Looking for some neat ideas/quality of life improvements aka lifehacks I guess
A small pocket knife. I was surprised at how often I’ve found a need for it, and it makes me feel a bit safer when running or out doing errands late by myself.
I have a victorinox card thingie and have used it many more times than I care to admit. Got it as a stocking stuffer a couple of years ago.
Lol I have a pocket knife for every corner of my house. Sometimes people ask why but honestly it’s so useful.
I agree, a good pocket knife is a great purchase!
One thing for readers to keep in mind is that unless you know how to fight with a knife (and know that the assailant doesn’t have a firearm), then it’s a very bad idea to brandish a knife even as a threat. If the assailant is able to disarm you, then you’ll be in a much worse situation than if you didn’t have the knife at all.
While I couldn’t live without my knife either, I’d never use it in self defense. Instead I recommend personally and use personally both a good firearm (if possible depending on laws and self reflection, is big responsibility) and a good OC spray. I use POM oc spray myself, it’s good shit. “Both” because they’re for different levels of threat.
I got a Leatherman Skeletool like 11 years ago and use it almost every day. It’s probably the best bang for my buck from any purchase I’ve ever made.
About a year ago I finally gave in and bought a Leatherman Wave+. Man, that was a good purchase.
That is a heavy duty tool, not a pocket knife. I do not think 240 grams makes any sense to wield as one.
Steamer with 3 baskets that can be stacked. Never had vegetables taste better and making rice is fire and forget.
An Instant Pot. The amount of things you can cook / steam / pressure cook is amazing. I cook as much as I can with it as it saves money on using gas cookers. It saves a huge amount of time and money cooking Indian food and there are hundreds of websites out there dedicated to recipes specifically for the instant pot
Not really bought but I was gifted a used 3D printer (Ender 3 pro) from a print farm. Great starter printer and it’s solid and totally upgradable. It’s like a manual Jeep Wrangler from the in line six days and before. I can print anything to improve my life.
First great functional print was a wall socket cover plate with a HomePod mini shelf above it to get it off our kitchen counter. Projects sound much better since it’s no longer surrounded by stuff.
My wife then wanted a handle for a 20oz Yeti tumbler. Printed that and she loves it.
Little things, printed a tool holder for my 3D printer tools that fits on it and keeps them neat and out of the way.
Recently printed a computer monitor stand VESA mount to lift it up (I only have a short monitor stand). Spent $2.63 on the filament to print that. It’s freaking awesome.
Easily the best gift I’ve received in decades.
I’m still rocking a super old monoprice mini select. It’s been so heavily modifier and repaired at this point I probably should have gotten a better one. Small print area, no magnetic build plate, no auto leveling. It feels like a geo metro with manual everything.
I finally got a carbon steel pan recently. It’s the only pan I use now, unless I’m cooking something acidic.
What do you like about it?
It has many of the benefits of cast iron and heats up more quickly. High heat searing is where it really shines. Steaks and burgers are just effortless.
I have a bunch of Le Crouset and stainless. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time scraping and scrubbing burns off of them from searing.
This thing just works every time
Carbon steel woks are incredibly versatile, especially with a flat bottom.
Just got a nice big one for my birthday. Got to get it all seasoned up nice. I love it already
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Pomade stick. Looks kinda like deoderant but you use it on your hair. I have long hair and get flyaways like crazy, especially when I tie my hair back. Works wonders.
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A stainless steel Casio watch. Looks nice and will allow me to tell the time at work since I won’t be allowed to have my phone on me most of the time.
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I don’t buy anything
It took some saving but I got a Steam Deck! Immediately loaded it up with N64 and GameCube ROMs, gonna beat all the games I was too incompetent to finish as a kid.
Not necessary if you have a decent PC, but it’s been a lifesaver for me.
Seconding this, steam decks are great even if you have a good computer but travel a lot. Capable enough to run Elden Ring, portable enough to fit in a backpack under a seat on most airlines with a laptop as well. Charges off USB-C, proton backend with easy setup for clean emulation up through Gen 6, and probably higher if you like tweaking or aren’t super concerned about performance.
Wool ball filled cushion pads. They’re really plump, and just the right level of firmness, so much nicer than synthetic or feather. Each pay day I’m ordering a couple, and gradually my sofa is turning into a cosy nest.
Can you share a link to an example?
Sure, here’s the ones I found on Etsy in the UK:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/177167563/100-british-wool-filled-inserts-12-14-16
I bought my wife a wooden yarn winder from Etsy. She got into crochet this winter and needed to ball yarn. It’s beautiful wood so it looks nice and now I don’t have to hold anything while she winds. It takes a quarter of the time and is high quality. Since it’s so manual it should last forever as well.
I’ve never seen a place that sells yarn not already pre-balled. Does she spin it herself?
Nope. There are three different types of yarn sold. See below:
TIL I’ve been calling skeins balls my whole life. Thanks!
I know right? New hobby new terminology.
Countertop drum crank cheese grater. So much better buying whole blocks of cheese and grating tons fresh than buying the bags of pre-grated stuff.
That is 60% of the reason my mother owns a KitchenAid Mixer. The other 40% is Potato Spiralizer.
Hanging transparent “jewelry holder” for the hall closet. Instead of a box/drawer, I now have 80 little pockets for all the various adapters, connectors, and small cables
Computer Engineering For Big Babies
I love objects that teach and are fun to play with :)
I bought both his books back in December. They are really cool and one of the most intuitive ways to learn about logic gates. If you decide to pick one up he is back ordered so expect to wait a little bit. Dude is doing the whole thing himself out of his house…
I was able to afford meat twice this week!
A P1 sensor. I have recently entered the rabbit hole of home automation. One of the things I care about, is to be as private as possible, so I went for Home Assistant.
A P1 sensor is a small thingumabob that you plug into your electricity meter and it measures electricity and natural gas use. It comes with its own webserver and it integrates seamlessly into my HA energy dashboard. I did not have to subscribe to any cloud service and as far as I can tell, it does not phone home.
Provided you live in a country that cares about transparency.
My meter has a single LED and a propietary optical connection that claims to alarm the supplier if used.
That sucks. Back here, the company that maintains the electrical grid actively stimulates the people to use such sensors. All in the name of saving energy. There’s even a page with vendors on their website.
You can always wire up an ESP32 with an optical sensor that tracks the blinking of the LED. The meter should state how much energy is represented by a blink.
Example projectYep, I’ve got one of those going already! I’m currently working on improving the power consumption so I can run it off a LiFePO4 without recharging every week.
