I never thought Id be excited for a garbage can, but after going through multiple plastic cans and having the lid mechanism fail on cheaper metal cans, I broke down and got a more expensive one from Simple Human. I feel the quality everytime I use the step to toss something. It sounds so dumb, but I’m really blown away after years of crappy cans.
Aside from that, my python water changer for aquariums. That thing has been the goat for years at this point.
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I’m usually not a brand loyalist, but when it comes to tools, this is a Makita family.
No other tool company publishes open schematics for all of their tools, so they can be repaired with generic parts instead of expensive “replacement parts kits.” Every other tool company is traded publicly on the stock market and vulnerable to enshittification. Makita is a large, but still family-owned, union company in Japan.
Lots of companies focus on ergonomics & power, but only Makita is focused on low vibrations while still making tools that are just as powerful.
But most of all? They’ve stated that destroying two-stroke motors in yard equipment is one of their main corporate goals, and so for both environmental and noise reasons, this company has my loyalty forever. Makita corporate? Hit me up! I will sell the fuck out of your tools.
Thanks for this. I always waffled on brands and never knew this about them. I was always support non publicly traded companies wherever possible.
I did not know that about Makita. I will have to pay closer attention their offerings!
I am fully kitted out with DeWalt battery powered hand tools, but I have been adding more heavy duty corded tools lately as well.
DeWalt is good, imo them, Milwaukee, and Makita all make great tools. Bosch and Festool are also good. But Makita is my favorite for the reasons mentioned above. Btw, you can get adapters to use different brands’ batteries with different brands’ tools…
Yeah we’re firmly committed to the DeWalt ecosystem at this point. The lawnmower is even a DeWalt.
Any good reasons why? I own some Dewalt tools and have been satisfied, but will be switching to Makita after reading the review given here tbh. Ive never noticed a notable difference between the performance of Dewalt, Milwaukee, etc.
Thanks for the info. I’m thinking of buying an electric lawn mower to stop paying for gardeners but didn’t know which brand to go with. I’ll definitely give their offerings a look.
Good to know, thanks! My default is just using Kobalt out of cost and convenience. In my opinion best bang for buck. For premium tools I’ll consider Bosch (apparently another great reputation as a company) and now Makita.
Bosch is very good too. Festool is great, but crazy expensive. Milwaukee & DeWalt are good too. But Makita is the best, especially the ones actually made in Japan
I can swear just fine without any products, thank you very fucking much.
Thanks, dad
Cast iron pans when you learn how to season them well. As an unrelated note, anyone know of any good mice brands for universal gaming?
Or my favorite pan right now: nitrided carbon steel.
I have an espresso machine - so far 15 yrs of daily use.
I have the cheapest steam iron from Walmart, not as much use - but going strong.
I have a Casio scientific calculator going strong ~30 yrs.
Ikea blue bag for shopping and avoiding single use plastic.
Stainless steel straws.
Reusable pads and diva cup.But my swear by thing: a lot of dollar store or store brand snacks are as good as the big name. You just have to wade through them to see which one you like.
Moondrop headphones. Their quality is really good. I’m not an audiophile by any means but they have a good audio range and a pair typically lasts me around 2 years if I don’t forget to take them out of my clothes before they’re washed. They still survive a few trips through the laundry despite that though.
Red Boat fish sauce.
I’m more a fan of red fish boat sauce myself.
You know how long it takes to ferment a whole boat?!
Not a brand, but natural fibers. 100% cotton sweats and t-shirts, cotton/hemp blend shirts, wool sweaters. I can’t deal with plastic against my skin anymore, at least not when I’m trying to be comfortable.
I recently fell in love with linen button-up shirts for summer-wear. Nothing is as cool and breezy, while still looking good.
Linen in summer! Rock on
Merino wool socks!
Personally my preference is like 85-95% cotton, but with some kind elastane in them.
I can’t go back to non stretchy clothes, they just feel so much more limiting, but I’d take 100% cotton over 100% polyester every day of the week.
Yusssss, natural fibers all the way. I can’t stand polyester, never have been able to. The only synthetic fabrics I can bear to feel against my skin are nylon or maybe a blend with a small amount of spandex or elastane.
But yeah I’ll add to your list of natural fibers: linen is my absolute favorite, but various kinds of viscose can be nice too such as rayon, modal, bamboo, or lyocell.
And if you ever want to overheat in the freezing cold, try yak’s wool!
Same thing for bedding. I have bad night sweats at times and it really has helped using cotton sheets and blankets, at least for the layers closest to my skin. I still sometimes wake up drenched but it is less unbearable than synthetic
You may want to consider something like a BedJet. It cycles air between your sheets at a pre-set temperature, which has the added benefit of helping evaporate any night-sweats before it can become a full blown puddle.
They even make dual-area top-sheets, so you can sleep at one temperature and your partner can have a completely different temperature on their side of the bed. Perfect for when one of you sleeps hot and the other sleeps cold.
My wife was initially against the idea, until it was the dead of winter and I pre-heated her side of the bed. The first time she slid into the pre-heated sheets was a watershed moment for her, and now she hates sleeping without it (like when we travel).
Me with canvas pants specifically. Always thought I hated anything but cotton sweats, but they suck to work in. Jeans are either so elastic they don’t feel protective, or they feel protective at the cost of feeling restrictive (The good jeans are ridiculously expensive). Canvas work pants feel sturdy and they don’t limit movement. Plus they wash out super easily
Beyerdynamic makes good wired headphones. Are they too expensive? Absolutely. Their headphone stand costs 60 USD. The drawstring bag costs 25 USD. Some of the headphones cost up to 700 USD when not on sale.
But here’s where they’re better than competition. This is compared to the JBL 720BT, not to any other brand or model.
- They do not fall apart after a few months.
- They do not require weird audio adapters. They work with multiple standard audio jack sizes, in stereo.
- They do not require a proprietary application to use weird Bluetooth features. They are just wired headphones. There is no enshittification.
- Is their customer service line god-awful? Honestly, I don’t know: I’ve never had to put up with their customer service. But JBL made me wait on the line for an hour on multiple occasions, on their crackly phone line to a call center outsourced to India. It took me three calls and much waiting to get a person who spoke fluent English. Even that person took the better part of an hour to resolve the records issue on their end (related to purchase history).
Maybe you knew this already, but Beyerdynamic was sold for cheap to a Chinese conglomerate earlier last year. I wouldn’t count on the quality remaining the same.
Oh, that’s unfortunate. Do you have any good recommendations for other wired-only closed-ear headphones of similar quality? If you suggest JBL, I’m going to put my head through the wall.
Audio quality and headphone durability matter a lot to me.
Sennheiser. I’ve been using a Sennheiser HDR175 every day for the last 10 years and they hold up extremely well. I’ve replaced the cushions a couple of times but the build quality is excellent, I’d buy them again in a heartbeat. Mine is wireless but they offer a number of wired models too. The original batteries still last all day, I can’t even remember the last time I got a low battery warning.
For what it’s worth, Beyerdynamic still mostly produce in Germany – at least for the time being.
Thank you for the recommendation!
Please tell me more about the cushion replacements. Did the cushions fall off, or did you replace them for some other reason? How easy are the cushions to replace?
You’re welcome! I mostly use ear pads made from artificial leather. The surface material gets small cracks from wear and tear over time, they typically last a couple of years though. You can also get ones made from Velours, they supposedly last forever but I personally don’t like wearing them.
Replacing the ear pads is pretty easy on most Sennheiser models, you can clip them on and off without any tool needed. The smaller pads at the top are attached with adhesive film. It takes maybe 2 minutes to replace all cushions with new ones. Sennheiser no longer sells spares for mine, but there are fortunately plenty of third party manufacturers that still do.
With JBL (ugh), the only thing holding the pads on is the surface material, whichis attached with cheap glue that lasts a year at most, under minimal wear.
So this is much better. Thank you—I will look into Sennheiser.
Some of their models come with a dettachable cable. If the cable breaks or you prefer a shorter/longer cable you can swap it easily.
Haix boots.
They’re expensive AF, and they’re super heavy, but they’re super comfortable and they’re designed to protect your feet from basically everything, be worn for long durations, and last forever. My first pair lasted me almost 7 years of heavy use and kept my feet safe in the most disgusting situations (I finally had to buy a second pair after they tore up the side). They were covered in mud, snow, blood, vomit, feces, and took me through homes infested in cock roaches and bed bugs and all I ever needed to do was hose them off. I replaced countless broken laces and a zipper once (the laces hold the zipper in place and it’s designed to be easily swapped). They’re rated for electric shock, are wildland fire approved, are waterproof, have a composite toe, and a steel shank in the sole to protect from sharp objects.
I won’t buy any other boots for work. It’s a classic case of the boots problem, I used to go through a $150 pair of boots every 8 months and always had foot pain, but these cost $450 and lasted me almost 7 years so I definitely saved money and my feet are happy and protected.
If you like cannabis, the Pax 2 vaporizer is amazing. Bought one 12 years ago, used it nearly daily til the button died. Recently purchased another one exactly like it, looking forward to another decade of use.
I am generally anti-corporate anti-capitalist, but I will happily endorse this one specific product cuz it performs one function extremely well for years.
I didn’t go with a Pax but I have Mighty and Crafty+ that are great. It allows for less herb to be used which kinda helps pay for the device but my favorite part is the flavor is nicer.
Got both second-hand with new mouthpieces as I hate spending money but they’re dope. Irony is I’m trying to smoke less or just stop but it’s 2026.
8bitdo controllers & PC accessories
These guys can make really good electronics, while maintaining that retro aesthetic
Was having connection issues with the 8bitdo Pro 2 for the switch.I though that they followed enshitification practices and stopped supporting it, but was surprised that they still had firmware updates and it worked again after updating.
Thinkpads are probably one of the least garbage of laptops out there
And work as a hammer, too!
I miss them so bad, I should buy an old project thinkpad
Bar Keepers Friend, it just works and that’s a rare quality these days.
Lysol laundry disinfectant, it’s the only thing that gets the funk of our well water out of the clothes
Myos muscle powder for dogs, it practically reversed my dogs aging and at 11 he’s actively gaining muscle that was wasting before
MAKEUP BY MARIO surrealskin waterproof setting spray, it’s alcohol free, gentle and works better than any other setting sprays I’ve ever used
This one is a little different because it’s a brand and it definitely isn’t universal, but Kirkland Brand, so much of my house is just Costco store brand and it still has great quality almost across the board, don’t buy their batteries or toilet paper though, I don’t know if they’ve fixed the water content in their butter than was messing up everyone’s baking.
My Brevill toaster oven, it’s a little champ that’s fed a family of four with no problem for years.
I’m sure there’s more but that’s off the top of my head
Love me some Kirkland. What’s wrong with their TP? Also haven’t noticed anything with the butter, but maybe we got lucky?
God yes, laundry disinfectant is a godsend. I live in the south and sweat a lot. No amount of showering, anti-perspirants, deodorants, etc kept the sweaty funk smell off. I’d walk outside, (even just walking between my front door and my car), and would immediately smell bad. Then I started using laundry sanitizer, and the sweaty funk smell vanished almost overnight.
It turns out I didn’t stink. My clothes did. Detergent is great for getting rid of dirt, stains, etc, but it doesn’t do anything for microbes. And all of my clothes had built up enough microbes that I’d start stinking as soon as my clothes got damp from sweat.
I literally credit laundry sanitizer for helping me land my wife. She (in)famously has a bloodhound nose. Know how some pregnant women get a supercharged sense of smell? Yeah, hers is like that all the time. So if I showed up to our dates stinking of sweat-funk, she 100% would have stopped dating me. She’s always the first to notice when something stinks, and laundry sanitizer is the only reason I was able to keep her around long enough to put a ring on it.
As a bonus, my clothes don’t go sour if I forget them in the washer for a few hours. Microbes are what make your clothes to go sour. Since the laundry was freshly sanitized , there are no microbes to make it go sour.
BKF The powder stuff is great. Hard to get hold of. Saved my skin a few times.
Have a breville coffee machine. Id give the oven up before that. It’s my daily saviour and is no bother.
Mysos muscle powder…can humans have this?
Myos is specifically a laboratory that makes the “dog formula” which means it’s unflavored but fertilized egg yolks is something humans can ingest and get the same results yes! It’s for age related muscle wasting only because it essentially blocks a protein aging bodies produce. A lot of stuff was like give your dog glucosamine and condroiten or other things but had no hard science to back up the results, fertilized egg yolks have human and animal science behind them that show an 18% - 22% reduction in age related muscle wasting and can help build muscle back too.
The Breville Sous Chef is great as well.
Antique furniture.
It’s heavy, it’s durable, it’s actual wood, it’s over 100 years old and will still be here in another 100 years.
It’s also extremely inexpensive and readily available in antique shops, goodwill, second hand stores, estate sales, etc…
It’s log, it’s log It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood…
Better than bad?
It’s good!
You are lucky, antique anything is not cheap near where I live. Estate sales are the closest things, but people can be vicious there.
I was blown away when I started looking around at used furniture. It’s functionally the same as the new stuff, but a digit or two cheaper. Nothing else depreciates quite the same way, and for so frivolous a reason.
When you’re talking antiques, it probably goes up again, but still.
I need to find better goodwill and second-hand stores! Anything I’ve seen made of Real Wood is stupid-expensive.
Habitat for Humanity’s restore has great stuff I bought a giant china cabinet that I use as a pantry in the basement for $35. My entire kitchen table, chairs, 3 hutches and another china cabinet set was $700.
Most of my furniture other than my couches are from there.
Hmm, that seems like it might have something to do with where you’re looking. Thrift stores seem to focus more on small things. Or, maybe, people just don’t like donating decent furniture. Look online, or ask around through any connections, if you have them.
If we assume you’re in Canada, based on your domain, there’s older people downsizing everywhere who just want to get rid of their vintage (quality) furniture. Some have kids that will take it, some don’t. The other reply mentioned china cabinets; those and upright pianos are sometimes free, so long as you’ll do the moving yourself, because most of the young generation doesn’t want them.
Don’t forget older electronics. Dumb TVs, older cd/dvd players that still fucking work, hell appliances too.
My family still uses the Miele vacuum cleaner my grandma bought around 2000. Sucks just as much as it did new.
Not sure where Miele is at now, but most of the machine I’ve used from them are great quality. I used a Miele dryer at student housing on a weekly basis and it just worked and my clothes came out like ironed.
Damn that really sucks
My Rainbow is a little older than that and has at least another 20 years on it.
