Ulefone Armor series.
Eh… I mean the physical phone itself might be great… but software security for these phones are… um… awful… (IMO)
Late security updates and only like 2 years of security updates in total
I mean even if you do manage to unlock the bootloader, last I checked, Lineage OS does not support these phones…
Might be better to just slap a rugged case on a “mainstream” phone
Sure but my argument is about rugged phones, my exact circumstances have taken me to use this model, because the “better” manufacturers ignore this segment. But if a better alternative becomes available I’m in.
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My ex-wife a drink…
What a coincidence! I was going to say the same thing. My life turned around when I bought your ex-wife a drink.
That’s why you’ve got an itchy bum…
A small $10 rechargeable flash light I added to my every day carry. I use it all the time. Way brighter than a phone light.
An egg slicer that you could also use to slice strawberries, whole pitted olives and other similar things.
It’s so quick compared to doing it manually, and so easy to clean.
Double this one.
Spending the little bit of extra money on Gold Toe socks and Dr. Scholl’s gel inserts.
One of those adjustable clasping tactical-style belts. I fluctuate in weight frequently so my belts never fit quite right. This is the only type that’s done a respectable job of keeping my pants up. I just wish they made them in other colors.
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This is what I wear, I bought mine for around $12 at a local discount retailer. The American flag patch comes off cleanly using a sharp knife to cut the stitching. The finish of the clasp can chip a tiny bit with regular use, but for that price its excellent quality.
https://hltactical.com/collections/nylon-belts/products/tactical-nylon-belt-united-states-design
A new mousepad. I don’t know how much it cost, but it was on the low end and I got it from a local book shop to replace an aging, unusable one last March.
It’s serving me quite well.
Replacing the battery in my ps5 controller instead of just buying a new controller. It was super simple to install and the batteries cost $17.00.
