A fire extinguisher can be found for less than 100 USD and is a must-have. A smoke detector is also a bare minimum in my opinion.
A water kettle. Doesn’t have to be any fancy one, but it really fucking rocks for anything you might think of : want hot water for tea? No problem. Need hot water to steep something? No problem.
Most mid-range ones are insanely power efficient too, often being alot better than just boiling water on a stovetop, or using a microwave. And, depending on insulation, heat can be stored for over 6! hours.
A kettle is such a default kitchen item in the UK that I find it kinda crazy that it’s not standard somewhere like the US, though I know I’ve seen the difference in base voltage being a factor before.
I went to visit a friend in the US (los angeles). She asked me what I want for breakfast and I said just some tea please and nothing else. I saw her going from confusion to terror in 5 seconds. And I was like whats wrong? Is everything ok?
Eventually she boiled water in a mug in the microwave, put in some pieces of apples and called it tea.
A few weeks later I went for work in the bay area. I just cannot start a day without tea. I saw the hotel I stayed in had a bit of difficulty in the tea department. Decided to buy my own kettle so I can have my tea in the room. Naively went to an electric store to buy a kettle. There was none. I was like WTF. Went to target, there were none. Only stove ones. But my room didnt have a stove. Then it hit me americans just dont boil water like the rest of the world.
A pair of high fidelity earplugs (aka concert earplugs or filtering earplugs). You can get a good non-custom pair for $15–$40, and that’ll work well for the average person for a long time.
They’re excellent for live music, airplanes, and anytime you want the world to be quieter but still need to be able to understand speech. And for music specifically, they can bring the volume level down just enough to be safe without muffling the sound like traditional foam earplugs do. Protect your hearing, kids!
If you have a car get a dashcam. It’s more valuable than any insurance because it will definitively prove what happened when something goes wrong. Bonus: you can post videos of bad drivers doing stupid things on the internet for imaginary points.
If only there was actually a good car dashcam, but every time I go down that rabbit hole I give up frustrated. The quality (build, mounting, video, whatever) is shit in pretty much all of them, and the “passable” ones look like a web cam from 2005 still.
A first aid kit
A bidet. Fight me.
The Haynes manual for your car. Even if you’re not a mechanic they are so detailed they will walk you through fixing almost anything, they’re made for the laymen. I’m a diesel mechanic and even i own one for my cars.
When friends buy a new car i buy them a Haynes manual.
They don’t do them for ever single car in the world and the coverage isn’t as great on later model stuff but if you own s car 5 years or more old they’re great.
One I didn’t see mentioned yet: a rice cooker.
Put in rice, add water, push start button, and you get perfect rice every time. I’m usually against single-purpose kitchen tools but a rice cooker is soo worth it.
Really only if you eat a lot of rice. For once a year or so, a pot on the stove works just fine. The actual benefit I’ve see for ricecookers is how well they can hold the rice for hours ready to go, but that’s more of a commercial benefit I think.
[…] but that’s more of a commercial benefit I think
For me, this is the primary benefit of a rice cooker. Having warm, cheap, filling food on demand at any time is fantastic. I am so lazy and my little rice buddies are always ready to go when I can’t be bothered.
“Rice is great if you’re really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something”
I know this will be a popular response, but I don’t get it.
I just use a pot and the rice is always perfect? Not hard at all? Am I just good?
A bidet. You can install it yourself in 20 minutes and enjoy a lifetime of cleaner buttholes and save on tp.
