Biggest one would be AC, followed by cheap electricity, and internet. Maybe frequent sex too. To quote that recent Mengzi post 食色性也
Partner says filtered water. My more luxury item may be homemade seltzer water
Hot showers and a bidet.
We just finished a big holiday trip, 2 weeks visiting both sides of the family. Stayed with one family and then the other. After that…yeah…seriously considering getting everyone bidets next year for Christmas…
Travel bidet
We recently got a bidet ourselves. There are portable ones. Basically a water bottle with a pump and sprayer on it.
Yeah, but there’s something a lot more gross about spraying yourself with a bottle than just turning a knob and letting the plumbing do it.
Maybe it is because I have a hand held sprayer that it does not bother me. But either way it is still better than stuffing your hand in there with a wad of paper.
Toilet paper.
(I’d argue that’s more a necessity but) Bidet plus a a toilet rag covered in the stains from your previous toilet rag adventures?
Electricity
Air conditioning. Near the coast in Texas it’s more or less a lifesaver.
Hot water!! I don’t remember how I survived childhood
We used to only have an outside toilet, covered in the fattest moths and spiders you’ve ever seen. We had a boiler that would cut out every fourth time it was used. I also don’t know how I survived childhood. It’s weird how what you get used to
Oh man, that’s a lot. At least our toilet was indoors, even if our plumbing was prone to breaking.
Literally, depending on where you draw a line between luxury and important but not mandatory for most people, it’s air conditioning. We have three people in this household that do very poorly once heat and humidity starts to climb, including myself. Plus, uncontrolled humidity in the south ruins things, so there’s an increase in costs associated with whatever decrease in power usage would save. For us, AC is right on the edge of being a necessity, as in a medical thing.
But in a more literal luxury that serves only pleasure or want, chocolate. No nutritional necessity, and it isn’t like we all can’t do without it. But gods damn, it would hurt. A nice piece of good quality dark chocolate is the ultimate mini reward for me. Do something incredibly painful and time consuming, that bit of chocolate is enough to turn it from something that I’m weeping in pain trying to finish into something I’m able to get through before I break down. That’s a luxury, but fuck me if it isn’t something I lean on heavily as a crutch. I really don’t know what I would use to coax myself through really bad days where I’m barely functional but still have to function.
Man, I year you. In tropical Mexico, whatever semi-dry goods we didn’t use up by the end of spring will be ruined and moldy within three days of summer starting. Must seeds won’t even germinate in like two months.
Meat, specifically ground beef
Just keep your beef in the fridge like a normal person.
por qué no ambos?
Clean and well-tasting tap water. It sucks when I’m going to another country and they have chlorinated tap water
If it’s that important to you then an RO filter would be a cheap solution
Where in the world?
In the US. I feel the same about our well water. Completely untreated and so good.
Not all well water is untreated…
PC world.
I haven’t thought about that jingle in years (decades?) but it came back instantly. And now it won’t leave.
Oh fun, here’s another:
There’s a magical place, we’re on our way there
With toys by the million, all under one roof…You probably wouldn’t know it, but “There’s a funky little place down on bayside drive”
Another banger. Millions of Jeffrey
It’s got some pretty dark Edgar Allan Poe vibes:
“There’s millions” says Jeffrey, “all under one roof…”
If he’s a toy himself, then he’s selling out his own kind by cramming them like sardines in inhumane conditions and selling them off to the highest bidder. Despicable.
We have clean water in Austria, directly from the mountains without adding anything (just cleaning it with UV light to kill potential bacteria in most regions, nothing else. Not even that in some regions).
Some of the best and cleanest water worldwide, so whenever I go to another country I’m disappointed by their water quality.
Don’t tell Nestle, lol
Swede here who frequents Austria. I agree, and I love drinking the water while hiking in Austria.
If you visit Sweden, our water is mostly as good as the one in Austria. Some exceptions are Gotland because of high chalk (so? “Kalk”) levels.
A/C
Contact lenses. I know I could use my glasses, but I put them down and can’t find them half the time. I am blind enough to be absolutely useless in most situations without corrective lenses.
None that would “break me” if I didn’t have them, but I spend the vast majority of my free time on my computer (by choice, I have friends and outside activities I can go to if I want), and whenever I’ve had to be away from it that’s always been the toughest part.
Indoor plumbing and summer time AC
If there is a luxury whose absence would break you, then I would suggest you do a little “fast” from it, occasionally.
100%. For caffeine, I drop it on the weekends (much to the annoyance of my gf) and that monday morning coffee makes all the difference in the world. For cheese, I’m usually okay without for a few weeks.
Soap and clean water
