Things I Recommend You Buy And Use

As a lifehacky person, I’m always on the lookout for items that might seem boring but secretly make life lots better. I’ve noticed people sharing similar lists to this, and I find them genuinely useful, so I thought I’d create my own.

The method was simple: I went back through all of my Amazon purchases forever and picked out ones which have genuinely added to life. They are things I unreservedly recommend to make yours better too.

Full disclosure: the links are Amazon affiliate links, meaning I might make 6p if you buy something. (So, if you feel like splashing out on something pricey, that’d be much appreciated!) If you don’t like this idea… Incognito window?

Working/Productivity:

IBlock Universal Power US & Plug Strip – £19

If you haven’t already switched to plug strips with USBs then now is the chance. You’ll wonder how you ever had space for your items before.

Has old school USB and new school USB C.

Dreamcatcher Heated Blanket – £45

Don’t heat the house, heat the person! In a world of higher energy bills and more working-from-home, these blankets have heated strands running through. Wrap it around you and stay warm for a few pennies each hour, rather than firing up the radiators.

Flexispot Electric Adjustable Standing Desk – £159

I’ve used this electric standing desk since the pandemic. It’s fast, quiet, and you can pre-set the heights—just one touch to adjust. You attach your own desktop (I used my old one after cutting the legs off). They were about £800 during the pandemic, so grab one now they’re cheap(ish)!

Kitchen

One Touch KC04 Automatic Jar Opener – £32

The love of my gadget life. I’m terrible at opening jars and this solves that. It is noisy and a bit slow. But it’s stopped me doing nonsense with knives and hot water and banging things on the sideboard – none of which ever works. Now I just open jars and get on with life.

Team Far 6 Mixing Bowls – £40

Large hardy mixing bowls with lids that match the colour of the base of the bowl—no more hunting for the right lid! Brilliant solution.

Guayusa Tea – £8

Don’t drink this unless you want to concentrate really hard. REALLY hard. As if your eyes are stapled open and you normally only feel this awake when you’re about to go off the edge of a rollercoaster. When you do want to feel like that, though, this is legal and works.

Kenwood Mini Chopper – £20

I hate chopping onions because they make me cry. So I chop them in here! Along with herbs, nuts, anything that needs to be ‘finely chopped’ but not a paste. My second one as I worn the other out after 15 years.

NutriBullet – £60

Liquidises everything effectively. Good for smoothies, soups, etc. Classic brand for a reason: it works.

Tin Can Cook book – £3

Jack Monroe is a divisive character but what’s not in doubt is that every recipe I’ve ever tried in this book is a triumph, despite the ingredients usually reading like the tins brought by kids to a harvest festival. We make something from it most weeks.

Our Kettle (Kenwood Abbey Lux) – £40

I have three stipulations with kettles. A gauge for water levels that I can see, a lid that fully opens, and a not too long or noisy boil cycle. This wins on every one of those and is pretty. Won’t be to everyone’s taste, but if you like a good functional kettle: I recommend.

10 Minute Chinese Takeaway book – £5

Learning to make chinese takeaways has saved us about £500 this year. This book helped. Which means the investment was a 100x return! If you also spend too much on chinese takeaway, but this instead.

Wooden Lemon Juicer – £5

I once chopped the top of my index finger off after I tried to juice the centre of a lemon with a knife. You know what stops that sort of madness? Owning a wooden lemon juice reamer, which does the trick in about 20 seconds, gets all the juice out, and leaves your fingers intact.

Healthy Living/Fitness

Be-Active Bottles – £9

These are the best water bottle in existence. Not because of the timing indicators on the bottle (though that’s nice). Come for the decoration, but stay for the weird way that these NEVER leak even though they have an easy pop out straw mechanism. I’ve had 4 of them, (3 lost, 1 I cracked by dropping from a height). I’ll never buy anything else.

Ptich & Trek Female Urination Device/ Shee Pee – £12

Peeing like a man is brilliant. I bought one of these to help on a long trek in Norway and I think it was the best part of the trip. (Ok, Norway was quite pretty too). SO easy to use. Makes peeing on mountainsides so much easier. If you’re camping, going to a festival, hiking, just do it.

24 Grip Hair Clips – £8

Reebok Teal Stepper – £75-£90

The 80s are calling and it wants step class back. I became a step class convert in about 2022 after discovering the brilliant Christine Dorner whose YouTube channel is the best fitness thing ever. The Reebok step is neither sleek, nor pretty, and it’s ludicrously expensive. It is SOLID though. And has great reviews.

Tangle Teezer Brushes – £10

Sometimes I see people use normal hair brushes and I don’t know what’s wrong with you all. Tangle Teezers are the only way to brush knotted hair and not cry. You don’t get knots in your hair? Carry on with your weird ass comb then!

Garmin Lily Smartwatch – £200 – £250

If you’re a lady with slender wrists, you may struggle to get a sports watch that has all the awesome fitness stats but doesn’t look like you have a captain’s barometer sellotaped to your wrist. The Lily Garmin is the only thing I’ve found that isn’t like that. It has all the Garmin jazz, but small. I swear they don’t like having this range as they hide it away, but they’ve just done a second version and I’m tempted to upgrade.

(That’s a digital screen by the way, even though it doesn’t look like one. You can change the face).

Life Hacks

6 Minute Gratitude Diary – £22

There’s a million ways to do a diary but after trying lots this is my go-to. Few morning questions, few evening questions. Periodic scales to score parts of life to make sure they’re not getting worse. (Or celebrate improvements!) Comes in lots of nice colours too.

Worm City Wormery – £110

Our local area doesn’t recycle food waste, which seemed a shame, and we also seemed to always need new soil in our garden. So we got a wormery. The food waste gets eaten, and turns it into castings that become part of the soil. Win win. Only a good buy if you like creepy crawlies!

Greenzla Reusable MakeUp Cleansing Pads – £9

Instead of throwing away cotton wool pads when taking make up off each night, I use these mini-flannels (for want of a better word). All the size and benefits of a pad, but you stick them in the washing machine in a neat little net bag and start again. Easier than remembering to buy them and better for the environment.