Are there any household gadgets you found unexpectedly useful after you'd gotten them?
Are there any household gadgets you found unexpectedly useful after you'd gotten them?
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?
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 got a set of metal picks from Harbor Freight for like 3 bucks. They're similar to the pick tool that a dental hygienist uses. I use these things nearly every day to scrape stuff out of a crevice, retrieve something out of a narrow hole, pull stuff out of a tube or straw, precision clean corners of things, etc. I love them.
The idea of getting something before I know its usefulness confuses me. Do you mean finding that something is more useful than you expected?
If that's the case, I once had an alarm clock which curiously had a thermometer in it to measure the temperature in the room. I was able to use it - for years - to hold my landlord to account for being shitty on the heat during the winter.
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.
Bamboo tongs for taking hot things out of the toaster. They even have magnet built into the handle so I just stick it on the side of my fridge when not in use.
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.
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.
A good pair of titanium scissors. They aren't very expensive, but cut things far better than cheap scissors. They last a lot longer, too; I've had mine for a few years, and they're still sharp enough to cut my skin if I get a little carefree. I got a two-pack and keep a pair with my lunch box for foodstuffs I need to open at work. I even carried a pair around at work for a while when I needed them to cut zip ties, shrink wrap, and banding.
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.
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.
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.
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
One of the breville milk frothers: https://www.seriouseats.com/best-milk-frothers-5189329
It's paid for itself since I make my own chai latte's at home every morning. Impulse purchase that I've used every day for years.
Laser thermometer. It makes cooking things at really specific temperatures a lot easier.
Some long-handle sundae spoons. They're incredibly useful for getting to the bottom of a deep jar or yogurt tub.
Collapsible screw-together travel chopsticks. They take up virtually no space, come with their own holder so they stay clean, and you've always got some nice chopsticks to eat with.
Blue painter's tape. You can label anything (especially stuff that's going into the freezer), and it'll peel off again without leaving any residue.
Beaded reusable cable ties. It's always nice to be able to tie up a power cord.
A nice headlamp. It's really nice to be able to put on a headlamp and have your hands free when you're doing stuff outside at night. Fair warning: you may fall down a nice flashlight rabbit hole.
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.
Jarkey: https://www.amazon.com/JarKey-Jar-Opener-Original-Solid/dp/B01MSLKIVB/
and
Jar opener: https://www.amazon.com/Suffering-Arthritis-Strength-Non-Slip-Heavy-Duty/dp/B07QVWJ6VN/
Handy to open tightly sealed jars. However, both snapped off after years of use, and this reminds me I should really get a replacement.
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.
We have a pretty nice Cuisinart air fryer/toaster oven (model is TOA-70 I think), and it is the best. I basically use the "real" oven only for proper baking (very rare) and larger frozen stuff (still fairly rare). All leftovers and "heat and eat" stuff goes into the toaster oven. I also use it for toasting, just to keep the popup toaster off the counter, and as an air fryer I like the results from its tray-like basket much better than the icy-center foodballs that come from trying to get a reasonable amount into the deep but otherwise tiny baskets of cheaper air fryers.
For an actual junk drawer item, we have a 50-foot reel of twist tie (with a little guillotine cutter) that has proven invaluable for lost twist ties, torn garbage bag pulls, arts & crafts, and even the occasional picture hanging until we got a proper reel of that wire.
Maybe a bit the other way around: I replaced specialized gadgets with a simpler "tool"
Since I switched from "specialized" clips for food bags to simple clothespins, my life is so much easier.
Clothespins are easier to get on food bags and easier to get off.
A meat masher.
I thought it was a dumb gimmick until I used it for a big batch of chili and fell in love.
Seriously. Get one.
Microwave plate cover. Don't have to clean the microwave as often. No wasting saran wrap or trying to use a plate as a cover. I was living with my parents a long time ago when I first heard about these and had to get one. My Dad made fun of it at first but he then admitted how useful it was.