This post is about stuff that I find useful and surprisingly underrated. I’ll try to update this list once in a while, keeping only the most interesting things that:
- I discovered late in my life and felt like I should have found earlier ; or that
- I’ve been doing for a while but that a lot people around me don’t, prompting questions from their end or recommendations from mine.
Home
- Coat rack in the bedroom, to store used-but-clean clothes properly instead of dumping them on a chair
- Small bath towels. They dry just as well, they take much less space so you can keep a pile of fresh ones (e.g. for your face) and wash them often
- Shoe bench to store shoes cleanly and sit while wearing them. Combo if you also get a shoehorn!
- Blackout curtains – a dark bedroom really improves sleep quality
- Heating mattress pad, in particular if you sleep with a partner who prefers a warmer/colder bed
- A comfortable bathrobe
Cooking
- A good quality pressure rice cooker
- Ziplocs and sealing clips
Habits
- Taking naps, e.g. 20 mins every day after lunch
- Going for a walk every morning with some coffee and a book
Personal care
- Korean (or Japanese?) shower towel to scrub my back
Workspace
- Get an extra laptop charger, choose USB-C devices when possible
Outdoors
- If you go camping with a car, use a large inflatable mattress with a car-pluggable electric pump
Apps
- Grayscale phone
- RSS feeds (e.g. Feedly) and Pocket
- Zotero and Obsidian
- Firefox and its extensions