Just went down the aliexpress rabbit hole again. Theres really everythinf for some of really niche things that i wouldnt ever buy, but some things really do look appealing. I wonder what do you guys use daily thats worth lets say under $20
I’m pretty fond of these little Velcro straps I got from Amazon that are like 10cm x 30cm, you use them to push all your computer cables into them so you can neaten them up. I’ve got several of them strapped back to back and it’s a pretty decent solution (and being Velcro you can just pull it apart later on)
A place I used to work at gave us big rolls of double sided velcro for cable management purposes. Me and another guy built a jig to split them in half so it was 1/4" instead of 1/2". Worked great and I still have a ton of those rolls we made from leaving it in my pocket at the end of the day. Very handy stuff to have around.
Is “leaving it in my pocket at the end of the day” a euphemism for “I stole it”?
…Sort of…
Sure, if you like licking boots.
Consumables like that are common to be accidentally taken home if you don’t switch to work clothes at work. Any company complaining about it is insane.
Velcro for my remotes, I have various places to stick them around my room, game changer
I have a magnetic knife board on my wall. I hot glued washers to my remotes and I store them on the magnetic board.
Poopknife
I still use the scissors, can’t get enough leverage with the knife sometimes.
That or I need more fiber.
If you ever have to resort to the knife resist the urge to push it against the toilet. If it cuts through suddenly the sharp impact from the blade could crack the porcelain.
Sorry, what?
Lol it’s an old story from reddit. Allegedly, this guy was at a friend’s house and he went to the bathroom. But he couldnt find the poopknife and called out for it. He was mortified to learn that the average family did not employ the use of a poopknife.
The funny thing is that you can actually buy a poop knife now.
What’s a reddit?
A closed source centralized Lemmy alternative.
It’s like an internet poop knife.
I made the whole thing up. It came to me in a fever dream.
My nephew needs a poop knife. The kid was breaking toilets when he was 5 or 6, and never stopped. It took his parents a while to figure out he was dropping rock hard giant turds and wasn’t throwing toys in the toilet or something. I saw one of he turds that wouldn’t flush a few months ago for the first time. It was massive… I don’t know how it came out of him. It did take a long time, it’s probably painful.
WTF
Poop knife.
A knife made of fossilised coprolite, so it looks at home in the toilet. Alternatively, a knife used to cut up poop for inspection before disposal.
Bit nit picky but coprolite is fossilied poop. Saying fossilied coprolite is a bit redundant as coprolite already states that it’s fossilised
No I agree with you perfectly, but it was a choice between making it semantically correct, and making it more readable / understandable to most readers.
Swiss tech keychain pocket knife.
They have a microphillips and micro straight small enough to fix a loose screw on eyeglasses. The blade is serrated and sharp enough to make it through just about anything you really need to cut.
It looks enough like a key that (almost) no one questions it on my keychain.
I flew all the way to Florida with it on my keychain went through Disney with it on my keychain got to universal studios They actually recognized it and made me lose it.
When I got back I bought six more now somebody makes me throw one away I don’t care.
“swiss tech utili-key” on amazon, less than $8
Swiss tech keychain pocket knife.
Where do you get these?
I googled it for you and it seems like walmart sells them.
How do I get to Walmart?
Idk, I’m on an entirely different continent, never been
Smart lights to wake you up in the morning. Vastly prefer it to a normal alarm clock.
This doesn’t work for everyone obviously, but I leave my blinds open at night so that the sun will wake me up. Works for me when I don’t have to be anywhere before noon.
Yeah the further north you get the less this works on both sides of the sleep unfortunately
On a similar note, I have an alarm clock that has a thing I can put under my pillow that vibrates to wake me up. (The box said it’s made for Deaf people, which makes sense lol). As someone who doesn’t wake up to ANYTHING, this works for me almost every time.
Is the vibrating of your phone not enough to wake you? I just use my phone as an alarm clock and keep it by my pillow. All my alarms are set to vibrate so it doesn’t wake my husband.
The phone vibrating on the bed doesn’t wake me up, nor does the sound at full volume. And the alarm clock is super aggressive lol. It has 15 levels, and I turn it up all the way. The whole mattress be shaking
That is some super deep sleeping you got going on. 😅
A sunrise alarm clock will do the trick, too
I had one before but the light was so weak and if you were sleeping on the side with the back of your head towards it, it did nothing. Though to be fair I do have a smart light in my nightstand lamp to do the same, but it is more like extra.
There’s better and worse ones, obviously. Mine is so bright it lights up the entire room by itself.
Good nail clippers. My toe nails grow hella fast and if I don’t keep 'em trimmed, I end up spending a lot more on socks. Good trimmer is like $5. Though I wish they came in bright colors since I quite often misplace them or they fall off my night stand and are a PITA to find.
Plastidip the handles, you can get bright blue or yellow pretty easily, and one can will last ages.
That’s a good idea. Would also give a better grip on the lever. :D
A slim beater knife like the Buck 722 Spitfire (had mine for almost a decade).
multi-chambered pill fob; bulk caffeine pills.
A quality water bottle.
Bamboo sheets (soft, smooth, anti-static)
Bamboo sheets (soft, smooth, anti-static)
There’s a store in the mall where I live that sells any size bamboo sheet sets with an extra pillowcase for $25. They are amazing and I’ve since converted all my family to them.
A good pair of pants.
rice cooker. i have one that i use like a fancy crockpot so i can leave the house and come home to hot food. mandolin or a food processor is a close second, makes chopping veggies a breeze
My issue with food processors is they take more time to clean than they save.
Which one do you use?
Rinse after use, then its a matter of wiping down in hot soapy water.
Never let the debris dry in the food processor or you’re gonna have a bad time. Same with blenders.
If you can’t reach the crevices you can also run it with warm (not hot) soapy water to clean the crevices.
A bottle brush is great for those crevices, too 🤌🏼
Those little brushes they make for cleaning straws have so many other uses, I swear.
Edit: just realized you said “bottle” and not “little,” sorry about that lol
Yeah, and if you’re really old-school, you simply use a pipe cleaner… 🤪
Ooh smart idea, I forgot those existed for a bit there lol
That’s exactly what the “straw cleaner” people wanted you to do, ya know…
Yeah, if you can’t soak it, get that food off before it dries. This is why I prefer kitchen tools that you can take apart. I replaced my Foreman grill with a griddle with removable plates and love it, even though the Foreman had a bit more cooking area. Plus I got waffle plates and also got rid of the waffle maker that I rarely used because it was such a pain to clean if you ever overestimated how much batter it needed.
i use a mini kitchenaid i got for $50 a few years ago. its easier to store n clean bc its tiny. it isnt good for big batches but is perfect for a few carrots and onion, or a handful of spinach. then i usually just swish it all with warm water and im good to go. i clean while i cook so its basically all done by the time im eating.
I guess I just don’t find it hard to chop things with a knife, which is very easy to clean. I have a food processor, but getting it out of the cupboard takes almost as much time as dicing an onion with a knife.
i think for me is im a disaster and usually will end up with veggie particles all over the counter and floor and then have to spend time cleaning that up else the cat gets his far face all over it. on top of that i have a super tiny food processor which makes getting it in and out super easy. if i only had my larger one i could not see myself bothering with it.
A metal 2mm mechanical pencil set. I use it for woodworking and absolutely love it.
Biggest thing for woodworking for me was just buying more pencils. I bought a pack of 30 or so and put all of them in a cup attached to the wall. Now I just grab a new one if I forget where I put it down.
Did you forget your ear? I thought all woodworkers kept their pencil on their ear.
I recently bought an electrician’s pouch that velcros around my belt. Great for holding screws, square and pencils. Think of it as a wall cup on your belt.
Hard to tuck a pencil in the ear when also wearing safety glasses and hearing protection.
True that. I’m less careful when using my compound miter saw or circular saw.
Did you forget your ear? I thought all woodworkers kept their pencil on their ear.
Not the clumsy ones. Not after a little while.
ditto. also keep one on each side of the miter saw and at the table saw to use the eraser side as an 11th finger when needed
I’ve been a huge fan of this Hultafors Dry Marker for carpentry and woodworking. Having that sheath with a built-in sharpener is excellent too.
I’ve got a Staedtler 2mm and sharpener that I’ve had for at least 20 years now. They both have a permanent spot of honor on my lathe stand.
Reading glasses, unfortunately
A convoy s3 flashlight with uv emitter, about $15 US.
I have a geriatric puppy who’s starting to “leak”, and this flashlight is really quick and easy to tell where needs to be cleaned up. Way easier than shining a regular light, missing and slipping on a puddle.
Please pay the dog tax. We’d love to see your senior pup!
Now that’s something I’ve never thought of. You must care a lot for the puppy.
A “traveler’s” journal that consists of a cover and replaceable notebook refills. Cheaper than having to buy entire journals once you finish the last one (though uglier, since these refills don’t have cool covers), you can interchange them based on context/what you require and journaling is pretty great by itself.
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Great for walking the dog at night, in suburban or rural settings. A phone flashlight is annoying to juggle while also controlling a leash and impossible when I need to scoop poop.
I worked with a guy who wore a headlamp nearly all the time. When people would ask about it he would always tell them “There are only two reasons NOT to wear a headlamp. Either you don’t have a head, or you don’t have a headlamp.”
I will never forget this.
Oh phew, one of those reasons applies to me. Guess I don’t need one.
And you can get such small ones now! My spouse has one she keeps in her purse where the strap is just a thin wire that retracts into the unit. It’s not even uncomfortable! Needless to say I’m jealous!
Is it the petzl zipka? Because if it isn’t I’d love to know what it is. I have one, but they’ve apparently stopped making them, and it’s so much better not having an elastic strap.
I got a Lightbar brand “lightbar pro”, so good. The only downside to it is that there is a design flaw where there is no strain relief on the main power cable so twisting it will lead to failure. I don’t know if they fixed it since I bought mine, but some glue on the power wire should sort it out.
You get a nice wide diffuse light so you can see all around you and what you are working on. It isn’t the best for distance, but most of the time I am working I need to see my surroundings and what I am working on.
100%. I found one with grooves, so you can tilt and lock on whatever angle you like. Going to use as secondary light soirce on my bike rides and camping trips
What are you doing in the dark that’s so intricate? Genuine question.
In most places, lights are placed on the ceiling. This is fine for generally lighting a room, but if you need to do something intricate that’s not directly under the ceiling lamp it can be hard to see. Even simple things like plugging in some cables under the desk.
I guess I don’t do anything away from desk lamps. Thanks for the explanation.
I’ve done fibre optic splicing entirely under the light of a headtorch. I don’t think you could get much more intricate than that.
Completely agree on this. For some reason I’ve gone through like four at this point. They seem to break for some reason. Even tried the REI route with the black diamond brand and they don’t seem to last. I need to find a better brand.
Petzl. Had mine for 14 years
Was just using mine earlier!
USB cables with LCD displays. Now i can easily understand if a device is properly using QC or PD when charging, or whether there is an issue.
