I was thinking about how I missed having an indoor thermometer that measures humidity. It’s such a small specific thing, one I’d never think of getting unless pushed to it (which I was by one particularly dry winter). But I like having one now.
What are your small, “random” or “junk drawer” type of gadgets that you actually use or like having around?
I was gifted an air fryer a while back. While it’s generally useful, cleaning if after each use is really obnoxious imo and so I hardly ever use it.
It’s a lot easier to clean a pan I used in the oven because I can just pop it in the dishwasher. I can’t pop the air fryer in the dishwasher. It would destroy it.
You can buy air fryer liners to minimize cleanup.
Thank you for this knowledge. This will honestly help me eat more chicken instead of less-messy frozen meals.
I recently found out about these and they have been a huge help, but I found that food still manages to make it’s way into the rest of the basket, even if it’s not as much.
Mine came with a little pan or tray that we can line with foil easy peasy. Much less to clean.
Small electric fan oven doesn’t sound as magical as air fryer. Good product, great marketing.
Came here to share air fryers.
I hate kitchen gadgets. Even toasters.
But I like this!
My kitchen has a solid ban on any product with the word “maker” in the name. They’re all junk that take up space and do a worse job than conventional methods.
An air fryer though. That was money well spent.
Indeed, being Belgian and an adept of the real French fries (double cooked) I was not convinced at all. In the end, I still prefer real fries but I find the air fryer very practical to cook (or warm up quickly - unlike microwave oven it does not make stuff soft) all sort of food.
I’m an American, so I can’t say how they’re cooked in Belgium, but I can say that boiling them in water for ten minutes before frying reduces the workload significantly and produces similar results.
Belgian fries (and any good fries in America) are fried once in low heat for a little while to cook the potato through. Then they are allowed to cool, and they can be frozen to use later, or you can fry them again at higher temp to crisp them up.
I’m aware of the double-fry technique, I’m just saying that similar results can be obtained by boiling in lieu of the first frying step
A Moka pot, it’s the best coffee I’ve tasted, I’ll never go back to using those coffee machines with the basket and the glass carafe.
Also, a really good chef’s knife, kept really sharp. I use a couple of Global ones.
Same, but Aeropress for my coffee. I haven’t yet tried a mocha pot, though I’d like to.
Aeropress coffee was always the best tasting. But I found I just didn’t have the patience for making it that way every morning, especially since I drink four cups at least.
Right? My friend talked me into getting a full pour-over setup, and it’s tasty, but I’m not doing all that shit in the morning when I need coffee. I went back to my drip machine after two days. He says that he loves the process in the morning, and that’s cool I guess, but that shit isn’t for me.
If you like boiled eggs, you need a boiled egg timer.
It’s a clear “egg” made of heat-tolerant plastic with a color-changing temperature gauge visible inside. You throw it into the pot when boiling eggs and it lets you know when the eggs are soft boiled, medium boiled, or hard boiled. It’s very readable even in boiling water, and the results are always perfectly accurate. These things are totally worth the few dollars they cost.
I have one of those, it’s completely useless. It had novelty value but the eggs never came out the way I wanted them. I’ve gone back to a normal timer.
I got this bundled with a pot and it changed my life.
I got an egg cooker that came with a small measuring cup for water, which told you how much to put in for soft/medium/hard-boiled. It’s about $10 and cooks up to 7 at a time. Others can do more. I’m never cooking eggs in a pot again, as long as I have this.
I’ve seen those, and while the appeal of something I can set and not have to turn off at an exact time is there, I always felt like cleaning it looks like a bigger hassle than cleaning a small pot.
The one I remember seeing had you puncture the base of the eggs, and then they sit on a plastic tray over a heated metal pad. The metal pad is attached to the heating element so you can’t just scrub that with soapy water if any egginess sticks to it. The plastic tray also looked like it had a lot of nooks and crannies where all sorts of eggy proteins can get stuck.
That and single-purpose appliances don’t really appeal to me as I don’t have much space. Not to discount how helpful they are for people with different physical needs than me, but I don’t know.
I eat enough hard boiled eggs that I consider getting one every so often, which is why this comment is as unnecessarily long as it is.
I dunno. No matter how “heat tolerant” plastic claims to be repeated exposure to high heat seems like it’d increase the chance you’d be dosing all your foods with micro plastics and other plastic related chemicals.
Like I’d never put anything made of plastic that touches food in the microwave myself, heat resistant or not :#
Eggs have shells.
Yeah but I’d rather eat the shells plastic free.
Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_grandmother_to_suck_eggs#
Egg shells are porous
Only after being washed.
Like submersing them in water to boil them? Eggs in the US are pre-washed as well.
Thats not a bath it’s a jacuzzi. That’s why they come out so relaxed.
May I suggest an actual timer? Almost all of us already have one, it’s even more precise, and does not require additional plastic waste. 7:30 makes a perfect medium egg every time.
Can confirm. Elevation may cause variance though.
My friend regifted me a milk frother. I use it every morning. Nuke the milk for 30 seconds and whip it up. Add to any coffee for a great treat.
I have a few motion activated lights in my house and really love how convenient those are. One is an in wall light switch and another is a screw in one in a ceiling light socket.
I also use my pour over coffee set daily. And my coffee grinder.
I bought a cheap little wire cutter and keep it in my junk drawer. Great for cutting zip ties and twist ties on packaging.
I keep a water bottle in the fridge. Always have cold water and hardly use glasses. Bring it to the table when you eat.
Lazy Susan on the dining room table for salt, pepper, toothpicks, pencils, sticky notes, etc.
Long plastic dollar store shoehorn by the door.
I get big packs of 3M clean removal hooks from Costco and use them all over the house to hang keys, pants, hats, string lights, jackets, etc.
I have a few motion activated lights in my house and really love how convenient those are.
I thought about installing a few of these, and then I realized that I don’t always want lights to come on when I’m in a room, especially in the evening. How do you deal with that? I did install one in my wife’s closet though, and she loves it. The light comes on as soon as she opens the door, and she feels oh so fancy with that feature.
Lots of other great ideas in your list too. About the cheap wire cutters, I had the same for years. I needed to cut something really rigid for a custom job on my truck and bought a good, American-made set a few weeks ago. They’re sooo much better than the cheapos I was using. I recommend splurging and getting a good set of cutters, even if you don’t need anything heavy duty. They’ll perform for any job, last a lifetime, and be more of a pleasure to use.
My motion switch in the main floor bath also senses light so it does not turn on when it is sunny.
My motion switches in the basement laundry and garage might also be light sensitive but it is always dark there so I always want them to turn on.
I think to do what I think you want, I would investigate X10 or other home automation hardware. That stuff lets you program switches so you could set it to never come on during certain times (for example). X10.com
X10 used to be much cheaper than most other home automation hardware/software.I agree that spending more gets better quality tools but I don’t want or need great quality in my junk drawer. Nor do I want to use expensive tools on packaging. The expensive tools go in my tool bag to get used and abused on “real” work.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll look into it.
attaching things to the walls (hooks for jackets, backpacks, pictures, tools, etc) is a game changer.
Halogen oven: I live alone, and even though it’s relatively small, it’s big enough for me (unless I want to cook a pizza). It preheats much faster than a regular oven, so meals take much less time to make if I’m just throwing something in it too cook.
Headphone stand: I got a stand that you can hang headphones on, and it’s so much nicer than just tossing it on the table or whatever.
Battery powered lamp with a flexible “spine”. I have an adjustable lamp which charges via usb and has a flexible neck. It saves the hassle of trying to prop up a phone or something with the torch turned on.
Did you know you can get toilet roll holders that have a little shelf for you to put a phone on? If you browse on the can, they’re rather handy.
Extension cables: If you have a desktop or tv, you can just grab some USB, hdmi or audio extensions and swap things using that instead of leaning behind the device.
Egg cooker thingy: I have a thingie that you put a certain amount of water in and it boils an egg using the steam and turns off when done. Saves the effort of setting a timer or boiling a full pan of water.
Kettles: Apparently not a thing in the US? I don’t know how you live without them.
Extension cables: If you have a desktop or tv, you can just grab some USB, hdmi or audio extensions and swap things using that instead of leaning behind the device.
This is what my receiver is for, with regard to the TV. But yeah, even in that case I have a spare HDMI that hangs out near the front of the TV for laptops.
Kettles
Lots of Americans have ones that sit on the stove. I have one that plugs in.
Part of the issue is that most outlets in American houses only provide 120v power, only special outlets provide 240v. So even though an electric kettle will boil faster than one on the stove, it’s not significantly faster like it is in other places.
Extendo arm. It’s goofy as hell but it’s a god send when there’s a bunch of random crap on the floor. They also have deceivingly good grip strength too.
Hand held vacuum. I don’t think this is that niche anymore but it works really well for cleaning tables, random tight corners and I park it next to my clothes dryer to easily clean the filter. I also use it a TON for sucking up bugs. Buy a corded one since battery operated ones die fast (I went through 2 or 3 of these personally)
Bench scraper. Easily removes 90% of any grime on hard surfaces. Honestly more effective than a rag and detergent. When I bought mine I decided to try it out on my “thoroughly cleaned” kitchen counter and removed a disheartening amount of grime. Afterwards I use some detergent just to sterilize everything.
Having worked in restaurants I am amazed that more people dont use scrapers to clean counters etc. It does such a better and quicker job than scrubbing.
I bought mine as a paibt scraper at a dollar store. Works just fine.
I clean up my toddler’s mess every day and those extendo arms have saved my back
I use my grabby arm thing constantly because bending over kills my back. Sometimes I’ll dual wield the things lol
bend your legs
Hand held vacuum
We splurged on a Dyson battery powered vacuum that can transform between a floor vacuum, and a hand-held vacuum. I thought it was going to be a goofy novelty, but my wife really wanted it, so we got it. It’s awesome! We completely stopped using our corded vacuum, and eventually donated it. It was just such a hassle compared to the Dyson. The Dyson is expensive, but it is so very useful and convenient.
My ex got the dyson in the breakup. I’m still not over it.
Bitch.
Seriously the most useful thing I ever bought for around the house is barely even a gadget. It’s literally just a screwdriver where you can flip the tips and the shaft so that it has four tip sizes; two Phillips and two flatheads. Oh and also a tape measure. That tape measure will save you literally all of the headaches when it comes to purchasing furniture. A good socket set of Allen wrenches for assembling set furniture too.
. A good socket set of Allen wrenches for assembling set furniture too.
I’ll push back and say that the 3-pack of imperial, metric, and SAE hex wrenches you can get these days are better than a socket set
Sure, ratcheting is nice, but the ability to rapidly service ANY hex item without dicking around with my sockets or having to memorize which exact size a specific screw has been amazing
Just grab the matching collection of wrenches (idk what to call them, Swiss army wrench?) for the size you’re working in, or all 3 if you’re unsure, and you’ll be done in no time!
You’re talking about those folding ones aren’t you?
Yeah, these:
Ratcheting is nice, but the torque I can get with these + ease of use and carrying means I never use my hex sockets anymore
For me ratcheting is way more important. Trying to get one of those stupid little Allen wrenches to turn in the space you’ve got to maneuver is oftentimes a pain in the ass, and of course the thing gets tighter to turn with that silly little no leverage piece of crap as you drive it in.
I bought several of those flippy screwdrivers and keep 1-2 on each level of the house and in the garage. I never have to leave the floor or often the room to fix something I notice is loose.
Battery powered handheld vacuum cleaner. Though I’d only use it for bits and bobs and still use the big Dyson for most of the cleaning, but the hand vac gets used a lot more. Also, a spot cleaner for carpets/upholstery. I did expect it to be useful, and it means we no longer periodically hire a rug doctor, but i hadn’t appreciated how useful a wet vac is for spills, not to mention the time the dishwasher drain pump failed and I didn’t have to mess around bailing it out.
My power tools in the garage are Hitachi, and they make a stick vac that takes the same batteries. We call it the electric broom, and it’s a game-changer for cleaning up the kitchen.
Same, but Makita. My parents had a handheld Dyson, and it was a pain at times because they had to charge it when it died, or you found no one had charged it at the worst times. Because I always have a spare Makita battery it’s just a case of swapping them over and sticking the dead on on the charger while you continue vacing
It wasn’t a gadget, but we put a grocery bag dispenser on our wedding registry. We ended up getting it, and it was nice to have a good place to put them that was easy to grab them out as needed. Haven’t used it nearly as much now that we are using reusable grocery bags, but it’s still nice when I need to put a bag in my office trash can.
This has been good for us for a different reason. I’m not pathological, but I do have a tendency to keep “useful” things longer than needed. A grocery bag dispenser crammed tight is a decent agreed standard for “we have plenty of grocery bags.”
Also not a gadget in and of itself, but I built a home assistant server and zigbee network with all kinds of automations for time based, motion or event activation. Makes me feel like I live in the future lol. But that wasn’t exactly unexpectedly useful.
but does it dispense grocery bags?
One of those little steel k-cup filters. I don’t get locked into their dumbass ecosystem and I can still make a good single person cup of shitass costco joe instead of a whole pot or doing a whole pour over maneuver.
The pour over is pretty easy, and not much different than cleaning out the cup.
I’ll often grind 2-3 uses of beans at a time and just store the grounds in a baggie.
Our office only has a kuerig machine. I choose to bring in my aeropress and a hand grinder. 1000% better than what the office has.
I bought a small rice cooker a while back. I have pancakes way more often now, which has really helped cut down my breakfast budget. I can snag a month of breakfast for like 5 dollars. Yeah sure, they’re extra thicc and not as nutritious as a full complex meal, but its a lot less of a hassle than actually heating up the skillet and cooking a meal while I’m half-asleep.
Am I reading correctly? Are you saying you cook pancakes in your rice cooker?
How do you do that?
yep. Just drop a bit of butter in and let it melt while you put some coffee on and mix together the milk and pancake mix, drop it in for 2 cycles, and enjoy. It’s about almost as easy as microwaving.
I… how… huh? I must try this. I use my rice cooker all the time, but for rice
Please report back to us, we’re ALL curious. Lol
I am choosing to interpret the instructions as dumping a full bottle of pancake mix into the rice cooker, cook twice, then tip out the resulting pancake-cake and slice it up thinly like a pressed ham. I guess slice extra thinly for crepes?
That’s how I read it too.
Yeah we really need some more details here.
Ok ok ok, I’ll explain in further detail.
HipsterTenZero’s shitty mega pancake
Serves 1
Place 1 tablespoon of salted butter in the rice cooker and flip the switch.
Mix together ~3/4 cup of store-bought pancake mix (I like the cheap kind!) and ~1/3 cup of milk.
Dump the batter in on top of the liquefied butter.
Wait for the first cycle to be done by taking the dog out (important step: pet dog)
hit the switch for a second cycle.
Make coffee or something. Put on some pants if you haven’t already (optional).
Once the second cycle is done, poke the top of the 'cake with a fork to ensure it’s fully cooked through.
If done, rotate the rice cooker 180 degrees vertically to dispense the delicious mega-pancake. Otherwise hit it with a cheeky 3rd cycle.
Top with whatever garbage is around.
Someone mentioned slicing it up, but I just say scarf it down as-is. Who is gonna judge, eh?
It works!
Not bad! Though I used Bisquick, for better flavor, and for the work involved dirtying bowls and measuring cups I’d rather just use a pan.
In fact I made extra and made three pan sized pancakes in the time it took to make one big fluffy potcake.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great Idea and it totally works. If I were gonna do it again seriously, I’d get a dedicated pancake mix that uses just water, to maximize the simplicity, which is the goal I think.
It was fluffy and delicious, though I will say a lot of pancake flavor comes from the crispy edges and the thinness of the cake and you lose some of that with the thick potcake.
Glad I tried it, thanks to op for the idea!
Never understand how people can eat full hot meals as breakfast.
And pancakes are dessert/snak…
the trick is that i’m American. We’ve evolved to seek out large meals and sugar rewards in our environment kind of like ants
I bought an air fryer a while back. I have taken up equestrianism now, which has completely fucked my finances.
You’re making pancakes in a rice cooker? I’m intrigued
Me three.
I think my 11 year old was the most surprising.
I bought a griddle scraper thinking it was only for cleaning but it’s become one of my main cooking utensils
A quality knife sharpening system. It’ll change your life. Keep your knives razor sharp at all times with minimal effort, and all of your cutting experiences will be far better.
I didn’t know there were “systems”, I use a Pyrénées slab that works like magic, but you do need some elbow grease. Is it a power tool you’re talking about ?
Project Farm has done a few videos on knife sharpeners. His testing is usually pretty straight to the point
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Lu71ewVSw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBINMUdlJ14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEDyYJJ6f9MI actually was just re-watching them as my whetstone has seen better days, and I’m pretty sure it’s now too curved to continue on
I’ve used many different systems and the one that works best for me are the diamond rods with an angle brace. This is the one that I use, but there are several different brands available. I also have the Worksharp electric belt sander system, and that works really well too, but it removes a lot of metal, so I only use it sparingly. I used to have off-brand crock sticks and those are pretty cool, but they take a lot of time and still have a margin for user error. I used nothing but stones when I was younger, and that’s a cool system that gives the user a lot of manual control, but good stones are expensive, you need several of them, they’re bulky to store, and there’s a lot of room for error. Any of these are good options, and there are more still that I didn’t mention. It just comes down to personal preference.
Sharpener or edge-straightener?
Ideally both, but I meant an actual sharpening system. Either a series of progressively finer stones, some crock sticks, diamond rods, or whatever works best for the individual.
Explain please. I use a work sharp electric sharpener which has basically sandpaper bands. I guess I have one of those metal rods with grooves but i don’t use it.
Nice! That’s a great system. I have one too, but I only use it if a knife is really bad, or I have a lot of knives to sharpen. I usually use their diamond rod system. As you use your knife the edge gets folded over and malformed at a microscopic level. The honing steel doesn’t actually sharpen (remove metal), but it re-aligns the edge so that it is straight again and cuts better. Ideally you should pass your kitchen knives over the honing rod before each use, which will get you more life in-between sharpenings, and provide better cutting performance.
The honing steel doesn’t actually sharpen (remove metal)
Doesn’t a honing steel also remove burrs?
