I grew up with $20 walmart blenders, and hated anything that required a blender.
Recently bought a ninja and there is no going back. I’ll never use a crappy blender again.
Anything else like that?
I grew up with $20 walmart blenders, and hated anything that required a blender.
Recently bought a ninja and there is no going back. I’ll never use a crappy blender again.
Anything else like that?
Kitchen knives, definitely. A good knife is a fucking godsend.
Quality underwear (once you’re an adult).
A good office chair (not necessarily one of those expensive as fuck mesh ones - I hate those… But something quality).
Also, I’d distinguish between pointlessly expensive and quality.
Anything OXO is tops in the kitchen
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This is big RE: the kitchen knives. Science/engineering has figured out how to produce good steel, so it actually does not cost much to produce a very capable, good knife. Maybe you had to spend a lot for a good knife 200 years ago, but not now.
I got a Mercer chef knife from a restaurant supply store years ago. Just looking it up, it costs <$25, and it’s designed to be used all day by professionals. The often recommended victorinox fibrox is similar. They are easily sharpenable, and can do whatever you need.
I also have a ~$200 chef knife I got as a gift. It’s super nice, but the only real non-cosmetic differences are that the edges of the back of the blade are rounded over to make it a little more comfortable to hold while choking up on it, and it has a long warrantee that includes sharpening.
Shaving razor. I don’t mean the big brand stuff but getting yourself something that isn’t the cheapest available is a godsend. Stuff lasts you an entire month or two instead of going dull after 2-3 uses.
I actually say the cheapest option is buying a good quality Safety Razor, and then packs of blades for pennies each.
It’s how I’ve shaved for years, and I’m never going back to the multi blade bullshit disposables.
I’m actually looking at going back as the safety razors don’t work as well for me as the multi blade stuff. I’ve been using double edges for probably 7-8 years now and when I have to use a disposable when traveling it just works so much better for some reason.
I’m actually surprised to hear this. To confirm, you mean the shave cuts closer with a multi blade? I can understand it being faster or easier to do, but I don’t usually hear that the shave is better compared to a DE
Yup. I’m trying to figure out what I’ve been doing wrong. It may be a time thing. I don’t have a lot of time to shave, but I can go over an area multiple times in the same direction and a disposible will work better. I usually don’t go against the grain as it irritates the hell out of my skin so it’s with the grain and the disposable cuts closer.
It’s most likely a time thing since I only have time to do a single pass and quite often with no extra oils, creams, etc.
It could have to do with the make and model of the razor. Some have a more aggressive angle than others. There’s also the blades. Have you tried feather blades?
Yeah I usually do 2 passes as well using only a staging soap(no pre shave oil). If you prefer to do things faster, I will say a fixed blade is usually faster. I personally don’t mind the extra time, considering it’s cheaper and better for the environment to use a DE (so long as you don’t give in to the urge to keep buying a bunch of razors, soaps lol)
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I second the desk chair as a fat crippled IT worker that spends 10+ hours a day in a desk chair. I used to get a new $500ish chair every 3 or so years when it fell apart. This last time I saved up and dropped about 2.5k on a really nice chair rated for 24/7 use by someone much heavier than I am and it’s a life changer for my back, and this thing should last a lot longer
Do you have a brand recommendation? I really need to replace my office chair
Yeah, the brand I went with was concept seating. I’m about 6’7” around 400 pounds - fat gut, big bones, decent amount of muscle - was a lineman before I got crippled. I am 100% a fatass, no excuse, but also big in other dimensions as well. Most chairs, even the big and tall ones from staples and the like, will get a bit of a gangster lean after a year or so of use as the chairs base plate slowly warps and tack welds come loose. You can grind it down and patch up the welds, but not much to be done about the plate warp. The concept seating chair I got has a massively thick base plate that seems like it will hold up to a lot more. One other thing I really like about the one I got is that it doesn’t have the most common failure point, the piston. Instead it has a fuck off huge solid threaded shaft that you use to screw the chair to the right height then lock it with a massive lock washer. Additionally it doesn’t recline or move in any other way other than to spin and roll. You can loosen bolts to adjust the fit then tighten them back up, but nothing is easily adjustable with levers and stuff which I love because those are just failure points and I’d much rather spend the time to set it up once Ave never worry about it again
Herman Miller or Steelcase.
I bought a pair of used (probably dot-com-era surplus) Herman Miller Aeron chairs for me and my wife over a decade ago for like $350 (don’t remember if that was for the pair or per-chair; either way it was a bargain) and they’re still going strong.
Really depends on what you need. I’ve been using a $500-600 24/7 rated office chair daily for over a decade and it’s still as fantastic as the day I sat in it on the floor.
The $700 one I have at my other desk is good, but not quite as good as the cheaper one, but I didn’t sit in it at the show room before getting it either.
I bought a nice sharp knife for my Mom because hers were dull. She has a utensil drawer she throws all the knives on.
From the drawer, into cutting the cardboard box, then the veggies, and straight into the dishwasher. And people wonder why their knives go dull so quickly.
Tbf, I keep my crappy box-cutting, hole pokinng Ikea knives in the kitchen drawer too. But if you do that to my good knives, I will stab you (with the Ikea ones).
So, I should buy my kids cheapo underwear?
Absolutely, growing humans will almost never wear through clothing.
They’re just going to grow out of them.
What’s special about quality underwear? I bought a bunch of fruits of loom ones which is pretty cheap but I never noticed it being and issue.
More comfortable and better able to wick away moisture… Even after a fair amount of exercise your underwear shouldn’t feel damp.
Any brand recommendations to look in to?
For men’s, blue sky and step one are both good options.
Thanks for this! I’ll look into it
Instead of an office chair, I opted for a loveseat, on risers, that I can pull fit inside of my desk.
Risers end up being necessary for a standing desk, if you have a loveseat, apparently, because a loveseat sits much lower than most good computer desks that I’ve found, so to get comfortable typing position, you need good risers. You’re also gonna need a couch that stands up higher than your loveseat’s feet, so you can clear the feet and pull the desk in far enough (it might still not be enough, frankly). You might wanna opt for castors, though, since then you can make use of a standing desk, if you have one, which is probably a good idea instead of sitting on the couch for too long.
And, you know, after all that, I get a seat that’s kind of frankly not that comfortable to sit on for extended periods of time, because nobody has engineered their couch for you to sit on for multiple hours. I would wager that’s probably a bad thing anyways. I’ve been looking into standing-to-sitting desks, in order to overcorrect from this problem of sitting in one position, and get a desk that I can sit on the floor with, and basically whatever position I want. But that also kind of sucks, because there are only two and they are both like 1000 bucks.
On the other hand, a loveseat is much better for spooning, than having two office chairs. So that’s a bonus, if you wanted to spoon at your computer. Or you could just cast your screen to the smart TV you probably already have and buy a bluetooth computer controller for like 20 dollars or less.z
I hope someone reading this gains some insight because of this. You should buy a regular chair. It’s expensive but just buy it please I’m begging you, don’t make my mistakes again.
Quality knives do not have to be super expensive. The trick is to maintain them. Honing of course, and unless you are a super enthusiastic home cook, a proper sharpening by a pro on Japanese wet stone twice a year is all it takes. That’s like at most USD 20 in most places, probably less. Even mid range knives are fine, so long as you keep them sharp.
And you don’t need a lot. In theory a good chefs knife and a good paring knife will do. In practice, you also want a bread knife and filleting knife, but you can start small.
Agree with the underwear, I’m still wearing pairs daily that I bought from 2015. Around $15 a pair.
Second kitchen knives. I use exclusively handmade Japanese carbon steel knives now and will never go back. When I have to cut something at someone’s else’s home or a vacation place I just cringe and suffer. Even the supposedly high quality German stainless chef’s knife someone gifted me once just isn’t it, I never touch it.
As to kitchen knives…you don’t need a big set with 10 different knives. Just buy a good chefs knife and a boning knife and a pearing knife and you’re good for damn near everything you need.
Beyond that you can get a bread knife if you ever do up bread you’d need one for, and a cheese knife if you slice your own cheese. I highly recommend you get knives that the blade goes from tip to heel, and avoid ones with an unsharpened/flat heel area.
Then you want a decent wet stone to keep em sharp and learn to use it. Just get a combination 500/1000 (ish) grit and a 2000 grit and that’s plenty for a kitchen knife. Then get a honing steel and you’ll only have to sharpen your knives a couple times a year.
Also, if you’re a home cook with no aspirations of becoming a professional chef or hosting huge meals all the time, no reason to break the bank buying something like a $200 chefs knife. Victorinox makes a perfectly fine dishwasher safe chefs knife for like $40. If you’re happy with hand washing and drying a knife right after you use it, go for a high carbon knife instead. They get sharper and stay sharp longer but the added care may not be worth it to you.