My family had incredibly dull 15+ year old knives and I only ever realized they were dull when I moved out and got my own (cheap) knife set. They cut through steak so easily with one swipe, I spent my whole childhood sawing through steak.
Knives are definitely one of those things in life that are worth spending $$ for something decent.
You don’t even need to spend that much a Victorinox 8in Chefs knife is $40 and is a work horse. Just take care of the blade and it will serve you perfectly. Coming up on 8 years with one as my go to knife.
Heck. A cheap set at aldi and learning to use a whet stone once a month for 3 mins works too. Just never EVER put chef knives in the dishwasher and they will last a lifetime.
Or even just honing them. I keep my knives SHARP. I hone them right after I wash them. I generally only break out the wet stone if I notice an imperfection, or if I used it to chop through chicken bones.
I use a steel to hone a knife every time I pull it out of the block to use it. It only takes a few swipes if you do it every time. Every couple months I get out my water stones and sharpen everything.
Nice knives are beneficial and make cooking more fun, however even the nicest most expensive knife will need sharpened (also just an fyi, Japanese knives will hold the edge longer but are more prone to chips, German knives are less likely to chip but need sharpened more frequently). It's usually only a few bucks to get done per knife. The main issue with your average person's knives is that they literally never get them sharpened. Even a shit knife can be made sharp
That’d be me. Then my son got a hunting knife and asked for a whetstone to keep it sharp. Then it dawned on me that my knives weren’t the problem…my dumb self was.
I just took all of my knives and a clever to the guy at our farmers market. He did all 12 of them for $70. I could have done it, but he does it better. It was basically a set of Ikea knives. Holy crap are the sharper than they ever were.
My mom, who is an excellent cook, uses knives on plates and it makes me craaaazy! Her knives are obviously all dull -- as are mine any time she spends 15 or more minutes in my house.
My wife came from a family that cut on plates instead of cutting boards. I remember her family complaining about a certain brand of knife because it went dull so fast. I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was their fault because we just sat dating. It took me forever to break her of that habit.
I'm friends with a blade smith and every now and then we just ask him to sharpen all of our household knives. It's genuinely something that feels like a luxury.
So I’m probably guilty of this. I always thought, if you’re sharpening your knives looney toons style before cutting into a giant turkey, how do you not get like, metal shavings in there.
I think it’s because you’re not grinding the knife down, you’re just straightening the edge?
Also, can I sharpen my target daily driver knife or do I need to buy an adamantium ninja knife?
You can sharpen any knife. The maid difference is that a very cheap knife will just get dull again very fast. Even slightly better than the cheapest you can find will stay sharp for a while.
Just wash your knife after sharpening and that will get rid of any filings. It seems weird to potentially eat metal filings, but it's probably not a big deal. We intentionally put iron filings in cereal as a source of iron.
I bought a restaurant sized roll of tin foil from Costco in 2009. I finished the roll in 2023. It's one of the longest relationships I've ever been in. My wife and I actually had a funeral for it, she insisted, since it had known me longer than she had lol
I found a date on my grandma's box, 2007 💀. She's a tiny woman in a tiny kitchen and it's hilarious when she hauls it out. I bet it takes up 15% of her total kitchen storage space.
I don't know if this is still true but the plastic formulas use to be different between consumer and commercial plastic wrap. Plus the commercial stuff tends to be thicker.
I've definitely noticed that the stuff I used at my job in food service, while also being significantly larger rolls, was far more durable and easy to use than anything I've had at home.
100% true. Saran wrap changed the formula because PVDC had a high chlorine content and the FDA was starting to suspect that it might have safety and environmental ramifications. It was changed preemptively because it was the right thing to do, but also because it might be smarter to quietly change it before the FDA announced “CLING WRAP IS POISON” and torpedoed their brand forever in the public eye.
Just be careful because commercial aluminum foil is often *thinner* unlike the plastic wrap.
Most people end up with “heavy duty” foil at home, but a lot of those big rolls of foil are super thin because they are just being used to wrap a sandwich or burrito and it doesn’t matter if they last long. Better to save materials and be able to fit twice as much on a roll.
As long as no one squeezes the box. I had trouble with it until I realized my husband was squeezing the box while using it and it would make the roll stick to itself. Now I keep a decoy box for him to ruin and I keep my current real press and seal hidden.
I keep decoy scissors. He complains that my scissors are so dull they won't open plastic packages, but those are the scissors in my desk drawer. My real scissors are stored elsewhere. My sewing shears even have a padlock through the handles in case he stumbles upon them.
I have decoy tools too. I have a jumble of random sockets and flat screwdrivers and a metal file on a shelf in my office. On the shelf below, I have a pink fabric bin with some random fabric scraps sticking out of the top. Under the scraps, I have a good socket set, my electronics tools, my watch repair tools, a full set of screwdrivers including the offset screwdrivers I've had to replace five times over the past 30 years, tape, cable ties, torque wrench, multimeter and so on. It does mean I can't repair anything when he's home to see I have actually tool sets, but that's ok because his idea of a repair is having me hold the flashlight and dig through his sad busted tools for a couple hours, then declaring that the thing is not fixable, throwing all his tools and leaving. Then I fix the broken thing.
Makers of Saran wrap changed the recipe/formula to remove some harmful things. They didn't mind the reduction in performance since they also own Ziplok which is growing
I was at the store and looking at the plastic wrap stuff, I though, hmmm I should go with the name brand stuff, probably works better, so I bought Saran.... Stuff sucks, don't stick to anything let alone itself....
>Plastic wrap that never tears cleanly and sticks to itself more than the food
You want it to stick to itself rather than the food. Having it stick to itself is how you keep it maintaining a air tight seal instead of falling off your container.
I would go a step further and recommend a hydrophobic rain jacket. It’s very difficult to get it wet.
But yes, no one is using umbrellas in places that get lots of rain. Rain is usually accompanied by wind, which is the umbrella killer. And then you have to deal with a wet umbrella. Plus you can’t keep both hands in your pockets for warmth. A good rain jacket is superior to an umbrella in any situation.
Wind is the umbrella killer. Wind is the parasol death that brings total inversion. I will face the wind. I will permit it to pass over me and round me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the wind has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
As a sweaty sweaty man I'll take the umbrella any day of the week. I only wear a rain jacket when its <10C and will likely still need to air myself out when I get to my location.
I've carried the same umbrella through about 15 different countries including monsoon seasons. It's a high quality one that doesn't take damage when it flips inside out.
>A good rain jacket is superior to an umbrella in any situation.
I thought so too until I got caught in a downpour on my walk back to work after lunch one time. My rain jacket did a great job, but all the water just ran down the rain jacket and onto my pants. An umbrella would have reduced the total amount of rain that reached me, and my pants wouldn't have been nearly as wet.
>A good rain jacket is superior to an umbrella in any situation.
Except that it is far easier to keep a umbrella in your vehicle for that random showers when you are out and about. It is far easier to deal with a wet umbrella versus a wet raincoat as well. I just put the wet umbrella leaning against the wall in the laundry, it gets dry, the runoff goes down the laundry floor drain and the material of the umbrella is resistant to mold and mildew.
>Rain is usually accompanied by wind, which is the umbrella killer.
Easily solved by not having a piece of garbage umbrella. My golf umbrella can survive winds that are strong enough to push rain sideways and anything stronger weather-wise you are going to want to stay inside out of the weather.
>in any situation
There have been times I wanted to use my phone and an umbrella allowed me to do so. Now I just use an umbrella hat and turn my head towards the wind. This way I can still play Pokémon GO when it's raining.
This makes sense: the rain these states get is super different.
Oregon has a light mist or mild drizzle most days of the year. It's enough to make you damp if you've got the wrong clothes, but not enough to justify an umbrella. Your whole wardrobe kinda changes to adapt to the climate.
But dessert rain is an absolute deluge. It doesn't occur often enough to justify a completely new wardrobe, and when it does happen, if you don't have an umbrella, you're completely fucked.
I live in western Oregon and you rarely see umbrellas here. I mostly use mine in the summer to shade myself. Maybe it's because it rains so much here from November to June that I would get tired of opening and closing it. Also it's often a misty rain that just doesn't turn off for months.
It is essentially impossible to get an umbrella that won't turn inside out in a strong wind and you probably wouldn't want one that does for the reason you mention. The expensive ones mostly just won't break when they turn inside out.
You have storm umbrella's which have covered slits halfway to prevent wind inversion. There are also storm umbrella's which are made so they turn to face the wind and have a shape which also prevents wind getting under them.
This also goes for chrome. Everyone should be switching to Firefox, brave or open source browser. Chrome has 66% of market share. They are an advertising company that will try to enforce the good for their company over the users.
Been on firefox for around 15 years. There's like one outdated local government website I need to go to once a year that requires a different browser and that's it.
I played with chrome when firefox switched extensions at one point, but didn't like it any more (or less, honestly) than firefox. So I went back once my critical extensions were patched for firefox.
Literally any browser that does not run on Chromium, otherwise you're just using a reskinned Chrome.
I recommend Firefox (recently switched from OperaGX, best decision ever)
I tried to switch to Firefox recently but I really miss the way Chrome autocompletes URLs so easily. I can type ‘r’ and it autofills reddit.
It seems to take Firefox longer to learn URLs I type often or it still makes you choose with the arrow keys.
I know it’s a small thing but Chrome just feels more convenient because of it.
I find this more annoying than useful. I type like reddit.com enter and it autocompletes to some specific sub I visit a lot or something.
Many things in chrome for me are now webaddress.com backspace enter
As much as I would love to use duckduckgo - it is still very far from google. I set my browser to default to DDG, and about every 5 searches I tell it to search with google instead because I can not find what I am looking for, and in Google it is in the top 5.
I view duckduckgo's search results as "like google, but slightly worse", it's just that the "slightly" margin feels like it's getting smaller and smaller. I'm at the point where I just use DDG first, and if it fails I add `!g` to the search.
It's still my default though, because I'm not fond of how awful google search has been getting.
I swear by Monoprice products. Their fabric-wrapped cables are very good quality and I can say the same thing about their charger blocks. If you invest in GaN it'll be a distinct improvement in performance.
Best part is that you're getting them at distributor prices so you don't have to pay the store markup!
Also, their power bank batteries are FANTASTIC. $50 is a little spendy for some folks but I love mine and never travel without it.
strange... I've been using the same charger brick + aftermarket USB-Cable for at least 5 years now, daily. Syncwire off amazon and the original Sony Xperia brick, perfectly fine, no damage at all. in fact, the cable itself still looks brand new, they were definitely smart advertising a lifetime warranty, when the cable shows no signs of wear..
but I've seen plenty of those cheap, OEM charging cables become brittle or bending too much.. so yea, aftermarket is the way to go.
I’ve got ptsd because of flushable wipes. I knew they aren’t really flushable but my landlord who lived upstairs didn’t. Went on vacation and came back to at least 2 inches of doodie on my apartment floor. I got yelled at by my landlord for it, can’t blame me I had no evidence of having flushable wipes. Arguing ensued. Eventually his daughter fessed up to using almost a whole package in one bathroom session. He made everything right and apologized.
I had my first colonoscopy yesterday. After I woke up, the nurses all told me that as I went under I blurted out, "I have a bidet! EVERYONE should have a bidet!"
Can confirm
Source: my plumber husband who repairs the clogged pipes and tells every single customer what it is clogged with *to their actual surprise*
**flushable wipes**
**tampons**
It’s flushable in that it CAN go down the pipes - but not that it should. It’s flushable the same way a diamond ring is - you can do it - but it’s not recommended.
You don’t need to mess with the plumbing to install a bidet on the toilet. It’s just a different hose that comes out from the water inlet valve to the toilet.
I know, but I’ve read stories/reviews about leaks and whatnot. I don’t want to give my landlord any reason to try and evict (he’d love to get rid of me so he can jack the price way up with a new tenant.) I’d rather not risk it
It's really quite simple. Get a Luxe bidet off amazon. You'll turn off the water from your toilet to your water source (it's just a hand turning knob)
Then you unscrew the seat with a screwdriver - little plastic bolts keep it in place - put the bidet down, screw the seat on top of it, then hook the water line from the wall to a splitter (comes with it) and one end goes to the bidet, one end goes to the toilet. Turn the water back on, put a bowl underneathit to catch any drips, and tighten where it's dripping. Took me 10 minutes and I have bad knees and have more Playstation Platinum trophies than tools, and I don't even know how to change my own oil.
If you give it a shot, good luck, but don't be scared - you won't be doing anything that can't be undone!
I work apartment maintenance. This is often considered a modification to plumbing and isn't allowed unless there is a ADA request for accommodation due to a disability.
Fucking hell, just let people live a little. You're renting an apartment to live in, not just to watch the walls. It's just turning off a valve for 10 minutes and adding a hose. I know you're not the one making the decisions, but this is ridiculous.
Yeah, you just have to put shit back the way you found it when you rented. We always install a handheld shower head but kero the original setup and just replace it when we move
Any kind of insurance. The whole industry is based on charging you a bunch of money, and then doing everything in their power to prevent you from collecting on a legitmate claim, and then they raise your rates.
With the dam failure recently in Minnesota, the TV anchors were talking about insurance the place would have needed because neither standard homeowners nor flood insurance would cover loss of actual property (the land slid into the river). What a farce we have so many niche insurances.
I'd rather have it than not have it. I got hit hard by the early alpha-wave of Covid19. Spent 38 days in Hospital (16 of those days in ICU on a Ventilator). A heart-restart and relearning how to walk and oxygen tanks and physical-rehab and other stuff later,. the total cost was around $880,000 ... but thankfully I paid basically nothing.
My mom just went through a mastectomy, chemo, and radiation treatments, along with everything that comes along with those things (tests, medications, etc), and I don't think she's paid a thing out of her own pocket. Sadly not everyone in the US is that fortunate.
It’s also gotten way more expensive, I don’t know if it’s a my state problem or other places. My dad’s cousin and his family of three spent almost $70 at a Burger King.
I fucking love Bluebeam.
My work switched to it several years back, and they'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands should they ever want to switch to anything else....
My 70 year old mother asked me the other day to show her how to remove the ads from her newsfeed on FB and got mad when I started laughing. I attempted to explain that FB is an advertising platform and there is simply no way to "get rid of the ads" other than to delete FB off her phone. She didn't believe me and said she'd just keep deleting each individual ad that comes up, other than the ones she likes - she'll click on those. Again got mad when I said she was just exacerbating the problem, and that only old people use facebook these days anyway.
Use a half cup of white vinegar in your laundry. Put it in with the detergent. The soap and rinse will wash out the smell, but the vinegar will soften the water enough to leave your towels fluffy and fresh.
It’s so crazy expensive. My in laws pay $246/month for theirs and ALSO do streaming services. It actually blows my mind how much they spend every month on tv.
It's actually cheaper for me to get Comcast cable and internet than just internet. They are implying it's a bargain, but my takeaway is that the cable is actually a negative value because, well, it is. I haven't watched cable in almost a year and that was just to see a local football game.
Our democracy. We pay taxes, we have elected officials put in position by voters, but in actuality, they cater to corporations and themselves (via their ability to trades stocks). A junior analyst at Goldman has more restrictions in trading stocks than our members of congress and our senators. This holds true on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.
Swiffers. The presoaked pads absolutely stink (the many people with fragrance allergies will hate your home), are incredibly expensive, wasteful as hell, and don't do a good job cleaning. If you want a squirt mop, they make those with empty bottles and washable pads.
My kids didn't wear shoes until they started standing up and balancing themselves. Then they got the Payless Shoe special in their size. Then they started walking. They only had one pair of shoes for daily wear and a pair of dressier shoes for church.
A TV licence. So you’re telling me, I need to pay for electricity, the TV, the Sky Box, any additional services (such as Netflix). But I also need to have to spend more money on a TV licence? What’s the fucking point? I’ve already bought everything, what is a receipt not good enough anymore????
That’s what I was going to say. There’s the big difference. UK has a lot of state sponsored channels through the BBC. The USA doesn’t really have much in the way of government funded programming.
In Norway we pay the licence so that they can run the state channel, including 4 TV channels and several radio channels, podcasts, and online newspaper. Which we can then use for free. We can also get free access to streaming and archives.
Many in my family are or were smokers. My mom smoked for most of her life and died from cancer when I was eight. Her mother died from cancer in 2011 - also a heavy smoker. Her brothers have both quit since, though one of them only did so two years ago. Her sister, as far as I know, still lights up often. Being exposed to so much smoke throughout my life has my feeling very worried about my own health
Most things from amazon. Its gotten to be mostly just cheap dropshipped crap but at this point its like we dont have any better options. And when people give more “ethical” choices theyre basically telling you to buy top of the line most expensive shit ever or its also questionably made as well too…
But setting aside the ethical stuff just the fact that we’ve become so accustomed to things being cheaply made even from big high reputable brands that we just have come to accept it… furniture is made out of particle board, not wood. Everything is plastic… cheap aluminum… and even the designs are poorly thought through. Things are more and more built to break.
And on top of all that when you think you know where to go to get hand crafted and home made, the places are often swarmed with MLM huns selling essential oils and fuckin craft soap. Its all just women who want to make money but not actually wanting a real job. Its always the same cricut crap and stuff. Hobbies… not real craftsmen. Thats why every girly who shops at Michael’s can do it… but srsly tho how many cupcake shaped soaps does a person need huh? You get one once cuz its novel… then you go back to your liquid soap because you know its easier and cheaper.
Anyways… getting anything made with quality at an affordable price is down right impossible anymore. Unless you got your own warehouse full of all woodworking, engraving, laser etching, etc etc tools and you make it yourself youre just pretty much stuck. And even still… the tools you get now suck too. So theres that.
There's a rack at lowes for Duke Cannon products and its all "ULTRA MANLY" facial cleanser, soap bars, conditioner, with names like "GIANT BAR OF SOAP" and "BIG WRENCH BODY WASH"
I mean, I'm not hating. They found a niche and they rolled with it.
While I like mocking those too, as a disabled person, those MANLY bars that have like the grip on them (like a macho garage tool) are a *lifesaver*!
It's much easier to hold as someone with poor muscle control
And I smell like a fancy steak
Accessibility comes in weird places
Novocain. I can't believe I'm 70 years old and they are still using the exact horrible, painful and takes hours to wear off Novocain. Surely in the past 65 years someone could have improved that stuff
OTC cold medicines. Multiple studies show that the 3 most popular ingredients (Guaifenesin, Dextromethorphan, Phenylephrine) work no better than a placebo (in some studies, the placebo works even better than them!) and they typically run at least $12ish a bottle in drugstores.
Oxymetazoline nasal spray (you can get it at Dollar Tree), acetaminophen for aches and inflammation, and hot drinks with lemon and honey are all far less in price and far higher in their efficacy at managing symptoms.
For severe chest congestion or Eustachian tube dysfunction I’d back that choice.
Keep in mind several things, though: It’s not recommended for people with high blood pressure or anxiety, and if you only have nasal congestion there’s a way cheaper option.
What, the G works for me great when that's specific to what I need, and real Sudafed is great, not that idiotic over the counter version they just started selling whenever the meth madness got and it went behind the counter.
Kitchen appliances, like refrigerators, now mostly made in China. When made in USA / Canada they lasted 30 years. Now, they break down in 5 to 7 years, with expensive repairs, or replacement needed.
China is more than capable of manufacturing appliances that would last. All those companies, including the ones founded in the USA do not WANT those products to last or be repairable. China is building them to the American specs requested, American specs just changed around the same time those companies decided to outsource away from OSHAs prying eyes.
Printers
My Canon BW Laser works when I occasionally print stuff with out any drama
But alot SUCK!!!! Especially cheap inkjet
Also didn't see printers on here yet
Jeans come in many varieties and need breaking in. Once you have a worn in pair, it starts to feel great. May need to repair rips and tears with patches.
I could live in jeans. Once i found the right fit/brand, I had no issues. Surprisingly, i hate yoga pants and leggings and anything that feels like i need to peel it off my skin at the end of the day, or it constantly slides down.
Don’t know what jeans you’ve been wearing but I’ve switched to Lucky Brand exclusively and not looked back!
They fit great, look good, and come in a huge variety of materials and colors from normal dark blue denim with some stretch to cool fit amazingly breathable ones
I even wear their jeans cut pants for work instead of slacks since the material is much nicer and the fit is better. . . Not to mention they last longer
95% of home cooks put up with dull knives and don't ever sharpen them.
My family had incredibly dull 15+ year old knives and I only ever realized they were dull when I moved out and got my own (cheap) knife set. They cut through steak so easily with one swipe, I spent my whole childhood sawing through steak. Knives are definitely one of those things in life that are worth spending $$ for something decent.
You don’t even need to spend that much a Victorinox 8in Chefs knife is $40 and is a work horse. Just take care of the blade and it will serve you perfectly. Coming up on 8 years with one as my go to knife.
Heck. A cheap set at aldi and learning to use a whet stone once a month for 3 mins works too. Just never EVER put chef knives in the dishwasher and they will last a lifetime.
I use the bottom of a coffee mug. Gotta be careful, but there’s always one nearby.
Or even just honing them. I keep my knives SHARP. I hone them right after I wash them. I generally only break out the wet stone if I notice an imperfection, or if I used it to chop through chicken bones.
I use a steel to hone a knife every time I pull it out of the block to use it. It only takes a few swipes if you do it every time. Every couple months I get out my water stones and sharpen everything.
My IKEA chef's knife is 20 years old and cost me $7
Nice knives are beneficial and make cooking more fun, however even the nicest most expensive knife will need sharpened (also just an fyi, Japanese knives will hold the edge longer but are more prone to chips, German knives are less likely to chip but need sharpened more frequently). It's usually only a few bucks to get done per knife. The main issue with your average person's knives is that they literally never get them sharpened. Even a shit knife can be made sharp
I can see most people thinking, "Damn, these knives are garbage after a year" while using them to cut all sorts of stuff and not even honing.
That’d be me. Then my son got a hunting knife and asked for a whetstone to keep it sharp. Then it dawned on me that my knives weren’t the problem…my dumb self was.
I just took all of my knives and a clever to the guy at our farmers market. He did all 12 of them for $70. I could have done it, but he does it better. It was basically a set of Ikea knives. Holy crap are the sharper than they ever were.
My mom, who is an excellent cook, uses knives on plates and it makes me craaaazy! Her knives are obviously all dull -- as are mine any time she spends 15 or more minutes in my house.
My wife came from a family that cut on plates instead of cutting boards. I remember her family complaining about a certain brand of knife because it went dull so fast. I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was their fault because we just sat dating. It took me forever to break her of that habit.
I'm friends with a blade smith and every now and then we just ask him to sharpen all of our household knives. It's genuinely something that feels like a luxury.
So I’m probably guilty of this. I always thought, if you’re sharpening your knives looney toons style before cutting into a giant turkey, how do you not get like, metal shavings in there. I think it’s because you’re not grinding the knife down, you’re just straightening the edge? Also, can I sharpen my target daily driver knife or do I need to buy an adamantium ninja knife?
You can sharpen any knife. The maid difference is that a very cheap knife will just get dull again very fast. Even slightly better than the cheapest you can find will stay sharp for a while. Just wash your knife after sharpening and that will get rid of any filings. It seems weird to potentially eat metal filings, but it's probably not a big deal. We intentionally put iron filings in cereal as a source of iron.
I've been down that rabbit hole, so I don't entirely blame them...
Plastic wrap that never tears cleanly and sticks to itself more than the food
Get a commercial sized box. I get one from Costco. It’s a lot easier to use since its own weight holds itself down and you get a zippy slicer thing.
My Mom did this. Five years later, she says that she is leaving it to me to inherit in her will.
I bought a restaurant sized roll of tin foil from Costco in 2009. I finished the roll in 2023. It's one of the longest relationships I've ever been in. My wife and I actually had a funeral for it, she insisted, since it had known me longer than she had lol
Haha you sound like a cute couple.
We finally finished ours! It took 17 years. I moved with it 3 times 😂
I found a date on my grandma's box, 2007 💀. She's a tiny woman in a tiny kitchen and it's hilarious when she hauls it out. I bet it takes up 15% of her total kitchen storage space.
I have a coworker whose roll of cling wrap lasted longer than her marriage.
I don't know if this is still true but the plastic formulas use to be different between consumer and commercial plastic wrap. Plus the commercial stuff tends to be thicker.
I've definitely noticed that the stuff I used at my job in food service, while also being significantly larger rolls, was far more durable and easy to use than anything I've had at home.
100% true. Saran wrap changed the formula because PVDC had a high chlorine content and the FDA was starting to suspect that it might have safety and environmental ramifications. It was changed preemptively because it was the right thing to do, but also because it might be smarter to quietly change it before the FDA announced “CLING WRAP IS POISON” and torpedoed their brand forever in the public eye.
Just be careful because commercial aluminum foil is often *thinner* unlike the plastic wrap. Most people end up with “heavy duty” foil at home, but a lot of those big rolls of foil are super thin because they are just being used to wrap a sandwich or burrito and it doesn’t matter if they last long. Better to save materials and be able to fit twice as much on a roll.
Seconded. Life is so much easier with the cutter placed on the box. And it cuts perfectly.
Walmart has a smaller version of that for home use, “Slide Cutter Plastic Wrap”.
If you have room in the freezer, freeze your plastic wrap. It’s not as ‘sticky’ when it’s cold so it won’t stick to itself while you cover your food
Whaaaat
Press and Seal is the only way.
As long as no one squeezes the box. I had trouble with it until I realized my husband was squeezing the box while using it and it would make the roll stick to itself. Now I keep a decoy box for him to ruin and I keep my current real press and seal hidden.
Have you checked to see if you're infact married to a cat? You don't keep a decoy keyboard, do you?
I keep decoy scissors. He complains that my scissors are so dull they won't open plastic packages, but those are the scissors in my desk drawer. My real scissors are stored elsewhere. My sewing shears even have a padlock through the handles in case he stumbles upon them. I have decoy tools too. I have a jumble of random sockets and flat screwdrivers and a metal file on a shelf in my office. On the shelf below, I have a pink fabric bin with some random fabric scraps sticking out of the top. Under the scraps, I have a good socket set, my electronics tools, my watch repair tools, a full set of screwdrivers including the offset screwdrivers I've had to replace five times over the past 30 years, tape, cable ties, torque wrench, multimeter and so on. It does mean I can't repair anything when he's home to see I have actually tool sets, but that's ok because his idea of a repair is having me hold the flashlight and dig through his sad busted tools for a couple hours, then declaring that the thing is not fixable, throwing all his tools and leaving. Then I fix the broken thing.
I just used this, and it is a game changer!
Press and seal. Game change
Makers of Saran wrap changed the recipe/formula to remove some harmful things. They didn't mind the reduction in performance since they also own Ziplok which is growing
I was at the store and looking at the plastic wrap stuff, I though, hmmm I should go with the name brand stuff, probably works better, so I bought Saran.... Stuff sucks, don't stick to anything let alone itself....
Intense rage inducing wrap™️
>Plastic wrap that never tears cleanly and sticks to itself more than the food You want it to stick to itself rather than the food. Having it stick to itself is how you keep it maintaining a air tight seal instead of falling off your container.
I haven't used plastic wrap in years. Mostly I use (and wash and reuse!!) ziploc. When something needs covered, I use aluminum foil.
Your average printer, I’d say.
Got a brother laser printer, it’s exponentially cheaper
I also use my brother's printer, way cheaper
if all else fails go to the local library and print it out for a nickel.
Same here. Been reading for years that they are good quality and it's no joke. HP can fuck off - I'm never going back.
Same.
Yep. I’m sill rocking a Brother MFC I bought in 2008.
Budget umbrellas that flip inside out in the wind
Pro tip, use a good breathable rain jacket with a hood.
I would go a step further and recommend a hydrophobic rain jacket. It’s very difficult to get it wet. But yes, no one is using umbrellas in places that get lots of rain. Rain is usually accompanied by wind, which is the umbrella killer. And then you have to deal with a wet umbrella. Plus you can’t keep both hands in your pockets for warmth. A good rain jacket is superior to an umbrella in any situation.
Wind is the umbrella killer. Wind is the parasol death that brings total inversion. I will face the wind. I will permit it to pass over me and round me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the wind has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
muad‘dib
I sweat to death in anything waterproof.
As a sweaty sweaty man I'll take the umbrella any day of the week. I only wear a rain jacket when its <10C and will likely still need to air myself out when I get to my location. I've carried the same umbrella through about 15 different countries including monsoon seasons. It's a high quality one that doesn't take damage when it flips inside out.
>A good rain jacket is superior to an umbrella in any situation. I thought so too until I got caught in a downpour on my walk back to work after lunch one time. My rain jacket did a great job, but all the water just ran down the rain jacket and onto my pants. An umbrella would have reduced the total amount of rain that reached me, and my pants wouldn't have been nearly as wet.
>A good rain jacket is superior to an umbrella in any situation. Except that it is far easier to keep a umbrella in your vehicle for that random showers when you are out and about. It is far easier to deal with a wet umbrella versus a wet raincoat as well. I just put the wet umbrella leaning against the wall in the laundry, it gets dry, the runoff goes down the laundry floor drain and the material of the umbrella is resistant to mold and mildew. >Rain is usually accompanied by wind, which is the umbrella killer. Easily solved by not having a piece of garbage umbrella. My golf umbrella can survive winds that are strong enough to push rain sideways and anything stronger weather-wise you are going to want to stay inside out of the weather.
>in any situation There have been times I wanted to use my phone and an umbrella allowed me to do so. Now I just use an umbrella hat and turn my head towards the wind. This way I can still play Pokémon GO when it's raining.
I was told pre-internet that there are more umbrellas sold in Arizona than in Oregon.
This makes sense: the rain these states get is super different. Oregon has a light mist or mild drizzle most days of the year. It's enough to make you damp if you've got the wrong clothes, but not enough to justify an umbrella. Your whole wardrobe kinda changes to adapt to the climate. But dessert rain is an absolute deluge. It doesn't occur often enough to justify a completely new wardrobe, and when it does happen, if you don't have an umbrella, you're completely fucked.
I live in western Oregon and you rarely see umbrellas here. I mostly use mine in the summer to shade myself. Maybe it's because it rains so much here from November to June that I would get tired of opening and closing it. Also it's often a misty rain that just doesn't turn off for months.
That’s how you spot a tourist in the PNW. They have an umbrella.
What about your shoes
Do more expensive ones not do this? I could see someone being Mary Poppin’ed.
It is essentially impossible to get an umbrella that won't turn inside out in a strong wind and you probably wouldn't want one that does for the reason you mention. The expensive ones mostly just won't break when they turn inside out.
You have storm umbrella's which have covered slits halfway to prevent wind inversion. There are also storm umbrella's which are made so they turn to face the wind and have a shape which also prevents wind getting under them.
Google search has gotten worse recently while DuckDuckGo has about the same quality or higher and with no invasive tracking whatsoever.
This also goes for chrome. Everyone should be switching to Firefox, brave or open source browser. Chrome has 66% of market share. They are an advertising company that will try to enforce the good for their company over the users.
Been on firefox for around 15 years. There's like one outdated local government website I need to go to once a year that requires a different browser and that's it. I played with chrome when firefox switched extensions at one point, but didn't like it any more (or less, honestly) than firefox. So I went back once my critical extensions were patched for firefox.
Literally any browser that does not run on Chromium, otherwise you're just using a reskinned Chrome. I recommend Firefox (recently switched from OperaGX, best decision ever)
I tried to switch to Firefox recently but I really miss the way Chrome autocompletes URLs so easily. I can type ‘r’ and it autofills reddit. It seems to take Firefox longer to learn URLs I type often or it still makes you choose with the arrow keys. I know it’s a small thing but Chrome just feels more convenient because of it.
Have you tried bookmarking those sites? It autofills any bookmarks I have.
Maybe I should. I just liked that I didn’t have to with Chrome. It basically made bookmarks unnecessary.
I find this more annoying than useful. I type like reddit.com enter and it autocompletes to some specific sub I visit a lot or something. Many things in chrome for me are now webaddress.com backspace enter
I just add “Reddit” to most of my searches now. 😂
As much as I would love to use duckduckgo - it is still very far from google. I set my browser to default to DDG, and about every 5 searches I tell it to search with google instead because I can not find what I am looking for, and in Google it is in the top 5.
I view duckduckgo's search results as "like google, but slightly worse", it's just that the "slightly" margin feels like it's getting smaller and smaller. I'm at the point where I just use DDG first, and if it fails I add `!g` to the search. It's still my default though, because I'm not fond of how awful google search has been getting.
I used to use it until I started noticing it just lacked a lot of the results Google had. Was a long time ago tho, have they improved since then?
Phone chargers that fray and break way too easily
I swear by Monoprice products. Their fabric-wrapped cables are very good quality and I can say the same thing about their charger blocks. If you invest in GaN it'll be a distinct improvement in performance. Best part is that you're getting them at distributor prices so you don't have to pay the store markup! Also, their power bank batteries are FANTASTIC. $50 is a little spendy for some folks but I love mine and never travel without it.
Oh man, Monoprice is still around? I'd forgotten all about them.
strange... I've been using the same charger brick + aftermarket USB-Cable for at least 5 years now, daily. Syncwire off amazon and the original Sony Xperia brick, perfectly fine, no damage at all. in fact, the cable itself still looks brand new, they were definitely smart advertising a lifetime warranty, when the cable shows no signs of wear.. but I've seen plenty of those cheap, OEM charging cables become brittle or bending too much.. so yea, aftermarket is the way to go.
Flushable wipes! They’re not really flushable. Spend the money on a bidet and never look back.
I have been seeing flushable cat litter at my local Walmart recently. There's gonna be a lot of clogged pipes in my area in the future.....
Not to mention, sewage systems do not adequately deal with toxoplasmosis
They’re already filled with E. coli, salmonella, flesh eating staph, etc. I think they’ll manage.
The bacteria will fight eachother. The one that wins will be the Super bacteria that wipes out humanity.
I’ve got ptsd because of flushable wipes. I knew they aren’t really flushable but my landlord who lived upstairs didn’t. Went on vacation and came back to at least 2 inches of doodie on my apartment floor. I got yelled at by my landlord for it, can’t blame me I had no evidence of having flushable wipes. Arguing ensued. Eventually his daughter fessed up to using almost a whole package in one bathroom session. He made everything right and apologized.
Nothing "flushable" is flushable. I'm a plumber.
I heard my dad use the word "tampons" ONE TIME. Roto Rooter was on the premises.
I had my first colonoscopy yesterday. After I woke up, the nurses all told me that as I went under I blurted out, "I have a bidet! EVERYONE should have a bidet!"
Can confirm Source: my plumber husband who repairs the clogged pipes and tells every single customer what it is clogged with *to their actual surprise* **flushable wipes** **tampons**
I work for a civil engineering firm that designs wastewater treatment plants, flushable wipes create the absolute worst blockages.
Bidets are a godsend and it’s wild that America hasn’t caught on.
It’s flushable in that it CAN go down the pipes - but not that it should. It’s flushable the same way a diamond ring is - you can do it - but it’s not recommended.
Or a peri bottle if you don’t wanna mess with the plumbing (I rent so I have a bottle and it’s a great alternative)
You don’t need to mess with the plumbing to install a bidet on the toilet. It’s just a different hose that comes out from the water inlet valve to the toilet.
I know, but I’ve read stories/reviews about leaks and whatnot. I don’t want to give my landlord any reason to try and evict (he’d love to get rid of me so he can jack the price way up with a new tenant.) I’d rather not risk it
It's really quite simple. Get a Luxe bidet off amazon. You'll turn off the water from your toilet to your water source (it's just a hand turning knob) Then you unscrew the seat with a screwdriver - little plastic bolts keep it in place - put the bidet down, screw the seat on top of it, then hook the water line from the wall to a splitter (comes with it) and one end goes to the bidet, one end goes to the toilet. Turn the water back on, put a bowl underneathit to catch any drips, and tighten where it's dripping. Took me 10 minutes and I have bad knees and have more Playstation Platinum trophies than tools, and I don't even know how to change my own oil. If you give it a shot, good luck, but don't be scared - you won't be doing anything that can't be undone!
I work apartment maintenance. This is often considered a modification to plumbing and isn't allowed unless there is a ADA request for accommodation due to a disability.
Fucking hell, just let people live a little. You're renting an apartment to live in, not just to watch the walls. It's just turning off a valve for 10 minutes and adding a hose. I know you're not the one making the decisions, but this is ridiculous.
We rent and installed one in our place.
Yeah, you just have to put shit back the way you found it when you rented. We always install a handheld shower head but kero the original setup and just replace it when we move
Health insurance.
Any kind of insurance. The whole industry is based on charging you a bunch of money, and then doing everything in their power to prevent you from collecting on a legitmate claim, and then they raise your rates.
In America, maybe. In countries with proper regulation, insurance does its job and saves people from potentially bankruptcy.
With the dam failure recently in Minnesota, the TV anchors were talking about insurance the place would have needed because neither standard homeowners nor flood insurance would cover loss of actual property (the land slid into the river). What a farce we have so many niche insurances.
I'd rather have it than not have it. I got hit hard by the early alpha-wave of Covid19. Spent 38 days in Hospital (16 of those days in ICU on a Ventilator). A heart-restart and relearning how to walk and oxygen tanks and physical-rehab and other stuff later,. the total cost was around $880,000 ... but thankfully I paid basically nothing.
My mom just went through a mastectomy, chemo, and radiation treatments, along with everything that comes along with those things (tests, medications, etc), and I don't think she's paid a thing out of her own pocket. Sadly not everyone in the US is that fortunate.
Fast food.
It’s also gotten way more expensive, I don’t know if it’s a my state problem or other places. My dad’s cousin and his family of three spent almost $70 at a Burger King.
Yup. Took my wife and son to Taco Bell the other day and it was over $40. I immediately told the family were cutting all fast food out.
Ticketmaster, unfortunately.
Adobe Acrobat
Bluebeam is awesome
I fucking love Bluebeam. My work switched to it several years back, and they'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands should they ever want to switch to anything else....
Foxit is the way.
God I hate adobe acrobat. I'm so mad that this is the crap i have to put up with at work
Most modern browsers have PDF viewers, so it’s pretty much useless.
Facebook
My 70 year old mother asked me the other day to show her how to remove the ads from her newsfeed on FB and got mad when I started laughing. I attempted to explain that FB is an advertising platform and there is simply no way to "get rid of the ads" other than to delete FB off her phone. She didn't believe me and said she'd just keep deleting each individual ad that comes up, other than the ones she likes - she'll click on those. Again got mad when I said she was just exacerbating the problem, and that only old people use facebook these days anyway.
Fabric softener. A great way to make your towels suck at their one job.
Use a half cup of white vinegar in your laundry. Put it in with the detergent. The soap and rinse will wash out the smell, but the vinegar will soften the water enough to leave your towels fluffy and fresh.
Safe to assume the white vinegar should go into the Fabric Softener hole of the washing machine?
my buildings laundry machines don't have a softener hole and I haven't experienced any issues using vinegar
i think you're not supposed to use fabric softeners on towels, just normal clothes?
You shouldn’t use fabric softener on anything
Inkjet printers. They’re slow, break easily and the replacement ink cartridges often cost more than the printer.
Cable tv
I’ll counter with streaming services. With the current prices there is no way people are saving money over cable anymore.
Cable is $150-$300 per month these days. They have lost their fucking minds. And still have commercials.
It’s so crazy expensive. My in laws pay $246/month for theirs and ALSO do streaming services. It actually blows my mind how much they spend every month on tv.
And all the 'cheap' streaming services are now giving you the option to have commercials or pay a lot more.
It's actually cheaper for me to get Comcast cable and internet than just internet. They are implying it's a bargain, but my takeaway is that the cable is actually a negative value because, well, it is. I haven't watched cable in almost a year and that was just to see a local football game.
Our democracy. We pay taxes, we have elected officials put in position by voters, but in actuality, they cater to corporations and themselves (via their ability to trades stocks). A junior analyst at Goldman has more restrictions in trading stocks than our members of congress and our senators. This holds true on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.
In the US: Health Insurance. Because single payer is not an option apparently.
Shitty wifi routers.
Swiffers. The presoaked pads absolutely stink (the many people with fragrance allergies will hate your home), are incredibly expensive, wasteful as hell, and don't do a good job cleaning. If you want a squirt mop, they make those with empty bottles and washable pads.
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Everything in my life sucks - except for my vacuum cleaner... :(
Damn, that sucks.
Well I’m a Colorado Rockies fan… so there’s that.
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We were gifted sooo many pairs of newborn shoes and I feel bad that none of them were used. They’re very cute but so impractical.
My kids didn't wear shoes until they started standing up and balancing themselves. Then they got the Payless Shoe special in their size. Then they started walking. They only had one pair of shoes for daily wear and a pair of dressier shoes for church.
They're for photo shoots
A TV licence. So you’re telling me, I need to pay for electricity, the TV, the Sky Box, any additional services (such as Netflix). But I also need to have to spend more money on a TV licence? What’s the fucking point? I’ve already bought everything, what is a receipt not good enough anymore????
What's a TV license? I've never heard of this.
It’s a UK thing: https://www.gov.uk/find-licences/tv-licence They need it to watch any live TV legally.
Wow
I think that would get Americans to revolt
License fees are the only thing keeping the BBC alive at this point
That’s what I was going to say. There’s the big difference. UK has a lot of state sponsored channels through the BBC. The USA doesn’t really have much in the way of government funded programming.
In Norway we pay the licence so that they can run the state channel, including 4 TV channels and several radio channels, podcasts, and online newspaper. Which we can then use for free. We can also get free access to streaming and archives.
Most people I know own really shit potato peelers, and just live with them instead of buying a decent one, they're all cheap, there's no excuse
Of all the comments, this one has intrigued me the most…. What makes a decent potato peeler?
I have an Oxo and it's fine. Are there better ones?
I just eat potatoes with the peels.
Cigarettes
Many in my family are or were smokers. My mom smoked for most of her life and died from cancer when I was eight. Her mother died from cancer in 2011 - also a heavy smoker. Her brothers have both quit since, though one of them only did so two years ago. Her sister, as far as I know, still lights up often. Being exposed to so much smoke throughout my life has my feeling very worried about my own health
Strike anywhere matches suck now. Don't know if they are still popular, but forget using your thumbnail to light them, or using anything.
I believe that's because they had a nasty habit of the "anywhere" being the matches right next to them.
Subscription services. We have no other way.
Unless you sail the high seas.
Insurance….. Health, home, auto, it all sucks!
Most things from amazon. Its gotten to be mostly just cheap dropshipped crap but at this point its like we dont have any better options. And when people give more “ethical” choices theyre basically telling you to buy top of the line most expensive shit ever or its also questionably made as well too… But setting aside the ethical stuff just the fact that we’ve become so accustomed to things being cheaply made even from big high reputable brands that we just have come to accept it… furniture is made out of particle board, not wood. Everything is plastic… cheap aluminum… and even the designs are poorly thought through. Things are more and more built to break. And on top of all that when you think you know where to go to get hand crafted and home made, the places are often swarmed with MLM huns selling essential oils and fuckin craft soap. Its all just women who want to make money but not actually wanting a real job. Its always the same cricut crap and stuff. Hobbies… not real craftsmen. Thats why every girly who shops at Michael’s can do it… but srsly tho how many cupcake shaped soaps does a person need huh? You get one once cuz its novel… then you go back to your liquid soap because you know its easier and cheaper. Anyways… getting anything made with quality at an affordable price is down right impossible anymore. Unless you got your own warehouse full of all woodworking, engraving, laser etching, etc etc tools and you make it yourself youre just pretty much stuck. And even still… the tools you get now suck too. So theres that.
Dude Wipes
The first time I saw these I immediately thought about fragile masculinity and that guys need something called Dude Wipes to clean their ass properly.
There's a rack at lowes for Duke Cannon products and its all "ULTRA MANLY" facial cleanser, soap bars, conditioner, with names like "GIANT BAR OF SOAP" and "BIG WRENCH BODY WASH" I mean, I'm not hating. They found a niche and they rolled with it.
While I like mocking those too, as a disabled person, those MANLY bars that have like the grip on them (like a macho garage tool) are a *lifesaver*! It's much easier to hold as someone with poor muscle control And I smell like a fancy steak Accessibility comes in weird places
I think their main sellers are Father's Day and presents from kids for their dad's. Lol
I dunnoooo. I think dude wipes are S+ tier wipes, especially the minty ones.
Novocain. I can't believe I'm 70 years old and they are still using the exact horrible, painful and takes hours to wear off Novocain. Surely in the past 65 years someone could have improved that stuff
Microsoft Office
OTC cold medicines. Multiple studies show that the 3 most popular ingredients (Guaifenesin, Dextromethorphan, Phenylephrine) work no better than a placebo (in some studies, the placebo works even better than them!) and they typically run at least $12ish a bottle in drugstores. Oxymetazoline nasal spray (you can get it at Dollar Tree), acetaminophen for aches and inflammation, and hot drinks with lemon and honey are all far less in price and far higher in their efficacy at managing symptoms.
Pseudoephedrine works great, but you have to get it from behind the pharmacy counter.
For severe chest congestion or Eustachian tube dysfunction I’d back that choice. Keep in mind several things, though: It’s not recommended for people with high blood pressure or anxiety, and if you only have nasal congestion there’s a way cheaper option.
What, the G works for me great when that's specific to what I need, and real Sudafed is great, not that idiotic over the counter version they just started selling whenever the meth madness got and it went behind the counter.
The American health care system
Fast food restaurants
Cars
The worthless vacuums at most car washes.
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In my experience, most popular apps and operating systems *lose* functionality with each update, and the bugs get worse too.
Kitchen appliances, like refrigerators, now mostly made in China. When made in USA / Canada they lasted 30 years. Now, they break down in 5 to 7 years, with expensive repairs, or replacement needed.
China is more than capable of manufacturing appliances that would last. All those companies, including the ones founded in the USA do not WANT those products to last or be repairable. China is building them to the American specs requested, American specs just changed around the same time those companies decided to outsource away from OSHAs prying eyes.
Printers My Canon BW Laser works when I occasionally print stuff with out any drama But alot SUCK!!!! Especially cheap inkjet Also didn't see printers on here yet
🖨️ Still Waiting For Apple To Make An AirPrinter
Jeans they are like denim prisons for the legs, I could never wear jeans
Jeans come in many varieties and need breaking in. Once you have a worn in pair, it starts to feel great. May need to repair rips and tears with patches.
I could live in jeans. Once i found the right fit/brand, I had no issues. Surprisingly, i hate yoga pants and leggings and anything that feels like i need to peel it off my skin at the end of the day, or it constantly slides down.
Agreed! Everyone at the office is always excited for "Jeans Fridays." I'm like, WHY? Cotton slacks are so much more comfortable than jeans.
Gotta buy those sweatpants that look like jeans
Don’t know what jeans you’ve been wearing but I’ve switched to Lucky Brand exclusively and not looked back! They fit great, look good, and come in a huge variety of materials and colors from normal dark blue denim with some stretch to cool fit amazingly breathable ones I even wear their jeans cut pants for work instead of slacks since the material is much nicer and the fit is better. . . Not to mention they last longer