Bob

So of all the junk you've accumulated over the years, what products can't you be with out or have just become every day items?

For me, it's been my LL Bean Boots, I've had them for donkeys and they're awesome in the winter.

Business card filing cabinet the missus got for free off thinkgeek.com it's dorky but it's a nice place to keep all those contacts.

Bodum kettle, it's bright, it's ugly, but it's uber fast at boiling loads of water and it gets used all the time.

Dyson vac and also the hand vac, both we got at half price from Target as open boxed returned items, so pretty cheap, the big vac has been going strong for at least 6 years now and the hand vac is great with the little one always leaving a trail of crumbs.

WD TV Live media player, just made life so much easier playing all those tv shows.

Flip video camera...unlike most cam corders which never get used after the first big event you got it for, this thing has been used all the time to catch the little one doind something silly like dancing to the tv, or catching her first steps etc, always have it on us and stick the clips up on youtube for the folks. Would like to upgrade to the HD version, but the old jobby is still doing great for now.

Swiffer....something cheap and so naff, but with wooden floors, that and the hand vac, I'm less mental when the little one makes a mess

For the little one, the Tummy Tub bath tub, made bath time so much easier and more fun.

Best toy for her has also been the Rody, a blow up pony which she loves and trots around on all the time.

DVD player for the car, though only used on long trips, it's made life so much easier.

Puzzle rack, some one gave us this and it's great and pretending to be tidy by stacking all those kids puzzles.

There are probably a load of others...but what about you lot, what's made your lives easier, or just something really cool?

And to not be completely random, I've a birthday coming up in a couple months and looking for ideas for a wish list

tonrob

Mrs tonrob wouldn't be without the love beads I made with a handful of sprouts, a drill and a short length of string.

Sally Redux

Playstation and Tom-Tom.

Rete

My computer. Other than that, can't think of a thing. Not into electronic gizmos (only have a computer and a plain old cell phone without video or texting).

elfman

my kids have one of those and when they first got it I did myself a painful gonad injury demonstrating what they were supposed to with it.

Derrygal

You sound just like me - plain old cell phone - doesn't take photos or anything! I've never sent a text message in my life - and don't plan to either.
One thing I love though is my dishwasher - I hate washing dishes!

nettlebed

Hey, Bob, boots are for hoomins, not donkeys!

Agree. Got cats? need a Dyson. Now if I could get a Dyson sphere, I'd love that!

+1. If you really want convenience couple this with a wireless media server. I built an 8TB server using a Synology DS1010+.

The thing that goes with me more often than anything else now wherever I go (within reason) is my Kindle. It has really rekindled my reading habit. I like to keep 4-5 books on the go at once: Kindle makes it much easier...

Bob

I love that there's a safety warning in the instructions saying maximum load is 400 pounds....if a kid under 5 is anywhere near breaking that weight limit, the Rody is the least of their concerns

Bob

The Sphere is pretty neat, but anything Dyson that's new is a bit mental on price...though the "fanless" fan would be rather nice, though our apartment now has AC.

Love the idea of that server...would be handy...but how much did 8TB cost you? Just wondering if it's worth waiting around till solid state drives get cheaper in price, rather like the idea that when they fail you can still read from them, you just can't write to them and they're less noisy, which isn't an issue inside a noisy computer, but stacked randomly on a shelf it might be a bit weird?

Kindle would be nice, especially as Calibre is a nice bit of software to convert book formats so you aren't limited to buying just on Amazon which is quite nice...but I rather like the look of the Nook and the touch screen Sony one, but that's a tad mental on the price for what it is. Do you know if you can lend books on your kindle to other people? FIL just got a kindle, which is cool...but as I tended to borrow a lot of books he read, got me a bit worried as we read pretty similar stuff for the most part.

nettlebed

It was a bit spendy, but I have been wanting a proper home storage solution for some time (this holds all my DVDs and I'm gradually getting my CDs on to it as well. It's a RAID-5 with five 2TB disks. Total cost was around $1400. I know I'm going to run put of space, and I can add another five disks using an expansion unit, which will give me 18TB of space with RAID-5. That will add another $600 to the cost, so for $2K I'll have 18TB of protected storage. I'd expect that to last another 3-5 years or so, and I can look at upgrading the drives during that time as bigger ones become available. Solid state drives are not going to be getting much cheaper any time soon, AFAICT, so I decided to go for spinning glass as I needed the space now. The NAS itself is tucked away in a closet, with a powerline ethernet adapter hooking it to my wireless router. I have the media server on a separate channel from our main internet channel with a simple switch switching between the two networks. I have managed to stream five DVD movies at full bitrate without saturating the NAS or the network. It's sweet.

Well, I work for Amazon.com, so I'm biased. I've used the Nook, but the backlit LCD screen is a real battery hog: with the wireless off I get around 25-30 days from a single charge on the Kindle.

Lending books on Kindle isn't supported, and I can't talk about what might or might not be in the works.

I use Calibre all the time: great piece of ass^W software...

scrubbedexpat097

The new Hammock seat we put on the Harley. Much easier on the rear end (and other delicate parts) when riding on bumpy roads.

Our Wii. Who knew what fun playing silly games could be or how competitive I get

AmerLisa

My cell phone..... I don't know how I lived without it, I suppose I didn't stray much....

Coffee maker/grinder..... Ahhh that first cup in the morning....

Dishwasher....

Washer and Dryer..... Don't realize how much these things are needed until you don't have them!

I'd love to have another Dyson....sigh, some day

N1cky

My Rabbit Wine Opener (yes wine opener guys not the other rabbit)

I've got a nook Bob, I do really like it but have had some problems with it. You can lend books on there, and I also like the fact that I have the nook app on my iphone, so if I get held up anywhere I can just continue to read my book on my phone (presumably kindle has the same). It's also great for reading outside as its not lit so has no glare in the sun.

nettlebed

Same for Kindle.

You can read Kindle books on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Droid and BlackBerry as well as the Kindle itself.

And I have just found out that I was wrong earlier: you can now lend books on the Kindle, subject to the publisher allowing lending of the title.

nettlebed

Well, using the rabbit wine opener a couple of times might lead to utilization of the other rabbit!!