Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
What cheap yet very useful things have made a substantial change and improvement to your life?
For me it has always been USB flash drives. I'm scared of getting ransomware'd one day, but I am safe in the knowledge that I'd have to have every thumbdrive I own plugged into my PC for some real damage to happen. They are a lifesaver, and they get cheaper every year too!
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 240 ms ] threadUsing cooking vinegar in place of liquid softener in the clothes washer to remove moldy / gym sock smell from the drum and clothes. Only need to apply once every few washes and is less than $1 worth of vinegar to do the trick. I just fill the softener compartment with it. I've spent a lot of money on products that claim to remove the smell, but vinegar has consistently done the trick.
If your car's AC also smells moldy / gym socky, you can buy a foam spray that's designed to remove it that you put into your AC vents for around $35 that will clear it up immediately. I've watched youtube videos suggesting lysol but it did not work out for me on two cars. This did.
If you don't need the extra space, probably not worth the effort.
Is also nice if you are dealing with mixed sizes of boxes. Cut them to roughly the same size for stacking.
(Not the op, so I could have the wrong motives...)
Pretty happy with it.
For cars, sometimes it is as easy as changing the cabin air filter.
It's the equivalent of having 4, 23" 1080p monitors, all smooshed together with no bezel. You can see sooo much. It's not as high of a dpi, but I switched to it from a 39" ultra curved widescreen that was over $1000 and I can see even more.
Another tiny set of purchases that makes life easier - buy different colored and patterned cables instead of just black. I can actually find what I need so much quicker instead of trying to trace a single black cable through the rat's nest.
Another way I've solved this with standard black wires is to get multi-color tape and then put tape around both ends of the wire. You can get a 10 pack of assorted colors for like $10. It's handy if you have a rats nest of black computer wires.
Also works magnificently for trying to figure out what's plugged into the multi-outlet next to the entertainment center. "This is the TV plug. This is the amplifier. This is the NAS. This is the switch." It's so much easier when the switch's power adapter has a big "SWITCH" label on it.
* A very long USB-C cable from an Apple store. I get jealous looks when I break it out to charge my phone.
* Scented candles from Aldi. It's such a quality of life boost to have the place smelling nice. They last ages and cost nothing.
* A creme brulee hand blowtorch. Surprisingly useful! Excellent for lighting aforementioned candles instantly, without burning your knuckles.
* A real P3 respirator with replaceable filters. I've seen the rate that people go through disposable masks. Replacing the filters every few months is vastly cheaper than that! And bonus, it's at least an order of magnitude more effective.
Generally candles emit fine particulates which is unhealthy.
Also, I tend to take the view that the best tool available to me to not spread Covid is to not catch Covid. It's apparent to me that relying on the people around me to wear masks and be sensible is not a viable strategy for avoiding transmission events. When the prevailing attitude is that the pandemic is over, I do not feel it is selfish to protect myself to the best of my ability.
Seconded. It's absurdly nice to have a focused torch when you need one. And most are refillable, making them better than most lighters.
back in the day it used to be
1) phone
2) small digital camera
3) keys
4) wallet
Now it's just phone & keys. Lovely!
https://shop.tesla.com/product/model-3_y-key-card
In addition to the phone wallet case, I installed electronic locks on my home, so I could stop carrying keys around.
Upd: I see you specified the model below, didn't notice that, sorry. Will check that one out, maybe it's better?
Works great and doesn't require electricity. Previously had an expensive one that had extra features like water/seat heating, but honestly the cheap one is fine.
https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=luxe+bidet&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Serious question. I just think good toilet etiquette/hygiene is not being taught. For example, wipe any sweat and hairs off the seat before putting the lid down (or seat up if no lid) before flushing.
EDIT: The service I use is https://www.sbimailservice.com/.
Found them because they cater to the RV and cruising (sailing/motoring around the world) folks, and that's my circle of friends.
(no affiliation other than as a customer)
[1] https://www.sbimailservice.com/security/
(all commercial mail processors you consider should have similar controls in place, make sure you ask!)
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5822052
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19076624
[3] https://theboatgalley.com/establishing-residency-at-st-brend...
- Getting the physical mail out of them was hard. In theory they kept main for some number of days if I needed it physical for some random reason, but the two times I needed to have them forward me some important document, it had already been shredded. All in all, this was a minor edge case really.
- One company, All State, could not for the life of them realize that I did not live in some PO Box in a different state. They kept changing my rates to the state of the service, and I had a confusing call with a CSR each time where I tried to explain my mailing address and my residential addresses were unrelated. All State was the only company I ever encountered with this issue, everyone else that needed my home address had no trouble with this concept. I solved this by ditching All State.
I only stopped using them because they got bought out and only kept business accounts. I should look for a replacement company, it was very useful.
Similar to how phone numbers can be tagged VoIP and won’t be accepted for 2-factor authentication.
Bought a couple of bundles of iPhone charging cables from Amazon that were 3ft/6ft/10ft in length with charging attachment from my old iPhones.
It's such a great feeling to use the phone from any part of my place without having to worry about length of the cable.
I keep a couple of the longer cables in my car too just in case someone wants to charge on a long trip.
For me it's Varying lengths of USB-C charging cables, and a bunch of USB-C -> Micro and USB-C -> Lightning adapters so no more looking for the right cable.
ha
After performing the research, I can confirm you'll struggle to find better in any category you've been disappointed in previously.
It opens cardboard boxes, pries open covers, cuts strings, and drives the occasional screw. All without worrying about losing a Swiss army or leatherman, and it’s airport and government building friendly which is big for me.
How does that work? I looked it up and it doesn't seem like it has a knife. (Not that you'd want something that sharp in your pocket unprotected anyway.)
It’s not a tool I’d use to break down 1000 boxes a day, but it’s fine for an Amazon box or two.
https://www.niteize.com/product/DoohicKey-Multi-Tool.asp
Not "tiny," but the cost/benefit ratio is significant.
One of my favorite things we make with it is refried beans. Makes canned refrieds taste like dog food.
They also have a smoother texture than cooking in a pot. It's my favourite way to cook them too.
Overall for around 100 bucks a month in food/trifexis the value a dog brings to your life is massive.
People will constantly talk to you so youre socializing.
There's a creature that loves you unconditionally which is a really cool feeling.
Theyre a ton of fun so it's hard to be bored.
They're good for getting exercise as they always want to play.
And more.
Theres studies that say owning a dog increases your lifespan as well.
If the owner has to leave every day ,they should be bringing their dogs to doggy day care or have another dog to keep it company.
I personally view leaving a dog alone all day as abuse.
I would just pay the 40 bucks for the vet visit if I need it which I haven't in two years of dog ownership so far.
I'm paying USD600 a year per dog in insurance. It already paid for itself for several years with one stomach bug gone bad that needed somewhat intensive care at a vet hospital for several days.
Glad your pooch is ok!
Also, be sure to take your pet to a vet at least once a year for annual checkups and preventative care. Do not wait for a reason to go in. So many people call in to have their pet looked at when some weird symptom appears, only to discover that their pet now has an issue that could have been prevented if they had been visiting regularly.
I don't know if I would get one if I lived in a tropical climate though. Like the southern U.S. states.
West Coast or New England...hell yes!
I live in PR and I know quite a couple husky owners, the key according to them is to just try to keep them hydrated, cool and off hot pavement.
I read the double coat protects from the cold AND the heat.
I shave my Aussies top coat every spring just for posterity and he does fine in the summer.
You should get one! Huskys are totally zany wonderful critters!
If you are experienced with dogs, it shouldn't be an issue and it will be a lot of fun as they are clever and to a degree independent too. On the other hand, if you aren't really clear about what you are getting into, it might spell trouble.
In any case, I wish you luck and hope that you find a suitable canine companion.
Best $40 / month I ever spent.
tried several models and the Ohropax Schlafmaske 3D is the best. has concave eye patches - so, maybe you already use it. also washable and quite sturdy.
https://www.shop-apotheke.com/arzneimittel/9667846/ohropax-s...
The only nitpick is that if you're a side sleeper (I am) it can be a little uncomfortable depending on what kind of pillow you use. I use shredded memory foam pillows and they're pretty firm.
I figured out that I pretty much always drink 2 or three bottles of water per day, no matter what size of bottle I use. So a big old water bottle doubles the amount of water I drink in a day
Over quarantine, I started getting fluffier than I'm comfortable with and reached my highest weight ever. I eat healthy, so my only guess was that I was eating too much. Simply adding a food scale made me cut 15 pounds in a couple months.
The best way (for me at least) was to track my calories, using the food scale to weight things and nutritional labels (or looking things up in Google) to figure out the calories. MyFitnessPal for logging everything.
If you're asking how to know how many calories you need - search for TDEE calculator online, which will give you an estimate number of calories needed for maintenance, or how much for weight loss, given your height, bodyweight and activity level. But - these are just estimates! Track food intake for a month, see if you went down, if not, start targeting fewer calories (or more if you went down too quickly for your needs).
I used to think this would be an extremely time-consuming thing that would be very annoying to learn. What really struck me is how easy this actually turned out to be. In fact tracking what you eat will save you time. Here's how.
People talk about "counting calories". But here's the problem with that: you can eat nothing but donuts throughout the day and stay within your calorie limit, yet it's still unhealthy. What gives? How do we know what is healthy and what isn't?
Enter macros. Calories in food are made up of three "macros", which are: fat; carbs; protein.
So just forget about calories. What you want to know is how many macros you need per day; how many grams of fat, grams of protein, and grams of carbs. The calories will work themselves out.
Okay, how do you find out? Super easy. You can use a calculator like this one: https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/macronutrients_calculator.h...
For me, every day I aim for:
154g Carbs
150g Protein
32g Fat
Now you might be thinking "Wow that sounds like a pain in the ass to track. How is it even possible to track that?"
There are apps that do this for you. My favorite app is called "Macros" https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.josmantek.... and there are a lot of other good ones out there.
Here's how it works:
1. Look at your food nutrition label (for example, fat-free Greek Yogurt)
2. Find the serving size (170g) and enter that into your app.
3. Find the macros grams (0g Fat; 7g Carbs; 17g Protein) and enter those into your app.
That's it. Your app will now have the nutrition facts of that food item saved forever and you only need to follow this process for new foods / new ingredients. Over time, you will gradually build a library of foods you like to eat.
Whenever you're ready to eat, you select one of your saved food items like "Greek Yogurt", and it will simply ask you the weight of your food. Enter in any weight you want, and it will automatically calculate how many macros/calories it will provide you. If it's too much, adjust the weight down, and if it's too little then adjust the weight up.
Once you decide on the perfect weight / macros, then you use your food scale to get exactly what you need.
To wrap things up, this also saves you time because now it enables you to plan ahead exactly what you want to eat and how much you want to eat. When it's time to eat, you just open up your plan and follow the instructions, no more staring blankly into the fridge.
2. Start to measure and write down the weight and macronutrients of everything you eat.
3. Measure your weight every morning and adjust calories every week by 100-200 depending on your weight gain/loss. But do not fall below the desired protein amount. You should learn to do it reliably within a month.
4. Take your average daily weight every week and try to not lose more than 1-1.5% of your body weight weekly (increase calories if losing faster).
5. When you reach your desired weight, start increasing by 100-200 calories daily, until you reach equilibrium for your weekly average weight. That is your optimal calorie intake.
6. Start learning patterns and you'll figure out how (what and how much) to eat in order to maintain your body weight. After several months of daily calorie tracking, you should be able to eat within reasonable margin of error without measuring anything. At this point you can stop measuring calories.
7. Every now and then, when you gain several extra kilos, repeat the above process for a month or two.
I got this one (https://www.chefsteps.com/joule) but Anova is much more popular (https://anovaculinary.com/anova-precision-cooker/)
Using the electric toothbrush and flossing before bed every night, I feel like in my morning my mouth actually still feels fine. Of course I would never start my day without brushing, but my mouth doesn’t feel icky when I wake up in the morning. Sorry if that’s TMI.
If you only brush once a day, brush last thing before bed.
If you brush before eating, there will still be some plaque left and once you eat there should be copious amounts of sugar and food for it to snack on and quickly multiply + produce acid.
Acidic foods temporarily weaken your enamel to the point that even light brushing can damage it.
If you brush immediately after eating, you’re partially brushing their enzyme shit into your teeth…
There are also some tricks for oral hygiene that you don't get traditionally or when you go to the store for toothpaste. You can try putting a drop of Dragon's Blood on the toothbrush or brush with a bit of ozonated oil to help gum issues.
You can find the oral irrigator/toothbrush combos for looking for faucet oral irrigator on amazon. Maybe I'd misremembered the shower ones that are harder to find for the combos of both, but they're easy enough to find for a faucet adapter.
__Health__
Melatonin. There is no other way for me to go to bed and this knocks me right out (I use 0.2 - 0.4 milligrams).
Sleep mask (no more waking up because a stray light hits my eye)
I'd say sleep earplugs but I have a sound in my ear, but otherwise earplugs
Mosquito repellent scent (for sleep as well).
Silicon earplugs when going out, I never thought I'd get ear/hearing damage because I didn't go out a lot. I was wrong. They protected my ears after I noticed I got some ear damage.
A dumbbell (used at times between breaks to move a bit)
__Other__
Fuet (another HN'er once posted this as such at some thread years ago I can't remember, and I agree). It's a sausage and IMO too good as a snack.
LG 4K monitor for about $350
Moving labels. Got a bunch of moving labels for a few bucks, and slap them whenever I need to label something. Apparently, I tend to label my external HD's mostly and a few boxes that have specific items in them (e.g. only USB cables or power cables, etc.).
Not a purchase but a lifehack and since I see many responses are about cables I guess it's relevant ;-) Instead of spinning your cables in a circle, spin them in a figure 8 (two circles). Somehow it's harder for them to get weirdly tangled when you store them like that. See: https://youtu.be/buVUvnM_AzU?t=104 (I don't use the other life hacks :P)
Verified. By me.
Anything that suddenly and dramatically improves your sleep quality can potentially have this effect.
I will sometimes take 5 mg when I wake up in the middle of the night in an attempt to induce lucid dreaming, although since I've fallen off of my dream journal my LD abilities are diminished (even with the melatonin).
Not the best practice to insert stuff inside the ear. Instead, there exist pretty flat and efficient earmuffs, e.g. from 3M, comfortable for bedtime.
Also known as "butterfly coiling" rope, cable or hose. The alternating turns mean that every twist has a counter-twist, so you don't end up with the tension that causes cables/ropes to tangle up.
My girlfriend brought one recently and it’s weirdly relaxing having something so heavy resting over your body. I’ve found it helps me with just lying still and I think the weight subconsciously makes my body feel heavier and more tired than I actually am.
My problem is that I can barely fall asleep if it's too hot, but I also need to have some weight on me, so can't sleep with the blanket cover only, either. Summers are a nightmare..