What are 3 things that you have purchased that improved your quality of life?

[Pbwj]

What are some things that you have purchased that improved and made your life a little easier? Can't state the obvious (ex. new house, car, phone, computer, etc...) I'll start...

1. Toto Bidet - I splurged on a bidet earlier this year. It has a proximity sensor that automatically opens the lid. I was hesitant about the idea of water washing down there but boy I was wrong... I miss it whenever I travel...
2. Bissell Steam mop - This thing is awesome, I just simply add some water and steam mops my hard floor in high heat. I used to mop my floors with single used Swiffer pads and this steam mop has changed my life. Great for OCD people like me knowing that it's killing germs amid this virus outbreak...
3. Philips Hue bulbs with Google Assistant/Alexa Integration - Makes it so much more convenient to turn on/off lights. I recently configured my lights with the app so that it automatically slowly fade/turns on the lights on sunset which I thought was really cool.

 

[parker5011]

 watch. It has really helped with keeping me on track. Health wise and tasks/etc.

AirPods. I don’t have Bluetooth in my car so this has been a must have for calls and texting on the go.

 

[compwiz1202]

One thing at least beyond just generic a vehicle is getting a CUV. Don't have to step up a bunch either getting in or out.

 

[jeyf]

we have been holding back on the purchases because of the virus
but
i bought a new table saw a while back. Last (2) projects were a LOT easier 4sure.
I cracked the diamond on the wedding ring. Dont ask how. got that mended just now
.

 

[Mousse]

A lot of 5 gallon buckets. I just made a hill billy washing machine with 2 Homer buckets and a toilet plunger. Attach the inner bucket to a tree branch with some rope to spin dry some of the water out. The Missus torn a new one when I use to wash dirty rags and mop heads in the washing machine. Building the hill billy washer added several years to my lifespan. ie Wife won't kill me.

 

[ruka.snow]

1. Apple Watch, as it has improved my exercise monitoring and confidence in doing more exercise.
2. My camera(currently a Nikon Z6), which along with my Apple Watch has vastly improved my fitness and activity
3. 3 isn't jumping out at me; maybe my pet snake that gave me a giggle when I was eating an apple with him on my shoulders and the witnesses turned up. He also forces me to weight train, because no way am I letting myself be weaker than a 50Kg and growing pet that can kill me.

 

[velocityg4]

1. Window AC units: They look a bit ugly. When the central AC went out. I realized these were 1/5th the price for the same coverage. I'm able to zone the house. Rather than rooms being too hot or cool. The energy bill went down a lot for superior cooling.

2. Riding mower: Takes a lot less time to mow a large yard. Useful for hauling yard waste, mulch, soil, &c

3. Fuel stabilizer: Makes a huge difference in yard equipment reliability. If you wonder why you're new mower is hard to start after winter. When it worked well before. It's probably bad gas. Any gasoline stored more than two months. Whether in a gas can or gas tank should be stabilized.

 

[senseless]

#1) House
#2) Trek road bike
#3) Art supplies

 

[Gutwrench]

Since I cant say healthcare or education, I’ll say....



Baby, it’s COVID-19 outside.

 

[2984839]

1.) Aukey Touch table lamp for my night table.

2.) Hoppe's Boresnake

3.) Magnetic pickup tool

 

[glenthompson]

1. Our dogs
2. Our motorhome - got to visit a lot of places that wouldn’t have been practical any other way.
3. iPad - I read books, magazines, and newspapers on it. Watch videos. Play games. The list is endless. Best computing device I have ever used.

 

[macduke]

• An impact driver. Never use a regular drill for putting lots of screws into lots of wood. Best single tool purchase ever. I had a lot of non-load-bearing walls to frame in my basement when I built my studio and used deck screws instead and it went really quickly. As a bonus, if something was tacked in at the top out of square, I could back it out quickly and adjust it as I went.
• AirPods Pro. Now I can work in peace, inside and out, and they never fall out like regular AirPods do for me. Moving to them from AirPods was almost as big a difference as moving from wired headphones to AirPods.
• Subaru Outback. I never have to worry about my car being unreliable or unable to drive in ice or snow. Ice storm? No problem if I take it slow using the paddle shifters in X-mode, even on glazed roads. 18" of snow and I need to get meds for my daughter who is coughing so hard her lips are starting to turn blue? It rides on top like a boat but with more traction. One time I took it up a 13% grade (a short road that is probably the steepest where I live) covered with a few inches of snow no problem. It has a great safety rating. The seats fold down and I was able to haul all the studs for framing in my studio in my basement over a few trips. It's really versatile and I'm thinking about getting the new larger version called the Ascent to haul the family around. We do a lot of road trips. Or we used to before the pandemic. It sucks not having any trips to look forward to this summer.

 

[Macky-Mac]

years ago I had a car with badly faded and oxidized paint and a friend convinced me to have it painted at a really cheap place.......they did a fantastic job.

Life can be mighty fine sometimes!

 

[MisterSavage]

1. bidet - Just using TP seems absolutely prehistoric now.
2. sunrise alarm clock - It is (or should I say was) so hard for me to wake up in the morning. It's unbelievable how much nicer is it to wake up to a gentle light than having some awful loud noise in the dark.
3. instant pot - Can make some nice meals so rapidly and easily.
4. dyson cordless vacuum - Threw away my old vacuum after trying it. It's so easy to switch from vacuuming the carpet to sucking dust off of my desk.

 

[Thomas Veil]

• Face mask
• Gloves
• Wipes/hand sanitizer

 

[ssledoux]

• An impact driver. Never use a regular drill for putting lots of screws into lots of wood. Best single tool purchase ever. I had a lot of non-load-bearing walls to frame in my basement when I built my studio and used deck screws instead and it went really quickly. As a bonus, if something was tacked in at the top out of square, I could back it out quickly and adjust it as I went.
• AirPods Pro. Now I can work in peace, inside and out, and they never fall out like regular AirPods do for me. Moving to them from AirPods was almost as big a difference as moving from wired headphones to AirPods.
• Subaru Outback. I never have to worry about my car being unreliable or unable to drive in ice or snow. Ice storm? No problem if I take it slow using the paddle shifters in X-mode, even on glazed roads. 18" of snow and I need to get meds for my daughter who is coughing so hard her lips are starting to turn blue? It rides on top like a boat but with more traction. One time I took it up a 13% grade (a short road that is probably the steepest where I live) covered with a few inches of snow no problem. It has a great safety rating. The seats fold down and I was able to haul all the studs for framing in my studio in my basement over a few trips. It's really versatile and I'm thinking about getting the new larger version called the Ascent to haul the family around. We do a lot of road trips. Or we used to before the pandemic. It sucks not having any trips to look forward to this summer.

I’m right there with you on that Outback. I love mine!
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1. bidet - Just using TP seems absolutely prehistoric now.
2. sunrise alarm clock - It is (or should I say was) so hard for me to wake up in the morning. It's unbelievable how much nicer is it to wake up to a gentle light than having some awful loud noise in the dark.
3. instant pot - Can make some nice meals so rapidly and easily.
4. dyson cordless vacuum - Threw away my old vacuum after trying it. It's so easy to switch from vacuuming the carpet to sucking dust off of my desk.

Oh and the instant pot – I could not live without mine. If it broke I would replace it tomorrow! This is without a doubt the best small appliance I have ever owned!

But you people have to tell me why the bidet is so awesome. I have looked into these in the past.
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I guess based on the above I would say my instant pot, my Subaru outback, and my new, enclosed, raised veggie garden, because it is going to allow us to grow a lot of healthy food for our family.

 

[MisterSavage]

Oh and the instant pot – I could not live without mine. If it broke I would replace it tomorrow! This is without a doubt the best small appliance I have ever owned!

But you people have to tell me why the bidet is so awesome. I have looked into these in the past.

My instant pot sat in a box for months and now we can't imagine not having it.

As for the bidet, there are so many reasons. You're so clean after using it. If you got mud on your arm you wouldn't smear it around with dry paper. You'd hose yourself off first. The amount of TP you use is drastically reduced, which helps the wallet and the environment. Haven't used a plunger in the two years since it was purchased. And this problem disappears also:

 

[D.T.]

[...] my new, enclosed, raised veggie garden, because it is going to allow us to grow a lot of healthy food for our family.

Nice! What's the grow plan?

I want to do a small garden area just for a few things, one being some hot peppers of some sort, __probably__ datil peppers

 

[ssledoux]

Nice! What's the grow plan?

I want to do a small garden area just for a few things, one being some hot peppers of some sort, __probably__ datil peppers

Well I wasn't really thinking it would be ready for spring/summer planting since we plant earlier in Louisiana, so I only had a few things growing in galvanized tubs. I moved those into the garden - tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash, eggplant and various herbs.

What I'm really excited about is fall. I can't wait to do spinach, lettuces, collard greens, some cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.

We are also gonna put a single, long raised bed behind it to do asparagus.

I also have some avocado seeds in there - hoping I can get those to come up, and get established so we can plant them somewhere on the property. I'd like to do quite a few fruit trees actually. I should've started them 22 years ago when we moved out here, but clearly I'm an idiot.

 

[D.T.]

@ssledoux Oh, yeah, that sounds fantastic. Fresh salad produce is so fun, walk out, pick, straight into a bowl (well, maybe a little wash ...), and I'm a nut for collard greens.

We had an orange tree that every other year produced insane amounts of fruit, er, the story behind it is kind of sad, and at any rate, it got creamed by the last flood / hurricane a few years back. We've been thinking about a lime or lemon tree since we consume a ton for drinks. Some friends have an avocado, another favorite of ours, what is does produce is amazing, but even at the size it is, it's pretty low volume (we have a big guac party when it really puts out the 'cados )

I hear you about starting thing back when, well, better late than never.

 

[ssledoux]

@ssledoux Oh, yeah, that sounds fantastic. Fresh salad produce is so fun, walk out, pick, straight into a bowl (well, maybe a little wash ...), and I'm a nut for collard greens.

We had an orange tree that every other year produced insane amounts of fruit, er, the story behind it is kind of sad, and at any rate, it got creamed by the last flood / hurricane a few years back. We've been thinking about a lime or lemon tree since we consume a ton for drinks. Some friends have an avocado, another favorite of ours, what is does produce is amazing, but even at the size it is, it's pretty low volume (we have a big guac party when it really puts out the 'cados )

I hear you about starting thing back when, well, better late than never.

I swear guacamole is my favorite food group. ;-p

I did have a Meyer lemon that produced some giant lemons a couple years then it just died. It was weird, but we use tons of lemons/limes here as well, so I really need to at least get a couple of those - they can live in big containers if needed.

We put a few fruit trees out, and one of our pears produced fruit once, but never has again. We didn't really know what we were doing. I just need to do a little orchard area where my goat can't access it. I also need to get some blue and blackberry bushes going somewhere. There is nothing like picking something and eating it fresh off the tree/bush/plant/whatever. I think all this business with the virus and stuff has me back to wanting to be more self-reliant. We did that back when our kids were younger; garden, dairy goats, chickens, etc., but kind of ditched it as they got older. We should've never stopped.

 

[LizKat]

1. Collapsible plastic or canvas storage crates, I use them when selecting fabrics for a project from larger bins in racks upstairs where the main fabric inventory lives. The crates come down to studio and get stashed under worktable while I piece out the project and then trim the leftovers into strips or squares for scrap use later. Then when I don't want the crate any more it collapses and sits in a stack of them under that table until I take a bunch back upstairs in a big totebag once in awhile. Mine are Italian and came in bright primary colors. Love 'em!

2. magnetic pickup tool, yeah. In a sewing studio, absolutely. Otherwise always going to wonder if it's safe to walk in there in my stocking feet.

3. Poor man's version of "design walls": various lengths of 1x4" trimboard type cuts of pine, placed horizontally on the sheetrock about 18" down from the ceiling and screwed into the studs. I have these on some walls in a few of the rooms in my house. They hold large sheets of flannel batting tacked onto them, hanging down to about 2' from floor. The fuzzy flannel grabs the fabric of the cut pieces of cotton or the pieced quilt blocks I press against it, so I don't have to bother with pins to hold them there. Big time saver, and lets me ensure I have block components arranged properly, or that I like the arrangement of blocks before I sew them together when working on larger projects. When the flannel gets old I take it down and cut it to size for the inside batting of little kitty quilts made from scraps for shelter animals.

 

[Gutwrench]

2. magnetic pickup tool, yeah. In a sewing studio, absolutely. Otherwise always going to wonder if it's safe to walk in there in my stocking feet.

3. ...kitty quilts...

👍 👍

 

[xraydoc]

1. Peloton bike — had it about 15 months now. Ran my first 5K in December with a time of 38 min 23 sec. Before the bike, I couldn’t run to the mailbox.

2. Apple Watch — helped tremendously with the above.

3. Chevy Volt — love it. Virtually never need to buy gas. Gets approx. 50 miles per charge (plus another 350 miles on 8.9 gallons of gas) and I live less than 3 miles from work. And the solar panels on the roof of my house makes it even greener. Wife drives a Volt, too.

 

[LizKat]

There is nothing like picking something and eating it fresh off the tree/bush/plant/whatever.

Oh yeah. But here always a contest between who notices first that it's harvest time... the birds or the humans. I'm willing to share, or so the rascals usually manage to inform me in leaving a few treasures behind when I forget to keep track every day as the fruit ripens. It's a kick watching an oriole sample a cherry and then shake its head, like "ughhh, not quite there yet!"

Once in awhile a bear ventures down off the ridge behind my meadow so I don't keep the berry bushes anywhere near as close to hand as I used to do.