Looking for some neat ideas/quality of life improvements aka lifehacks I guess
Sorry this isn’t real life, but in Space Engineers I made a rover with wheels so big I can’t even get in it. So I made a platform that lowers down on a piston, to scoop the passenger up.
(Also I had no source of water and hence couldn’t power my jetpack to just fly up onto the rover)
It feels so cool every time I use it.
Space engineers is so underated. Too bad I’m too stupid to play it. But I watch playthrough on YT every day, drooling over crazy builds and admire people’s creativity.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Flair Pro 2 manual espresso machine.
Ohhhh that’s been on my radar ever since I saw James Hoffmann playing around with it. I’m about to move abroad so it would be unnecessary ballast, but once I’ve settled in, that’s on the to-do list.
How steep is the learning curve to get the workflow & output consistent?
The learning curve is a bit steep, but for me it’s part of the fun. You control all the variables, which kind of forces you to learn about the whole espresso making process. Once you got the workflow down it’s not too bad.
Don’t get it if you expect a quick cup of espresso in the morning. Do get it if you like to fiddle with things and want go the extra mile to get the most out of your espresso.
Oh sure, it wouldn’t me my daily driver I guess, at least not the one for the first shot. But I’ve already got a decent espresso machine for that (plus 7 other coffee making contraptions), so the flair would be for the second and third short during the day. And a nice showpiece for sure.
Sound Cancelling headphones, one of the best buys in my life, as an autistic person it really helps a lot, for going about the day to day.
What model, and could I get your opinion/recommendation on them? I’ve had a pair of “JBL Tune 760NC” headphones for a few months now and they’re okay, but the noise cancelling isn’t nearly as good as I’d hoped.
I was in the right place, right time, found a solid, hardwood dresser at Goodwill for $30!
This Stihl Vacuum shredder/blower. Like a leafblower, but instead of just blowing the leaves pointlessly around it sucks them up, shreds them a bit and dumps them in a big bag - and its electric. Terrific piece of kit, quiet and effective and oh so satisfying to use, I go over the driveway and garden with it every day or two (we have a lot of trees surrounding our place which constantly drop masses of leaves)
A Bidet has got to be the most life changing purchase ever. Not even expensive either.
I love mine
While in our family we hate them and we’ll get rid of them to make the space more efficient 😅
Usually in North America bidet refers to a modified insert or toilet seat that includes a sprayer and a lever to control. It doesn’t take up any space at all. Definitely a stand alone bidet takes up a lot of space but they’re visually non existent in North America, although I certainly would prefer that to the sprayers.
Or a hand bidet that attaches to the side of the toilet with a thermostat to control water temp and pressure
In that case, that sounds interesting.
Indeed, I’ve only seen one standalone bidet ever in the US. It was in an old mansion. Far more awkward than the modern ones that attach to an existing toilet.
Americans don’t historically have standalone bidets, so they’re almost certainly referring to the type that attaches to your toilet seat. It doesn’t take up any extra space.
The biggest hazard with those is simply kids/pets. Because if you have a toddler, they will inevitably think it‘s the funniest thing in the world to turn the bidet on and watch it spray across the room. If you’re lucky, they might even turn it off after laughing at it. And the dial is easy enough for a cat to accidentally turn when jumping up/down.
I’d love to have one if I had the space. My toilet is roughly one square meter. For illustration purposes, that size, only less grungy. These are leftovers from how they used to plan apartment buildings in the late 19th century in Vienna.
There are bidet attachments to add to a regular toilet
There’s one in my kids’ bathroom. Can’t wait to reno the room and get rid of rid. Especially as the tub got a shit half broken tap but for some reason the bidet has a fancy working one. According to my daughter it’s there to flood the parquet and transform the room in a giant pool for her mermaid Barbie.
Do I go with the hand held sprayer thingy or the one that affixes underneath the seat?
Under the seat.
You’ll want the one that attaches to the seat. Luxe makes really solid ones for very cheap; I’ve had mine for three or four years now, and it still works just fine. You can get some fancy ones with heated water, air dryer, etc but that’s all superfluous; The cold water alone isn’t bad after you experience it once and know what to expect. And the nozzle on Luxe brand bidets has a self-clean feature, so you can rinse the nozzle easily.
The number one thing to look for on the el cheapo ones is - does it look easy to clean. Where the Toilet Lid meets the Bowl and the bidet acts as a washer collects so much grime. It grosses me out so bad. You can’t clean any of it unless you take it all apart.
You’ll want the one that attaches to the seat. Luxe makes really solid ones for very cheap; I’ve had mine for three or four years now, and it still works just fine. You can get some fancy ones with heated water, air dryer, etc but that’s all superfluous; The cold water alone isn’t bad after you experience it once and know what to expect. And the nozzle on Luxe brand bidets has a self-clean feature, so you can rinse the nozzle easily.
I bought a mead kit from Golden Hive Mead.
Haven’t started yet. Need to get in touch with a local bee keeper for some honey yet.
👋 fellow homebrewer (do we have a homebrew community here yet?)
My advice: your first mead is probably gonna be more of a learning experience. Go to costco and buy a big bottle of honey (3lbs), mix it with a gallon of water, and some nutrients.
Most cost effective way to try it out without blowing a ton of money. My first mead was terrible, and i spent a ton of money on good local honey.
My second mead i spent even more on better honey and strawberries, to apply everything i learned. Came out amazing
Thanks for the tip! I might do that, cause yeah this will be first. What do you mean by nutrients? Is that something I should be looking for? I assumed everything I’d need should be in the kit (except honey) so I’d like to make sure.
So i don’t know what kit you have or what it came with but here’s everything I would use:
Equipment:
- Star San (make sure everything is sanitized, also don’t rinse this stuff out – “don’t fear the foam”)
- Airlock (and bung)
- Fermenter (I like big mouth bubblers, but your kit should have come with something)
- A spoon
Ingredients:
- Honey (I do 3lbs per gal)
- Water (I use store bought water, because I’m paranoid lol)
- If you’re using fresh fruit, pectic enzyme (this helps break down haze in the mead from the fruit)
- Fermaid-O (this is the nutrients)
- Wine Tanin (optional, for aging)
- Yeast (you can get some cheap yeast on Amazon – I used Red Star “Cote Des Blancs” for my strawberry mead, but your kit probably came with this)
Watch some YouTube videos to get a feel for the process. I enjoy City Stead Brewing, they have tons of recipes and helpful tips. Also, if you’re gonna bottle and stuff you’ll need wine bottles, a siphon and bottling wand, corks, and a corker. You can bottle in swing-top bottles, but I haven’t had good luck with those (apparently they’re not great for long term storage >.>)
Like i said though, for your first mead it’s probably best to KISS. I appreciate being able to get a feel for the process and then experimenting later on. I’ve only made two meads, but have made wine and a LOT of beer in the past – so if you have more questions just lmk!
An airfryer. I won’t say it’s changed my life, but it’s changed the way I cook. On nights I’m too tired to do a real meal, I can throw in some chicken wings and potato gems and put some mixed veggies in the microwave steamer. 20 minutes later it beeps and there’s food ready.
Oh I’ve got a really good one. If you’ve got a Dyson vacuum, eventually the battery will die. Don’t replace it with another Dyson battery! Instead get one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W2K4SVT
And get a couple Dewalt 20V batteries (20V is important, don’t use 18V batteries).
Boom, you’ve got an interchangeable battery system for your Dyson!
Fucking amazing
I believe 18V and 20V lithium batteries are two ways of talking about the same thing (5 lithium cells in series, making up the battery). One refers to the nominal voltage of the pack, and the other refers to the maximum voltage of the pack. I think certain manufacturers (DeWalt, and possibly others) started using the max voltage as a marketing tactic.
Some of the reviews say that the 18V batteries can’t sustain the max suction mode, so I would be wary to use them. The Dyson’s battery is 21.6 volts.
Thanks that’s good to know. I’ve got a Dyson V8 and I also have a fair sized collection of Bosch blue 18V stuff. But my point was really that DeWalt 20V and Bosch 18V (for example) is the same number of cells and same pack voltage at different points in the charge cycle. It’s just that one is marketed differently.
I just got one of these recently too. What a dream!!! No more half the house on a single charge nonsense. No more proprietary garbage. Just makes sense
Wow this is amazing.
As crazy as it sounds I wish there was also a kit to add a cord to the thing. Love the vacuum hate the ewaste.
Brilliant
Under cabinet manual jar opener. It’s flat and mounts under your cabinet of choice. Easy to use, but also easy to forget it’s there! I sometime find myself jar in hand and half-way to wherever my husband is before I remember that I no longer need his skills.
Electric candle lighter. Rechargeable lighter with long neck. Eliminates the need for matches or standard lighters. The noise it makes does scare one of the cats, though. I haven’t tried it on campfires yet, but I think that was something the ad said it could do.
Those electric lighters are like a torture device to my ears. If you haven’t lost your high pitch hearing, don’t get one
It is the equivalent of nails scratching on blackboard for me. My mom uses one and I have to get away whenever she is about to use it because it makes my ears and teeth hurt like a mofo.
Yeah, I feel it in the base of my skull and my spine more than my ears
Whoa, hey, don’t tell people about that first one! Us husbands won’t be needed anymore!
If you kill your own spiders, he ought to be sweating.
If by “electric candle lighter” you mean one of those “plasma” or arcing ones, they’re awesome, but cannot light anything that won’t fit between the two ends of the arc. I love mine for candles, but have yet to successfully start my charcoal grill with them. I imagine a campfire would suffer similar issues.
Hopefully you have better luck!
An AeroPress for making coffee. It’s functions sorta like a drip brewer, french press, and espresso machine, all at the same time. but super simple. It’s really just a giant syringe for making coffee.
Such a game changer. I’ve just used drip brewers my entire life. And it was fine. But AeroPress-brewed coffee is soooo much better. So much smoother. Not nearly as bitter as drip brewed.
Thank you to James Hoffman for the recommendation.
I got a soda machine that uses packets of powder instead of a c02 cannister.
pop rocks?
sodium bicarbonate
Fun fact: the CO2 version can actually be made incredibly cheap if you retrofit a decently sized paintball CO2 canister to work with your soda machine (kits can be bought). The biggest difference is that paintball CO2 isn’t food grade, but it’s pretty common to dismiss this if that’s something you’re comfortable doing.
You go from spending however much (think I remember them costing as much as $50 for like, 12oz) on a SodaStream proprietary CO2 canister, to spending like $10-$30 every couple of months on a 20+ oz fillup at your local sporting goods store, and the one time $40-$60 for a decent sized canister that lasts forever. Seriously, I still have my canister from when I played paintball in 2008.
I bought an adapter and a 25 liter siphon tank.
I found a local gas company that will refill my siphon tank with food grade CO2. Because it’s a siphon it’ll transfer liquid directly into the SodaStream tanks.
I own five SodaStream tanks. I can refill them about four times out of the siphon tank.
The siphon tank cost $25 to refill at a semi local gas company.
Cast iron griddle, scraper, and chef weight. I should have bought these years ago. I use the griddle and scraper daily.
For the weak like myself, carbon steel is also a great option!
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
