Just went down the aliexpress rabbit hole again. Theres really everythinf for some of really niche things that i wouldnt ever buy, but some things really do look appealing. I wonder what do you guys use daily thats worth lets say under $20
A decent headlamp. Flashlights are well and good, and sometimes necessary too. But if you’ve ever had to do something intricate with both hands in the complete dark, a good headlamp can be so much better in those situations
100%. I found one with grooves, so you can tilt and lock on whatever angle you like. Going to use as secondary light soirce on my bike rides and camping trips
I worked with a guy who wore a headlamp nearly all the time. When people would ask about it he would always tell them “There are only two reasons NOT to wear a headlamp. Either you don’t have a head, or you don’t have a headlamp.”
I will never forget this.
Oh phew, one of those reasons applies to me. Guess I don’t need one.
What are you doing in the dark that’s so intricate? Genuine question.
In most places, lights are placed on the ceiling. This is fine for generally lighting a room, but if you need to do something intricate that’s not directly under the ceiling lamp it can be hard to see. Even simple things like plugging in some cables under the desk.
I guess I don’t do anything away from desk lamps. Thanks for the explanation.
I’ve done fibre optic splicing entirely under the light of a headtorch. I don’t think you could get much more intricate than that.
I got a Lightbar brand “lightbar pro”, so good. The only downside to it is that there is a design flaw where there is no strain relief on the main power cable so twisting it will lead to failure. I don’t know if they fixed it since I bought mine, but some glue on the power wire should sort it out.
You get a nice wide diffuse light so you can see all around you and what you are working on. It isn’t the best for distance, but most of the time I am working I need to see my surroundings and what I am working on.
Was just using mine earlier!
Completely agree on this. For some reason I’ve gone through like four at this point. They seem to break for some reason. Even tried the REI route with the black diamond brand and they don’t seem to last. I need to find a better brand.
Petzl. Had mine for 14 years
Great for walking the dog at night, in suburban or rural settings. A phone flashlight is annoying to juggle while also controlling a leash and impossible when I need to scoop poop.
And you can get such small ones now! My spouse has one she keeps in her purse where the strap is just a thin wire that retracts into the unit. It’s not even uncomfortable! Needless to say I’m jealous!
Is it the petzl zipka? Because if it isn’t I’d love to know what it is. I have one, but they’ve apparently stopped making them, and it’s so much better not having an elastic strap.
Knipex adjustable shifter pliers
They adjust and lock to all the metric sizes and in my industry climbing towers and working at heights, having to carry the minimum is amazing.
Great tool but not cheap. Infact you probably couldn’t find a more expensive version. Knipex however is worth it. Generally my advice is to first buy a cheap tool and replace it with more expensive one after it breaks but with pliers it’s pay once, cry once situation. These are truly BIFL tools. The 100mm mini cobra pliers are awesome aswell.
I have the knippex 100mm pliers, they are part of my EDC but they’re not $20.
What do you do that you carry special pliers every day?
Exist. I have kids who constantly break things. I have a house where things often need minor attention. The knippex cobra xs pliers are tiny and weigh less than the pliers on a multitool like a Leatherman.
LOL, are you me? I recently put that thing in my backpack, because you never know.
Is there a tower climbers community on Lemmy?
I’m not sure, i climb tower cranes for work
Bidet
Seriously-- I kinda wanted one for a long time, but I just assumed they were expensive. They are not. You can install it yourself. If you do so, you will never go back, and it will change your life for the better.
Bidet.
Love my Luxe!
I just bought one… you’re personally responsible for my absolute joy…or will receive all of my hate. I’ll update
There’s no question about it. You’ll never want to poop publicly again and scrape poo from your bum with TP like a caveman.
Fair warning: this will (further) ruin public restrooms
100%.
I live in a country where every bathroom has a bidet. Or a bum gun. They are miracles.
Back in time, a long time ago, when I was 19 and spent about a year traveling abroad, I learned that a bidet in the bathroom isn’t a standard everywhere. Couldn’t understand why.
I hate when hotels don’t have bidets, I really wish it was as common as toilets
rice cooker. i have one that i use like a fancy crockpot so i can leave the house and come home to hot food. mandolin or a food processor is a close second, makes chopping veggies a breeze
My issue with food processors is they take more time to clean than they save.
Which one do you use?
Rinse after use, then its a matter of wiping down in hot soapy water.
Never let the debris dry in the food processor or you’re gonna have a bad time. Same with blenders.
If you can’t reach the crevices you can also run it with warm (not hot) soapy water to clean the crevices.
Yeah, if you can’t soak it, get that food off before it dries. This is why I prefer kitchen tools that you can take apart. I replaced my Foreman grill with a griddle with removable plates and love it, even though the Foreman had a bit more cooking area. Plus I got waffle plates and also got rid of the waffle maker that I rarely used because it was such a pain to clean if you ever overestimated how much batter it needed.
Chopsticks. Use chopsticks to turn over bacon.
Not to mention they are the superior salad utensil.
Agreed. Chopsticks make it so much easier to fold up my salad greens and minimize the amount of salad dressing I get in my beard and mustache.
Use less dressing? I mean, if your salad is dripping, you might wanna look at your ratios there. 😅
Never said it was dripping. It just rubs against facial hair while eating. Ice cream, sandwiches, beverages, lots of foods have an interaction with facial hair. It’s something I live with because it’s not that big of a deal and using chopsticks makes it even less so.
You could try grooming? Tame that wilderness, tiger.
Why does this matter to you? You keep making assumptions and then trying to solve them as though it’s an issue. I’m just agreeing with OP that’s it’s easier to eat salad with chopsticks and especially for someone who has a beard. If you don’t have a beard and don’t fully understand why it would be easier, then it’s not really relevant to you, and that’s okay.
Also the best way to eat Cheetos and keep your fingers clean
Daiso sells large kitchen ones. They’re great.
Magnetic soap holder.
You shove a little metal bit into your soap bar, and the bar dangles from a magnet on a stand that holds it over the sink.
Soap dries quickly, no scum in the soap dish, any drippage falls right into the sink.
Only downside is the magnet falls out when the bar gets smaller, so you have to mash the old bar into the bottom of the new one to keep from wasting it.
I’ve never heard of this witchcraft. This is exactly what I need.
Edit: heard not beard
Yes beard, not not beard.
A decent reusable steel water bottle. Doesn’t need to cost a lot, and really cuts down on dishes at home
How does it reduce dishes? Water bottles are one of the more annoying things to wash, in my experience, because my hands aren’t small enough to fit anymore.
Edit: Yes, I have a bottle brush. It’s just that it’s a bit of a hassle to soap it from dry and then have to dry it somewhere before storing it again. I wash everything else with a rough sponge normally.
Get a metal one and put it in the dishwasher. Or get a bottle brush.
Also, occasionally filling it with white vinegar and letting it sit overnight can help clean deposits.
ETA: In general putting plastic in the dishwasher is not advised.
Use a bottle brush. 🤦🏼♂️
It’s a pain to take a tool out (and wait for it to dry) just for one or two bottles.
You’re not serious. 😬
It’s a brush. Shake it vigorously for 10-20 seconds and it’s dry enough. FFS. I hope you’re not serious.
It’s not necessary to wash water bottles, duh .
Reusable steel water bottles should absolutely be washed.
I haven’t washed my Yeti cup in like a year and I’m not dead.
Look at patient zero over here, just being all flippant to health hazards.
Is to closed up? Bottles generally start to smell after a while. Even my Yeti cup (with lid) felt like it needed to be washed occasionally… not every day, but I don’t think I went a year. I’ll typically use normal glasses around the house and after using them for a few days they start getting cloudy. I don’t think it’ll make me sick, but if anyone were to see it, I’m sure it would look gross, so I change them out when I notice.
I mean it’s just storing water. You do have to wash it if you store other liquid beverages like coffee or juice. But if you use it just for water, I don’t see why it would contain any bacteria or scum or whatever.
It does (eventually) because it’s a dark wet environment you’re constantly polluting with your mouth germs.
That’s nasty.
i use almost nothing but stainless steel drinking cups now
For cups (for cool liquids), I use aluminum since it cools my drink down quickly with just a small amount of ice.
I’ve been using my for about 8 years now, still holds up.
Hit up the Goodwill or similar, you can find stainless bottles for dollars.
Local DI (deseret industries-a Mormon goodwill equivalent) has them for $1.50. Pick your lid, thermo flask, size, straw or naw. Get 6 for $9. Or buy 1-2 a bunch of times. My only transportation is cycling (other than busses/trains). Hydration is essential for proper functioning on all of these.
Water is life homie.
Man I hate these. They make water warm up instantly (unless vacuum insulated) and I could just one a single glass the whole day, or multiple days.
-
A decent pair of scissors with a coating on the blades.
-
A barometer
-
Upgrading my USB3 external drives cables (USB3 micro B) from the old A connector to C connector
-
Pocket knife
-
Rechargeable headlamp
-
KD polorized sunglasses
-
3 meter charge cable for the phone
-
IR remote for the laptop (LibreELEC/Kodi)
-
0.5L waterproof bag inside my backpack for electronics
-
RGB / cool & warm white LED string with remote
-
magnetic phone mount with a suction cup
I think that’s everything I use everyday under $20 without being ridiculous. And I do use each of these multiple times a day.
What are you using a barometer for so frequently?
That’s what I wanna know. I’d love a barometer but I cannot think of any reason why lol
Get one! Learn to predict the weather by keeping an eye on pressure changes. It could be a little hobby.
Removed by mod
How would a barometer help ?
Removed by mod
I second a headlamp. Almost mandatory if you’re camping I think. I got some cheap ones and use them around the house / garage too. More useful than they seem at first glance.
Long USB cables can be problematic, and to avoid problems may need to be inconveniently thick and stiff. I’ve taken to using an AC extension chord for most of the length when I need to charge far from an outlet.
-
Poopknife
Sorry, what?
Lol it’s an old story from reddit. Allegedly, this guy was at a friend’s house and he went to the bathroom. But he couldnt find the poopknife and called out for it. He was mortified to learn that the average family did not employ the use of a poopknife.
What’s a reddit?
It’s like an internet poop knife.
I made the whole thing up. It came to me in a fever dream.
A closed source centralized Lemmy alternative.
The funny thing is that you can actually buy a poop knife now.
WTF
My nephew needs a poop knife. The kid was breaking toilets when he was 5 or 6, and never stopped. It took his parents a while to figure out he was dropping rock hard giant turds and wasn’t throwing toys in the toilet or something. I saw one of he turds that wouldn’t flush a few months ago for the first time. It was massive… I don’t know how it came out of him. It did take a long time, it’s probably painful.
A knife made of fossilised coprolite, so it looks at home in the toilet. Alternatively, a knife used to cut up poop for inspection before disposal.
Bit nit picky but coprolite is fossilied poop. Saying fossilied coprolite is a bit redundant as coprolite already states that it’s fossilised
No I agree with you perfectly, but it was a choice between making it semantically correct, and making it more readable / understandable to most readers.
Poop knife.
Depends on your lifestyle ofc but a cheap 6’ tape measurer keychain has come in clutch more times than I can count. Within the past week I’ve used it to
measure the hatch of my car to see if a box could fit
compared a 14" pizza to a 17" to my friend group to figure what size pizza to buy
measured an entire house worth of soffit
The thing was like $5 and honestly gets more use out of anything in my EDC except maybe my earbuds and even then I barely touch them since graduating from uni
Make sure you test it against one you’re sure is accurate. My wife bought one that looks right at first blush, but it’s off by at least 5%.
That’s a funny cautionary tale.
Roughly 0.5 inches would you say?
I use the one on my leather man micra all the time. Also fans of Adam Savage know about his measuring device tattooed on his arm which is cool too.
Funny, I was just watching some lockdown-era Tested videos and was wondering what that tattoo was on Adam’s arm. Reminds me of my mechanic friends with a 10mm socket tattooed so that “they’ll never lose it”
I keep several full size 30’ tape measures in different places like my truck, kitchen junk drawer and (of course) toolboxes. You might find that more useful than a 6’. Cheap ones are fine, I think, as long as you don’t drop them.
The appeal is to have it fit on your keychain/ in your pocket so that you’ve always got it rather than having to run back to the car or wherever one might be
Dude, you’ve gotta factor in way more than diameter if you’re trying to make wise pizza choices. They have calculators for that: https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/pizza-comparison
Luftkin makes a high contrast 8’ the size of most 6’ and it is glorious. I have one as a daily driver for work, cold dead hands.
The rest of their tape measures in that same line are great.
Pretty niche, but a citrus squeezer. I cook a lot of Asian food and it’s much better to put half a lime in the squeezer at a time than try and hand squeeze the juice out.
But… Isn’t that standard equipment in every household?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.
I assume they mean one with some sort of lever to make applying pressure easier?
Maybe. We had one of that too, but didn’t use it too much either
Boneconduction earphones. They are cheaper than you think and I use mine to listen to music while swimming. Also great for music when you need to be able to hear to things around you (it doesn’t block any external sound, so don’t use in noisy environments)
it doesn’t block any external sound, so don’t use in noisy environments
It’s actually because I work in a high noise environment that I got into bone-conduction headphones. They still work when you’re wearing earplugs.
Nvr thought of that but wouldnt good earbuds with active noise canceling be better for you?
ANC plays the inverse of the soundwaves. So a loud noise isn’t made safe, it is just made inaudible and just as loud and harmful.
They are not safety products, only sound deadening earplugs or muffs do that.
Don’t the soundwaves cancel each other out?
Anyway my bigger fear would be a short hiccup or outright malfunction and suddenly you stand unprotected within loud machines.
They do, but not in the intuitive way one would think. They work because there’s a passive seal around the hearing, thus the headphones only have to cancel the smaller amount of noise that gets into your ear, not the full loud noise outside in the environment. This is why ANC need to have mics inside your ears.
The problem is actually that the louder the noise, the louder the noise canceling would have to be. And at a certain point the passive seal cannot stop much of the outside noise, and if poorly designed, if the speaker tries to cancel that noise, it would be blasting massive soundwaves into your ears. But most consumer speakers can’t achieve that and don’t even try. So after a certain threshold, they won’t work and can’t help you with the noise. And the passive noise block is not even remotely good enough as a straight up earplug. So they are not considered protective gear, at least not the consumer devices, only aviation grade ANC is considered protective gear. But you’ll see that they have massive ear cover,s with huge speakers and drivers, and elastic tensors on the headband to absolutely seal your ears and some truly state of the art audio processing that would make the most snob audiophile blush in envy.
They do make some of those for ground crews, construction sites and heavy machinery, but they insists that they are only effective if paired with a sound baffle earplug.
Noise cancelling earbuds or similar do not protect your hearing.
They do not make a loud noise quiet. It does not matter if they are working or not. All they do is make noise seem quiet, you are still being exposed to the same level of noise.
Do you have sources backing your claim?
Here is one backing mine: https://hillhearbetter.com/do-noise-cancelling-headphones-protect-hearing/
From your source:
While noise-canceling technology can effectively reduce the perception of external sounds, it does not necessarily eliminate the potential for hearing damage.
In noise-canceling headphones, a microphone captures external sounds, and the internal speaker generates a counteracting sound wave that is 180 degrees out of phase. This process effectively nullifies the external sound at ear level. However, it is important to note that the sound pressure from external noise sources still exists even with active noise cancellation in place.
that’s … not how science works
:(
I don’t think that they would be able to cancel the noise of an industrial environment and it would end up being a case of blasting sound into your ears to try and cover up the noise.
These with ear protection saves your ears a lot more.
My greatest purchase of the last decade I reckon. I first tried them 9 years ago and since then I am onto my 6th pair, no because they break easily but simply because I use them for between 8 and 10 hours every single day.
I do a lot of running and cycling and they allow me to be aware of idiots in cars whilst being able to listen to music or books whilst I ride / run. I use them at work with ear defense in so I can still hear what my machine is doing.
They are light, comfortable and really just the best way to listen to stuff for me.
Do you use aftershokz?
Not OP but I do use AdterShokz! I bought them during Black Friday sale last year and love them! I also do a lot of running and cycling - very nice to have the background song playing while also being aware of my surroundings! I also do a lot of late night walks listening to podcasts - I feel much more comfortable knowing I could hear someone approaching me.
I listen when to music / podcasts doing chores around the house. My wife doesn’t realize alot of the times and starts talking to me and I miss first half of what she said. I told my wife when buying them I’d be able to hear her now! Turns out I listen too loud still and can’t comprehend what she is saying when first talking while headphones are still playing. So… don’t use that as buying excuse :)
I don’t know if that is volume based though as I do exactly the same and even when the volume is down low it is like my brain is tuned into listen on that level and so I miss the first sentence of what is said from an outside source. At least I can hear they are there however!
They really are great for so many applications. I used to do Acid a lot more than I do these days and they were fucking great for a trip and out walking in the woods. I could have them on a good volume to soundtrack my walk but whilst also being able to hear nature around me. Just perfect for trippy walks.
I use a generic one from aliexpress, even the voice alerts are in chinese lol
Any particular brand you recommend?
No idea, I bought a generic one on aliexpress that is ‘good enough’, wouldnt recommend
Driving gloves. Some halfway decent calfskin gloves make it nicer to drive, whether the steering wheel is hot in the summer, cold in the winter, or if you’re going to be driving long distance. Not sure if real leather will be less than $20, but seen some cheap fingerless work gloves make driving more comfortable.
Clip on sunglasses that fit on my eyeglasses. Super easy to clip on, cost about ten bucks. So nice to not have to squint as much.
Dim light bulbs. Nearly every bulb in my house is as dim as I can manage. Some are salt lamps and some are those flicker fire bulbs. Either way, it makes the light at night a little warmer and a little dimmer, and all around a lot more cozy, which really is what one wants. Keep a couple of the overhead bulbs at the brighter end in case you need them, but dimmer bulbs make me a lot happier at night.
Dimmable smart bulbs, a mix of white and RGB.
I got a new house with LEDs and at night it’s lit like a 7-Eleven. I feel it’s part of the reason I never get to sleep before midnight.
USB cables with LCD displays. Now i can easily understand if a device is properly using QC or PD when charging, or whether there is an issue.
A convoy s3 flashlight with uv emitter, about $15 US.
I have a geriatric puppy who’s starting to “leak”, and this flashlight is really quick and easy to tell where needs to be cleaned up. Way easier than shining a regular light, missing and slipping on a puddle.
Now that’s something I’ve never thought of. You must care a lot for the puppy.
Please pay the dog tax. We’d love to see your senior pup!
