Ask HN: What are some purchases that increased the quality of your life?
18 comments
- A collapsible kettle for drinking tea when I'm traveling. I have to travel several days every week and I can't drink tea from those hotel machines because they have coffee residue and tea tastes bad. I drink A LOT of tea so a good investment.
- Mechanical Keyboard
- Ergonomic Mouse
- A decent pair of headphones. If you enjoy listening music or watching shows using headphones, a good set can make a big difference.
- Two monitor setup for working/wasting time on my computer. Improves posture and it's more comfortable that using just one monitor+laptop since they probably are different size/resolution.
- A big water bottle. I wasn't drinking enough water and always forgot to drink more. So now I just fill up my bottle every morning and take it with me to work.
- This book: "The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living". A ton of good short lessons on how to live.
- Mechanical Keyboard
- Ergonomic Mouse
- A decent pair of headphones. If you enjoy listening music or watching shows using headphones, a good set can make a big difference.
- Two monitor setup for working/wasting time on my computer. Improves posture and it's more comfortable that using just one monitor+laptop since they probably are different size/resolution.
- A big water bottle. I wasn't drinking enough water and always forgot to drink more. So now I just fill up my bottle every morning and take it with me to work.
- This book: "The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living". A ton of good short lessons on how to live.
Our bed. Seriously.
I never paid much attention to my bed and typically bought a less expensive mattress. My last one was a quite firm memory foam mattress that was definitely firm, but I didn't think much about it and just thought I was generally a light sleeper. I also really looked forward to sleeping in hotels for the nicer bedding. I just didn't know better.
When we moved earlier this year we spent some $$$ and bought a new king mattress, mattress pad, pillows and sheets. It's made all the difference. I sleep through the night with less tossing and turning, and I'm less achy and stiff in the morning. It's been a whole new world and I love the new bed.
The only downside is that it's ruined me for hotels now. I'd say 90% of hotels I've stayed in this year don't even come close to our bed at home. Even in the higher end places like the St. Regis or Edition.
Spend the money and buy a nice bed.
I never paid much attention to my bed and typically bought a less expensive mattress. My last one was a quite firm memory foam mattress that was definitely firm, but I didn't think much about it and just thought I was generally a light sleeper. I also really looked forward to sleeping in hotels for the nicer bedding. I just didn't know better.
When we moved earlier this year we spent some $$$ and bought a new king mattress, mattress pad, pillows and sheets. It's made all the difference. I sleep through the night with less tossing and turning, and I'm less achy and stiff in the morning. It's been a whole new world and I love the new bed.
The only downside is that it's ruined me for hotels now. I'd say 90% of hotels I've stayed in this year don't even come close to our bed at home. Even in the higher end places like the St. Regis or Edition.
Spend the money and buy a nice bed.
Switching from a 2 stroke to a 4 stroke grass trimmer this summer was an unexpectedly great buy. The 2 stroke trimmer is way more loud, heavy and smelly. I cut the grass half hour faster and don't die from exhaustion in the process.
- A used Kindle Paperwhite.
- A motorcycle
- Automated microchip based pet feeder
- Electric bicycle
- Roomba robot vacuum cleaner
- Heated underblanket
- Some equipment to exercise at home
A yes to motorcycles. Mindfulness on two wheels.
A barbell, plates, squat stands...so I can get in a decent workout whenever I want without driving to or waiting for equipment at a gym.
Personal training changed my life (and possibly saved it).
Also, AirPods made a big difference in dealing with my commute. The wires on my other headphones got in the way all the time and seemed to get tangled just by virtue of existing.
Also, AirPods made a big difference in dealing with my commute. The wires on my other headphones got in the way all the time and seemed to get tangled just by virtue of existing.
do the AirPods work fine if there's a lot of noise outside? I prefer noise cancelling headphones but I don't like going around with my big Bose headphones so I ended buying the Sony wf-1000xm3 and they are pretty nice. I think they are the only noise cancelling earbuds truly wireless out there.
My house. My bicycle. My banjo.
E-scooter (dependent on good bikepaths), macbook, comfy office chair and big screen at home for WFH days.
Raspberry pi for pihole. 2015 MacBook Pro. Sublime text. Costco membership (they cap markup to 10%).
Aeropress and a hario hand grinder (for coffee) my morning ritual makes me happy
This. And a milk frother/warmer.
A few extra lamps to increase indoor brightness have come in handy.
CrossFit gym membership
A kickass road bike.
without any particular order: Sonos Beam, iPad, robot vacuum cleaner, my house and raspberry pi to handle smarthome stuff.
In a similar vein, lightweight everything is really important to me as quality of life, as a skinny lightweight Asian person who has a lot lower strength than the average American.
After going through many different brands of sneakers as I grew up (all your usual brands like Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Converse, etc.), I've settled on Big5's Denali (low-cut) hiking shoes. It's both cheap in price and cheaply built, so it does worn out every couple of years and I have to get new ones; but it's the most lightweight and comfortable (for the shape of my feet) shoes I've worn. Similarly, for pants and jackets I've settled on Uniqlo, jogging jeans (looks like jeans but feels like sweat pants, and is very inexpensive), ultralight down for jacket.
I'm also a mech keyboard and ergonomic mouse guy (along with good ergonomic office chair, earphones, etc.), but I would say those purchases don't even come close to all the other things I mentioned above, in terms of qualify of life effects.