Tech to make day to day chores easier have had the largest impact for us. The automated self cleaning liter box for the cats, the cordless vacuum, the cordless electric mop (such as Tineco), electric lawn mowers (no maintenance), smart outlets and automations via home assistant.
Another big one is the RO water filter at the kitchen sink. No more bottled water. Bonus points if you get one that tells you when fillters need to be changed. So nice.
I live in Finland and so the seasonal daylight varies from almost none in winter to always in summer. I got a smart socket connected to my grow lamps for all my plants. I used to have an analogue timer that I would have to keep changing the times on as the season progressed. The smart one now turns on when my alarm goes off in the morning and turns off an hour after sunrise, turns on again an hour before sunset and turns off at bedtime.
No messing about anymore, it’s one less thing to worry about.
That’s great! I also use smart plugs for grow lamps! So convenient. The home country of the creator of Linux. Lucky! :)
I have heard nothing better than mediocre reviews of any of the robotic litter boxes. May I ask which you have, and what you like/don’t like about it?
We have the litter robot. It was pretty expensive, and can be a little quirky at times, but for the most part it’s been a real time saver.
The biggest problem is that it can get stuck while doing it’s rotation, which then requires you to intervene. It really doesn’t happen often, though. It’s had errors similar to that around 5 times or so in the past couple years. Not too bad.
We change out the turd bag around once per week. 2 cats have access 24/7, and another cat has access 12-15 hours per day.
I got the new Litter Robot 4. I was worried about the price, but after 5 months with 2 cats, I love it. It scoops the litter 15 minutes after they go and keeps the smells contained really well. We change the tray about every 5 days and it takes a regular kitchen trash bag. So it’s just as easy and taking out the trash. No regrets, money well spent
I got a Litter Robot 3 a couple years ago and its the best money I’ve spent in a long while. Super convenient and I haven’t had any issues with it even with 2 cats.
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Aeron chair. Got it to use at work, used to get a tired back and now I don’t. Have had it at least 20 years and no desire to get anything else.
In the same vein, a Kinesis Advantage keyboard. I bought my first one fifteen years ago and now have two more. As a software developer, I do a lot of typing. It took some time to get used to the unusual form, but it was worth it.
Different chair, but similar experience. I got a used Steelcase leap v2 from a refurbishing company, and I absolutely love it. Used frame with upgraded hardware and new upholstery for about half of MSRP. Had a few scratches but otherwise looks like new.
If you are ever in need of another, Crandall Office Furniture is 10/10.
Shoehorn
Seriously, helps keep your shoes in better condition over time as well as you aren’t pulling on the back of the shoe or crushing the heel.
Alcoholism.
Oh wait…
I believe in you
Electric bike, 95 Ford Ranger, camping gear, garden cart, gardening supplies and plants, cat tree, ebook reader
Reusable, vacuum sealable ziplock bags. Cuts back on waste & lengthens the shelf life of most foods.
It’s also really nice to be able to buy bulk meats & be able to separate them into vacuum sealed single servings.
And last but not least, it really helps with using the sous vide. I like being able to separate a bulk package of chicken into individual meals with different marinades. Just pull a bag out & defrost it, then it’s 90 seconds a side to gourmet meals midweek.
What brand did you get?
Just went with a generic option. I have some that have blue zip tops & some with gray.
The one big recommendation I can make is to get one with a battery powered suction pump. They’re little bit more expensive, but the handheld pumps have broken on me in the past.
Thanks!
How reusable have you found the bags to be? I recently (as in, just today) started looking into getting one, but I don’t want to be constantly throwing out bags.
I’ve found that with proper care & paying attention to what I use each bag for helps.
If I use a bag say for tandoori chicken sous vide…
When the chicken’s done, I rinse the bag thoroughly, fill it to ¼, add a lil soap, seal it up, & put it back in the sous vide bath, while it’s still warm.
Let it cool off & then give it a rinse & scrub, before drying.
It’s gentler on the bag than the dishwasher, but still gets it sanitary & clean.
I’ll try to continue using that bag for chicken, if not specifically tandoori chicken.
This is where having two different colors can be helpful. I use gray for meat & blue for everything else.
Blue bags obviously last a bit longer, but this current batch of gray is a year old & still in decent shape.
I bought a subscription to the Waking Up app.
CPAP, so I can breathe while I sleep.
Pressure cooker, so I can make a delicious stews in 30 mins instead of hours.
Got any good recipes to share?
African ground nut stew is my favorite recipe. This set of instructions is for stovetop, for pressure cooker, I just throw it all but the peanut butter and hot sauce, which are to be stirred in after high pressure. 25 minutes on high pressure.
8-10 chicken thigh Large can of diced tomato Small can of tomato paste 1 large onion 2 medium carrot 2 stalks celery 8 mushrooms or 2 cans of sliced mushroom 1 or 1.5 cup stock chicken 2.5 tbsp peanut butter Hot sauce optional 3 clove garlic
instructions:
prep: dice the onion peel and chop the carrot/celery Clean and slice mushrooms mince garlic or one small spoon worth of pre minced cut chicken into small pieces to quickly cook or cut thigh in two or breast into three if you want bigger chunks
cooking: put olive oil in large fry pan on high add onion,carrot, and mushroom cook until onion is getting soft then add chicken and garlic keep everything moving around so the onion and mushrooms don’t burn when the chicken is half cooked (white on the outside 50% or so) then add both cans of tomatoes (paste and diced) and stock let simmer for 20-25 mins so the tomatoes break down and chicken finishes cooking, stirring every few minutes add peanut butter in 1/2 tbsp at a time to the pan and mix in with the liquids add salt and pepper approx for 2 more minutes making sure not to let the sauce burn on the bottom Add hot sauce to taste. serve over rice
This makes a good amount of leftovers too.
Replaced all my mismatched socks with 24 pair of identical.
Yes, and at the same time I went with thin wool socks too. And I’m in Texas where it’s hot and humid too. Wool socks were a game changer, they don’t hold onto moisture like cotton and synthetics do.
Didn’t want to be a shill, but I got a bunch of medium thick wool socks from Darn Tough and sweaty wool socks are a lot nicer than sweaty cotton/poly socks.
I did this same thing and my life has been changed forever
Interesting. I went the opposite direction, and prefer it. Grasses greener type deal maybe
Depends on if you think socks are a fashion accessory or a utility.
Not sure it’s so binary. I don’t know the first thing about fashion, but I do like having different kinds of socks, even if no one else sees them.
I do this kinda like magical thinking thing where I think about how I want my day to go and pick socks/etc that go with that.
I know it’s not the most mentally healthy thing
Eh, it doesn’t sound destructive or interruptive to your day.
Manifesting isn’t just a new-age hippy thing. Ritual can put your brain in a certain space, and that can be a massive motivator for someone. Picking your socks to fit the theme isn’t all that different than telling yourself affirmations in the mirror.
It’s kinda like the “lucky shirt” concept. Sure, the shirt doesn’t really have some metaphysical power, but you’re putting yourself in the mindset of “Good things happen when I wear this”, and when you’re already in that frame of mind, the good things stand out even more.
That’s a great way to rephrase it. That’s exactly what that is: I know my choices don’t actually have any magical effects. Pretending like they do gives me the feeling of control, even though I know intellectually that I can only control myself.
I don’t see anything mentally unhealthy about what you do, sounds cool.
That’s fashion. You don’t have to be into the latest trend. Fashion is just how you express yourself in whatever way you like.
So great on laundry day
I did that and my wife got annoyed… then started wearing my socks. Now we buy more and just use athletic socks
She’s still got her colorful, playful ones that are a pain in the ass to match up.
Yep. We have grey and black.
Get ‘hiking’ socks, as opposed to ‘athletic’ - they last far longer.
Work socks as well.
They’re socks that go with construction boots. Basically the same as hiking socks but cheaper.
A Comma 3 driver assist system for my car. I drive a lot for work, and it’s an absolute game changer for driving distance as an enhancement to the stock LKAS and ACC systems. Highway miles are dramatically less strain and effort, and it makes me more able to watch the flow of traffic and keep an eye out for hazards. Their tagline is that they’re “making driving chill” and it’s definitely the case as long as you have a fully compatible vehicle.
How much did that cost you and what type of vehicle did you install it on if you don’t mind.
When I bought my 3 it was $2200 including the harness for my car. Now the newer 3X is $1450 including harness (economies of scale!). I’ve been running it for 2 and a half years now and have 80,000 miles logged in my unit.
I’m using it in a 2016 Civic Touring which was their original dev car model so it’s well documented and had a modification available to get necessary torque in tighter highway turns and be able to slow to and resume from stop. Other cars may work better or worse in terms of torque and ability to control speed. They have pretty extensive vehicle listings on their site and GitHub detailing the capabilities they are available depending on the car.
https://comma.ai/shop/comma-3x
I don’t work for Comma or anything, just am a fan of the tech and how it has allowed the controls in my car to get better over time rather than being stuck with what they shipped in 2016. My wife’s 2021 CR-V has better stock driver assist than my 2016 Civic, but my Comma’s assist experience today is far better than either stock system.
Took me a minute to figure out exactly what this even was. This is pretty cool. Had no idea such tech existed.
Headphones to sleep with. It’s a big stretchy headband with flat speakers sewn in, and it works on Bluetooth (speakers are removable with a little effort to wash the band). I’ve always needed stories to fall asleep, and now I can’t believe how many years I spent propping my phone just-so against my ear to not bother my sleeping partner.
Game changer for sleepless me.
I know i may sound like a boomer but it’s not great for your sleep quality to sleep with sounds. Im not a doctor and i don’t know how it work in your country, but you could try CBD oil, doctors can prescribe it where i live.
I set a timer to turn it off after 45 minutes or so, but it’s much better than not falling asleep at all. And at 3:00 when I wake up again, I set another 45 minute timer. I’m not sure what the issue would be with my sleep when I’m only listening to droning voices. Maybe if the symphony snare drum kicked in it would be disruptive, but what I listen to is almost white noise with words.
I smoke weed to fall asleep nightly. That’s also very helpful.
Kitchen stuff: a carbon steel wok, a Dutch oven and a bread form. Also an electric toothbrush.
But most of all: a fully automatic bean to cup coffee machine
Looked up Dutch Oven, didn’t expect a cast iron pan :-D.
I’d chip in with a chefs knife (spurgled on a 60€ wasabi, feels like it’ll outlast me) and a cheap knife sharpener.
If we are being really pedantic, a Dutch oven is a type of pot used for cooking on open fire. They used to have little legs built on so you could place it over some coals. The lid would be flat so you could put coals on top of it. That way you could use it as an actual oven to bake bread or whatever on a wood fire.
Modern people don’t cook much on wood fires, but in the US, we still generally call any big cast iron pot a “Dutch oven”.
Private therapy sessions. Get therapy.
OK but you need money.
Not everyone can afford to spend 60-70 EUR each week plus driving and 1.5h to see a shrink. And those who can’t afford that are usually the ones who need therapy the most.
You don’t have to go every week necessarily, though for some people that might be beneficial. I personally only see my therapist for 1 hour every month. Therefore, it only costs me 80 USD (≈74 EUR) per month.
This is a thread about things people bought. Money is implied.
because everything else people have listed are free
A lot of it is single time purchases, therapy is a subscription service.
Absolutely, but its well worth the cost. You improve your own life and the lives of all of the people you interact with since you’re not projecting your trauma or having them bear the weight of your mental ill health as much.
It isn’t a cost that everyone can afford and that’s okay, but it should be high on pretty much everybody’s list of “things to get”.
