Mine: Kuranda dog beds (www.kuranda.com). They are cot-type dog beds that come in all sizes. They’re not cheap, but I’ve had these beds for almost 10 years, and they’ve more than paid for themselves given the number of cushion-type beds my dogs have ruined. They are very tough and really easy to clean.
What about you?
Barkeeper’s Friend.
my GF and I inherited an apartment with a less than sparkling stove. Barkeeper’s Friend took away a hell of a lot of the dirt and almost all of the rust in about 10 minutes of scrubbing. Absolutely essential cleaning product.
Glad Press N’ Seal is the coolest ever. It’s saran wrap that actually works.
Following the dog-bed theme, the Litter-Robot.
One of our cats is currently wearing a cone to protect a wounded ear and he no longer fits through the Litter-Robot’s entrance, so I’ve been forced to crack out the old, topless litter box and it’s reminded me of how much better life is with the Robot on the job.
Stusser you’re a genius when it comes to PC stuff but I’ll never trust you again about food wrapping technology.
I freaking hate this crap. It sticks to your fingers in a bizarre way…makes me want to scream and punch stuff. You’re right that it works, but I’d rather use lead foil and risk poisoning myself than use this stuff.
This. I’ve got a roll that I am desperately hoping will run out soon. It’s a nightmare to unroll and cut. I will admit that it seals great, but only once. If you remove it, you have to replace it because it’ll never reseal. Fuck this shit.
I don’t understand the Press n Seal hate. Its easier to unwrap and cut than Saran Wrap, and it actually sticks to the item I want to seal.
I suspect that tiohn and spoofy suffer from some sort of weird genetic thing, like supertasting, that affects the tackiness of their fingers. Press n Seal is much easier to handle than regular plastic wrap.
Regular plastic wrap still has its uses (e.g., wrapping dough or any other task that needs good conformity), but for straight up sealing of containers, Press n Seal wins.
Yes, it’s better in doing the stuff that you use plastic wrap for, 99% of the time. Unless you bake a lot of pies, glad press n seal is MAGICAL.
These are absolutely amazing. A lot of people use them for fine cleaning bathrooms, but they are also the best item I’ve ever used for removing stuff like scuff marks on floors from rubber soles, mystery scuffs and marks and blotches from walls, appliances, electronics etc, and pretty much anything you can think of (except for heavy glue residue, which I found out by trial and error). I can’t emphasize enough the number of uses I’ve found for these things.
I once wrote a note in permanent marker and left it for my wife (too lazy to find a pen), it ended up getting wet and soaking into a laminate counter to such a degree it looked like I simply wrote on the counter in thick marker. Nothing we tried would get it out without damaging the counter, five minutes with one of these erasers and you can’t even tell there was ever a problem.
Something like this for scrubbing dishes. Cleaner than a dish rag, scrubs better than a dish rag, and its easier to clean.
They also pull the rust off of tools!
Thirded. Those magic erasers are the best cleaning product we have ever purchased. They clean our glass stove top too, and beautifully. Also, use them on your blinds. They are basically VERY fine sandpaper, but they don’t scuff anything. Truly a miracle of modern science.
Also, the Shark Steamer is really good if you have hardwood, vinyl, or tile flooring. No chemicals and a washable shammy. Great little gadget and relatively cheap.
FoodSaver. Food lasts forever and comes out like it was still fresh. Doesn’t work well with cheese though. The marinate attachment is also awesome: you can essentially force the meat to suck in the marinade in about 5 minutes instead of having to marinate for hours.
I know what I want: the automatic face-slapper from Mythbusters with Vince Shlomi strapped down in it. The machine is hooked up to my TV, and every time the ShamWow guy (Vince Shlomi) comes on with some obnoxious commercial the face-slapper goes off (with super-sloMo replay).
I keep one in the house and one in the car. I use them constantly, barely even open my toolbox for anything else. You don’t have to mess around with stupid bit attachments, either.
Belkin Concealed surge protector… Because visible surge protectors are UGLY.
Baking soda and vinegar.
Do you use the bags, or the plastic containers? We have a foodsaver, and use it with the bags to make huge amounts of food, then break it up into 2 dinner sized portions per bag. On nights we don’t want to cook or go out, we just pop meals out ready to go (we also have a large chest freezer to accommodate all those bags of food.) Meals we’ve made are still perfectly good 3-4 months later, as long as you properly seal the bag.
I’d like to use those containers, just so I don’t have to throw out any plastic.
Saran wrap and other cheap plastic wraps work fine if you come at them with the idea you will have to stop for 2 seconds and calmly unpeel the plastic from itself after you rip off a sheet.
If you have the foolish idea you shouldn’t have to do that, it will only end in tears and a mangled ball of crinkly junk :)
My household tip of the day is really more of a conference room tip. Diet cola works great as a tabletop cleanser and solvent. Perhaps some combination of the acid and the carbonation is what does it. It leaves no sticky residue like sugared soda – no really, there is no trace left at all after you sop it up with a napkin.
So if you are having lunch with the team at a conference room table, a few drops of diet cola will do a great job of cleaning up any foodstuff left on the table, and the next people in the room won’t curse you.
I’d almost recommend diet cola as general household cleaner, but I can’t quite bring myself to do so.