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Reddit, what items, for less than $100, can you buy that will greatly increase your quality of life?(r/AskReddit)
1) A decent knife or two. You don’t need a set, but those laser-cut bullshit things you bought at Ikea are what’s keeping you thinking you don’t know how to cook. /r/cooking goes roundyround about this but the basix are something with a real edge that can be honed and sharpened (which you can get done at the farmer’s market or Joanne Fabrics for like a buck) that you don’t feel comfortable putting in the dishwasher.
2) A decent pan. Boiling water or boiling sauce can be done in any cheap shit thing. If you’re actually grilling or cooking or the like, something with some mass is good. Lots of people love cast iron; in my opinion, so long as it isn’t aluminum and isn’t non-stick you’re good.
3) A broom, a mop, a carpet sweeper. If you get in the habit of tidying every goddamn day you’ll be amazed how clean your place stays with how little effort and that starts with a decent goddamn set of cleaning tools. Carpet sweepers are really handy for whipping out and zipping over things when you don’t need to vacuum everything and they’re cheaper than Roombas by rather a lot.
4) A decent wallet. You’ve probably been rawking the same one you bought the last time your wallet died, which was likely when the canoe overturned at summer camp. Go buy a $30-40 wallet that’s leather and stuff. Get one that doesn’t hold every fucking piece of ID, club card, coin and photo you’ve ever owned. A big boy wallet goes a long way towards a big boy mentality. Ladies: sorry, frickin’ clutches cost a goddamn mint.
5) A grooming kit. Bite your nails? Cut that shit out. When your nails get too long, clip them. get out the cuticle pusher. Snip those hangnails off with the cuticle scissors. If nothing else, head to sephora and get the cuticle pusher ($12), the clippers ($8) and a glass file ($9 or so). A decent manicure is easy, takes very little time and radically alters the way you experience the world.
6) A rice cooker. Just about the cheapest food in the world and fiddly to make on the stove. Rice cookers are fire and forget – and if you’re brewing up rice, you might as well put the vegetable basket above it and steam some broccoli while you’re at it.
7) Getting Things Done by David Allen and a cheap-ass label-maker (read the book). Organization starts from the top down and if you make it through 2/3rds of this book you’ll end up with a firm grasp on all the twiddly shit in your life that currently flies out of control.
8) A decent set of tools. Not a big one – just one with a mild set of sockets, a mild set of wrenches and some decent screwdrivers. Not the Ikea set. The Craftsman set is okay although the quality of their tools has plummeted in the past 10 years and they’re being sheisty on their “lifetime warranty.” If you have a decent set of tools you will find that household projects cease to suck and suddenly become interesting and fun. It’s also empowering – if you have always cowered in fear of assembling a set of shelves a decent set of tools turns you into Tim Taylor.
9) A decent mattress pad. I’d say “a decent mattress” but those cost hella more than $100. You likely sleep on something shitty and you don’t really understand how shitty it is until you sleep somewhere not shitty. Give “not shitty” a try with the help of your local B^3 .
10) Decent cotton sheets. Crazy thread count isn’t important, but something pastel will breathe better because it hasn’t been dyed to death. Already have decent sheets? Buy more decent sheets. Sleeping in clean sheets is something you should do more often than every fourth laundry day.
That’s a start.
EDIT: and
11) This goddamn spatula. Holy fuck I love this spatula.