gifted a dry-soon lakeland.co.uk/…/dry-soon-3-tier-heated-airer - fancy thing that I wouldn’t consider buying myself in an hundred years, but actually a drying rack with a built in heating element is an amazing thing to own. way cheaper than a dryer (not that any of the rented places I’ve stayed in have had one) but can still reliably dry laundry way better than even sticking it on radiators or whatever
Going off this, as someone who lives in a cold weather city, a really good winter jacket and snow boots.
I know they’re ridiculously expensive, but I have a Canada Goose parka and it’s so warm that I don’t even need to zip the front unless it’s in the single digits. It truly makes going outside in the winter a decent experience rather than me hating every second of being outdoors.
For boots, I have some classic LL Bean duck boots with the liner. They’re so comfortable and they perform exceptionally well in the snow and ice.
Nope only my family, friends and I are using it. But thanks to plex and all the arr apps I canceled all my streaming and cloud subscriptions. Server is an old dell business pc so it’s not that much power hungry.
Self hosting is awesome. I self host an email server, website, file transfer server, xmpp chat server, Nextcloud (for calendar and contact sync and video conferencing), and a search engine on a single VPS which costs me £4 per month. No previous background in web admin at all!
In my house we have roller shutters and they make you see nothing.
I’ve been at places without proper shutters… tried sleep masks… and they don’t fully block light nor do they stay in place after even a single turn in bed. I ended up wrapping one of my black stockings around my head like a blind fold to actually sleep. >.<’
An E-reader. There’s no more space in my house for book shelves. I’ve a ton of books stored inappropriately in a bunch of cabinets and on top of furniture, that I hope to find new homes for before irreparable damage is done to their spine.
Having an e-reader also helped me in the gym. Instead of doomscrolling on lemmy or tiktok, I read between sets. Helped me regain my reading habit and kick my social media habit. Also, helped my social anxiety of having to rest longer than half a minute when other people might want to use the iron I’m using.
This is a great shout. Since I stopped commuting 6yrs ago my reading is almost entirely non existent. Doing it between sets means I can give my brain a workout while the guns get one :D
Recently? A cordless stick vacuum. My wife has wanted one because it was too heavy and she figured she would vacuum more often if she had a lighter one. Of course that turned out to not be the case but it is a heck of a lot easier to maneuver around and bring it to other areas of the house.
Previously? Wireless ear buds. Loved those. Unfortunately my dog ate my first pair and I left the second pair on a plane. My next pair will be cheap ones.
I vacuumed so much more when I got a shark, then more recently I got a roomba and now I just carry her from room to room and go watch TV, amazing life improvement.
I also have a Roomba. But I also have young children and there is roughly a 0% chance that it will make it through a cycle without getting stuck while chomping on something. I also have a corgi-husky and few Roomba is pretty useless for getting up her hair in the carpet. It was good at sweeping though.
I bought a Dyson upright ball which was an expensive purchase at the time. I thought it would cover everything needed. What a pain in the ass to use the hose and attachments.
Great if trying to reach the ceiling but tedious to use and put away. Not easy to use near the vacuum either.
I have a ryobi cordless vacuum that I found was being used more often as it was a easy pickup and vacuum on the go especially for small jobs. I bought an adapter to allow it to use the Dyson attachments so now it looks like a stick vacuum without the fuss of the Dyson ball. Game changer now I’m told.
64 ounce Stanley water jug. I throw ice in it and I have something cold to drink all day. It’s beautiful.
Bidet has been good though now it feels gross to shit at work and my politics demand I shit at work.
Contact grill, ie a GE brand George Foreman. I can’t fuck up flippimg shit if I’m frying both sides simultaneously. And a food thermometer so my colorblind ass isn’t relying on mom’s shit advice to just cook it until it’s brown.
This battery car starter / tire infator / phone charger. I have used it with some frequency, but more often I can just roll up and fix someone’s car problem super quick. I even get out of work with it a lot when a customer needs someone to jump their car or fix a flat (also keep a tire patch kit obv).
All of this is bought from thrift stores. I can only assume most of my shit was originally shoplifted, it’s fantastic. There is just so much good shit being sold for almost nothing, I am the KING of expired Chips Ahoy.
If like to add to the space heater. I’ve got solar panels, the guy installing them also has infrared panels. We got to try one out, and never looked back.
A infrared panel will warm a small space very effectively. Way better then water radiator heating (which is the norm here). It’s also instantaneous and is a radiant heat (like a wood burner).
We’ve ditched all our gas heater radiators and went with infrared. It’s cheaper and easily regulated per room.
electric water kettle (fuck gas stoves and also faster),
Are they not common where you live? I’m in my 30s and have had electric kettles my whole life. I don’t have one at the moment though - my espresso machine has instant hot water and that’s been sufficient, and much faster.
Also - if you’re in the USA and think kettles are fast, you should see kettles in countries with 240v power. People from Australia complain about how slow kettles are in the USA.
A memory foam mattress topper. Mine is 8cm (3") thick and an absolute game changer. It goes on top of your existing mattress and under the fitted sheet.
does stealing it count? because that would be a boxed copy of redhat linux from best buy in the late 90s/early 2000s. yes, i found a way to steal linux