Silk pillowcase. Absolute game changer for my hair and face.
Two things, maybe together over 100, but 1) a German made quality safety razor holder, and 2) a good badger bristle shaving brush. You can use and bar soap, or a little shampoo and a drop of conditioner in your palm to make shaving cream. Drastically lowers your plastic footprint from Big Soap disposable. I buy Japanese razors blades (Feather brand) = 1 week of shaves = about seven cents per shave. (Yes, I know about electric razors. Nothing like a blade for closeness.)
A portable power bank.
My work gave me one a few years ago, and while I only end up using it a few times a year, when you’re in an airport or on the road somewhere and you need to charge a device, it is glorious to have. Cheap and exceedingly useful.
I’m actually planning to get a bigger portable generator, just as planning for climate change, as I expect more outages in the future and want to have access to power regardless.
I have one with 65W USB-PD and it’s a lifesaver for work travel. But lately I’m hesitant to take it anywhere outside of the US even though it’s under 100Wh, airlines are cracking down significantly on power banks particularly in Asia.
Last time I was in China I noticed many power banks have integrated video game systems on one side (a basic NES/GBC emulator). I wonder if that’s to get around the difficulty of travelling with them?
I have one with a solar panel on the side, very useful to keep in the bag if you need a charge. I’ve found out that some lights will also charge it, having a power bank you can borrow juice from a plant light is quite handy
I bought an LED customizable marquee nametag for $30 at a convention. It makes sense for a con; but it also works at any function where you’d have a nametag even better than those stickers since it can cycle through 8 messages (it holds up to 4097 bytes) and can even display images (though it is only a monochrome display so B&W pixel art works best) in a myriad of patterns as well as flash.
A bidet
I should really get one. Blasting my ass with water sounds cool.
It’s refreshing on a hot day in the summer
Rope.
Buy some rope, like 3 different sizes: 1-2mm, 4-6mm and 10-12mm. Watch a few rope videos and then throw the ropes in some drawer. Every now and again you will have an issue that the ropes can fix.
As a kid I once got a 15mm*40m rope for my birthday from my uncle, I thought it was the weirdest thing, but over the years I used it so much that these days I consider it to be one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. And as long as you don’t need them for anything related to safety, they basically cant expire.
Head lamp with both red and white light, a game changer for walking the dogs. Red light preserves night vision
Cooking thermometer probe. Take the guesswork out of cooking and never overcook and dry out your meats again.
Glass Tupperware, if you look all your plastic ones I bet they are scratched - melted or otherwise damaged. All those missing parts end up in the food.
The glass ones are so nice and you can use them to heat things in the oven (without the lid) in a pinch as well
Absolutely, almost the best upgrade of anything in the kitchen.
There’s this product called grab-a-rag… They are washcloth-sized washable microfiber cloths.
Comes in a large box (think maybe a box that new boots would come in) but it’s exactly like a box of tissues - pull one out, the next emerges halfway.
Once I wash them, I don’t reformulate this tissue box set up, I just throw them in the drawers, I use them for wipes, I wash the floor with them, I have some set aside for dishes. They are mind-bogglingly good for cleaning surfaces.
I give mitt-fulls away because they’re so cheap, and people freak out about how great they are.
French press. Didn’t even know what one was until I was around 50, thought it was some fancy, complicated thing I wouldn’t care about.
My wife drinks coffee day and night so we have 4 methods of making it. The cheapo French press is the best IMHO. Use whatever coffee grounds you like, make it as strong or light as you like.
Mine was $11 on Amazon. Finish wore off, looks like shit, works fine.
I have a French press but a stovetop espresso maker is my favorite
IMO Aeropress males a better coffee than a French press. Have you tried that?
That’s a lot of work to aeropress as much coffee as a french press. I love my aeropress, but it can only do one cup at a time
There’s an Areopress XL model now that can make more at a time https://aeropress.com/products/aeropress-coffee-maker-xl
Ah fair. You can do multiple cups if you top up with hot water. But for volume pour over or French press is the way.
That’s a lot of work to aeropress as much coffee as a french press. I love my aeropress, but it can only do one cup at a time
I don’t like french press coffee, it’s too oily. For my money pour over is the way to go.
How does that work?
Hario V60 with a #2 coffee filter. Manual drip coffee. Is very good.
That’s my exact set up!
Hell yeah, 100x better than a drip.
Quick Release garden hose fittings.
You can get them for about $8 at harbor freight and it makes switching hose attachments easy!
Attachments? I just vary the position of my thumb like a pleb
Adjusting the thumb to vary spray type is an essential part of learning basic hose operation.
Hahahahah, enjoy the upvote.
This one is way below $100, but about ten years ago I bought a roll of twist tie wire at a dollar store. It’s fifty or a hundred feet, with a little guillotine cutter. It’s still just a bunch of twist tie, but it punches WAY above its weight with quality of life improvement. No more hunting for the one you dropped, or wondering how you’ll close up a veggie bag. Also good for (fairly light) pictures that use wire instead of sawtooth hardware, and I’ve used it in a pinch when I didn’t have cable ties. I dunno. It’s just an oddly useful substance to have lying in your junk drawer.
I’ve just been hoarding all the twist ties that come with other purchases. Only costs me a little bit of sanity every time I look in that drawer.
In this theme, you can get so many rubber bands for cheap.
Just be careful of the material you get. There are some that degrade over time. That said, I loved playing with bags of rubber bands when I was a kid. I’d stick my hands all the way in the bag and just squish them around. It feels great!
If you double it up and twist it together, it’s way stronger.
I’ve used it forever for the garden.
An oil sprayer. I was looking for gift ideas and came across a “misto” brand oil sprayer and now I use it all the time! No more spray cans of oil and God knows what else, you just fill it half way with whatever oil you want (except coconut oil for some reason) and you pump it to pressurize the oil so you can spray whatever you want.
I inherited one of those but stopped using it because I had no idea how to clean it. I also don’t often run into situations where I need to spray oil.
Coconut oil is solid at room temperature.
Depends where ya live mate.
Well that certainly sounds like a good reason for it to cause issues lol good to know
I’ve always had these fail within months, just using olive oil.
Thats not good to hear lol hopefully mine holds out!
I’ve had it for almost a year now, but I’ve only used vegetable oil, only fill it half way, and I depressurize it when I’m done. Not sure if there is much of a difference between the two oils or if I just got lucky.
They work great until they don’t. I’ve had the same experience, be prepared to replace it occasionally because it’s usually near impossible to disassemble and clean the pump mechanism completely.
No coconut oil because it will solidify at room temp.
Cheap plastic bowl scrapers. Like these:
I use these every time I cook. I use them every time I clean the kitchen.
Yes, man!
You can probably make this for free from some plastic packaging. I have some cut out from the lids of ice cream boxes.
