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.
$50
A screwdriver kit with multiple head tips, can repair almost anything as long as I am given some schematics
$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.
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.
What kind of 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.
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.
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.
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.
My husband still doesn’t use it, the hunt for his keys is getting old
Put a tile or AirTag on them
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.
wait really? and isn’t that always the case with any window?
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.
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.
Probably you mean 85% of infrared, not 85 parts per thousand (or 8.5%) of ultraviolet?
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
Tesa outdoor double sided tape.
That stuff is basically magic. It will stick anything to everything and you can remove it from almost any surface without leaving a mark. I used to stick a dashcam to my car window, a birdbath to my brick wall, a remote LED lamp to the ceiling (felt iffy, works great!). It’s even holding a metal plate from the doorknob in place because the door is more hole than wood by now.
It beats basically every other kind of tape of multipurpose glue, and it’s removable. It’s kinda thick though, so you might see it, but that’s also a feature when sticking rough textures to eachother.
I’m seeing lots of different tapes from Tesa. Is it PET? PVC?
It’s this stuff: https://www.tesa.com/nl-nl/consument/tesa-powerbond-outdoor-ean-4042448843432.html
Or your local version of it, but this website refuses to turn to other languages for me.
Thanks!
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
That’s not gonna end well. 😅
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.
“I too love to rub heavily metals into my skin”…idk if anyone has said this before lol
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 our jib. I like the cut.
- knife sharpening steel
- squeezing bidet (made me realize how gross using toilet paper is)
- caffeine pills (extremely cheap [15€ for 180pcs. x 200mg] compared to coffee and great if you’re in a hurry)
- Raspberry Pi Zero (tiny single board computer, tbh not in use anymore, but I had fun tinkering for days)
- remote controlled power outlets
- easily cleanable drinking bottle and switching to drinking tap water
Oh man, there’s this German company Beurer that makes simple equipment for medical home application. They make this sort of zapper thing, which is battery oper and it just heats the shit out of a little ceramic plate. Put that on a bug bite, it heats away the irritation. No more itch, no more venom in your body, just gone.
I am no longer careful around biting bugs. Keep in mind it’s not supposed to work for stingers.
I figured for 15 euros it’d be too bad if it doesn’t work but I now can’t imagine not having it.
I’ve since also bought a TENS/EMS machine of theirs and a laser hair removal tool is underway for my wife.
I completely trust this company based on just two products.
Oh wow, there’s a product out there? I’ve been heating the back of a spoon on the stove and applying it directly to the skin for a minute all these years. You gotta do it carefully, but it works very well!
Nerdage
The mechanism relies on denaturing the mosquito proteins injected with the bite. Meaning the heat causes the proteins to loosen up and deform so they no longer interact with the surrounding tissues in the same way.
I’ve been using a spoon and a lighter like a heroin addict all this time…
I’ve just run a spoon under the hottest possible tap water. It’s hot enough to work and it’s not hot enough to actually burn you
I don’t have a device for this, but I do the same thing by running water as hot as I can stand over bites and it works.
My wife swears by it. For me it does nothing. She gets wasp-sized bumps from mosquito bites.
BiteAway gang!
I got a device from a competitor (the original company’s devices are >20€ nowadays). Worked great, too, but its longevity sucked - the next year, the ceramic plate didn’t get hot enough anymore, even with fresh batteries. Yet another example of “buy cheap, buy twice”.
What did beurer make in 1930-1940ish?
Not sure what you mean by this. Are you just trying to gage some reason because it’s a German company? They made heating pads, heated blankets, stuff like that.
I think they’re referring to Bayer, which was absolutely active during that time…
Metal Chopsticks $9 https://www.amazon.com/BamLue-Stainless-Chopsticks-Dishwasher-Restaurant/dp/B07RTNWLM1 These are no longer for sale. They are not just for eating. Great for deseeding jalapenos, tomatos. Mixing small sauces. Too many uses to list. They are super durable. Very ‘buy it for life’ vibes. The tip texture is the most helpful. Not to be used as Ninja weapons.
Chopsticks are also nice to mix fluids in a bottle because for some they are long enough
I also started eating potato chips with them, can reach deeper in + clean handseating chips with chopsticks also slows me down and some times prevent me from overeating chips
I’m gonna leave this right here…
SNACTIV LITE Finger Chopsticks… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXG8ZTNG
I do those things as well. I have some metal deep frying ones, they are about 14" long. I use them a lot when stirring deep soup pots. And when they are dirty, I use the fat end to swish the dish sponge around in deep containers that my had can’t fit in.
Ooh, I’ll try to remember this next time I’m having chips!
I dont understand how people eat with metal or plastic chopsticks. Wood? Sure, it practically holds itself
Yeah rice is impossible for me with anything but wooden chopsticks
I always have metal chopsticks on me.
