Broke single mom here. My H&M usually offers a buy one get one discount on boys’ cotton boxers, so whenever I buy a pack for my 12 year old son, I grab myself one as well and they serve pretty well as pajama shorts which I pair with a cheap oversized cotton tee.
Extra long shoe horn. I eventually upgraded to a solid metal one when the cheap one broke.
Pair of hook earbuds. Cheap no-name presumably Chinese brand, but they sound great and don’t fall out of my earholes.
A back scratcher. Got a pack of 4 for a few bucks after one I was gifted broke. I’m old and have one quite arthritic shoulder, so half of my own back is unreachable. It’s especially shitful getting an itchy back at night, but now I don’t need to get up to relieve it. I use it every day, and every day I bless the person who first gifted me one.
A bottle opener shaped like a key so it fits neatly between my other keys on my keychain. I thought I lost my keys once and I was way more upset about that than my actual keys, despite it probably being pretty easy to find on Amazon.
I’ve got a lot of use out of a 1000ml water bottle I got at college. Originally got it because the club I’m a part of was making food and I needed a container to take some with me. Since then I have used it a lot. Same with a discounted $1USD aluminum bottle I got because I forgot my water bottle at home and needed something so I wouldn’t be getting up every few seconds to get water while working on something in the library.
Wireless phone charger. I’ll be stuck somewhere looking at my low battery life, and suddenly remember it’s in my purse. It isn’t the fastest charge but it is useful.
A Victorinox Swiss army knife. Bought it used for 10€, and it has everything from a very good blade to screwdrivers, a bottle opener, pen and tweezers. Always in my pocket in case I need it.
It’s weird, but despite owning a couple of nice pocket knives, I almost never have actual use for them. My tactical torch though, is freaking amazing, and given my shitty old eyesight, I use it every day.
I’d be lost without my pocket knife. I use it daily, I’ve even gutted a moose with it.
$20 bread maker I found at at a thrift store. There’s no telling how many hundreds of loaves of healthy, fresh baked wheat bread I’ve churned out of that thing over the past two years, especially now that we’re grinding our own wheat too.
I loved my breadmaker back in the day. I’m in an apartment these days though, so no room for a new one after the last one broke.
Did you try getting rid of the old one and putting the new one in its former place?
I got a bread maker for free. I asked my coworkers and THREE different people said they had a bread maker that’s just sitting there, unused as gifts that they don’t want.
A screwdriver kit with multiple head tips, can repair almost anything as long as I am given some schematics
Wool poncho. I’ve used it to stay warm, stay cool, as a groundcloth under my sleeping bag, as a blanket, as a pillow, as a decorative throw, as a cat bed, as a picnic blanket, as a beach blanket. It’s incredibly useful and versatile.
Same! I always keep my emergency wool cloak in my car. Saved me tons of times
My pocket stun gun was $19.99. Decided I needed a defense mechanism I could conceal after an encounter with a scary aggressive homeless man.
Also has a flashlight.
Be careful with a stungun. It requires close range confrontation, and It’s not effective if the assailant is drugged up or heavily drunk and ignores the shocks.
Mace gives good distance, and pepper in the eyes doesn’t care about the stimulants in your blood stream.
Also practice with it. A large number of people carry self defense tools and choke under pressure/fail to use it correctly during situations.
I tested it on myself.
It works fine.
Stun guns are useless.
Always appreciate when people offer their opinion with a YT video. I’m definitely going to watch it. Thank you.
Make sure you also test it while drunk or heavily drugged up.
That does sound like a fun Friday night
lol, you completely missed all that advice.
What kind of flashlight??
This has been “useful” to you? I hope mostly the flashlight and not the tazing homeless people part.
Go judge someone else. It wasn’t my decision to turn whole cities into mental institutions. It was Ronald Reagan’s.
Hahaha. Who said I was judging you? I hope you don’t need to be using a tazer often because it doesn’t sound like a fun existence. It sucks that we have homeless people in the richest country in the world, but that doesn’t mean homeless people can’t be dangerous. Take a chill pill please.
Apologies.
Every time I mention I had a run-in with a homeless person, some self-righteous SJW discounts my experience and infers that I must have been in the wrong, though I was just sitting on a bus minding my own business on the way to work. My city has fare-free buses, so we end up having a lot of close encounters with untreated homeless people. (Also why I carry a stun-gun instead of mace, so if I have to use it there’s no chance of friendly fire.)
So I figured you were another one here to cast aspersions, and I have a short fuse with it for sure. My mistake.
One way window heat shield. Reflects 85‰ of the UV back out. Sticks to the window using only water.
Noticeable difference in temperature for any sun-facing windows
I added these last summer too. Roughly a hundred bucks to cover three patio sliding doors. Huge difference.
Window film is so glorious. I have my bedroom windows blacked out with it, easier to sleep, and yes, always cool temperatures in there.
I did this at my last House and it was fantastic.
Just need to remember that once it’s dark outside the reflective side “switches” and everyone can see clearly into the house.
That’s just how a normal window works
Yes but the film has a one-way mirror effect and most people don’t put 2 and 2 together and think the window is opaque when is not.
wait really? and isn’t that always the case with any window?
Probably you mean 85% of infrared, not 85 parts per thousand (or 8.5%) of ultraviolet?
How easy are they to cut to size, or if you need to use multiple to cover a window how does the gap/seam look? Have been thinking of getting them, but we also want to replace our windows at some point. I assume you can’t just reuse them?
Pretty easy to cut, but of course it’ll never be perfect, and it’s better to cut smaller than larger since it sticks to the window using water, and needs a complete seal, so any corners that overlap a frame will just slowly force the whole thing to peel off.
Very easy to re-use, it sticks using water and requires a flat piece of card (e.g. an old credit card) to spread it out over the window
Is that the static type then that are reused and just need water, with adhesive backed ones being single application only?
Huh, never heard of the adhesive type. I’ve used the static/water ones for ~4 years without any issues
At least in home depot, some of them come with a specific blade tool, or one that’s not too much more expensive. It’s hard/sharp enough to seamlessly cut through the tints, but not scratch your window.
Somewhere i worked had that. (Edit: but more for privacy)
It was so funny seeing passerbys using it as a mirror.
Absolutly funny 10/10
A basket/bowl thing for keys, wallet, and whatever one carries around. No more hunting for them when walking out the door.
I just leave my shorts or pants (depending on weather) hanging on the back of the door with everything still in the pockets (except my phone). I change them once a week or as needed and just transfer the stuff when I’m putting on the fresh pair.
You wear the same pair of pants every day for a week straight?
My husband still doesn’t use it, the hunt for his keys is getting old
Put a tile or AirTag on them
One of these stainless steel bars of “soap”. It’s for getting onion and garlic smell off your hands. I was skeptical when my partner bought it, but it totally works. Rub on your hands under cold water and it’s like you never even looked at the garlic.
So any stainless steel will do that. No need for a special disk. I use a stainless steel cocktail shaker to peal garlic. Then when I rinse it clean it also removes the smell from my hands.
Just drop the cloves into the shaker and shake hard for 30-45 seconds. Most of the garlic is now peeled and some just need a bit help. So much faster and easier.
Yep. Still useful for people without stainless fixtures, or cocktail shakers.
Fyi this also works with a steel faucet or sink in a pinch
Or the outside of a stainless mixing bowl. That’s what I use since there’s usually one drying next to the sink anyway. And it’s also useful as a bowl!
Okay so maybe I’ve grown to used to the smell of garlic but is it a common problem that people are worried about their hands smelling like garlic/onions? Maybe it’s because I wash dishes as I cook, so whatever I chopped/prepared them on I would have washed in the sink while it started to heat up in the pan, but I guess I need to sniff my fingers more after doing so.
I like when my hands smell like onions/garlic/bits. Makes for a nice lil smell-snack later!
I don’t know about worried, but onions absolutely make my hands reek. To the point where it can ruin a meal I’m eating, especially if it’s a hand food like a burrito or burger or something. I don’t mind garlic on my hands, but onions are just awful for some reason.
I don’t have one of these bars, but I’m seriously contemplating it.
Ill report back tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll end up making something with onions or garlic in it haha
I think it’s home cook weird shit, now sell me something to get rid of fried food smell from clothes. I’ll live with garlic and onions which smell amazing over fried oil smell that saturate you skin and leave you as a soggy French fry
You basically have to add grease lightning or something similar to your wash to get that stuff out.
That’s not gonna end well. 😅
I’ve had this shit in my cart for like 5 years. Lol I really should just buy it.
These are mostly a myth to my understanding.
There is some theory on how the chromium in stainless steel could help with breaking down and removing the smelly compounds from onions and garlic off your hands, but there aren’t any studies proving this.
In my experience just properly washing your hands with water for 15-20s works just as well. I think the “soap” kinda works because it tricks people to not just rinse their hands.
It’s true, I’ve never used one of these and was absolutely lying about their effectiveness.
You’re saying that as if I’ve never used one. I have, and I don’t see a difference to just washing my hands with water. But to each their own ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Regarding your jib. I like the cut.
“I too love to rub heavily metals into my skin”…idk if anyone has said this before lol
Does this also work for jalapenos?
No. The heat from peppers is an oil. Dry finger tips absorb the oil. So either gloves or rub a drop of neutral oil on your fingers before handling peppers.
Not that I’m aware of.
