Back in late October, I made a post about two things I love and one thing I don’t. It ended up being one of my more popular posts, so I’m expanding it today to a full list of things I recommend.
Inspired by posts like this one by Sam Bowman, what follows is a list of things I’ve purchased that have improved my life.
This is not a gift-giving guide! Some of these items can’t even be purchased today! These are items that I use and that make me happy. Still, I recognize that some of you will use it as a gift-giving guide anyway, especially given the publication date.
Where possible, I’ve linked to the exact models I use, and have provided a strength of recommendation (SOR). This is a measure of how confident I am that someone else might like the thing I’m recommending.
I’m a tightwad. If I can avoid spending money, I will. What’s below is either a frugal purchase, or worth the cash (to me).
Because I’m a sellout, I am using Amazon affiliate links, and get a cut of each purchase made using these links at no cost to you.
I will make a separate post about software I use and love.
Every day carry
Water Bottle (SOR: 5/5)
I don’t tell many people this1, but I’m more than 70% water. When I was in high school, I carried around a big, doofy waterskin strapped across one shoulder. I loved it, and it was not possible to look less cool than while wearing it.
In college, I switched to a metal water bottle, and now I’m never without it. Unless I’m showering, in which case, I am surrounded by water. Otherwise? You won’t see me without a water bottle.
My bottle of choice is a Mira 25 oz water bottle with a metal lid. I find a lot of water bottles have openings that are too small, and I have to choose between pursing my lips like a tiny little goldfish, or wrapping my mouth around the opening and wishing I was doing anything else.
Not with these! The openings are a little more than an inch wide, making it clear that this is the kind of situation where you drink from it like a cup. Like a normal person.
Stay hydrated, drink Mira.
Ear Muffs (SOR: 4/5)
I have short hair and big ears. Sometimes, I’m completely bald. My ears get cold. I carry a small, collapsible pair of ear muffs in every jacket I own.
I would recommend these even more strongly, except my favorite pair broke recently (after a decade of use), and all of the ones I’ve tried to replace it with have been way too large to fit into my pockets! I believe this pair is closest in size to what I love.
Key multitool (SOR: 3/5)
I first bought this for $3 from ThinkGeek in 2009. Sadly, that’s no longer an option, and the quality had dropped dramatically.
My wife bought one of these after seeing how much I use mine, and I find hers much harder to open. It’s unpleasantly rigid and stiff. Other versions of this on Amazon have a 2.6/5 rating. Not great!
BUT, hear me out: this tiny tool fits perfectly on a keychain, and includes (sorted by how often I use them): a phillips head screwdriver, a flathead screwdriver, a knife, a bottle opener, an eyeglasses screwdriver.
Now, is it true that using the bottle opener requires you to push your thumb directly onto the knife blade? Yes! Is it true that if you take this through airport security, they will either ignore it or confiscate it, forcing you to mail it to yourself for an egregious $20 since the modern replacements are of inferior quality? Yes!
Am I recommending it anyway? Sort of! Again, this isn’t a gift guide! Don’t buy this for someone you like. Buy it for yourself and see if it works. Me? I’m holding onto mine forever.
They just don’t make ‘em like ThinkGeek used to. RIP.
Yeti Travel Mug (SOR: 4/5)
I like tea. If you like tea (or coffee), you’ll want a mug that is a) big and b) warm. A lot of mugs are small or get cold quickly. This Yeti doesn’t.
I got this as a gift, but I love it. I cover it with stickers (mostly of my dog) and fill it up multiple times a day. It keeps my drinks warm for hours (especially if I rinse it with boiling water first), and the magnetic slider is fun and satisfying to fidget with.
It does the job. While my pitch here may not be stellar, this mug certainly is.
Kitchen
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I cook, I bake. And I have a very high bar for buying new gadgets. I don’t need a dedicated rice cooker (despite all of those blogs telling me I do). I don’t make rice very often, and when I do it comes out just fine!
Here are the kitchen gizmos I do love.
Too many wooden spoons (SOR: 5/5)
I’m always stirring things in the kitchen. Stirring, scraping, mixing, flipping. And you know what I use for all of this? Giant wooden spoons. Browning meat? Two wooden spoons. Stirring pasta? Wooden spoon. Simmering a sauce? Wooden spoon.
Now you don’t wnat nice wooden spoons for this. You don’t want thick ones. You want thin, crappy wooden implements that you can burn and scrape and clean and really get under whatever is simmering in this pot.
You want cheap wooden implements in all sorts of sizes. You can’t have too many, but they can be too fancy. Stay simple.
Electric Kettle (SOR: 4/5)
I drink a lot of tea. When I’m not drinking water (see above re: 70%), I’m drinking tea. Sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly spicy2, I’ll just drink hot water. Sure, I get bullied for it, but it feels so good.
Getting water hot is hard. You can put your mug in the microwave, and you have hot water in a couple minutes. But also you have a mug that’s too hot to hold. You can try to pour it into another mug, but you risk burning yourself, and also now you’ve used two mugs just to make water.
You can make it over the stove if you’d like a cup of tea 15 minutes from now. Or, you can get an electric kettle. If you don’t drink a lot of tea, this is a bad recommendation for you!
Why this electric kettle? First, it has a switch in the handle, right where I’m picking the thing up anyway. A lot of kettles have the switch at the base of the kettle, where it is both non-obvious and out of the way. Bad!
Second, this will turn itself off if the water gets too hot, or if there’s not enough in there. Great!
Fancier models will tell you the temperature, let you set a specific temperature, or even hold the water at your desired temperature. Me? I’m not that sophisticated. I just want hot water, man.
Sometimes, I also use the kettle to get a head start when boiling noodles. I know, a real maverick.
Canning funnel (SOR: 4/5)
Hear me out. I’ve never canned anything in my life, but I use this funnel at least once a week.
Why a canning funnel? What even is a canning funnel? Two great questions, one great answer: a canning funnel is a funnel with a huge mouth at the bottom. Too many funnels taper off to a tiny little spigot. Bah! We need width, not precision!
What do I use a funnel for? Two things: 1. Whenever I cook off meat, I like to use a spoon to scoop out extra fat and oil into a glass jar. You know what helps? A metal funnel with a wide opening and a wide base.
2. I eat a lot of nuts. I like a peanut. I keep peanuts in my car, in my backpack, in my pantry. It’s a good snack. You know what I don’t like? Salty peanuts. Some brands, when they say “lightly salted” what they mean is “Yeah, I suppose we could have put more salt on this, if we’d spilled our salt supply or something”. So what I do is I take my “lightly” salted peanuts and I put ‘em in a big glass bowl and SHAKE ‘EM AROUND until most of the salt sticks to the bowl. Then I put ‘em back into my tall, plastic peanut cylinder. And you know what helps with that? You guessed it, a giant, metal funnel with a wide opening and a wide base.
Electric Can Opener (SOR: 5/5)
We have three can openers. One of them is truly terrible. It’s tight and rigid, and take the full force of six men to pry open the handles. It’s like wrasslin’ an aligator, I assume. One of them is bog-standard, and does the job.
The other is electric. It’s loud. It’s noisy. It doesn’t always stop when the job is done. But by golly is it convenient. You stick it on the can, hit a button, and keep stirring up your pans with cheap wooden spoons. A few seconds later, voila, the can is open and you can go about your day.
I don’t have this particular brand, so maybe it’s better at stopping when the can is open, or letting go of the lid at the end. Maybe it’s quieter than the one I have. But you see that 5/5 SOR up there? That means that despite all these flaws, I really appreciate having this thing around.
Onion cutting goggles (SOR: 5/5)
Now there are some brands that sell goggles specifically branded as “onion cutting goggles”. I’ve not linked those above, partially because I think it’s a little silly, and partially because it’s not what I use.
Whenver I cut onion, I ask for my onion cutting goggles, and my kiddo will fetch me the dewalt goggles listed above. Why does he have to fetch them? Because I don’t keep them in the kitchen. These are the same goggles I use when I’m woodworking. But they work for onions. A seal around your eyes is a seal around your eyes, and you don’t see me crying over here.
Not until the milk is spilt, anyway.
Popcorn popper (SOR: 3/5)
I like popcorn, and so do my kids. This popcorn popper lets me control the amount I make, as well as how heathy it is (I don’t use a lot of butter, or very much salt at all).
It makes a lot of popcorn too, if you want to! I use coconut oil, which impacts the taste slightly, but seasonings and nutritional yeast can override it.
My one complaint with this one is that you have to take the lid off while it pops, or the popcorn comes out a bit soggy. Which means you need to pre-melt any butter first, or it won’t drizzle on.
Sealable Tupperware (identical) (SOR: 5/5)
We have about a dozen of these identical tupperware containers for storing leftovers. No fussing about with finding the right lids, just grab, snap, and clean. The lids do need to be hand-washed, but the lack of fuss is a huge selling point.
Reusable takeout container (SOR: 5/5)
My college dining center used these, and we bought a load of them ourselves. They’re perfectly portioned to pack a meal in for work, and are microwave and dishwasher safe.
This is my daily “lunchbox”, and they stack nicely too!
A quiet dishwasher (SOR: 5/5)
My old dishwasher was LOUD. It was louder than a hair dryer. We would start it only when we were about to leave the house, or to sleep (on a different floor). We couldn’t have conversations in or near the kitchen while it was running.
When it came time to replace it, my priority was silence. I went with a Miele dishwasher, one of the quietest available. Bosch had one model that was quieter, for about 3x the price. Ours is almost too quiet, with guests (and sometimes the kiddos) opening it mid-cycle, not realizing it’s running.
Still, it’s hard to explain just how much nicer a quiet kitchen is.
I don’t know that I recommend the Miele exclusively; it also takes a long time to run (almost 4 hours for a full load and dry), but it’s a helluva lot better than what we had before!
Home
Air Filter (SOR: 3/5)
A clean home is a happy home, and your air probably isn’t very clean. It’s not meant to be an insult!
The air filter I’ve linked above is not the one I use, but it is the one that Wirecutter has been recommending for more than a decade. I use a handful of air filters that I picked up on meh.com a few years ago.
Air filters mean maintenance. They mean replacing the filters a little less often than you’re supposed to. But they also mean cleaner air, that stuff you breathe all the time. I live in an area with a lot of wildfires, so I especially appreciate having them around. But I also vacuum every week, and I see how much dust is in the air.
If nothing else, I keep one in the rooms where I spend a lot of time: the office, where I write, and the bedroom, where I sleep. I’ve seen a lot of talk about how air filters are one of the cheapest and most effective purchases you can make to improve the health of a space (and of the people living in that space). I’m not a scientist, and having the air filter around isn’t something I actively notice, so if you’re thinking “Gee, that 3/5 SOR isn’t very strong”, well that’s why.
But, I figure they aren’t hurting anything, and no one has ever complained about my air3, so it must be working.
Self-locking tape measure (SOR: 3/5)
If you don’t alreay have a tape measure, this SOR goes up to 5/5. I find myself measuring things all the time! Whether it’s a kid who wants to know how tall they are, furnature I need to build or buy, or trying to rearrange furnature into the right place. You gotta have a tape measure around.
And having one that locks by itself is just so nice. I can’t imagine going back to needing to manaully set the lock. With this one, you just pull the tape, let go, and it… just stays there.
But if you already have a boring old non-locking tape measure, and it’s meeting your needs? Well, I don’t know that I can justify asking you to spend more on this one feature.
Unless, of course, you use it all the time or are tired of having to lock the thing. In which case, this is a no-brainer.
Address Stamper (SOR: 4/5)
This is my favorite housewarming gift to get people. It’s a custom stamp with your name and address on it. Ka-thump BANG! Your address, plain as day on the page.
I send a lot of letters. I keep up with a handful of pen pals, and I stamp about 100 Christmas letters each year. This has saved me a ton of time and effort. It’s the equivalent of a real-life hotkey for writing out my address.
If you write a lot of letters, this is a must-buy. If you don’t, well. You won’t see the appeal.
Letter Opener (SOR: 2/5)
Like I said, I get a lot of mail. Most letter openers are bulky and heavy, but these cheap plastic ones are great. You poke one end in and SCHLEWP! It’s open!
I don’t expect most people to get as much use out of these as I do, but I love mine. Full disclosure: I got mine as a freebie from a career fair a decade ago from a company I had no interest in working for and do not remember the name of (even though it’s firmly stamped upon my letter opener.)
Bidet (SOR: 4/5)
I’ve always been reluctant to poop in public restrooms, and that was before I got a bidet. It has recently been brought to my attention that everybody poops. I don’t know what I can say about a bidet that has not already been said: it’s clean, it uses far less toilet paper, easy to install, it’s good!
This model is actually nicer than the one I have. Mine came attached to a plastic toilet seat, whereas the one above seems like it works with your existing toilet seats.
Speaking of,
Slow fall toilet seat (SOR: 2/5)
This is firmly in the “nice to have” category, but I do notice it, especially when I’m at friends’ houses who don’t have them. Pssss CRASH! Flush. That’s the sound of me peeing and then embarrassing myself as I throw the toilet seat down with the full force of Thor.
Anyway, make sure you get one that matches the shape of your toilet bowl (round vs elongated).
Outlet splitters (SOR: 5/5)
Do you have enough outlets? I don’t! Near my desk, I keep a lamp, an an air purifier, occasionally a fan, a diffuser, and a phone charger. That’s more than two things!
The outlet splitter I’ve linked above is nicer than the one I have. The one I have was never actually used by a human before being shipped into the world.
How can I know this? Because the outlets are so close together, you can only use two of the three! This one seems like they thought about this when designing the shape of it, plus it has cable slots as well.
Diffuser (SOR: 3/5)
Deep breaths. Aaaah. Nice, isn’t it?
I like a diffiuser. I like a gentle waft of essential oil puffing softly into the air. I like the smell of lavender or eucalyptus as I work or as I relax. It’s calming, like a soft rain or this soothing paragraph.
Keep your favorite essential oils on hand. Mix a few drops slowly into water, and set the color to your liking (I prefer it off. I find the lights distracting). The scent will fill the room, helping you find your calm. Feeling sick? I greatly enjoy an aromatherapy easy breathing blend. It may be placebo, but my throat feels better after.
Clip-On Towel rack (SOR: 4/5)
I bought a bunch of these from Ikea a while back, and I love ‘em. They slip off sometimes, sure, but there’s nothing like the convenience of having a towel right where you want one.
I don’t have a good place to hang a towel in my kitchen. Now I have two. That’s the whole pitch! If you need these, you’ll immedately see the appeal, and they’re under $5 to boot!
The Math Trough (SOR: 3/5)
Technically called the Mala and designed for young kids to scribble on, I use the math trough to help my kids with math problems. We fill it with pencils, erasers, and a compas and pull of a strip of paper big enough to solve the problems we’re working on.
We never have to search for scratch paper, it just lives at the end of the table. It does take some time to learn how to rip off a sheet just right, but the convenience is totally worth it.
Every single person who has seen me use this has lit up and asked where I got it. Ikea! This is another one where if you see the need, it’s an obvious improvement to your space.
Bag holder (SOR: 3/5)
Do you have a bag of bags? Or a bag drawer? I don’t! I have a wall-mounted bag holder, and when I need a bag, I pull one out. It’s efficient!
Clothes
Shirts (SOR: 3/5)
The problem with Big & Tall stores is the ampersand. I am tall, but I am not big. If I wear an XL shirt, I am swimming in it. If I wear an L shirt, the bottom part of my bells peeks out, as though I am shy but also expressive.
I don’t care much about fashion, but I do care about fit. I don’t like my clothes to be too tight, especially around the armpits and neck. I know the tight fit looks nice, but I’m already married, and these Large Long shirts are both the answer to my woes and an improvement over the boxy XLs I previously wore.
I grabbed a cool dozen of these shirts in various solid colors, and they’re basically all I wear. I’ve phased out my faded graphic tees for these plain and inoffensive options. Are they stylish? Not particularly. But they’re professional enough, and quite comfortable.
Goldtoe socks (in white and black) (SOR: 3/5)
I have exactly 3 kinds of socks. White Goldtoe that I wear every day, black Goldtoe that I wear on special occasions, and a bunch of these heavier socks from Duluth Trading Co. when my feet get cold in the winter.
They’re warm, comfortable, and I don’t have to ever worry about finding a match.
Newsboy cap (SOR: 3/5)
My hair doesn’t always like to cooperate (that’s one reason I’m often bald). These hats are stylish, comfy, and warm. My favorite one has a fluffy lining that keeps my head warm in the winter, but others are silkier and keep me from overheating.
I don’t know anything about fashion, but I often get complements when wearing these, so they must be working for me.
Technology and hardware
Note: I will do a separate follow-up post about software. Most of the software I use is free, this post is long, and it feels like a different vibe. I’ll link it here when I do.
The Nintendo 2DS (SOR: 4/5)
I can’t see in 3D. So when Nintendo announced the 2DS, I was hooked. A product just for me! But, I’m a cheapo, so I waited a few years and bought one off a friend who wanted to upgrade.
The Nintendo 2DS is my favorite piece of hardware. It fits comfortably in my hands, it has long battery life, and it can play a butt-load of games, especially if you emulate. I was able to get Myst running on it via SCUMMVM, just by taking my actual Myst game files and moving them over. It’s wild!
This device has been discountinued, so I don’t know how long that link up there will work, but I adore my 2DS. The only thing that would make it better would be if it could play movies. I’ve sort of got it working, but there’s a bit of a delay between audio and visuals by the end, and even by my low standards for this kind of thing, it’s pretty unusable.
The Nintendo Switch (SOR: 5/5)
There’s supposed to be a new one of these being announced any month now, which means it’s a great time to buy! There’s a huge library for this thing, and while first-party games rarely go on sale, indie games and third-party ones do.
This is the modern successor to the 2DS, and it almost lives up to it! I play almost exclusively in handheld mode (but find the Switch Lite too small for my meaty hands, unfortunately). It travels great, can host party games with ease, and is just a fun source of entertainment.
I haven’t mucked around with this at all since it’s technically my wife’s, but I bet it could even play videos.
If I’m getting on a plane, I bring the switch. I also bring it when I have to sit in a parking lot for any length of time (cell phone lot at the airport, transporting kids to and from appointments, and the like).
Barnes and Noble Nook (SOR: 3/5)
I shouldn’t bad-talk Amazon here with these affiliate links I’m tossing around. I briefly used my wife’s Kindle, and it seemed faster and more responsive than my Nook. It also had some nice QOL features, like being able to email books to your device.
But there’s a few reasons I stick with my nook over what seems to be the better Kindle.
- Amazon uses DRM on their books. I like to own my books. Bah!
- The Nook isn’t that much worse. It’s still very usable!
- There are no ads on the Nook. I don’t like ads. Especially on something I paid to use!
- I can preview ebooks while inside a Barnes and Noble store. It’s neat!
- I like rooting for the underdog, and I’m glad this exists.
Probably I should recommend the Kindle here. I won’t. I haven’t really used one enough to say, and I do like my Nook. But I can’t in good faith give it a 5/5 recommendation to you without knowing what’s important to you.
I could probably rewrite this to be “e-reader”, but it’s 2024, and I think you’ve been pitched on the general idea.
I use a Nook. Few people do. Make your choice.
A tablet (SOR: 2/5)
I just got done saying that I wouldn’t recommend a general use thing like “an e-reader”, and here I am recommending “a tablet”. Come on!
That link above goes to an Amazon Fire, a tablet I have never used. I don’t like my tablet! I have a Lenovo P11 Plus, and I would not buy it again. I haven’t really ever used a Lenovo product that I’ve enjoyed (and yes, I’ve tried the Thinkpad, and the ThinkStation, and…)
I like having a tablet. I can put PDFs on it and read them at night, or pull up RPGs at the game table with ctrl+f. I can watch movies and TV shows on it when I travel (the ONE time I appreciate the big screen). Mostly, I use it to read comics, but it does improve my life.
I don’t hate mine enough to replace it with one I like better, but I do grumble about it whenever I find it dead or when it wakes me up at 3am by turning on the screen for no apparent reason. These frustrations are related!
You might like a tablet! I don’t like mine, but I’m glad I have it.
Wacom Drawing Tablet (SOR: 3/5)
I’m not an artist. I bought a Wacom tablet years ago for $5 at a university overstock sale. I love it. It’s so convenient to be able to sign a PDF or scrible out a digital scrawl in Paint. If the key knife is the best $3 I’ve ever spent (followed by $20 to ship it home from DFW airport), this tablet is the best $5 I’ve ever spent. I don’t use it often, and I know I can’t replace it for $5, but I would fully oconsider buying one for $50 (the current sale price of the one linked above) if mine ever bits the dust. At $100 (the normal price), I’d certainly hesitate, and would probably just reminisce fondly about the tablet I used to own.
Samsung Galaxy Smart Watch (SOR 5/5)
I resisted the watch for years, and only bought mine because it was dirt cheap. My cell phone store was having a sale to get rid of last year’s models, and sold it to me for $15. If it broke, I’d almost certainly replace it, but probably not at the $260 sale(!) price quoted above.
I have a pretty good sense of time, and figured I wouldn’t use it for much, but what the hey. I’m glad I tried it!
Here’s what I use my watch for, sorted roughly by frequency (most often at the top):
- Tracking my steps. I walk 3 miles a day, and haven’t missed a day since July. That wouldn’t be true without my watch.
- Checking the weather before I walk so I know how to dress.
- Checking the time.
- Getting calendar invites and alarms.
- Finding my phone when I misplace it.
- Getting and receiving notifications.
- Setting timers (usually while cooking)
- Starting music or audiobook apps on my phone when I get into my car.
- Silencing alarms before they ring my phone, or without getting to my phone.
- Asking the assistant questions.
- Playing, pausing, or rewinding 15 seconds of my audio when I am cooking or woodworking (often done with my nose).
- Subtle navigation, with vibrations. Useful in big cities.
I use other features as well, but these are the most common. I chose the largest available screen, partially because I have big fingers, and also because I sometimes press buttons with my nose.
Note: I have no loyalty to Samsung here. This is the only one I’ve used, and I assume other watches are just as good here.
Charge Brick (SOR: 5/5)
I resisted the siren call of external batteries for ages, but now I am a convert. The one I have has three cables built into it, one for USB C, one for micro USB, and one for whatever the hell Apple uses these days. It’s not exactly the one linked above, but it’s pretty close.
I can get three to four full charges of my phone before needing to charge the brick, and it charges incredibly fast. It’s light, easy to read the power levels, and very portable. I love it!
Amber book light with flex neck and clamp (SOR: 5/5)
I have one complaint about this, and that is that it sucks to travel with. I read the reviews before I hought it, and I dismissed the reviewers as fools. I have seen the (ahem) light. The head on these will get bumped, turning the light on in your bag. You will be sad. I still heartily recommend them.
I’m getting ahead of myself.
Do you ever read at night? On planes? In the dark? This is a rechargeable light that clips onto your book, and has a long, bendy neck to aim the light where you want it.
And the light is amber! It’s a gentle orange light that won’t wake up your partner sleeping next to you, or bother other passengers in the airplane. It has three brightness levels (and no battery indicator, other than what used to be “bright” is now “dim”).
The model I bought has a micro USB port, which is annoying, but it looks like newer models have ugraded to USB C.
USB C + MicroUSB convertable cables (SOR: 4/5)
It’s 2024, surely everything is on USB C, right? Wrong! I don’t upgrade my old electronics. I’ve got those reading lights I described above, I’ve got old Android devices, I’ve got a NOOK from 2019! I still need micro USB cables from time to time, but I don’t like keeping them around.
So I’ve got these cables that come with a little clip-on adaptor to switch between modern adaptors and old.
If you need ‘em, you know!
Charging Plinth (SOR: 5/5)
I’ve got a phone and a smart watch. I don’t want to futz around and make sure they’re perfectly positioned on a tiny charge pad, nor do I want to futz aruond with actual, physical cables like an animal.
I live in elegance. I have a little plinth next to my bed. I rest my phone on the plinth, and it charges. I rest my watch on the plinth, and it chages. It looks like if I had headphones, I could rest them on the plinth and charge them too. I don’t!
I have little plinths wherever I spend time (though only my bedside one has a watch holder).
Dictaphone / Voice Recorder (SOR: 2/5)
I often have ideas when I’m driving. Sometimes it’s something I need to do, or want to write, or need to pick up from the store. I don’t want to forget them, and I’m certainly not going to write them down while I’m driving.
I tried using my watch to dictate texts to myself, but a) it doesn’t recognize “send myself a message”, which means I need to either read out my entire phone number while remembering the message and driving, or set it as a reminder, b) has a length limit, c) mishears me, and d) interprets any pause as me being done speaking. I’m not!
So I bought a little dictaphone that I can operate just by feel: flick the switch, click the big button, trust it’s recording. I speak, click it again, I’m done. Later I play it back and turn it into notes.
I don’t expect most people are in this situation often.
There you have it. A list of things that (as of December 2024) make my life better. It’s not complete! Some of it has become water. But I hope that this will inspire you to 1) look around and identify things that make you happy, and to revel in the comforts you have, and 2) consider if there’s opportunity to improve what you have in a meaningful, intentional way, and not just in a blind consumerism way. I saw one blog that suggested spending $40 on a single pen! I don’t care how good the pen is, I cannot value it that highly.
I like a good, smooth pen, and never spend more than $10 on a pack.