There’s an amazing array of household gadgets out there. They’re not quite necessary like cookware or a set of screwdrivers, but they’re useful, and they’re fun.
There’s an amazing array of household gadgets out there. They’re not quite necessary like cookware or a set of screwdrivers, but they’re useful, and they’re fun.
Many have been known to make a celebrity’s “what I can’t live without” list, even though they can live without the gadget very nicely. Here are some useful, if not absolutely required, household gadgets. Did your favorite make the list?
Lots of people don’t know how they survived the dog days of summer without their hand or neck fans. The hand fan is held up to the face rather like a microphone and simply turned on "Lo" or "Hi" to deliver much-needed cooling. It’s even good to quickly cool down a pot of sushi rice. Neck fans are draped about the neck and are actually two miniature fans angled up toward the face. This allows the hands to be free while the face is kept deliciously chilled even on an excursion in the desert.
A grabber is another of those gadgets people don’t know how they lived without. It is simply a pole with a trigger on one end and blunt pincers lined with textured rubber on the end to grab whatever is needed securely. There’s no more hauling out the step stool to get to that item at the top shelf of a closet or the top of the wall cabinets in the kitchen. The grabber's usefulness isn’t restricted to things that are above the user’s head. If there’s something that fell back behind the furniture and they don’t want to stick their hand in a dusty dark corner and pat around for it, the grabber can do the job.
This is a kitchen gadget that can slice veggies such as potatoes and zucchinis paper-thin in a matter of seconds. It is simply a board made of plastic or metal with a blade in the center. It can be propped up in its own frame or held in the hand. Hand-held mandolines are often plastic and come with a paddle to grip. A good mandoline comes with a selection of blades for crinkle or waffle cuts and a place in the back to store them as well as a finger guard. Mandoline blades are notoriously sharp.
Once a person gets one of these, they’ll never be without one again. Some people have several different projects. It’s basically a keypad that contains an ink cartridge and a roll of tape with a backing. High-end label makers offer the user different sizes for letters, different fonts, and different styles and spacing among other embellishments. The person types a word that appears on a screen, then prints it out. The push of a button cuts the tape, the backing of the tape is peeled off, and the tape is affixed to whatever it is, whether it’s a bowl of leftovers, a box of Christmas decorations, or the tab on a file folder.
These convenient lights are small enough to be tucked into a purse and can be clipped to a book for nighttime reading without having to turn on a lamp or the overhead light. They have bendy necks to let the reader focus the light on a particular page, and since they use LED lights, they’re cool to the touch. They have two settings of bright and brighter, and the best last a while before they need to be recharged. In a pinch, book lights make serviceable flashlights.
Also called an auger, this gadget is made up of many feet of the metal coil inside a compartment. The coil is fed through plumbing pipes to clear blockages that can’t be removed with a plunger while the user spins a handle. Some people are better at using snakes than others. Some can maneuver the coil all the way down to the main drain while others have trouble getting past the first U-bend. Power augers are also available.
Of course, hair can dry all by itself after it’s washed, but for people who are in sort of a hurry, a blow dryer is a necessity. They have hot, warm, and cool settings, and some have a comb attachment. Blow dryers aren’t just used for hair. People can use them to thaw out frozen plumbing pipes and to dry out anything, such as paint, that they want to dry in a hurry.
They have yet to build a better trap than the snap trap. A food item that a mouse can’t resist is placed on a trip. Professionals recommend peanut butter, as the mouse has to use some pressure to really get at it. When the trip is pressed, a spring-loaded bar snaps shut and breaks the mouse’s neck or crushes its little skull. Then, all the person has to do is hold the trap up over the garbage can or some spot in a forest near a hungry fox or bird of prey, pull the bar up, and release the body.
The salad spinner is another gadget that, once owned, seems irreplaceable. After greens are washed, they can be placed in this gadget, which spins, perforated bowl inside a clear, larger bowl, and dried. Lettuce, which tends to wilt fairly quickly, can also be stored in the salad spinner and stay fresher longer. The larger bowl can also be used to serve the salad. Some folks, in a pinch, use their salad spinner to dry their delicates after laundering.
Though perfectly good pasta can be store-bought, there’s nothing quite like homemade pasta made with the help of this gadget. The adjustable rollers allow the dough to be rolled out to paper thinness. Free-standing pasta makers are operated by a hand crank, while pasta makers that attach to stand mixers are worked by the mixer. By the way, some cooks allow their homemade pasta to dry on foldable clothes dryers, which can be thought of as another useful gadget.
Though this gadget has no moving parts, some cooks think it’s miraculous. They just put a clove of garlic inside of the rubbery tubular peeler then roll and smash it against a cutting board or another hard surface. The papery skin of the clove comes right off.
Bungee cords are stretchy cords that have hooks or balls at the ends. They come in many lengths and bright colors and have been around since before World War I when they were used to hold airplanes together. Now they can be threaded through pieces of cloth on each end and secured to the tops and bottoms of stairs to make a sturdy baby or puppy gate, hold tall grasses together to make them easier to cut, act as shoelaces, organize large items in a DIY cage, keep electrical cords tidy, serve as dog leashes and even be made into jewelry.
Another gadget that no one knew they needed, these pan-sized vacuum cleaners can boldly go where no other vacuum could quite go before. This means all the way under the bed, under the chest-on-chest and the china closet, under the dining room table without really having to move all the chairs out of the way, under anything that has even a couple of inches of clearance. Then, they scuttle back to their base to be recharged.
As people can buy pasta, they can also buy ground coffee. But like homemade pasta, there’s nothing quite like coffee whose beans the drinker grinds themself. Unlike wine and liqueurs, coffee doesn’t age well. When a coffee bean is ground it loses much of its punch, so it’s simply better to grind coffee beans when a good cup of Joe is desired. Moreover, not all coffee grinders are alike. Coffee connoisseurs recommend burr grinders because the grounds are more even, and more even grounds result in a superior cup.
This gadget is invaluable for someone who needs to either take clothes out of storage for the season or unpack them from a suitcase. An iron can be rather violent toward clothes, but steam is gentle and good for most types of fabric, though the steamer head should not come into contact with delicate fabrics such as silk. Indeed, clothes that are mostly steamed instead of ironed tend to last longer.
For homeowners who love to start their outdoor gardens inside well before the last frost date, grow lights are just the thing. They come in tubes or bulbs that are placed above seed-starting kits and give seedlings uninterrupted hours of the full spectrum light they need to grow before they’re transplanted. Because these lights are LEDs, they’re cool, energy-efficient and long-lasting.
There are all kinds of timers, including those that turn the house lights on and off at set times when the homeowner and their family are on vacation or out of the house. Programmers can even be set to turn on and off randomly when they're on vacation mode. Timers can also control kitchen appliances, ceiling fans, and even the rest of the home’s HVAC system.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional consultation or advice related to your health or finances. No reference to an identifiable individual or company is intended as an endorsement thereof. Some or all of this article may have been generated using artificial intelligence, and it may contain certain inaccuracies or unreliable information. Readers should not rely on this article for information and should consult with professionals for personal advice.