This sort of question comes around every once in a while; “what’s your must-buy under $100”, “what goods would you recommend for people just moving out on their own”, and so on. I love reading these because, despite my simply vast experience[1], I sometimes pick up new tricks.
This question is about second-level stuff; maybe not “must haves” that you’d recommend as a first purchase, but the stuff that makes life easier, that you might acquire after you’ve gotten settled. Things that you may have only discovered that you’d buy again if the house burned down.
For example, my wife bought a couple of these microwave tools years ago, and at the time I thought they were going to be gimmicky stuff we never used. Turns out, we use them all the time; whoever came up with the idea was brilliant.
I like them because, unlike a hot mitt, if they get food on them you just wash them. They’re way easier to use than mitts, and can be used more securely one-handed. I wouldn’t trust them on stuff from the oven because of their size, but for plates and bowls from a microwave, they’re surprisingly handy. It took me a dozen times using them before I realized the ring in the back actually works to clamp them to the bowl and turn them into a handle, rather than just using them as grabbers.
The thing I used today which prompted my post, and something I’d encourage people to buy if they don’t have one, is a battery-powered rotary tool. My current one is a Dremel 8250, but many companies make them. They’re handy and make short work of a lot of odd jobs, and IME if you have one you constantly find places to use them.
A kit like this one runs about $150, and I think it’s worth the price. I think it’s worth getting an accessories kit, but the bits that came with the kit are the ones I use most often and can take you a long way.
So, what are your tools, devices, or products that you’ve discovered which may not be a common, basic first-level “must have” household item, but which you’d not want to do without? Things which might be a little off-the-beaten-path but indispensable? Stuff you may have stumbled upon which turned out to be surprisingly useful?
Screw removal pliers for extracting stripped screws.
Hand powered drain auger. This isn’t exactly a quality of life enhancer but it’s one that new homeowners probably won’t buy right away. It is one of those items where you pray you’ll never need it and thank whatever deity you want that you do when you do.
Other enhancers: automatic occupancy light switches if appropriate for your home setup. We have them on garage stairs for safety reasons so we dont have to reach for switches while carrying things.
Good task lighting. I have a second switch in the garage for high output lighting when I need it to be bright as daylight inside while working on the car etc. And bright under counter lighting in the kitchen for cooking or entertaining.
Calipers. I bought a cheapo pair (this one) because it was convenient for measuring the parts on a mechanical watch that I was modding. Now I use them all the time around the house for finding the size of nuts, bolts, rope thickness, etc.
cheap verniers are one of the tools I have in every main space, alongside a machinist’s ruler, allen keys, and a ratcheting screwdriver
Also, if you buy a non digital one knowing how to properly read them will feel like you just unlocked some arcane magic
It feels really cool to use a purely mechanical one, haha. Like you’re a chemist in the 16th century figuring out pressure for the first time.
Battery powered construction stapler.
Best advice I can add is don’t buy new. Broadly speaking, prices from high to low run: eBay, FB Marketplace, thrift store, flea market, garage sale. That’s also a rough outline of how available a given item will be.
Looking around, I’m not sure 1-in-50 items in our house was bought new, outside of consumables of course. I could show someone around for at least two hours, showing off the things I found, repurposed, repaired, reused, recycled, etc.
I try to snap up rockin’ deals as I find them. I don’t need box knife blades ATM, but if I find a great deal, MINE. If you’re in a area like ours, keep your eye on the sides of the road for people putting items out to take away. The richer the neighborhood, the better! That’s one of many reasons I have a truck. We’ve found amazing goods being thrown out.
Get to know your local thrifts and flea market(s). We know exactly what sorts of things we can find at our flea market and hold off until we’re setting up or shopping there. And don’t forget you can bargain at the flea market, FB and garage sales! Don’t do that at the thrift, the price is what it is and the clerk can’t change that.
My advice is: Avoid buying anything until you really need it.
Otherwise, you end up buying a ton of stuff that you never need and it just sits around collecting dust and you’re that much poorer for it.
Source: I have a bunch of stuff I bought over the years thinking I’d need it and much of it is rarely used. Save your money because money can be anything.
When you do need a tool, check out garage sales and estate sales first because you can get some top-notch stuff at huge discounts. Alternately, pick up a cheap version from harbor freight and use it until it breaks, then get a good one because you know you’ll use it enough that quality becomes worth the extra cost.
Multi-meter
Good soldering iron
Oscillating multi-tool (power tool)
Infrared heat camera (great for assessing energy loss, engine, electrical diagnosis).
Good soldering iron
can you drop some names please?
I’m still an amateur overall but I went with a tried and true Weller 70W soldering station. Probably overkill for most but I needed every advantage I could get, repairing my amp. Dialing in your temperature removes one big variable from your equation. Already used to repair household appliances as well.
My personal recommendation is the Pinecil. It’s powered by USB-C and is very small compared to the typical 120/240v iron, makes it a lot easier to do precision work.
A small, flexible plastic bottle, which was actually meant for drizzling lemon juice or oil over your food, but which I use to store isopropyl alcohol for various cleaning purposes. It’s so handy because you don’t end up spilling it everywhere; you can just apply a few drops exactly where it’s needed. And the smell isn’t as strong that way.
Good lithium jump starter, and keep it in your car. Better than cables. I must have used mine 20 times between kids leaving my lights on all night and helping strangers.
This is the only one I agree with in this thread. Everything else buy as you need.
*You can also use most as a phone charger, flashlight, some even air pump. Good for emergency use.
Endoscope. $50. Uses phone as screen. 10’ wire with camera and light on the end. Saved my ass when wiring through the walls so many times.
Wiring, and fishing stuff out of hard-to-reach places. A telescoping magnet does the work, but being able to see what you’re trying to capture can make all the difference. Good suggestion!
I second this
General rule is if something in your house breaks and it’s cheaper to buy the tool to fix it than to call a repair person, then buy the tool and fix it yourself. So you do some work but get a tool out of the deal. After a while you have enough tools to fix typical problems.
My other big epiphany is avoid cordless tools except for a few that get used a lot, like a cordless drill/driver. I use a corded handheld vacuum instead of a cordless one and it’s cheaper, way more powerful, doesn’t need constant recharging, just better all around. Obviously this isn’t a hard rule but consider corded when you can. Remember you can use a portable inverter or similar for lots of this stuff. Like I bought a cordless glue gun early on, a popular tool, but it was a dumb purchase in retrospect. Corded would have been fine.
Glue gun and vaccum - corded because I’d be doing these jobs inside where I know I have easy access to outlets. But generally, I’ve realized that cord/cordless are just two different tools. Chose which to buy based on the size of the job and the frequency you do it (which sort of translates to how many battery charges a job would take vs time/hassle to run an extension cord). But also consider having one of both if you actually have two use cases.
Definitely recommend choosing one brand of cordless tools to buy so that they can share batteries. Also have at least one more battery than tools and put chargers in an easy to access place so they can just stay plugged in all the time.
I do like cordless, but anything that needs to generate heat (like a glue gun, a clothes iron, a soldering iron) is not a good idea, for sure.
The glue gun is fairly low powered, unlike a heat gun, so it sounded like a good idea at first. I did want to use it portably like to fix something in my car. I realized afterwards that a corded one can easily be powered by an inverter. You can even get small inverters powered by tool batteries.
Neat, I wonder if there are other form factors for the microwave one. This particular one might not work well for some dishes.
For the second tool, what kind of stuff have you used it for?
For my submission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seam_ripper
I got it to cut off itchy tags and frayed threads, etc, but you can also use it to slice open envelopes
What a great suggestion! We just had to deal with some itchy tags last week and this would have been a big help. I haven’t seen one of these since Home Ec in high school.
Edit: Fiskars’ seam ripper with a tape measure is $6!! I’m a huge fan of Fiskars products, and that’s absurdly cheap for something from a company which tends to make quality products.
I used the Dremel today to finish the repair of some stripped cabinet door hinge holes. Flat toothpicks and wood glue do most of the work, but having a Dremel to cut off the toothpick excess and sand down the surface makes it a lot easier. When we first relocated, I had my Dremel kit but none of my other power tools, and I used the Dremel to pre-drill screw holes, e.g. for drywall screws. Speaking of drywall, the Dremel drywall bit is way easier than a box cutter for cutting out larger sections for new boxes; especially in the 1960’s house we moved into, which had so many coats of paint the drywall was half again as thick as usual!
iFixIt style kit. Drills and standard screwdrivers are a given in a household but when you need to fix your glasses or get the batteries out of something small it makes a world of difference, especially with little spudgels/tweezers to help the cause.
Oh yeah! That’s a great addition to a household toolkit.
Multimeter and a quality drill
Yes! A multimeter is so useful, and a good drill is almost a basic necessity.
Stud finder and spirit level.
If you’re mounting something moderately weighty to a wall, you need a stud finder. Then to ensure it’s straight, you need a spirit level.
I picked up one of these a few years ago. Great stud finder that also sees pipes and wires.
