What sub $200 product improved your 2022

An air fryer.

It’s really a badly marketed product. Its real utility isn’t that it uses less oil, but that it cooks incredibly fast. Essentially an oven on steroids.

It’s made cooking so much easier. I usually toss some boneless chicken in with a light coating of soy sauce and cornflour. While the chicken cooks, I prep a basic Asian sauce on the stovetop.

The chicken and the sauce are both done within 10-15 minutes. Never have to check on the chicken (unlike a pan) or wait too long (unlike an oven). Mix them together and dinner is ready.

I paid a guy a bit under $200 to pull Ethernet cables from my basement up to the attic of my house.

Now I can keep heat-generating stuff like my storage server and the cable modem (surprisingly heat-intensive) in the basement, have a WiFi AP in the attic for great coverage in the yard, and I can easily drop lines down into rooms on the 2nd floor from above by just drilling a small hole in the top of a wall and feeding the Cat6 down, or put one into a 1st floor room by going up from the basement. Cat6 anywhere I want it, basically.

It's something I've wanted for years and held off doing because I knew I was capable of DIYing it, and therefore I hesitated to hire it out. This was dumb.

It took him an hour or so using various specialized tools ("fish bits", "fish tape", tall ladders, drywall saws, etc.), when it would have probably taken me the better part of a weekend and I wouldn't have done as clean of a job. He also knew from experience where the easiest place would be to get all the way from the basement to the attic, given my house's construction style.

Definitely worth the two bills, and also now I have a "wiring guy" for future projects. I've already called him back to help run wiring for PoE outdoor cameras, another thing I've wanted for years but haven't bothered to execute on.

I'm gonna go against the grain here and list non-technical things!

I bought some new plants for my home, which makes the place feel a lot nicer.

I bought some outdoor-trousers - things that go on top of your jeans - when it is cold they keep me warm, and I can now roll around in the snow without getting wet as a nice bonus. (-10°C here today). That said it was only a couple of weeks ago that I came out of a sauna and rolled around naked in 30cm of snow. Bracing!

Other household things that have made my life nicer have included some decent concrete-bolts screwed into my walls and ceiling. Now I can hang plants, have an indoor hammock, and a hammock-chair too.

Finally I've started buying random paintings whenever I go to visit charity/thrift stores. Each time I go I buy a single painting, it must be "amateur", and it must have an artist signature and date on it. At the moment I've got a wall with about eight of these paintings hung on it. All different styles, colours, and levels of "goodness", but together they all look good, rather than a garish mismash. Kinda fun.

Instant Pot. Can be used as a rice cooker, slow cooker, pressure cooker (mostly known for this last use)

Though probably not as good for rice specifically as an actual high-end rice cooker, it greatly increased the range of foods I eat.

Makes it easy to make nice one pot meals overnight for multiple days, you can make really good broth soups from chickens etc quickly, or slowly if you prefer.

If you like to try tougher cuts of meat, this is also a good reason to get it. The fact it doesn't occupy one burner is also helpful.

Space heater, 20 bucks. In the past I chose to heat the bedroom a little on cold days and otherwise suck it up and dress while shivering (no point burning a ton of gas to heat an entire bedroom). Now, I use 1.5 kW for ~3 minutes (0.01 kWh) to have hot air be blown on me while getting dressed in the morning.

Because it changes how warm I feel while going downstairs, I also don't need downstairs to be as warm to get warmed up again. I'm already warm and can sit in a normal temperature room to work.

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Air purifier (40 bucks on offer I think). We got it for unrelated reasons, it didn't help for that. Unexpected uses:

1. Neighbours' smoke occasionally comes into our apartment somehow and now I can do something about it. Before, I would just suck it up and try to convince myself that the little residue coming through whatever wall isn't going to impact my health.

2. This winter, people seem to like to heat the house with whatever old painted glued rotting wood they can find (or maybe also dead bodies, it's hard to tell). I can wait a few hours, but if it doesn't clear up and I want some fresh air before sleeping then what I do is open the bedroom window wide for a few minutes to replace the air, doors closed, then close window and turn on purifier on high for 30+ minutes, and then go back in there to sleep.

Kagi search engine subscription is easily my top choice (https://kagi.com).

I'm really glad something can finally, truly replace Google search and be just as good or better (neither Bing nor DuckDuckGo were good enough when I tried them).

If we're talking physical products, I'd probably go with the Apple Magsafe wallet. It's a little thing but I love not having a separate wallet to keep track of every day.

- all matching socks. No more time spent pairing.

- clothes drying racks that hook onto radiators. Reduces drying time and clothes crumpling

- wired mechanical keyboard. Wired is simpler than wireless. Quality ones have n-key support

- bicycle fenders

- digital wrist watch so that I check my phone less.

A bidet. We got one with heated water and seats and going to the bathroom feels super luxurious now. Not to mention all the toilet paper we save and increased hygiene.

A huge (A0, 33-1/8 x 46-13/16 in-sized) 12-month calendar with the months laid out in long strips.

I wasn't doing enough. Too much YouTube and reddit, so I stopped and decided to do things.

I used different colored markers for different aspects of my life-- health, work, fitness, recreational travel, home maintenance, etc) and decided I had to do something every week.

The different colors even accounted for down time. Too much color? Draw a nice relaxing blue line for a couple of days and do nothing.

I went from being a hermit to a EMT-qualified volunteer at my local volunteer fire department on his way to Firefighter I training, a spotlight operator at a local community theater, an enthusiastic yogi, and by having the year laid out I can look at weekends with holidays and plan my year's travel months in advance. I make notes on when to plant what and have a pretty front yard.

Digital calendars are nice, but they can't beat having a huge-assed poster right next to the front door with everything laid out in black and white and red and blue and green and yellow and........

If you feel like you're not getting the most out of life, get a huge-assed calendar, start googling local volunteer opportunities, write it down, and then do it.

$30, including markers.

Airpod Pro 2

They are basically bionic ears. Headphones, headset, earplugs, hearing protection, hearing aids, extendable ears, and more. Wish they could act as universal translators, but I suppose that's still yet to come.

I work from home - with a 5 minute screensaver with complicated password required by corporate - USB MouseJiggler - https://www.amazon.com/Undetectable-Computer-Simulate-Moveme... Best - Purchase - Ever - !

This is a weird one—Fiskars 4-Claw Weeder

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fiskars-34-in-Aluminum-Handle-an...

Our dogs are frequently out in the yard, so other than spring pre-emergent I try to avoid herbicides. I bought it after a hand weeder broke pulling up crabgrass.

This thing has oddly been one of the most satisfying purchases I've made in years. You put it in the ground, step on it and the thing easily pulls out weeds and only in the spot you put it. Then you get to shoot them off the claw. I have a bucket I try and shoot them into. It's oddly therapeutic.

A solid long desk. I didn't focus much on the standing desk stuff too much but instead zero'd in on desk length and depth. I feel like 55inch width is bare minimum at this point. If you pick the longer desks that have well designed shelves, or even some of the L-shaped stuff, you can tuck away laptops/desktops in such a way that your main surface work area is huge blank canvas. The space and lack of clutter is almost therapeutic.

This is not the one I have since I have mostly wooden stuff in my crib, but this one looks nice and long and cheap:

https://www.amazon.com/CubiCubi-Computer-Writing-Storage-She...

Forget standing, get long instead.

Oh, and this. I don't know why it took so long for me to think of this, reusable K-cups:

https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Universal-stainless-Refillab...

And finally, window privacy films:

https://www.amazon.com/Privacy-Frosted-Decorative-Covering-B...

It lets in natural light, no curtains to fiddle with (but you can have curtains too).

A one-hour shopping session with a personal stylist, at about $175. I desperately wanted to break out of my t-shirt/blue jeans habit, but parsing clothes sizes, trying things on, and getting opinions is equal parts sorcery and torture for me. (I'd tried Stitch Fix and felt like it wanted to reinforce my habits rather than break me out of them.)

After sending her details about my problems and the kinds of styles I admired, the stylist experience was very old-school retail — a department store — but she was unexpectedly pragmatic, giving great advice about picking durable clothes and materials that specifically fit well on me, with lots of wink-and-nudge budget advice (like "This would look great on you for $50 less" followed by flashing me a Nordstrom Rack or Poshmark listing of it).

Also, finding out that the department store has a complimentary tailoring service for hemming and adjusting the waistline on pants you buy from there permanently changed my clothes shopping process.

Ordering frozen croissants online. Before going to bed you leave one in the oven. Wake up, turn oven on, hit the shower. When you come out, it's ready to eat = cafe experience at home, coffee and a croissant while checking the news.

This is gonna sound dumb but an ice scoop for my freezer. Always just used my hands or cup but it would make it slightly annoying to get the right amount of ice. Plus if I’m making cocktails for other people it’s just so much easier and more hygienic.

I gave up on flaky WiFi mesh networking and connected the APs to my home's inactive cable wiring using MoCA adapters. Local bandwidth increased 4x, and I was able to achieve solid coverage throughout the house.

I also replaced a rock, a brick, and a rubber wedge with magnetic door holders, each about $5. Now when we're bringing in the groceries, we can keep the door open without the rock, and it's easy to close when we're done.

The Carpio 2.0 by DeltaHub (https://us.deltahub.io/products/carpio-2). It's a wrist rest, but not like you probably think. I would get severe hand pain being at the PC all day, but this little contraption completely relieved that pain. It took a couple weeks to get used to, and now I use it while working and gaming. One of the best purchases I've made in a long time.

Aftershokz Aeropex bone-conducting headphones. I could walk, hike, drive listening to music or phone calls while hearing the environment around me and without exposing anyone else to my taste in music :)

The Zendure Passport III worldwide travel adapters changed my reality in 2022 (~$70). It sounds boring, but man. I've had many worldwide plug adapters in my day, and many chargers. But the Zendure has a 65W USB-C fast charger in it, plus 3 more USB-C and a single USB-A. When I travel (and that includes "traveling to the coworking place"), I used to bring:

* A plug adapter

* My big ol' laptop charger brick and cord

* A medium-sized USB-A charger for phone, headphones, power bank

* A USB-C charger for iPad, Kindle

* A small power strip because I had to plug several things in

Now I just bring the single Passport III adapter. Done. It has a single power outlet pass-through, but I haven't even needed it because the only thing I ever plug in is chargers.

Merino wool T-shirts.

Cost about 30€ instead of previously used 3€ cotton T-shirts.

Can wear one for about 3 weeks without washing, with no body odor. Much more pleasant to the skin, even for doing sports, driving, etc. Also, warm in winter, airy in summer. Plan to switch most clothing to merino wool.

We set up a motorized curtain in our bedroom. It's been really nice to black everything out at night while sleeping (some of our neighbors leave outdoor lights on) but in the morning, wake up with natural light

Sodastream. Has significantly increased the amount of water i drink and conversely decreased other crap being drunk

High end ricecooker ended up getting more use than expected.

USB KVM style switch to change mouse/kyb over between work and personal device

Stream deck was a surprisingly good buy for me as well, although in 2020. Previously I had a keyboard with a lot of macro keys, but that died and I didn't want to go without the handy shortcuts I've set up. Now I'm using the stream deck for much more than what my keyboard offered.

In terms of best buy in 2022 was the Peak Design Capture Camera Clip. For a photographer it's amazing to not have the weight of the camera around your neck but securely attached to my backpack strap. The ease of attaching and removing the camera makes me actually use it more on hikes.

Samsung T5 SSD, a short USB c cable, and a sticker pocket to attach it to my 2016 MacBook.

Why get gouged by apple on storage when you can just duct tape an SSD to your laptop?

A few pairs of DarnTough socks. Amazing value. Got them for $17 a pair here:

https://www.mastgeneralstore.com/brand/darn-tough-socks

I didn't buy this, I inherited it from my dad, but now that I have one, if it broke I would immediately go replace it, and that's a nice DeWALT cordless drill combo, with two batteries and a charging station. In the past I have always had cheaper cordless drills, because spending $150+ on a cordless drill seemed kinda silly, but I use this thing all the time, everywhere, for all sorts of stuff.

As silly as it sounds, this water warmer for baby bottles: https://a.co/d/hhJzLBn

Nothing's worse than trying to mix the perfect water temperature at 3 AM while the baby is screaming, waking up the rest of the family. (We use pre-boiled water for the baby's bottles, so it's not as easy as adjusting a tap.) We bought this after we had our second baby and it's made feeding the baby slightly less stressful.

CO2 sensors for every room in my apartment. Before monitoring the CO2 levels I did not realize the relation of tiredness, mental fatigue and high CO2 levels.

If you control 2-3 computers next to each other, I recommend the Logitech MX Keys and MX Master 3s. I can control multiple computers and switch between them by holding ctrl and bringing my mouse to the edge of a screen. It then jumps to the other computer seamlessly. Now my desk is clutter free of multiple mice and keyboards.

I bought my first robot vacuum and it's pretty great (eufy 11S for $110).

It is as dumb as these things come. It has no navigation other than IR on the front to not bump into things. It doesn't connect to wifi. I'm not concerned about it sharing data because it has no way to do so.

I turn it on once or twice a week as I'm about to leave for work. When I come home my floors are in decent shape. It saves me about an hour a week on sweeping.

Minimum wage here is $12/hour so even if that's what I made, it would pay for itself in less than ten weeks.

There's always a lot, but a few things really helped me this past year (all less than $200):

- I got one of those Stagg kettles[0]. I make a lot of pour-overs, and a nice kettle neck gave me a lot more control than I expected. Coffee tastes the same, but making it is more fun.

- Not Boring's "Habits" app is fantastic[1]. I've been trying to nail down a meditation practice, and this finally did the trick for me. It helps me stay on task without making me feel guilty for it. I've been meditating consistently every day for a few months now.

- I got a copy of "Salt Fat Acid Heat" and read the whole thing[2]. It's made me a lot more competent at cooking than I was, and now other cookbooks make more sense and are less daunting.

[0]:https://fellowproducts.com/products/stagg-ekg-electric-pour-... [1]:https://www.andy.works/product/habits [2]:https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/

Arcteryx Delta LT jacket. At first I thought it was an impulsive purchase, but it end up being the most versatile jacket I've had. Whenever I don't know what to wear or carry on a trip, I toss in the Delta LT and it ends up being really useful.

A keypad door lock. Knowing the door is always (automatically) locked, being able to leave the house without a key, and being able to let someone else when I'm not there either with my phone, or by giving them a code.. I'm living in the future.

A rice cooker. I was sceptical for a long time, because we can just cook rice in a normal pot? But the result tastes a lot nicer and feels surprisingly more convenient, and keeping rice warm for longer periods is also handy. As a result we eat a lot more rice (and are less tempted to just order in when we're feeling lazy).

Also, a Hario V60 + Fellow Stagg EKG Kettle, really upped my coffee game. Though if you include the Timemore C2 grinder it probably comes to just over $200.

Not the first to say this but: Sodastream. I wanted glass bottles so I didn’t think a sodastream was possible for me but it turns out there is a glass bottle Sodastream and Lu can get it on sale for a bit above $100. I have bottles and haven’t spent a penny on Perrier since buying it. Plus I can take advantage of my fancy home water filter.

Reference: https://helpatmyhome.com/which-sodastream-and-soda-makers-ha...

A few of my favorites:

There's a set of string lights in my apartment that were left installed when I moved in. They look pretty nice and they provide decent illumination in an area that's difficult to light, but I virtually never used them because I needed to plug them into an outlet in order to turn them on. I finally bought a device that goes between the plug and outlet with a cord to a pushbutton switch. I now use the lights daily and I have no idea why it took me 6 years to fix a problem that could be solved for around $10.

A bluetooth OBD2 monitor for my car. It can read engine codes and other diagnostics, and it can clear a lot of check engine warnings. It less than a single visit to a mechanic.

This one is way less general, but I finally bought a treadle feeder for our chickens. There were several bird flu scares over the past year and our old open-tube feeder would attract a ton of wild birds (plus the occasional rat). The treadle feeder requires the chickens to stand on a treadle which opens a cover over their feed, and they learned how to use it pretty quickly. I'm amazed at how effective it's been; we're going through significantly less chicken feed now because the wild birds were eating nearly as much as our chickens were.

I finally purchased a rice cooker. I enjoy rice a lot and it's heathier than pasta, plus it's kind of set it and forget it and you can prepare other food while it cooks. But the best part is that rice comes out perfect.

A bit more than $200-

An Oura ring. Some quantitative insight around sleep, heart rate, heart rate variation, temperature, etc. SUPER interesting to see how things change when sick, drink alcohol, etc. Also- I confess to not minding the tone/language the product uses for coaching purposes. It is not an asshole.

Relatedly, tracking food/calories/water consumption in the (free- no need to pay them) Noom app has been useful quantitative insight as well. Rare that the free version of a paid thing has any utility whatsoever.

I'm surprised by how many things mentioned here are things that improved my own 2022 (air fryer, Steamdeck, bone-conducting headphones, etc.)

A couple of things that I haven't yet seen mentioned:

A LifeStraw Home water filter. It removes the slightly metallic taste from my home tap water.

Cable management boxes (multiple brands). These allow me to hide away the unsightly power strips, power bricks, hubs, excess cords, etc, and make my desk/office much more organized.

I guess I'm a bit late for this thread, but this just occurred to me because I had to pick up a package: I got a little sign with the UPS, Fedex, and Amazon logos on it that says "deliver packages here". I put it on my porch, so that the guy drops the package where I can see it through the window. I think it cost $10.

Before buying that sign, here are places where I've found packages:

* My yard, helpfully hidden behind a flowerpot to fool thieves (and me)

* My neighbor's yard for some reason

* The sidewalk in front of my house

* Right in front of my outward-opening door, so that the package blocked the door from opening.

Ever since getting the sign (~6 months) all my packages have been dropped in exactly the right spot. I think the logos are important, because it draws the guy's attention.

- Proper cycling / mountain biking glasses. The amount of air that slips in from the sides with normal glasses can tire your eyes on longer rides or at high speeds.

- Safety razor. No longer do I have to buy $30+ cartridge refills but rather 100 packs of blades for ~$10

- A pickleball paddle. The game really is addicting and so far the community has been welcoming.

Prints of photos I've taken and the materials (I'm a woodworker) to frame and hang them in my house. Double whammy in terms of pride and great way to keep good memories fresh.

Tools and hardwood which makes it easier to be in the shop (my garage) and not in front of a computer. When I'm in there all my life's woes fade away and always come out in a better mood than when I went in.

Cheap and awesome stuff:

- Phone mount for my car

- Silicone wall protector for where my fridge door hits the wall

- Misting spray bottle for brushing my child's hair

- Mold/mildew removal gel (lysosome-based)

- Silicone cable holders for the edge of desks, nightstands, etc for charging cables https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07WQN3134/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_...

I pay 135 bucks a month for access to a co-working space. It’s got amenities such as unlimited coffee, call booth, ping pong table, gaming console, etc. Not to mention an environment of friendly people (mostly contractors) who want to be just as productive as you. Working from “home” and on side-projects has become a breeze this way.

A refurbished Fujitsu FUTRO S740 (J4105 and 8 GB RAM) and 2 SSDs for a super low power home server and mini NAS. All in all less than $100

A weighted blanket (11 kg), after i had the chance to test one at a friend's. I'll miss it in summer when it'll be hot to use.

A Rösle (German high end kitchenware brand) salad spinner. Pretty expensive for 80€, but every other is either too small or crappy (and we have salad for breakfast almost every day). Ended up being worth it.

- Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop (I've been a PS user since 5.5, but they creep me out)

- Capture One for ca 200 usd (same reason as above, but replace PS with Lightroom Classic)

- The Belkin iPhone grip for continuity camera (iPhone is so much better than the potato webcam on my MBA)

1. Gymnastic rings - cheap, so simple yet so complicated. Magic ancient alien technology from the future (whatever that means) 2. Anki - free, you remember what you want to remember, but you have to RTFM to use it properly. 3. Wax earplugs - cheap. My sleep quality is at least 2x better since using them. 4. Org-mode - free.

A wheatbuck pillow.

Like 50 bucks, keeps it's shape, keeps it's chills (regular pillows come stoves to me), keeps my head straight without folding a pillow in 4, keeps some support of my head why I tuck my arm under so I don't put much pressure on my shoulder.

Been travelling for 3 months and carrying it, makes every bed a good bed.

A keychain that acts as a coin to unlock shopping carts.

A retractable USB-C to C cable for my backpack.

Replacement keys for my butterfly keyboard MacBook. It’s a drop in replacement that delays a new laptop purchase.

Warm wool socks and sweaters

Paperlike screen protector and metal nib for my iPad mini and Apple Pencil

A 3 meter long USB-C to C cable

Recently, I got air purifiers. I really like them so far, and I purchased a couple models from Vornado. Their air flow technology pairs really well with the air purifying. Their fans are the only ones I buy.

Logitech unifying wireless mouse and keyboard. Really seamless to use between two computers and my monitor’s built in KVM while only taking up a single USB port. I even alternate between mice for ergonomics.

Window cat bed that attaches to a glass door that gets naturally heated up in the morning by the sun. My cat loves it.

I just realized what a huge amount of stuff i bought in 2022 :-)

- G3 Ferrari pizza oven with this tutorial[1] for original neapolitan pizza

- INIU BI-B63 25000 mAh Powerbank with 65W to charge my notebook

- TS 100 / Pinecil [2] soldering iron with open firmware [3]

- Baseus quad port 100W USB-C power supply (CCGAN100US)

- $5 Sinilink USB switch with wifi and open firmware [4]

- GL.iNet GL-MT1300 (Beryl) Travel Router with OpenWRT firmware

- Bühnen HB250 hot glue gun

- 10m velcro cable tie

- VAFOTON magnetic usb-c cable (USB-C Magsafe with 100W PD)

- $100 WLToys 959-B 1/18 RC Car with 70km/h / 43mph (aliexress)

- ANBERNIC RG353M retro handheld console (aliexpress)

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-jPoROGHGE

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eme_AUayLp8

[3]: https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS

[4]: https://templates.blakadder.com/sinilink_XY-WFUSB.html

I bought a Keychron keyboard as others have mentioned.

On the $300 end though I got a walking treadmill for my standing desk. It is changing my life.

I'm about 2 weeks in and usually avg 5.5 miles a day. Words per minute is still 80 and accuracy hasn't suffered. Worked my way upto 2.6mph. I had to set the office temperature to 66 degrees F though. Worked up a sweat :)

A fountain pen! I got a LAMY safari and it's so nice to write with. It's expensive for a pen although cheap for a fountain pen which can get expensive. I was peckish about buying it for 20 bucks but now that I use it I'm eying a $200 LAMY 2000.

A Japanese-style ryoba hand saw. I'm a hobbyist woodworker, and I didn't believe the hype until I tried one myself. I just have a $30-ish one, and it's like night and day compared to any other hand saw I've used. Having ripping teeth on one side, and crosscut teeth on the other, alone is worth it. Then, you get into how much less force they require and how rarely they bind.

Airtags, saved my forgetful ass a couple of times and it makes locating things after parties much easier

1zpresso K-Max manual coffee grinder.

Excellent build quality and grind for the money. A joy to use every morning and I expect it will last a long time. Their large range of models is confusing and takes some time to understand but with enough youtube reviews, you can decode it. Might be a bit over $200 in the US but I think I bought it at a discount to roughly be at $200 after currency conversion.

https://sigmacoffee.co.uk/products/1zpresso-k-max

- Waterpik - i have 2 implants (molars) and i'm disgusted at how long I went without the waterpik. It gets stuff out that brushing & floss just can't.

- Baratza Virtuoso (bought used). Our Encore was starting to be inconsistent after a few years, and the Virtuoso was a noticeable upgrade.

A back roller, like this:

https://www.amazon.com/RumbleRoller-Texture-Massage-Self-Myo...

I've had lower back pain for 10 years now. Rolling on top of this for a minute once per day was painful at first but after 4-5 days it felt fine and I've had no back pain since. I believe it realigned my vertebrae. Now I roll once a week or so to keep things aligned.

This year I purchased bulk latex foam noodles ("LaNoodles") from CozyPure, plus two high-quality cotton zippered pillowcases with wool batting from another store.

I was already a believer in Talalay latex as a mattress material, which is what my current bed is made of.

I stuffed two queen-sized pillows to almost bursting with the LaNoodles. One I place in between my thighs, and the other is my normal head pillow. They are ridiculously thick but I no longer have knee pain or neck pain and sleep much better.

$305 for a scythe (snath + blade) to replace a gas-powered riding trimmer. Quite a different experience coming from a loud, heavy, bouncy, overly-destructive machine to a much more elegant, surgical, and meditative tool. No need for noise cancelling earphones, can listen to audio book/podcast/news/birds, and is more wildlife friendly (deer will walk and graze past me over avoiding the area entirely for one). Super relaxing once you figure get into a good form and rhythm. It's a slow-and-steady effort giving me a better position to observe the field or my thoughts.

Looking forward to using it on fresh, green growth this spring since I had received mid-summer when the grass was already tall and dry.

A basic KVM switch [0]. Got tired of switching my mouse, keyboard and monitor cables between my work laptop and my desktop PC. This makes it a 1 button press.

0: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08NVKHRRT/

this very nice corner shelving unit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08JC4NKZG/

(living in a small flat, few things improve my quality of life like really good storage solutions; the ikea "norden occasional table" (https://www.ikeaddict.com/ikeapedia/en/Product/40245741/us-e...) might well be one of the best returns on investment in my entire decade living in the place)

Meater plus, a wireless meat thermometer. We don't even do BBQ, just cook in the kitchen. The phone app shows meat internal temperature, oven air temperature, tells you how long to cook, estimated time remaining, and how long to let your roast, chicken or fish rest after taking it out of the oven. The app also keeps a log of your past cooks.

If anyone from Meater reads this: Please add a feature to add a photos of the food to the cooks log.

An AeroPress. $30 for a fast and good enough way to make espresso.

I have a bunch under £20…

  - programmable 6-key keyboard
  - 10-pack of reading glasses
  - mini tyre inflator
  - rubber ice cleats
  - low-alcohol beer
  - sukang sawsawan 
  - boczek

Bluffworks Chinos. I travel a lot for work and these are the first slacks I’ve owned that look professional rather than tactical/adventurous and actually travel well.

On the more technical side of things, an Evoluent vertical mouse. Has made a massive improvement in my hand fatigue/pain.

Bose QuietComfort earbuds 2.

I have a pair of QC20 wired earbuds that I have been using since forever. I have really bad hearing and ironically, I am very sensitive to loud noises (e.g., mowing, flying, road noise on road trips). I really like to have the best noise suppressing earbuds I can find.

Last year I tried many different wireless ones as my QC20 were wearing out. I tried Samsung, Sony, and Bose QC earbuds 1. The ANC (Ambient noise cancelling) in the samsung and sony were just not to the level of my wired QC20’s. The Bose earbuds1 were actually better at ANC than my QC20’s. I was shocked, BUT I had so many problems with 2 different pairs I had to return them. It was all software issues as far as I could tell, but they either stopped connecting to my devices, or the left bud stopped working.

Fast forward to the Bose QC earbuds2 coming out and I gave them a try. They are expensive, but the ANC is world class. The fit is also WAY better than anything else, including the earbuds 1. The nailed it. At $300 I would not hesitate to buy these again if I lost them.

A small portable scanner. I don't take it anywhere I just got a portable one due to it's size so I can stick it in a drawer.

I've been able to save a bunch of space and get rid of 99% of documents in my filing cabinet by making a digital copy and getting rid of the physical ones. Now when I get an important document I scan it save it to a few places and get rid of it.

Might be slightly over, but some cheap loadable dumbbells. I was never a weights guy, but these made it so I could get a simple workout in at home between meetings. They are annoying to change weights on, but everything is just a solid piece of metal, so they'll last forever.

I'm by no means a strong guy, but I've significantly increased the weight I can lift over the course of the last year. For me, it's really awesome. My biceps and triceps have also gotten way more defined and it's really cool when people notice. Feels good to see a more physically defined body in the mirror.

Google Assistant. I had a smart clock for years but only now got the full benefit now that I've switched to Keep and Calendar for so many things rather than using various notes apps.

My Kobo Libra 2 reader has been great. Although sometimes I wish I'd bought a Kindle or waited for the Scribe, because Kobo books often cost more than Kindle books, and it seems like Kindle has better sideloading support now.

Wall mount hooks. Now that they have nicer looking ones with drywall anchors instead of the old eye hooks, I've found lots of uses for them.

Not 2022, but in 2021 I switched all of my clothing to synthetic including socks and underwear. This made living in a high humidity area (90+ pretty much every day) soo much more comfortable.

A keyboard tray, that attached to my desk, I never realized how many of my frustrations were just the slightly awkward ergonomics of my keyboard being a few inches too high

I bought a 30x magnifying glass with LED lighting for $16 on Amazon. I didn't know I needed it but I now use it daily.

I find the magnifier super handy to grab for reading tiny print on things like USB chargers. My reading glasses don't help in such cases even if I happen to be wearing them. I have 40x one too put it's more like jeweler's loupe with a very short focal length so less useful on a day to day basis.

I bought a trackball mouse. (Elecom Huge).

I found that it ultimately ends up saving deskspace (since the device doesn't need space to move around). I found the device's size to be more comfortable for my hands than the small Logitech bluetooth mouse I was using.

I bought a used Dell office PC from FreeGeek for about 100 bucks, then installed Proxmox on it with Portainer. Now I've got a place to put all my crap that isn't AWS, which is not only easier, but faster, and way cheaper.

Smart Light Bulbs.

As much as I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally, it has done wonders for my sleep. I set them to slowly dim over a 45 minute period at night and slowly turn on over a 45 minute period in the morning. I have consistently gotten 8+ hours of amazing sleep and fall asleep + wake up so much easier now than I ever have before.

A Stream Deck (and later a Stream Deck +). Useful and fun to code your own plugins too.

I work 100% remote so I also went for another Elgato product - a ring light - so my work video calls look a bit better. If all of your interaction at work is via video it seemed worth doing it well. My desk now looks more like a YouTuber's but it's all for coding.

I'm a student, so I write a lot, and the rOtring 600 mechanical pencil is incredible. I've not used a single genetic #2 pencil since I bought it last year, and I don't plan on using one ever again. The feel of the pencil is super solid, and rOtring also handles small lead sizes much better than any other brand I've used (especially .35mm) which means I rarely break my lead.

Other than the pencil, maybe my Peak Design everyday backpack? I got the v1 used on eBay for ~$100 and I've used it for maybe two years now. It's still a decently student-specific purchase, though.

A Sanpao TJ800 mini TV. It's a really stinking adorable display styled like a retro CRT TV and it has the guts of a cheap Android TV box inside, or you can plug in an HDMI input.

I found the HDMI input on mine didn't work but I figured out how to put Armbian on the TV box inside and so now I can turn it into a mini retro emulation console!

A $60 shaved ice maker attachment for my wife's KitchenAid mixer. Now she can make Snoballs any time of year. Seriously, if there's someone in your house who loves to cook, you need a KitchenAid mixer. It's a godsend, like Visual Studio Code for the kitchen.

Replacement battery for the family MBP. Going strong since 2014, and I want to see how far we can use it safely as the family computer without replacement.

2022:

DevonThink - My digital life has never been so well organised.

Omnifocus - My task management has never been so well organised.

BusyCal - My time management have never been so well organised.

Handheld Scientific BT-500 - Allows me to use my mechanical split keyboard wirelessly.

So far in 2023:

Nebo Notes - Allows me to write long form with Apple Pencil on iPad and convert it all to text afterwards far better than any other app on the App Store I've encountered.

Creative BT-W3 Bluetooth Transmitter - Was getting stuttering with Bluetooth headphones on my MacBook that was making them virtually unusable. Connected the headphones to this and I now have zero issues.

I bought a used sim racing wheel + pedals for 100€. Very much worth it, I havent had that much fun gaming in years.

Kindle Paperwhite. I increased my reading so much with it.

The Sony SRS-12 (or SRS-13) very small bluetooth speaker; $35ish.

Judging by this speaker being sold out in many big box stores before Xmas it seems a lot of people has a use for this.

In my case I have a small computer (asus pn51) that runs my dumb TV. When everyone else is in bed but I still want to watch basketball I turn this speaker on and perch it easily on my shoulder. I can hear it just fine but it's inaudible from 3 or more feet away. Everyone is happy. Marital bliss for $35 is a good deal.

A pair of Sennheiser Hd58x's from Drop. I never want to use ear buds again. Really loving the 'open back' experience, makes me feel less claustrophobic and the sound quality is amazing. Really enjoying just sitting around listening to music again.

I bought a longboard and it was the most fun I have had doing an activity outdoors for years. it was a bit of trick to get used to it, but then I used it more than any other type of mode of transport. Great for balance, relaxation, and getting some exercise.

And carving is so fun!

Two things: Shaving soap and a Ninja Creami.

So after an abrupt breakup of a long term relationship, I decided to evaluate a lot of my habits and methodology for doing things and decided I wanted a new routine. I've put on a bit of weight over the years, and as most adult males on the wrong side of 30, I'd grown facial hair as a way to hide the features of my face that I was uncomfortable with. But I want to look in the mirror and like what I see, so to facilitate that, I shaved all the hair off and invested in a skin care and shaving regimen. I want to be more accountable to myself and decided that looking at my chubby face every day was a way to get motivated.

So while I now have a 4 part facial care strategy for my skin (cleanser, differin, moisturizer, sunblock), I also have a new shaving routine. My razor is nothing fancy... I've tried Dollar Shave Club and been disappointed because it has TOO many blades and gets clogged too easy, but I also really wanted a shaving brush.

So I picked up a badger hair brush and a set of Proraso pre-shave cream, shaving soap, and balm. I'd never used the product before but saw ads in old barber shops I'd go to as a kid. Shaving used to always irritate my skin, and I expected it to be doubly so because I hadn't set razor to face in forever. To my surprise, I had no irritation at all. Completely smooth and not a single nick or red bump. I don't think I've ever been more happy with a set of products.

At the same time, I was looking to eat healthier. And I love ice cream. So why not make a healthier version of ice cream without spending a fortune?

High end restaurants usually have one or multiple pacojet systems in them. Pacojets are basically glorified ice shavers that shave ice down inside of a small container. Restaurants use them by freezing ingredients in containers to make ice creams and sauces.

Well, the Ninja people created their own cheaper version in their Creami system. I've made chocolate ice cream by throwing some sweetener into a bowl with cocoa powder, agar agar, and coconut milk. I've made a sorbet by tossing a can of fruit into the container with juice or syrup, by tossing banana chunks into strawberry or guava nectar, etc. Really, its only limitation is that you're limited to the containers you have on hand and the ingredients. I even saw a recipe for pumpkin pie ice cream and I've made bananas foster sans ice cream and just tossed in some heavy cream for a nice treat. It's vastly more convenient than having an actual ice cream machine.

A pair of running shoes that actually fit human toe shape (Altra). Years of wearing pointy shoes gave me a Morton's Neuroma and severely limited my aerobic activity.

I finally taught myself touch-typing and a month later I bought a Corne split keyboard that I built myself. Game changer

A commercial food scale from Kilotech; quicker, more robust, always on, stainless, larger scale area and clear display.

I've been thinking about upgrading my computer A/V but haven't taken the plunge. Seems like a bit of a potential rabbit hole for me.

My item is a 65W GaN (gallium nitride) USB C/A wall charger. It can charge pretty much everything I own and is tiny compared to the Apple 65W charger. It has 1 Type-C and 2 Type-A but if you use more than one then the wattage splits (not 50/50 more goes to the C or one of the A ports).

Logitech Lift mouse ($57.47 shipped). Tossed the highly non-ergonomic Magic Mouse that was starting to give me hand/wrist pain. Having also used the MX Master 3 before, I even prefer the (cheaper) Lift. 200% recommend.

A vacuum canister for oil changes. Just sucks the oil out of the dipstick tube. Great for environment and my back. Best $50 spent this year.

I bought three wireless phone chargers/stands, one for each of the bedside nightstands and one for my desk. Having a phone that's always charged and not having to fumble with charger cords has been amazing.

Lemon squeezer

Fry eggs in butter, add a little heavy cream, add half a lemon squeeze and salt

Yum!

Stainless Steel Toothpaste Tube Squeezer. My plastic one broke and this looks nicer as well as more durable.

Perma image: https://imgur.com/a/qVNMcQs

eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125026463849

Solo Stove bonfire pit. It burns so efficiently and is pretty much idiot proof. They work great here in Minnesota winters, and are nice when you have people over for parties and they throw crappy wood in there that would normally smoke a bunch. We've also had solo stoves out in the middle of the street for block parties. Highly recommend.

Prescription sunglasses with photochromic lenses. (Under $200 at Costco if you can find a sunglass frame there that fits you.) Like most people I had written off photochromic lens technology decades ago (too slow to respond to light changes). But the current generation is much better (they've gone through something like eight of them by now) and I do a lot of utility cycling in the Pacific Northwest. And that means that you can go through everything from bright sunlight (OK maybe not bright by most peoples' standards :-) to overcast to darkness in a trip to the grocery store. Having a single pair of glasses that can take me through all of those conditions is surprisingly liberating.

One limitation to be aware of is that the material in the lenses responds to ultraviolet light. Which means that they really only work outdoors. So you're still going to need a separate pair of sunglasses for driving.

My AirPods. They work well and allow me to listen to podcasts while grocery shopping and doing mindless tasks. There other headphones out there but for whatever reason these fit best and sound OK.

A 30w phone charger. iPhones charge rather slow. This charger helps get over that. A lot of my daily routine is done through my phone.

A Bamix immersion blender; powerful enough to blend frozen fruit in my morning smoothies and safe for a deep pot of soup that needs blending. Also makes top notch Hummus.

A pizza peel, a pizza stone, a wire cooling rack, a kitchen scale, and some round plastic containers with lids for holding doughballs, and watching Vito Iacopelli on youtube. Now I can make pizza myself in my own home oven that is better than anything I can have delivered, and it's fun.

Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of the Stream Deck. It is also supported on Linux by Open Source library and app. Very tempting.

https://github.com/timothycrosley/streamdeck-ui/

For us in FlyCode it's Stigg (https://stigg.io). Really streamlined the way we manage subscriptions and define pay blocks. Saved us about two weeks of development work (and we are still pretty small!)

https://www.snorerx.com/

Seems to have quieted my snoring/sleep apnea to levels where people want to sleep next to me, and I can as well get a good night sleep. Sleep Apnea is no joke.

Beats Fit Pro. My first and only wireless earbuds and it's been a game changer.

(I think this is a recommendation more for a category than a specific product.)

Burr coffee grinder! Enjoying my coffees a lot more

A roll of medical tape.

Tape mouth at night with a short strip before going to sleep. Snoring eliminated. For real. Wonderful sleep for everyone.

New battery for our Dyson. Should have bought one way earlier (old one was almost 4 years old). Went with the original one even though that's more expensive.

I'm still using the old one during the week as it only takes a few minutes to swap.

electric toothbrush is so worth it, and made me realize how much pressure I was putting on my teeth when brushing.

and a tushy bidet is one of the greatest sub-$100 purchases you can make. easy set-up and nice to be clean down there.

Meater+ (wireless temperature sensor for roasting/bbq with 50 meter range)

Thermapen (super fast spot temperature sensor)

Both have superior minimalist UX, very thoughtfully designed and really well executed. If you are into cooking, highly recommended.

Ring cameras. Gave me peace of mind while away from home and caught my landlord entering my apartment unannounced once while I was away. Gave one to my parents, who reluctantly accepted it. Caught and deterred would-be burglars entering their house 2 months after setting it up.

I used to manage my parents' old-style security cameras, and now I realize what important features they lacked. It takes a lot for a system to catch people in the act, regardless of how high-quality your cameras are and how much disk space your DVR has, and convenience matters too.

Heated Mattress Pad. It's like an electric blanket built into your bed, with dual temperature zones and an on/off timer.

As someone in a northern climate with a less-than-ideally insulated house its a life changer.

Surgical Tape. I read Breath by James Nestor[1]. One of the suggestions is to put a one inch tape over your mouth during the night. It prevents mouth breathing and reduce instances of sleep apnea. I tried it; I start feeling refreshed after 3 days. You can give it a try, surgical tape is like $5USD.

1. Point 20 - https://www.chestergrant.com/summary-breath-by-james-nestor

Instant pot (rebuy with air fryer lid). Use this thing for everything. The air fryer lid is amazing. So much better than my stand alone air fryer which I got rid of. Much quieter. Takes up same space as the air fryer that I had before, but with much more functions! I don't do many fancy recipes in it, but makes cooking rice, chicken, yogurt or anything else simple fast and efficient. I live in the Eurozone so heating up the oven can be expensive. Pressure cooking a chicken in 10 minutes I believe is much more economical.

This won't be relevant for most readers, but my answer would have to be the $20 Gentle Leader for my dog. She is an incurable leash-puller, to the extent that the nerves in her face were damaged and her jaw was completely paralyzed for 6 weeks. Needless to say, our twice-daily walks were very stressful for me for over a year. After acclimating her to the Gentle Leader, the problem is entirely solved. The only downside is that passersby often mistake it for a muzzle and assume she's dangerous.

ThermoPro meat thermometer - not instant read, the kind with wire leads that actually go in the oven. I'm not even into high-end grilling or smoking or anything. It's just really nice to get a pre-seasoned slab of beef or pork (the teriyaki skirt steak at Trader Joe's is a family favorite) and have it come out just right every time. As a bonus, this one has a remote so I can hang out upstairs and even wear headphones instead of having to ensure that I can hear the beeps from the kitchen.

I got my first set of noise-cancelling headphones in June 2022.

I work from home in a small open-floorplan house and being able to mask the sounds of everything else going on has been a welcome change :)

- darn tough socks: these retail for 20ish a pair last I checked but they're super high quality

- water boiler: can get a basic one for less than 30 bucks, or go with a higher end one for 100+. either way, having hot water readily available will change your life

- kettlebell (20lb, 35lb): these go for like 30-40 bucks on amazon. there are a lot of compound movements you can do with kettlebells that will highlight various muscle imbalances you have. super easy to incorporate a few kb exercises into your workout routine

Womier low profile brown switch keyboard. Does wired, 2.4ghz, and 3 bluetooth modes at the press of a button. Was the winner after trying lots of mechanical keyboards. Tape mod and o-rings (about 20 minutes of work) and it feels and sounds incredible.

Privacy film so that I can leave more window blinds open on the windows facing the street.

Elastic laces for some of my shoes to make them slip on.

A silicone face scrubber for gentle exfoliation on a regular basis.

Honeycomb style seat cushion. Used for meditation, car, floor sitting, etc.

I got a retractable screen door for my bedroom door that goes to our back porch. Instead of a swinging screen door it just unhooks and rolls up to the side, and can be pulled back out.

It's great for getting a breeze on nice days, without letting mosquitos in. There was one on the front door when we bought the house, wish I hadn't waited so long as it was super easy to install. Will probably get one for the door to the garage as well this year.

Waterpik water flosser! I can't believe I didn't get something like that earlier. It's so effective and useful. Best purchase of the year for sure.

Bread machine.

Making bread with a mixer is fun but takes a lot of time. With the bread machine there really is no reason to buy preservative and sugar laden bread from the store.

Getting split keyboards. They are the best. The only regret: I didn't buy it sooner.

Meta comment, but I'm curious about the money range of $200-$1000. Many threads like this are for cheaper products (granted, upper limit here of $200 is higher than usual), and a lot of the answers are repeated. I feel it's hard to justify spending larger amounts of money in the range I provided, but in the end, there are times when the value absolutely is worth it. Finding those times is the difficult part.

A laptop stander.

Coupled with a keyboard and mouse.

I don't have space for a discrete monitor so i have to rely on the laptop for it.

Using it makes it upright to eye level, making my neck pain go away

Having a UMIK-1 measurement microphone for use with REW (or similar) has been really great for my year. I'm building a recording studio at home, and having the quick ability to capture and measure data about my room over time has been fantastic. I've also used it to measure the volume of some things, and profile why a few of the rooms in my house were too echoey which led to remediation techniques.

https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1

I also got a FLIR infrared camera, which was a little bit more than $200 - but there are cheaper models that would have done the trick just as well realistically. My home was built 140 years ago, and some ability to inspect heat-creating things through walls has been useful.

Another really useful one in this price range was a Logitech MX ERGO trackball. I like how it requires less space and solid surface than any mouse. I also like the angle it puts my hand at. Multiple device support is good.

For me it was a watch.

I bought a Fitbit Charge 4, originally to track my heart rate/steps since I've never owned one and always relied on my phone for time.

With my phone generally on silent and by not checking it so often, I've found my use of social media/apps has reduced drastically this year. To the point that I recently forgot my phone at home, something that I didn't imagine possible.

PineTime. Best 30 bucks. I missed notifications, but then got PineTime. Keeps me from missing important messages. Easy to use. Also hackable!

A new Kindle. I had an old model without screen light and really love the new one I bought. I love reading in my bed with the lights off.

Under $200 would be: - a monitor arm to free up desk space - a Wacom tablet for virtual whiteboard diagrams - a coffee warmer for my desk

Where is the AI that can parse thru 1000+ comments and make a summary post of all the products people love on this thread.

Blackout Curtains

This HOCl generator has been amazing for removing household odors and reducing cleaning supply usage. Lots of applications. Great hack for natural cleaning supplies.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0B26KK4K2

Pegboard. Ikea sells some good ones.

A wall calendar.

Felted house shoes (Kyrgies!!) that I didn't sweat in.

Wooden clothes hangers.

Humidifier.

Small storage containers

Expanded clay pellets for rooting plant cuttings.

Loseit app, I'm losing weight thanks to it.

Withings scale, connects to wifi, logs my weight with zero work.

Threw out all my socks and bought new.

A dog recovery suit. It's a breathable, close-fitting suit that you use instead of a cone to prevent biting at healing wounds. Available for $25 or so on Chewy.

Buddy had some surgery and would have been in a cone for 2 weeks (!!!), an utterly shit experience for both of us. This prevented that while making sure he didn't lick or bite at his stitches.

It wouldn't stop a persistent dog like a cone would, but I felt like it gave me enough time to observe the behavior had he bit or licked and stop it without opening the wound.

It's easily my best purchase of the last 5 years, except perhaps for my instant pot, which I use every day to make steel cut oats.

https://www.suitical.com/products/recovery-suit-dog/

It was given to us as a gift, but I would say our Breville Bambino espresso machine. We were already making morning cappuccinos or lattes ourselves with an Italian "moka" stovetop, but this is considerably better, especially when coupled with a decision to buy better quality beans from local roasters (we're lucky to be in a city with good quality roasters and coffee shops). We're getting as good or better as we could get in a good local coffee shop (and I don't mean Starbucks) for a fraction of the price, plus the convenience.

Also, to defray the higher cost, and for health reasons, my wife and I cut our afternoon coffee. Less is more.

(Update: After writing this I checked online and it turns out the Bambino costs $350, so not sub-$200, oops.)

Toe spacers. I went from being in agony every time I stood up to being relatively pain free in my toe joints

Winco fish spatula. Super flexy and thin. I can now make eggs the way I like them (over easy, zero browning) without destroying the egg or chasing it around the skillet like when I use bigger spatulae. Plus also much better for fish, oddly enough: the flexibility matters a lot.

Huge fluffy wool slippers that go up past my ankles: $30

I used to feel cold in the winter, no matter how high I set the thermostat. Now I feel cozy with the heat barely running. I even think they cured my winter gloom. Turns out I was just loosing a lot of energy through my feet. ヽ(´▽`)/

Wacaco Nanopresso. I'm travelling a lot these days and I need coffee every morning. Many hotels don't have electric kettles so I also had to buy a tiny water heater to boil water right in its tiny cup.

Saw some people go as far as using a portable coffee grinder but that's a heavier toy

Small round wire sieve that fits on top of a mug, < $20 at the supermarket. I'd bought various devices intended as tea strainers before, but they were hard to clean and didn't let the leaves drain properly. A small thing, but it's meant a lot less irritation.

- Air fryer

- Ultrasonic cleanser - used for pretty much anything including my invisalign retainers

- Sodastream

- Massage gun

All these things have made my life a lot easier.

- standing desk; standing burns twice more calories than sitting; I went with Ikea's Trotten model for 220€ (its cheaper but requires a lot of manual hand rotation to change the height and it forced me to stand up longer; it was hard for me to stand and work and because I don't have a simple button to lower the desk, it forced me stand up longer)

- tennis ball to massage my back by leaning with it on the wall

- laptop stand, external keyboard and external trackpad; for better posture during standing and sitting; trackpad is more comfortable for me than mouse)

- vitamin D supplements for the winter

- smartwatch or smart band to keep basic track of sleep and fitness; I went with Xiaomi Mi Band 6

- smart weight to keep track of my weight and set goals; I went with Mi Body Composition Scale

- $15 heat gun for lighting charcoal. Cheaper and faster than the alternatives, no unsavory extra flavors

- Small Korin Konro. To go with the charcoal. Use this all the time for grilling small amounts of meat.

- Pasta noodle drying rack to use for hanging kitchen wash clothes and dish rags

Long johns!

While Seattle doesn't get that cold during the winter, the combination of 40 degree weather and moisture sure feels colder than it is. And our office is constantly swinging between warm and chilly for some odd reason.

Having an affordable base layer is a big win.

https://www.therabody.com/us/en-us/theragun-mini.html

UFO202 + Grado SR125x (I actually have the more expensive version of the same cans but the above just fits into $200, and in conjunction with an impulse response EQ deliver an incredible level of broad spectrum clarity for a relatively low price)

• Instant pot with air fryer hat ($150) is now the primary use I have for my kitchen. I rarely buy processed food, and I rarely use a stove. Microcontrollers on pots, man.

• Decent running shoes ($180). My entire wellbeing is better thanks to them.

$15 DisplayPort splitter to allow 120Hz on an external monitor for both PC and Macbook. Screen refresh rate has a huge effect on how enjoyable your experience is, whether it's working or gaming.

Keychron K2 Version 2 mechanical keyboard.

A cheap table-mounted vise with a 360 bearing. The bearing lock failed pretty quickly but I can just as easily clamp it down in any orientation regardless.

It's been super practical for all kinds of hobby projects.

Wasn't purchased in 2022 but I was just now talking to my wife about how great a purchase this had proven over the years. A Black Condor T&T Pouch. I tossed the map insert in the middle, the drawstrings inside, and the Molle attachment loops in the back, and it has served as a really fantastic organizer for pens, mechanical pencils, knives, erasers, Macbook dongles, precision screwdrivers, spudgers, and so on. Tough as nails. $30, available in lots of places.

I’m gonna second the streamdeck.

Contrary to (seemingly) everyone I liked the Touch Bar MacBooks. I barely ever used the function row, but the software that came by default wasn’t the best. But pock.app was perfect. It put alt-tab visually on my keyboard.

My daily driver is now a Mac mini, and Touch Bar MacBooks time has passed.

The stream deck replaces that functionality really well.

If you don’t have one, but think it could be helpful—it’s probably worth a shot. There’s nothing like a dedicated for a specific action.

Google Chromecast with Google TV.

One tiny remote does everything, and damn cheap.

ONO Roller

An elegant little fidget/stress tool that is silent so perfect for use during meetings.

https://onoroller.com/

Steam Deck. Fantastic for catching up on your gaming backlog when traveling.

Origami pourover brewer. Beautiful, and it’s been a lot of fun trying to get better at brewing great coffee.

A new mechanical keyboard.

My previous keyboard was a Bloody B840 that I won at a contest at a PC gaming event (PDXLAN). The switches were designed to feel and sound like MX Blues (very clicky), but the frame of the keyboard would let out a terrible metallic ping with every keypress.

I replaced it with a Keychron V6 keyboard with TTC Silent Bluish White switches. Now the keys have a nice thokkish bump with each press. Much quieter, and I love the way it feels.

Logitech Master MX 3. Perfect for anyone with bigger hands that ache after a while of mild mouse usage. Also, long/free and side scroll features are super nice.

A powerful compact GaN USB-C charger. Freed my backpack from bulky laptop charger, and can at the same time charge both laptop and a phone. Strong win-win.

For me:

- Philips OneBlade (use it weekly and have not needed to charge in 6 months) $35

- Large desk pad $20

- Shooting hearing protection with white noise (drowns out pretty much all other noise while coding) $100

Something silly off the top of my head... We bought a “dog backpack”. We have a pretty small dog but love longer walks or strolling through smaller shops. With the backpack, he can go with us anywhere and it has been a really fun experience.

Also our dog hates walking in rain (he will refuse to move). Now he goes in the backpack, we put a scarf / other clothing over it and we can go on for a bit until we find shelter.

Baratza Encore burr grinder! I might upgrade soon, but it's served me incredibly well for a year.

Also got a Craigslist road bike from the 80s for ~$250 cad (less than $200 USD). It's needed a few repairs but has absolutely been worth it and impactful to the year.

Also a good compact air sleeping pad for backpacking. Haven't used it as much as I'd have liked, but its made a few moments much more pleasant.

I bought 3 things with total under 100$. been working from home for last 2 years, due to space constrains adding big office style furniture is not feasible . back pain is starting for me, a small adjustable table which I can work while sitting in sofa, a small laptop stand which I can keep on my bed, and a good natural latex pillow if I am lying on stomach and having my elbow on it.

For $99 at Target we bought a mattress warmer with a timer just as the Bomb Cyclone dropped our temps to 10°F. Most effective $99 I've ever spent -- our Texas house cannot stay above 60°F in that weather.

Someday the same product will be controlled by a Home API and your phone and BTLE and cost $99/year for the app, but for now it has escaped the relentless march of "progress".

Not last year, as I haven't bought anything cheap but: Rice cooker was nice unitasker. For making rice. I could use electric pressure cooker, but rice cooker makes it simple enough and I can make almost small enough amount at one time. Or not too much waste.

Small handheld electric screwdriver from Lidl was reasonable purchase for cost. Not too much use, but was semi-useful during a move.

I have adult braces, and this has been a godsend ($30 USD)

https://www.amazon.com/Cordless-Portable-Irrigator-Rechargea...

Basically I can waterfloss after eating and not have to pull out ortho picks and a toothbrush

I've bought a bunch of things, each of while is below 200.

1. Logitech MX Ergo Trackball mouse. I LOVE this thing. 2. Aftershokz Aeropex and OpenComm. I'm single sided deaf and these are the best I can get for listening to music or taking any calls. 3. Powered sunglasses, I can walk around sunny areas without squinting. 4. Books: the daily stoic.

Sodastream. I was tilting back five or six cans of diet soda every day. The cost and caffeine were getting to be a problem.

Wife: USB lighter for candles. Mother-in-law: Premium subscription for golf empire (golf competitions). Me: Blotting paper.

Ergonomic mouse: Logitech Lift - 80 bucks

Use to have cramps and pains in by hand, not nothing. Amazing purchase

Its over 200, but Sony XM4s are great. I use it without ambient mode and noise cancelling, i think its the perfect amount of noise cancellation at least when working from home, and still wanting to be aware of surroundings(family members, dog, etc)

Beyond the obvious uses, a high chair was a great purchase because our daughter would start crying every time we tried to set her down to eat dinner, so only one of us could eat at a time, but once we got the high chair and she could be sitting at eye level with us, she was content to sit and let us eat.

Far infrared heating pad.

A really nice car phone mount with Qi/wireless charging was great for me. I've hated most of them I've used, finding them flimsy or just awkward. With this, I just throw my phone on there and go.

https://www.proclipusa.com/

A coffee maker and a pair of motorcycle jeans. The coffee maker is extremely easy to use (with capsules and a single button), while the jeans is something I was considering for 15 years, I always thought they are too expensive but then I bought it and found it extremely versatile, comfortable and safe.

Bought a LiDAR based vaccum cleaner from Amazon over holidays for $250. It does both mopping and cleaning. Our house stays a lot more cleaner, I didn’t realize how much it would add to quality of life not having to do such chores. It does a decent job and goes back to charge.

A Moto M2 audio interface. Having a dedicated volume for my microphone is very useful and it has independent headphone and speaker outputs. I has great out of the box Linux support

Most people who own a dedicated DAC would probably be just fine using this IMO.

My automatic cat feeder will likely be the most useful of 2023.

USB rechargeable arc candle lighter $12

I am not trying to derail the conversation, but I just have to comment on the product you listed.

I am clearly not the target market (I think?), but that marketing video on their home page “describing” what this is, has to be one of the worst marketing videos I have ever seen. I watched it and still have no idea what it does. I am guessing it allows you to switch the app that you are streaming? I give up…

https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck-mk2

EDIT: I am getting downvoted but I am going to leave this up. I am really not trying to be overly negative, but I feel like this is a missed opportunity for a company that has clearly created something creative that appeals to a certain market niche.

I know that sometimes it is hard for someone that is passionate about their product and wants to create good marketing material, but has a hard time describing things to those “outside” their circle. Hopefully they see this feedback and can use it to further expand their product’s reach.

Sleeping mask ~$15

Becoming comfortable sleeping with a sleeping mask + ear plugs makes it possible to sleep anywhere.

16 GB RAM ($60) + 1 TB SSD ($70) upgrade for my personal 2012 MacBook Pro (yeah 10 years!).

Upgraded to Mojave.

Works so much better than I expected. Feels much better than the touchbar macbook I used at work for 3 years.

Now looking for a good battery to keep it in shape.

(Posted from this very laptop)

A solid computer chair mat that doesn't bunch up or shed. $15 wireless phone charger.

I don't buy anything, but these basics helped. Things over that amount that I think would be meaningful - good vacuum, good screen, good chair. Renting dumpster to throw away junk.

I paid £200 on an electric desk for working at home which has been a great investment.

A buckwheat pillow. Not perfect and not for everybody, but I prefer it over other pillow types I tried.

It goes well with a High Density Foam Mattress. I never wake up with low back aches since I started using a mattress of this material.

Actually a 2020 purchase but it keeps paying dividends: Pax 3 vaporiser.

A sleep blindfold with Bluetooth headphones built in. It helps me stay asleep until the alarm goes off, and listening to ambient music helps silence the thoughts that used to keep me up all night.

1) Duck down pillows and nice bed sheets!! I sleep so much better.

There's ton of options out there but I bought all my bedding stuff from Italic.

2) Merino wool underwear by Smartwool (or Icebreaker). Trust me on this one.

An electric under-blanket - you can lower bedroom temperatures (saving money at current European gas prices) and be quickly cosy in bed. Pair with a plug timer and wake up cosy, too.

A 5-55lb adjustable dumbells picked up on Amazon for less than $150

A high quality bit:

https://theperfectbit.com/product/1-perfect-bit/

did wonders!

Luggage with four wheels. It is liberating in airports.

Peak Design mobile case + magnetic desk stand charger + other mounts. My phone is now always charged and I can transition from desktop to car to tripod to bike seamlessly.

I purchased a $100 Insignia TV off Amazon and a stand for my trainer bike setup. Cycling workouts are far less tedious with YouTube or Netflix in front of you.

Wool sweatpants. Keeps me perfectly warm.

Bose noise canceling headphones.

Does Kindle Unlimited count? Been a subscriber for a few years and I read about 5 KU titles on average per month. Mostly fantasy and sci-fi.

Aeroplex Aftershokz bone conductive headphones.

Blue light filter mobile screen protector. Improved my sleep a lot (average Fitbit sleep score was around a 7 and increased to 8).

- Weighted Blanket

- Kindle

Invested in 12V compatible desktop hardware. Solar powered, fanless and passively cooled.

Never enjoyed a super quiet work desk so much.

High-flow drilled-out showerhead for sure.

Drawing tablet. Surprisingly good for the price.

I did get a stand for it that pushed it over $200, but not strictly needed.

A 20 meter lan cable which I bought it for less than 10$. I have now much more stable connection.

Bought a standing desk for EUR 385. I got hernia in 2022, and this really helps me quite a bit.

A new keyboard, keychron k8 with blue switches, honestly surprised how long the battery lasts.

An Acer video projector I bought for 50€. I also got a few years old Thinkpad X230 for 100€.

Built a crkbd. Got a sensor watch.

Loop Quiet earplugs for sleeping.

Torras Screen Protector for my phone. Saved me a huge ton of regret after a blurry night.

shokz headphones for bike riding

Most of products I buy are used ones, so almost everything falls in under $200 :)

A water safe bathtub pillow.

An electric insect swatter.

A pair of heavy dumbbells.

Jetbrains IDE

M5stack's line of ESP32 ucontrollers/peripherals

Stupid cheap mass storage

Professional bike fit, $175 from a seasoned coach/racer.

My upgraded PC setup. I can now do bigger and better things.

A "milk frother" to make matcha lattes at home

Battle rope, amazing for working out on the terrace.

$20 IEM is crazy good. I'm lazy to find out if $100 IEM is already above 97th percentile of human ears capability. A lot of illusion of great quality above p90.

A 3-kilo bag of Taza chocolate baking chips.

Gallon drink bottle with a drinking tube.

Ceramic Earth Pan by Ozeri

ChatGPT

A bidet

Theragun + massage table

$16 earbuds Tazo - A1s.

hits://bulletpitch.xyz and it is free

A good fountain pen

Retroid Pocket 2+

capresso infinity burr grinder (for coffee)

Humidifier

French Press

NanoVNA

OWON scopemeter

FlipperZero

nvidia shield pro