I bought a sponge of sorts advertised as for getting pet hair out of bed sheets. I’ve no pets, but stress makes me lose tons of hair and I’ve long hair. It works like marvel for my own hair! It’s so life changing! I love it!
I was also able to get a mini white paint with a mini roller for practically nothing to finish off the wall fixes I was doing.
I also got a tiny brush meant for keyboards and discovered my keyboard was super nasty with my hair on the inside. >____<
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$30 bidet from Amazon.
Real?
$27.99 in the US, at least.
Toothbrush
I’ll be taking THAT!!
Small whiteboard to track stuff like the grocery list or reminders. When I want to go shopping, I’ll snap a picture of the list before I go out.
One of those percussive massage guns. Holy fuck, if you have any tension from anxiety, sore muscles, even headaches, it’ll work wonders.
Does a
work as well?after covid restrictions lifted my local bigbox second hand store was full of these for like $7. i wonder if it was the case at other locations.
Second… hand…
I don’t know but uhh… let’s just say if you know how to finesse the percussive type there’s some extra features.
Yes depending the strength, I think that was the intended use of wands before people found the offlabel uses were superior in function to the on label ones. Hitachi leaned into it, while Wahl balked and shifted some things around to get people to stop off label usage, which is unfortunate if you really do have a sore muscle since now it’s not even going to be as good for that.
An old roommate used to have one of those and I still think about it.
Ear protection
Seconding this as both an autistic person and as a former audio engineer
The wireless charging pads for phones are game changers, I have spent so much time fiddling with charging ports that have gotten worn out, sticking pieces of paper underneath them so it actually connects etc. The only time they aren’t ideal is when you’re trying to use your phone in bed while it’s charging.
I solve this problem with magnetic adapters for my usb cable, can run micro/c/lightning on the same cables that way
mine was going to be magnetic adapters. They are AMAZING. I am replacing various USB cables. Here is a random image of a connector I have not specifically used that illustrated the idea for those who are unaware:
they turn any usb c or micro usb (along with a number of proprietary interfaces I don’t care enough to know about) into a mag lock.
there are issues with them. lots of different types; no standardization. For me, the cables with the hinged ends are the best ones.
I bought a wireless charging stand for my earbuds, phone, and watch last year. It’s a lot more convenient, and only takes up one outlet rather than three.
USB rechargeable hand warmer/battery bank. Is a good hand warmer and came in very handy to recharge phones during a power outage.
Similarly, CAT “3 in 1” portable power station. Jump starts cars, pumps flat tires, has AC and USB input to charge items. Also have a book-sized lithium battery jump start pack which is great. Both have saved my ass a few times.
Robot vacuum (Wyze). It does a good job vacuuming and not running into stuff
It’s irritating that Wyze doesn’t offer replacement batteries for the vacuum, but at least you can get the generic part fairly easily
You can get a secondhand Pebble 2 smartwatch for something like $50 or less these days, and even though they are a few years old they still work great with a few software tweaks (s/o to Rebble).
If you’ve ever thought a smartwatch would be helpful, it’s a great way to get started, and they are pretty hackable (not quite as open and hackable as some projects out there, but a lot more polished and put together than most OSS smartwatches).
Really, the only stuff you are missing out on compared to the expensive new ones is calling from the watch (weird), music/videos on the watch (why), and location tracking if you’re a runner or something and don’t want to take your phone with you. But for me, easily glance-able notifications is the real best part, and the pebbles do that better than most of the new ones. Not to mention the battery lasts a solid week of heavy use at least, compared to <1 day for the fancy new ones.
former pebble user here, i’ll confirm that they’re great with the caveat that their batteries do wear out fairly quickly. this is probably just a consequence of being NOS or used (i cant remember) but mine needed daily charging after a few months.
if you want something more open and hackable, or you want to save a few bucks and are open to a bit of tinkering, check out the PineTime. it’s a similar form factor but touchscreen
Shucks, PineTime is the one I was mentioning about being a little less polished, but I forgot that they are literally twenty-seven dollars, damn. Ok that definitely makes up for a lot of rough edges.
Fair enough, but I did have a Time 1 (curse fitbit for strangling the Time 2 in the crib) that I used daily for about 5 years and still got 5-6 days of battery on it. I’ve heard good things about the pine time - and I love their ethos, so I’ll check that out.
Now I just need to figure out how to not have the skin on my wrist irritated from wearing a watch regularly…
I don’t have a smartwatch. I notice that a lot of them have silicone straps. Does yours?
If yes: get a leather strap.
Yeah I’ve definitely noticed the silicone ones are a lot worse. I’ve got a few different straps I use, and the leather ones are definitely much better, though not entirely foolproof. Hairy wrists probably doesn’t help either.
Metal ones are a pretty classic hairy dude look. And now they have ceramic ones that are structures the same way.
Or you could just get a 2" band of electrolysis. That’d be hot.
Metal bands pinch the hair like crazy; I’ve had a few dressy watches that I just couldn’t wear for very long at all because of that.
Maybe on the selective deforestation though. I did used to have a pretty sick watch tan back in the day. But with wfh I just don’t really have as much need for a watch or a purse, sadly, since I do love having them both.
you reminded me about the watch thread I was meaning to make https://hexbear.net/post/1946147
straps are not showcased tho :(
Milwaukee electric ratchet. I do a ton of work on cars and that is my favorite tool. It was expensive, but it’s more than paid for itself. I use it so much all of the red bits are pitch black. Ive had it 6 years now and the battery still holds a charge for 8 hours of work. It holds up to all abuse and fits almost anywhere. I use it with hex head sockets to assemble furniture too.
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literally a $2 egg timer I keep on my desk to use instead of fishing out my phone to set short timers
anyone who needs to use a timer or a calculator on a regular basis in an environment they control (home, desk) and uses their phone instead of the correct device is a fool
my boomer take is that I miss when things had nice tactile buttons and dials
love a touchscreen and the versatility it allows, but holy fuck we never should have let things get to the point of touchscreens taking over for buttons and dials in cars, dumbest shit imaginable
terrible design change, responsible for vast death and destruction
I’m not a boomer but I could write you a big long post about “touch” interfaces as a general thing and what a problem they are. (This isn’t it.)
People want to control their lights from an app on their phone. WHAT. That is the worse possible way to control your lights. Dial, knob, button, switch… all are better.
Do not get me started on clock radio interface designs.
In summary:
Right:
Wrong:
You think it’s bad driving a car, imagine being in battle with the borg and you are using this freaking touch screen.
Oh and for calculators, this is another answer to the original question. At a thrift store you can get a calculator with a printer for $5. Nobody wants these things. You can get a really nice one. They are amazing if you find yourself recalculating the same things, or needing a number later but you didn’t write it down. Or wondering if you did the math properly so you have to re do it. You can feed the same strip of paper through repeatedly. I’m still working on the roll that came with mine. It just occurred to me you could probably re use those 1 foot long receipts some chain stores give out and never have to buy paper for it.
Do you erase them or what?
the paper? you can’t erase it, it’s printed with heat.
just feed it through the other way. I just rip pieces off the roll.
I just use 9 key/excel. Guess it’s not as portable as a physical calculator.
If you are doing spreadsheet type stuff than of course excel… well… excels.
But in case you are just using it as a way to type in arbitrary formulas, you should check out speedcrunch (GPL) for linux mac windows. You can just type in formulas and they stay in scroll back like a terminal. Instead of being constrained by mimicking a physical calculator, these people have actually thought about what would make a calculator functional on a PC. And since it has persistent history (unless you delete it) it does have some benefits of a printing calculator.
A bluetooth sleep mask. I am on my third one in about 4 years and it has saved me from lifelong sleep related stress. I am on round three of Discworld right now and love how I can use that to get my mind to stfu.
Manual food processor. Cost me less than £10, uses a ripcord to chop stuff up in a little bowl. Onions and garlics now take no time at all, and if I want I can make them super fine for soups and such.
I got an electric toothbrush last year, and my plaque buildup is way less than it used to be.
electric toothbrushes basically are the difference between needing the dental hygienist to scrape a bunch of plaque off your teeth every trip to the dentist vs going “hmmm someone flosses” when you actually don’t
the rotating ones i.e. Oral B style heads are better than the strictly vibrational sonicare ones
I was avoiding getting one for years, because I gravitate towards lower-tech solutions to everyday problems. But the results really speak for themselves - it’s probably something that everyone should invest in.
DE safety razor: I bought one years ago and I STILL haven’t needed to order my first set of blade refills yet. With a better AND cheaper shave every time that’s more environmentally friendly thanks to not being made of plastic and minimal waste, I can say that disposable razors are the 8th form of liberalism:
This is the one I use that I got on sale. Other options include Edwin Jagger and Merkur.
YESSS
How safe are they? Did you ever hurt yourself?
They got their name for being safer than a standard straight razor. And yes, they are safe, I’ve cut myself much, much less than with a shitty Gillette multi blade piece of shit. And don’t get me on how smooth of a shave I get with one.
I hope they pay you well for the advertisement, because now I want one, haha.
If you are looking for guides you can check The Gentleman’s Gazette. They’re somewhat bougie, but they’ve got good info even for people on a budget.
Yeah, I’ve gotten some cuts but honestly I got cut by disposable razors a lot less.
Shoe horn and stretchy shoe laces. I didn’t realize how much I was ruining the back of my shoes by slipping them on until I got this combo. I tie my shoes nice and tight one time and my shoes last longer now.
there are stretchy laces? my god! to the store!
i discovered shoe horns last year and they’re great
