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What everyday things can you replace with a higher-quality alternative?
Some normal everyday things have "premium" alternatives which are more high-quality and pleasant to use. Some examples of what I mean
Ballpoint pens -> Fountain pens
Cartridge razor -> Double edge razor
Nespresso -> Brewing coffee
Membrane keyboards -> Mechanical keyboards
Those things can be overkill, but if it's something that you use often, it can become a great investment.
What other similar improvements have you found?
Replacing the casters on your office chair with rollerblade casters is good, super low friction for moving and MUCH less destructive on hard floors.
Similarly, if you're using a chair on carpet and have some basic tools, skip the overpriced and poor functioning sheet of plastic to protect the carpet. Go to the hardware store and get a sheet of hardwood plywood and some stain. You can usually get a 4' x 8' sheet, 1/2" thick for around $45, and the store will usually cut it down to your size requirement for you. Then sand the corners down and stain it whatever color you like.
I've had mine under my chair for 4 years of working from home and it still looks basically brand new. It's also a lot more attractive than a generic sheet of dented and warped plastic.
I splurged and bought a glass one. Plywood was one idea, but I felt that the splinters would tear up my feet/socks.
Once sanded and stained splinters really shouldn't be any more of an issue than they are with any other wood floor. I do like the idea of glass so you can still see the carpet though.
That's where getting hardwood plywood specifically comes in. The surfaces are sheets of hardwood (usually oak or maple) that's smooth enough that you could use it for cabinetry. A bit of sanding on the freshly cut corners and there will be no splinters.
You mean you bought a glass office floor mat? How thick is it and how durable is it? And where did you buy it if you don't mind me asking?
I've gone through about 4 or 5 different plastic mats and they all seem to have the same problem, they all slowly indent where the wheels are.
Not sure if tildes is cool with direct links, but I bought it off of wayfair for about $150. It’s 46” x 55” x 0.2” tempered glass. I have it on pile carpet, not super flat office carpet. It’s been great, my only issue is that it can slide a bit on the carpet over time but I could probably put some rubber stoppers on the bottom to mitigate it.
It would be great to get a direct link.
Here you go, looks like it’s supposed to include 4 anti slip pads but I didn’t get them with mine.
https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/beautypeak-tempered-glass-chair-mat-for-hardwood-floor-clear-tempered-glass-with-4-anti-slip-pads-office-chair-mats-for-carpeted-floor-chair-mat-for-hardwood-floor-desk-chair-mat-baug1002.html?piid=87058813%2C87058815
Thanks for sharing. It's actually surprisingly affordable. When I first saw your original comment over the weekend, I called a couple of shops near me to see how much they'd charge for a slab of glass that I could use for this purpose and the cheapest one I found was $320.
+1 for glass deskchair mats - I've got a buddy who swears by his (and has for years)
Yes... I will never again use normal caster-wheels on my office chairs. I bought these for myself and multiple family members last year. They are so much more pleasant to roll around in. Highly recommend.
You will find yourself not being able to keep your chair still because this type of casters is so easy to roll. If i remember correctly they are also higher than normal casters and might make your chair unstable if you lean back. Overall they look cool but in practice you would get much better results of buying high quality rubberized casters. Never tried them personally but this is what I read when I heard about them for the first time.
I had the same concerns but honestly that did not come to pass! The chair stays in place even when I lean back and it still takes effort to move, though once it is moving it stays moving much more easily.
I’m glad that it’s not a concern for you, but still people with laminate floors should consider how easy these casters going to roll
Ok, I had to google it because English isn't my mother tongue but it turns out that's the kind of floors I have. The cheap casters scuffed a portion of the floor, the rollerblade wheel casters did not make it worse!
The height can be an issue if it makes the chair too high to comfortably work with your desk, but the accidental rolling, at least for me, is a non-issue.
I meant not rolling but tipping and falling because of increased height
I'm not sure it's going to shift the centre of gravity enough to affect that.
If you have a chair with this type of casters you can just try leaning all the way back while sticking your legs all the way forward. Even if it doesn’t fall after your test, it doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t happen for someone else with a different chair.
For some reason none of the high end chairs use these. Probably because the casters that they put on their chairs aren’t just plastic.
Office chairs, in general, are pretty well balanced due to the design of the feet and the supports. I just tried the lean-back test and the chair did not even threaten to tip.
High end chairs don't use these because, as you correctly pointed out, they use the more expensive rubber casters. And sometimes, they even use the plastic ones. (Mom had a 2k office chair with those. It had massage functions.) I suppose it's because they are probably easier to standardize and because they are how people probably expect office chair wheels to look like.
My chair had the rubberized caster option which I took. It was worth it.
can confirm - I had a set of rollerblades on my home office chair on (probably asbestos) tiles common for the era my house's basement was finished out. Every time I got into my office, I had to pull the chair across the room and back to the desk. Lasted about 2 days. I'm excited about the rubberized casters - thanks!
And this has been bookmarked. OMG.
This is something I didn't know I needed, and when I am in the market for a new work chair (which will hopefully be soon since the one I currently have makes my back hurt but I can't use it right now because my office is packed), I'm going to get these.
Not as big of an upgrade as the casters in the first place, but there are also ones that have brakes on them, which I wish I had bought first. They're not too much more expensive and being able to make the chair stop rolling is very useful sometimes.
Seconding this! IMO rollerblade casters are also essential if you have pets, since they don't get clogged up with hair (or string strands from rope toys) like those cheap, standard office chair casters do.
I bought some of these a couple of years ago and had high hopes, but the thing that drove me crazy about them is that they wouldn't change direction smoothly. For example, if I was sitting in my chair and rolled to the left there would be a very noticeable jerkiness if I then rolled to the right because the wheels all had to reorient themselves to the new direction. This was all on hardwood, for what it's worth. I'm not sure if it was the specific wheels I bought, but it definitely turned me off of the concept and I went back to my normal casters.
YES! Every time I remember I evangelize about this. It's incredibly life-changing. Especially if you have pets. No longer will your wheels drag, get stuck, pinch your pets or get absolutely clogged with fur! Your floors will not be scuffed! Your rugs/carpets won't bunch up! It's a miracle!
I've heard that the rollerblade-style casters are nicer to move around on, but that they are not always compatible with the socket on the chair leg. The centre of the rollerblade wheel is further from the shank up above, which therefore acts as a stronger lever and can break the socket/plug section on the chair. It's probably more of an issue towards the bottom of the market where the sockets are flimsy plastic, but it's worth searching online to see if others have done the hack and found your particular chair wanting.
A guy at works has a metal straw. He brings it when we go out to eat lunch or for coffee.
He never has to deal with a soggy paper straw. Says it's extremely easy to wash because it came with a pipe cleaner and is dishwasher safe.
On the other hand, he brings a metal straw around.
A mirrorless camera over a phone.
Waterproof dress shoes, running shoes and the like.
Well made clothes last way longer than cheap ones, even for things like t-shirts. (Many branded clothes aren't well made.)
A computer mouse that suits your hand.
An adjustable standing desk to avoid static positions for a lot of time.
Paying for ad-free services is so worth the time/distraction saved, if money isn't super tight.
Good knives in the kitchen, both for prep and eating.
I can't stress enough how much better your kitchen experience will be if you invest in good (not necessarily expensive, but good quality) knives and take care of them by handwashing them and making sure you sharpen them as necessary. They will outlast you, and they're going to be more likely safer than anything you can buy for cheap like the cuisinart rainbow sets (I have them, and I have a really nice Global chef's knife (it's the only knife I use except for a serrated knife for tomatoes and bread).
I have decent Wüsthofs but sharpening is where this falls apart for me. The professional options in my area are sparse and costly, but doing it properly myself also seems like a big time and money investment. Do you have your own sharpening kit?
I went down a knife sharpening rabbit hole last spring, I even bought a cheap knife to practice on.
Ended up getting a couple of waterstones - whetstones that you soak in water before using. I watched a bunch of sharpening videos, then gave it a try. It’s a bit time consuming, but not hard to do. I did ok with the practice knife, so I tried a very beat up knife next. I’m sure a professional could do a far better job and do it faster, but all of my knives are all sharp now, even the beat up one that I thought I would have to throw out.
It’s kind of relaxing.
Use a sharpening steel at least once a week and you won't need to sharpen very often. I don't think I've sharpened my knives in over a year and they are still razor sharp (and
I am just using Ikea knives) https://a.co/d/cLFi9mm
If you get a ceramic rod instead of a steel one, that's enough to keep soft-ish (so normal German) steel sharp permanently, without the need for other sharpening.
Ace hardware has an automatic machine thatbseems to work well. $8 I think.
I use the little hand held thing that has two ceramic discs next to each other. Recommended by cutco, works well enough for me.
My approach was to buy a cheap knife + a general purpose sharpening stone from a hardware store (something like this) simply to learn the motions. I wouldn't use that on expensive knives or tools; even the fine side is a really rough grit. But, it was a very low-cost, low-barrier way to help me feel comfortable with sharpening motions and I used it for years tbh.
I've since moved on to nicer knives and a waterstone for sharpening, but still have kept my costs down by buying only a single 1000-grit stone (and a cheaper releveling tool). It does a good enough job to cleanly slice tomatoes without needing a serrated knife, so I'm happy.
I feel like knife sharpening is one of those skills that has a big commitment difference between good enough and perfect. I genuinely don't care about being able to sharpen to a point of slicing paper or any of the other internet show-off tricks of 'perfection'. I just want to spend the least amount of time possible to allow me to easily slice and dice food.
You can get some decent whetstones for a total of maybe $50. You only really need a 1000 grit stone to get sharp enough. You can go nuts with a higher grit stone, but that's really only for knife nerds to see how sharp they can go for its own sake. There's a bit of a learning curve, but I stopped worrying so much about that when I saw how many different techniques there were and decided it must not matter all that much.
Alternately, if you use a honing steel and especially a leather strop, you can go long enough between sharpens that you can probably mail them out for a sharpening service.
I use a very similar sharpener to the below link. Only cost about €15 in a local brick and mortar shop and it's been great. Just need to run the blade through it 3/4 times every few weeks and it's back to it's former glory. Couldn't imagine life without it now, so handy
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lantana-Smart-Sharp-Knife-Sharpener/dp/B010O4OCCS/ref=asc_df_B010O4OCCS/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=232028567160&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11690836133808121309&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007850&hvtargid=pla-494464426055&psc=1
I don't. There's an old Greek guy at my farmer's market every week, and he sharpens knives for $10/knife.
I do have a little hand-held honing tool that helps between sharpening, and I got it on Amazon a long time ago, but you can find similar ones on the site now, just look up knife sharpening and it'll be like a two-stage "sharpener"
It's never occurred to me people could have cheap/bad knives until this comment because my family's always had Cutco knives. It's just always seemed "standard" to me to have a high-quality set of knives. Some of them are older than me, and as far as I remember we've never had to replace any.
A little side-tip that may help people: don't get just one or two good knives, even (or maybe especially) if you're not super into cooking. We have a set of eight different cooking knives with varying sizes and blade types that work for different foods, and that helps keep the edges from getting dull from overuse. We only need to get them sharpened every couple years.
My knife doesn't dull that often, but I am a huge fan of a very sharp blade when I cook. I hone my knife every time I use it, but I'd say I get it sharpened once a year.
having one good chef's knife beats having a whole set of other knives.
and please to anyone reading this NEVER EVER EVER EVER put your knives in the dishwasher or leave them soaking in the sink.
I have a set of decent set of knives that I've inherited from my grandmother. My husband hates how big they are with the whole block, and bugs me to buy a cheap dollar store knife to replace it.
Somewhat ironically, my grandmother was no kitchen nonni and she avoided using most of the knives herself; the one that had the most signs of use at the time I took them was the tiny paring knife.
Adding more irony is that I generally only use the chef's knife. Most of them are meat-specific; a butcher knife, a filleting knife, a slicer for carving roasts, and one of them is actually a serving fork. I don't eat meat, so they're practically useless to me! And even when I did eat meat, I didn't like dealing with butchery or big expensive roasts so I rarely ever used them.
A lot of people these days recommend getting a chef's knife, a paring knife, and maybe a serrated knife for bread. I tend to agree with that.
I second the metal straw - I keep a couple in my truck for if I go through drive thru or something.
I wouldn’t recommend a metal straw. In practice they become hygiene nightmares. It’s incredibly difficult to thoroughly clean them.
I genuinely don't understand that argument against metal straws. IMO they're really not hard to clean thoroughly with the right cleaning tools (which often come with the straws when you buy them, and are super cheap to buy). A reusable water bottle or thermos is a hell of a lot harder to clean, even the widemouthed ones, but weirdly I've never seen people making the hygiene argument against using those. So why are metal straws being singled out? I honestly can't help but feel like it all stems from misinformation campaigns against single-use plastic bans, rather than due to any legitimate hygiene concerns with them.
I do love how everyone is talking about "what about that plastic over there" when they are forced to use shitty decomposing straws.
...that was the exact point of the ban, it affects everyone's life in a very visible way and makes them see every other unnecessary plastic item.
That's a dangerous gamble - there is only so many times you can play the "lets fuck with your day to day making essentially no improvements to teach you to look at things different" before everyone just gives you the middle finger.
That it is, but since the ban I've seen people who just didn't care about the environment start talking about it out loud. "Fuck these cardboard straws, why do I need to suffer this when Company X can keep shoving crap everywhere". Which was exactly the point.
the question is does it turn into pressure on corp x or does it simply turn ppl against the policy makers. In my experience the latter is happening way more than the former.
Yeah, people always pick the path of least resistance. In most cases it's just upholding the status quo, all change is bad.
I'm not sure how convincing it is to push for "environmental regulations" that are only effectively feel-good propaganda. Is anyone pointing this out, who wasn't already in support of further regulations around packaging etc., and who doesn't mean it as a snipe about how pointless "the government" is?
If you're that worried, couldn't you boil them? They're metal.
Hot water, normal washing-up liquid and a straw brush. Takes like 10 seconds to clean it properly.
If you mostly just drink water/sodas (no smoothies or milkshakes) you can get away with just warm water for a while before doing a deep clean.
For those who are concerned about keeping a metal straw clean, a glass straw may be a more suitable option :)
yeah this is what I went with. They're easily cleaned in the dishwasher (or the little pipe-cleaner thing that came with them).
I never looked into the hygiene of cleaning them, but I’m terrified by them just based on the idea of tripping and falling with one in your mouth…
*shudder
This would be solved (somewhat) by making the straw out of sterling silver. It is so little metal that it couldn't be more than a $12 increase material costs...
Are you me? I have sought out all of those things, very nice list.
The old rule of thumb is that spend extra money for everything that's between you and the ground:
We switched to futon mattresses + a natural latex (I think) mattress topper. Felt weird at first but I wouldn't look back.
Same with chairs, working remotely I spend at least 8 hours on mine, usually closer to twelve. Find yourself a cheap 2nd hand premium one from any of the 6 dozen startups that bought their expensive chairs with VC money before they crashed and burned =)
Shoes, multiple. Don't wear the same pair every day, shoes need to "rest". (Basically they need to air out and re-form to their old shape). If you're old(er) like me and don't care about the fanciest sneakers, when you find a comfy pair, buy two. Or three.
I think I need a second couch, because it really seems to need that rest time too. Well, probably more that I need a job and some hobbies to get me out of the house more.
A tip I've heard for chairs: look for gaming chairs, because they're explicitly made for extended sitting sessions and comfort.
Another tip I've heard for everything: ignore "gaming" branded things, because they're marketed to the rich parents of spoiled teens rather than the "prosumer" niche that they purport to exist in.
I have to say, the general wisdom is the opposite: gaming chairs are mostly built off of advertising. If you want comfortable, you should look at high end office chairs.
that feels like it's wrong advice, from what I understand the only good gaming chair is SecretLab, and even then you might as well spend a little more and try and get a refurb/secondhand herman miller or steelcase.
But NOT the cheap ones. I got one without test-sitting it and the hard sides pressed up to my thighs just enough to make my legs go numb...
The real deal is the ones that security guards sit on, the kind that looks at CCTV in 8-12 hour shifts. Those things are like la-z-boys but with better lumbar support :) On the other hand they're prohibitively expensive and rarer than a honest politician to find on the used market.
As far as gaming chairs go, I've heard good things about Secret Labs.
I think they are just different with their own pros and cons. I prefer ballpoint pens for their feel and versatility. I would recommend finding a cartridge and actual pen that is comfortable to use.
I will second what others have said about clothing. I have been wearing a lot of the same shirts, coats, etc. for years, and they are still in great condition and are generally "easy" to repair. In line with that is finding what is comfortable to you, especially shoes!
I switched from ballpoint pens to using a fountain pen, and after a while I've mostly "upgraded further" to gel pens. The act of using a fountain pen can be really pleasing, especially with a deep black ink — it just feels good. But gel pens can also lay down a solid line, while drying faster and working on any paper. Also, I prefer fine tip pens (it feels like I'm taking notes in a higher resolution), and the gel pens I'm using (Uniball Signo) can produce much finer lines than my fountain pen does.
I've heard there are some really good ballpoint pens out there, but most people's experiences are with cheap ballpoints — and because they can be cheap, the free one you got from your bank/hotel/dealership is more likely to be a ballpoint. So if you're switching from that to a fountain pen, you're probably getting an upgrade! But almost anything would have been an upgrade.
I'm not sure what I mostly use is "really good" or not. The cartridge is a Schmidt Easyflow, and it's pretty nice. However, when I was younger I used to draw with cheap BIC pens all the time. Even though they are blotchy and inconsistent (compared to other ballpoints or fountain pens etc.), they have an interesting feel that I have always liked.
How fine of a tip? For years I used something similar to the Signo, and loved the sharp bite, but I stopped using them because I broke them frequently enough that it became a problem :b I have since "repaired" my handwriting, so maybe it wouldn't be an issue anymore.
I'm using a 0.38mm: not the finest tip they offer, but it's up there. They write smoothly enough, and I haven't had any break yet.
As far as ballpoints go, my knowledge is limited to reading JetPens articles, but they describe the Schmidt EasyFlow: "A longtime favorite among the pen enthusiast community, the EasyFlow is hands-down the smoothest, wettest-flowing ballpoint refill around." Personal preference is definitely involved over how wet ballpoint ink ought to be — but it sounds like you found something satisfying!
I didn't know about this site, so thanks for the link! haha
My personal preference is not a well-examined one. I have tried a few other cartridges but I am generally ignorant about what is out there. I think i would enjoy fountain pens too if I could use one consistently for a while.
Yeah, the Schmidt cartridges are very often the favorites of people who've tried every hybrid ballpoint on the market. There are only a few others with a similar balance of smoothness, reliabilitity, consistency, and cleanness: uni-ball Jetstreams are a lot drier, but longer lasting and makes cleaner lines, Pentel EnerGel are in between, and it's been a long time, but if I remember correctly, the Pilot Acroball is a lot like the EnerGel. None of them are as glassy-smooth as the Easyflows, though.
PS: Oops, meant to say this from the start: Bic pens are really beloved in artist communities! Heck, I can't think of another cheap ballpoint that lets you mess around with shading or use the edge of the cup holding the ball to write. That blotching and inconsistency is not terribly hard to manipulate for effect, even if it's counterproductive for writing, so sketch artists will very often stick to, well, Stics.
People get up to some crazy stuff with them!
Sure, that definitely applies to other examples in my list as well, they all have some drawbacks. That said, I hate using pencils with every part of my soul, and the feeling of using a fountain pen is the polar opposite of using a pencil, so I love them.
And I love pencils more than fountain pens, and feel they are just far less of a hassle and mess. To each their own. But saying that one is a "higher quality replacement" just because you prefer the feel doesn't really come across the same as saying "I love fountain pens"
I'd still say that fountain pens are a higher quality replacement for regular cheap ballpoint pens. Of course, if you own a great refillable ballpoint pen, it's also good. If you enjoy pencils more, I'd assume the alternative would be something like mechanical pencils.
In the kitchen, a fast, quality thermometer. Really limits your risk of overcooking or undercooking. https://www.thermoworks.com/thermapen-one/
For anyone finding this later, that company has good sales once in a while.
Does anybody have any recommendations for a high quality brand that does laser thermometers? A fast and reasonably accurate laser thermometer has always been recommended by my favorite Chinese cooking channel but I hate researching options for purchases like these myself.
A bought a random no-name one from Aliexpress from and it has been a reliable instant oil indicator and cat toy for 5 years now. I guess the electronics behind it is well commoditized now.
Nitpick: it's an IR thermometer; it could function without laser (whose there only to tell you were you're pointing).
They're all literally instant from what I've seen. Couldn't tell you about accuracy though.
ETI (the company that makes Thermapen probe thermometers) also does the RayTemp range - the spec for the RayTemp Mini is ±2°C up to 330°C, which should be more than good enough for anything you’re likely to use it for in the kitchen and costs about £40 (~$50), although they do also sell more expensive ones if you need to keep that accuracy while you’re measuring molten steel or anything like that!
Their main customers are lab / commercial / industrial users, so those specs tend to actually mean what they say, too.
ooh yeah damn that's definitely more than sufficient for my use case, I'll check them out. Even a much shittier version would probably be a marginal improvement on the "stick a chopstick in the oil and see if it bubbles" method
But why buy an expensive one over a cheap digital one?
Speed, accuracy, and precision - they’re made from high quality materials and individually calibrated, rather than just rolling off a line with no real indication of how close the readout is to reality or even what the margin of error theoretically should be.
On an entirely anecdotal level, I’ve also found Thermapen specifically to have exceptional customer service and really stand behind their products. I’ve got a lot of respect for any brand that prioritises actual product quality.
I actually bought a thermopen recently for cooking. I had a cheap meat thermometer from Amazon that I used to use, but it would take a minute or more to settle on a temperature.
The thermopen settles on an accurate temperature in probably 2-3 seconds. Even going from a pot of ice water, to a pan of hot oil.
cheaper ones tend to take 5-10 seconds to give you the reading. who wants to wait so long for a temp?
I also love how I can spend ~5 seconds checking multiple different depths and areas of the meat I'm cooking. Sometimes you stab too shallow or too deep into the food to get the lowest temperature you're looking for to verify food safety, a normal thermometer takes too long to adjust to move around quickly and would take me ~45 seconds to do the same task.
Belt. A leather belt. Make sure it says Full Grain Leather or it isn’t.
A bicycle that isn’t the cheapest but is at the top of your budget. You can spend an infinite amount on bikes but there’s a sweet spot where you’re spending a lot and it’s worth it.
Pay to remove ads from apps you use the most. Use the money you get from Google’s Opinion Rewards app.
On that note, use NextDNS to block ads on the DNS level. It’s not perfect but it’s pretty good.
You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time. Spend money to save time. House cleaners, grocery delivery, washer/dryer combo, tax preparation, etc
I stopped buying leather belts entirely after giving a nylon webbing belt a try and falling in love with it. IMO webbing is superior to leather in almost every respect, and there's good reason so many militaries use them instead of leather nowadays; They're a hell of a lot cheaper than a full-grain leather belt, just as durable (if not moreso), and unlike most leather belts the buckle can easily be swapped/replaced.
A few years back I bought a cheap stretchy woven belt at Walmart as an emergency replacement for a belt that broke on my vacation. It changed my mind on belts altogether. Leather ones tend to be too rigid so they have to be tight to work properly on my body, and that makes them get uncomfortable fast. But because the belt I bought was flexible it didn’t have any of those problems. It just works. It’s got just the right amount of flexibility that I could take my pants off without unbuckling it if I needed to, yet it still manages to keep my pants securely on my waist.
Yeah, I do a lot of landscaping work, and leather belts were always incredibly uncomfortable to wear when doing those kind of tasks. They have to be tight to work properly on me too, but as a result would often dig into my gut or hip every time I bent or leaned over (which I do a lot of while landscaping). So I would buy these cheaper, thinner/narrower leather belts for working that didn't dig into me as badly, but then those would often fall apart or snap after less than a year.
But nylon webbing is super thin, flexible, and has a tiny bit of stretch as well, so it's much more comfortable than leather, especially when doing manual labor. And I'm going on 4 years now using the same webbing belt for outdoor work, and it's still in decent condition. The buckle is bit banged up, but still fully functional. And I can always replace it if it gets too banged up or breaks eventually. So all of that is why I don't think I will ever go back to leather belts.
In addition to nylon I've become a big fan of... ammo belts? Not sure what to call them. Like this, where the length is adjustable but unless you gain/lose a lot of weight you just set it and forget it and then there's just a latch for the belt. I like it a lot better than traditional belt buckles and having to do something with the leftover flap of belt.
That's still a nylon webbing belt, AFAICT, but just one with a V-buckle on it. I have a similar-ish belt that I use when landscaping that has a "tactical" buckle, which can be used as set & forget as well since it has a quick-release that separates the two halves. But it's super easy to adjust the tightness on-the-fly too. I just pull back the locking mechanism latch, pull the webbing tighter, and then re-latch it. Great for manual labour, since some tasks require my belt being tighter, but I can loosen it up immediately afterwards... or even completely release the two halves for more comfort when I am sitting down. :)
I have been using the same Patagonia belt for the past 12 years. Definitely a good use of probably $20 at the time.
They look horrible
I think this is not necessarily the case for many high-end craftspeople, at least on the English market, especially if they are specifying something more specific, like bridle leather.
Or, if you're in a light tinkering mood, Raspberry Pis are coming down in price, and a pihole is a fun day project.
There's also a number of other SBCs available as better alternatives to raspberry pi.
Define "better" - raspberry pis are generally 'better' because they're more widely used and therefore easier to find documentation for; there are cheaper options, and there are more performant options, but neither of those is necessarily useful if you want something that Just Works.
Pihole is fun, but if you have internet that is faster than 1gbps down you are bottlenecked by the NIC on the Pi.
Unless you’re doing something fairly unusual with the setup it’s just the DNS requests going via Pihole, not all of the traffic - bandwidth requirements there should be minimal even for a very fast connection.
Which is it?
How, pray, do I do that?
Theoretically
Toothbrush --> electric toothbrush. (Better for your teeth in most cases!)
Any blender --> Vitamix (in all likelihood the blender is the difference between cafe-quality smoothies and whatever you're making at home. Ditto for silky-smooth soups.)
Bowl-shaped measuring spoons --> fancy ones designed to fit in spice jars.
If you cut hair/beards: clippers you get at target --> professional clippers. I like Andis.
Interesting, for some reason I always thought that electric toothbrushes are just a marketing gimmick, didn't know they are actually better.
Also, isn't their pricing also based on the razor-and-blades/printer-and-ink model, where you have to constantly buy overpriced brush head replacements?
I’ve been meaning to buy an electric toothbrush for months and keep getting hit by choice paralysis when I go to look. I’ve heard a few times that Sonicare are standout, then seen Oral B do very well in review comparisons, then seen the huge range of options and price points even within each of those two brands, and then put the whole question aside to investigate later about six times now!
Very interested to know if you (or anyone else - @R3qn65, perhaps?) has specific recommendations of what to look for or avoid, and/or why you chose the model you did. In the spirit of the thread this is something I’m very willing to spend on - it’s health related and used twice every day, pretty much as good an investment as I can think of - but I don’t want to just assume more expensive is better and end up spending on flashy bullshit or unnecessary app controls only to get worse actual product quality, which I know is something that happens a lot in product categories I’m more familiar with.
Vibrations per minute really doesn’t mean anything, though. How much force does that mean? How much friction results from it? What distance does the brush move in that vibration? Electric toothbrushes work because they assist with brushing, so these are legitimately important questions to ask. And zero manufacturers will actually answer those questions.
I think I have a sonicare and I got that one because it was on sale at Costco. I think I paid ~30 for it?
You definitely don't need an app. Mine doesn't have any sort of weird wireless functionality; it's just a toothbrush :)
Good to know, thanks - and yeah, very much my intention to avoid connectivity on things that really, really shouldn’t need it!
Of all the dentists I have talked to, absolutely none of them have specifically recommended Sonicare. They just say “any electric toothbrush”. So just get whichever is most convenient for you.
Mine did! However, the general consensus seems to be that the best toothbrush is the one you’ll use.
I got an upper midrange Sonicare. When I moved I misplaced the charging base for a while, so I got an Oral B both because it was fairly cheap and because I was curious about the difference.
The Oral B was not what I expected. The round heads don’t spin, they just vibrate. My teeth didn’t feel as clean as I’d become accustomed to with the Sonicare.
What I’ve learned:
I highly recommend the basic Philips One Sonicare rechargeable travel toothbrush. It's light, easy to maneuver, the timer buzzes are helpful, the head shape is comfortable, and it lasts for over a week on a single charge (with any USB-C cable). [I've got bad arthritis in my hands, wrists, jaw, etc., and this is the only toothbrush I've had no discomfort with in daily use. YMMV.]
I love Philips electric toothbrushes. Biggest issue for me is that battery is not replaceable. Each one died in a year or after 1.5 of years unfortunately. So I moved to cheap and not so good toothbrush with replaceable batteries.
The Sonicares were so much better twenty years ago when they had the huge, bulky heads.
If you're still looking around for this, the New York Times Wirecutter has recommendations here that are probably worth a look.
Yeah it's weird, right? My dentist recommended I get one because I was brushing too hard and it was making my gums recede. No problems since.
And sort of. I replace the brush head every few months, and you can get a multi-pack for like... €15. So yes, but also it's not even close to the same scale as razors.
I don't believe they're a marketing gimmick, but I don't believe they are actually better either. I think a big part of why they are helpful is that many people just suck at brushing their teeth, whether they don't move the toothbrush enough or they press too hard. I have been using the same four pack of bamboo toothbrushes with charcoal bristles (ultra soft) for the past four or five years. The only dentist visit I've had in that time where I wasn't complimented (despite certainly not flossing enough) was the one after I was given an electric toothbrush for Christmas. I switched back immediately. The bristles on the toothbrush that I'm using these days aren't even frayed.
My dentist usually asks if I have one that warns you if you use too much pressure. I guess that’s the main benefit. The brush heads are definitely expensive, but I find the 3rd party knockoffs work just as well.
the purple magnetic guards from Andis are great. I use them on my zero-gapped Oster fast-feed :)
I've upgraded my backpack to an Osprey and I'm very pleased with the carry, organization, and a very good warranty that should come in handy if I need it.
I'll add to the coffee conversation - a good grinder is the key piece of equipment for a good brewing setup. Spend ~80% of the total cost on your grinder!
Got a baratza encore, it works pretty well. I only wish it sounded more premium. It’s not the worst, but not the best sound early in the morning.
The exact model I have. Mmmmm this echo chamber is cozy 😂
I have thought about getting an Osprey due to my backpack wearing out. However, I am torn on buying an expensive backpack with a zipper as I feel like a zipper is just a failure point. I ended up being given a backpack for free which has worked great. What has your perspective been? Do you have zipper anxiety?
I don't, but that is a reasonable argument. The zippers are very durable, and they likely will fail eventually, but I think they'll last a very long time. My Manta 34 was used very heavily for a few days years and I can notice essentially no wear on any of the parts. I just got another bag and I feel like the construction is the same, if not better. I've looked at other bags and I just can't see myself getting anything else.
I have a Bellroy backpack and I really like it, except for the fact that the straps are somewhat loose and you have to adjust them sometimes, which is a pretty annoying thing for a €219 backpack, but everything else has been great.
Speaking of coffee - I wrote that in the list, but I don't actually brew my own coffee yet, although I'm planning to. What would you say is a good place to start? I've heard many people suggest starting with a french press, but I've never tried press coffee and I've heard from other people that it doesn't taste that good. Is that not true?
I prefer press coffee, but taste is highly subjective. With a press setup you can adjust for many thing to get your coffee as you prefer - grind, water temperature, extraction, brew time, etc. and of course buying beans that suit your taste helps. I'm by no means a pro, and this is one of many endless rabbit holes. You can go DEEP on coffee if you so choose. Enjoy your journey, I hope you find your white rabbit!
Okay, so I have no idea why I haven't thought of this before, but right now I just ... went to a nearby coffee shop and tried a filter coffee. I liked it. I guess I will get a french press than. Thanks for your advice!
I'm a bit of a coffee nerd, so if I may, I'll offer some advice. I started with an Encore and a French press and made some pretty tasty coffee that was always better than whatever I could get at work (generally K cups or similar). I highly, highly recommend getting a quality scale that can measure to 0.1g. You can use a kitchen scale if you have one already, but they generally don't get that precise. (Here's what I have).
If you liked filter coffee, I actually recommend going for a cheap V60 brewer rather than the French press - you can get a cheap plastic brewer that generally runs you less than $15 on Amazon (or you might be able to buy one at a local cafe, I know my local spot sells them). Paper filters are also incredibly cheap. A nice pouring kettle will also make your life a lot easier (but you'd want that for the French press as well). The reason I recommend this is because French presses make very different coffee than a filter brew. French press coffee generally has more sediment because the liquid hasn't been filtered through the incredibly fine weave of the paper filters - the metal mesh simply lets more particulate though. That's not to say that French press is bad - French press coffee can be delicious, you'll just get a "siltier" cup, which can often mean different flavors come though in the cup (both good and bad!).
The best way to find out what you like is to brew a bunch of coffee and just experiment! Nowadays, about 8 years into brewing good coffee, I grind on a Niche Zero and brew V60s and espresso with my (modded) Gaggia Classic Pro.
James Hoffman is a great resource for brewing wonderful coffee. Here's some good technique videos:
Good luck, and have fun!
Oh, sorry, I meant to say press coffee. Or, at least, I think so? Because it was called "press coffee" on the menu, but it seems like they made it with an automatic drip machine.
Thanks a lot for your advice though!
One can only assume they call it that because they press the “on” button.
Coffee made with a french press is filter coffee. The distinction is vs pressurized brewing methods like most notably espresso (but also things like a moka pot). I don't think "press coffee" is really a term. V60, french press, drip machines are all filter coffee. Aeropress is in the middle.
Filter coffee almost always refers to paper-filtered brewing, in my experience. I'm not sure why a french press and a drip machine would be in the same category, separate from an aeropress. French press brewing consists of nearly 100% immersion, drip machine brewing consists majorly of percolation, and an aeropress brew is somewhere between them, depending on technique, but usually closer to a french press. In what sense is a french press screen more of a filter than a portafilter or mokapot screen?
Hmm, now that I think of it, maybe the menu did say "filter coffee" and I just confused the words? I forgot already.
My pleasure! Enjoy the morning routine :)
get a decent hand grinder, an aeropress, and a small drug scale. If you don't want to fuck with grinding, get it ground at a shop -- but make sure you're buying locally roasted beans and not some old trash from a supermarket.
Watch some James Hoffman's videos and also check out the coffee compasss
The Aeropress is incredibly forgiving and gives a really nice, clean cup. If you want a little more body to it, you can get a mesh filter to let the oils through.
French press is alright, but not pressing is better. For me, I go between the aeropress and this weird metal filter method that works well for some beans.
If you would like to really get into coffee the number one thing would be to get a bunch of single origin beans from different countries and try them. Decent roasters have taster packs where you can get 3-5 cups each of about 5 different beans for pretty cheap (<£/$/25).
Grind them yourself and try to pick out the textures and taste notes.
You should find central & south american beans like a colombian or costa rican, or Honduran bean, are more chocolatey, and african (Ethiopian / Ugandan etc.) beans are more fruity and have citrus and berry notes. You can even get some delicate roasts that are almost like teas.
Next try to experiment with the different beans, and different grind settings to see how that impacts the mouth-feel and taste.
Personally I love a medium-fine ground south american medium roast, that's nutty and chocolatey, brewed with a french press, and enough fines that the mouth feel is velvety smooth.
*(You can technically get many different flavour profiles from the same country but those I mentioned above are fairly stereotypical of the average beans. But you can find chocolatey African beans, and fruity south american beans, of course!)
I’m a bit into the journey for good coffee but still super newbie — I’ve heard French press is a great starting point because it’s relatively forgiving and there aren’t as many things that can go wrong.
If you’re looking for a good starting point, I strongly recommend James Hoffman’s French Press video (https://youtu.be/st571DYYTR8), he goes into plenty of detail without being overwhelming, and I’ve used his method countless times now and it’s always been an excellent brew!
My suggestions for people who are interested in brewing coffee for the first time is to ignore the coffee snobs and do whatever is easiest to get started.
The easiest and cheapest way to make coffee is the pourover method. There are a bunch of pourover coffee makers on the market, and the one I have used the most cost me a bank-crashing $1.50. A pack of 100 filters threw me back another $1.50. You put the coffee maker over your mug, place a filter in it, toss in your coffee grinds, and then pour over some hot water. It practically makes itself. And once you've made your first few cups you can start experimenting with differing amounts of coffee, water, temperatures, and techniques. And when you get tired and want to try something else, then you just move on to another method.
The absolute easiest way to brew coffee, though, is to simply buy a machine to do it for you. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for drinking machine-made coffee. The downside to machine coffee is that most machines will do things the same way every time so if it makes bad coffee, it will probably always make bad coffee.
On backpacks, I've got the Wisport Sparrow and it's bloody excellent. Molle in every direction to attach whatever I need and is veritably bombproof. Mines easily done 20K miles on my back whilst I ride my motorbike and it's fine.
Pricey, but worth it.
I second this. I've had mine for going on 15 years. I pack that thing to the brim. It's taken a beating and it still holds up perfectly!
back in grade school (circa mid-80s) I went through 3-5 of those cheapo backpacks from Walmart's back-to-school aisle every year. Then around 7th grade I received a ?$40? well made back pack from a local high end backpacking store, and ~40 years later, I've still got that same back pack. Made it through high school, college and my first couple jobs (it has these nifty pockets where you can tuck away the back pack straps and carry it like a briefcase) as a daily driver. Other than a few stains it's still just as good as it was the day I unwrapped it.
If you put a lot of soft spreads on stuff - butter on your toast, Mayo on your sandwiches, that sort of thing - get yourself a mini offset spatula. You wouldn't believe the difference it makes in your spreading experience.
What does this replace?
I'm guessing the spoon or butter knife people use
bingo.
Keeping with the kitchen theme, I splurge on certain high-end foods. I'll happily pay $50 for a bottle of good balsamic vinegar or $12 for a little container of Fleur de Sel. I can't do this all the time for every ingredient or I'd eat myself bankrupt, but there's always something in my fridge that I could have paid a tenth of the price for a lesser version of.
Collapsible travel chopsticks can replace a lifetime of carryout plastic cutlery and disposable bamboo. They're compact enough for EDC, and I've never had any airport security troubles with them. I've been using the same set for at least 10 years; I think they cost about $8 back then. You can get very fancy $40 threaded titanium ones, or much cheaper wood or stainless steel.
There are nice travel kits with collapsible multipart Western cutlery plus chopsticks as well, but they're less easily portable for daily use, have more parts that can get lost, and probably won't go through a security check.
I’ve got a pair of chopsticks that come in two pieces that can be recombined with fork and spoon pieces. It cost $1.50. I use them all the time.
I would recommend spending more money on quality ones though. The ones I bought are made from very brittle plastic so I have had to repair them a few times.
I saw these recently and was thinking of raising my game, but they're much heavier and there are more pieces to lose. Some overzealous TSA agent will definitely give me a hard time because I could conceivably weaponize the 3 cm blade, and would probably confiscate the whole kit.
The simplicity of collapsible chopsticks with wooden tips that slide into the metal handles is part of the utility. It's hard to lose track of the parts. They weigh only a few grams so I can always have them along without thinking about it. I can wash the fabric wrapper easily. No puffed up TSA thug has yet claimed I could take over an aircraft with them... and you'd be amazed what they'll confiscate from a vaguely ethnic looking person with a non-Anglo name.
How often do you eat Asian food that you need to carry chopsticks with you?
You don't have to eat Asian food with chopsticks. I eat most things with chopsticks, they're just a particularly flexible utensil if you have the dexterity for it.
I see. While I can eat stuff like sushi with chopsticks, I always have a lot of trouble with using them for other food. For example, I never managed to eat noodles with chopsticks, and always eat them with a fork. Do you have any chopstick tips?
I was in Chiba once for work and eating curry for breakfast at my hotel. I was having trouble procuring a bite with the chopsticks and bringing it up to my mouth from the table without dropping it back into the bowl.
I look around to see if any of the locals are witnessing my shame. A businessman nearby is looking at me with his curry bowl in one hand, and his chopsticks in the other. He gives me a knowing smile, and then holds the bowl like 6 inches from his face, and just starts shoveling his food into his mouth.
You are probably trying too hard to eat politely with your chopsticks. Be that businessman. Bowl in one hand. Chopsticks in the other. Eat like Goku. Lean over your bowl and have your face hole meet your food halfway like the wild animal you are.
There are times to eat politely, but it's not very often. Eat like that businessman, and you will be better at chopsticks in no time. Don't think about it too hard. It's all reps. Start shoveling.
Words to live by.
There's a classic scene in the movie Tampopo where a Japanese finishing school teacher is attempting to teach a group of proper young ladies how to eat spaghetti Western-style, without slurping.
Just slurp with pride.
Nothing in particular. There's several different, but legitimate, ways to hold chopsticks, and it doesn't matter which one you pick, but if you learned without learning a specific method, it can be worthwhile to retrain from scratch. There's also different types of chopsticks between China/Korea/Japan - Chinese chopsticks are longer and not as tapered, Japanese are more tapered and shorter, Korean chopsticks tend to be round and often made of aluminum. One or the other may speak to you more.
Other than that, just practice. I grew up in an asian household, so it's been second nature since I can remember.
Honestly practice, try eating all your food with either chopsticks or chopsticks+spoon (if it's soup) for a couple weeks & you'll have no issue.
When I was a kid, my family used to play games with chopsticks - picking up and passing around sauce-slick button mushrooms, ice cubes, and dimes. So that's a little weird, but using chopsticks is as much second nature to me as Western cutlery. I don't know that I've got cross-cultural table etiquette down pat, though.
Unfinished wooden chopsticks are less slippery and easier to learn with than lacquered, metal or plastic ones. You can get practice chopsticks that are joined like tongs, and there are any number of instructions and videos out there. But for noodles and rice, it's key to bring the bowl towards your face and scoop with the chopstick tips together/slurp. That's not a faux pas in most Asian dining.
If you practice and handle chopsticks well, you'll never be without eating utensils. I've whittled pairs when camping, and used wooden pencils in a pinch.
I really like chopsticks but if I'm being honest they're a less versatile fork.
Dishes in cuisines that use them are prepared so they can be eaten with chopsticks. The way dishes from other cuisines are prepared and presented often necesitate the use of knife and fork.
They’re the prefect tool for eating lots of things. Try using chopsticks to eat messy finger foods, like potato chips or Cheetos.
They're not only for Asian food. Anything chopped into mostly bite-sized or smaller pieces, or anything you can eat/drink/slurp from a bowl, works well.
You just need to be a bit flexible about Western table manners. I find that lifting a bowl to eat from with chopsticks is tidier than moving food from a stationary plate or bowl at table level, but it's a matter of what you're comfortable with.
Couldn't you just use a fork to eat bite sized pieces of things?
I can use chopsticks without issues, but I find a fork to be more convenient for like 90% of foods
Forks aren't as comfortable to carry in a pocket/purse, and and are harder to keep clean if you've got limited facilities. It all depends on your criteria, I guess?
I find myself getting sushi pretty regularly these days and a lot of the dishes I cook are simple fried veggies and meat dishes with rice so chop sticks are just becoming as comfortable in my hands as a fork or spoon.
Cocofloss dental floss! Colorful and comes in fun scents. It makes an annoying tedious chore a bit more pleasant for me 😂
Speaking of dental care - I told my friend about my purchase of a DE razor yesterday, and he said that if I want more cool things, I should also consider buying Marvis toothpaste. Have you heard anything about that?
Reading this, Marvis toothpaste seems like mostly brand/image hype.
I haven't! But I've been wanting to try a hydroxyapatite toothpaste and Cocofloss just released one, so I'll be including it in my next order with them :) https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/cocoshine-whitening-toothpaste-review
Surely, if it has that much water in, the water will quickly go stagnant?
What do you mean by "go stagnant"? No soap dispenser would contain flowing water, so it would be "stagnant" from the beginning. But if there's enough soap for it to be effective washing your hands I don't understand how it would be dangerous sitting inside the bottle. Liquid soap would already contain water anyway.
Stagnant, as in gone off, bad, a breeding ground for water bourne life.
Still water becomes a breeding ground for fungus and bacteria. They add preservatives to hand soaps to avoid this for a time, but every liquid product has a lifetime after which this breaks down and moulds and whatnot can start multiplying to unsafe levels.
If you dilute any cleaning product in storage then you're also diluting the preservatives, shortening the time before it goes off. (Some concentrated products are designed to be diluted by having higher preservative levels.)
Soaps, generally, are not designed to kill moulds and bacteria, they're chains that bind, at one end, with dirt, and at the other water. This removes the dirt from your hands/plates/clothes and attaches it to the water, washing it away.
Antibacterial soaps do actually kill bacteria (bad ones and good), but again you'd not want to dilute them in their containers. I also doubt antibacterial soaps would inhibit yeast/mould growth, as mould is a fungus.
All soaps will kill bacteria, as the detergents chemically lyse the cell membranes. Fungal contaminants are more resistant to this, though.
Ah that's a fair concern, I think the wording of "stagnant" just confused me.
I guess in the end it would come down to how concentrated the preservatives and such in the normal soap are. I suspect for most soaps it's probably still pretty concentrated even when watered down like this, but I don't know if anyone's studied that.
Whether the concentration of the key ingredients is still high enough to effectively clean after dilution is a separate concern than whether the concentration of preservatives/anti-microbial agents is still high enough to prevent bacterial growth.