What cheap tool/gadget do you use that greatly improves your daily life?

A decent headlamp. Flashlights are well and good, and sometimes necessary too. But if you've ever had to do something intricate with both hands in the complete dark, a good headlamp can be so much better in those situations

Knipex adjustable shifter pliers

They adjust and lock to all the metric sizes and in my industry climbing towers and working at heights, having to carry the minimum is amazing.

Bidet

rice cooker. i have one that i use like a fancy crockpot so i can leave the house and come home to hot food. mandolin or a food processor is a close second, makes chopping veggies a breeze

A decent reusable steel water bottle. Doesn't need to cost a lot, and really cuts down on dishes at home

Chopsticks. Use chopsticks to turn over bacon.

Magnetic soap holder.

You shove a little metal bit into your soap bar, and the bar dangles from a magnet on a stand that holds it over the sink.

Soap dries quickly, no scum in the soap dish, any drippage falls right into the sink.

Only downside is the magnet falls out when the bar gets smaller, so you have to mash the old bar into the bottom of the new one to keep from wasting it.

• A decent pair of scissors with a coating on the blades.

• A barometer

• Upgrading my USB3 external drives cables (USB3 micro B) from the old A connector to C connector

• Pocket knife

• Rechargeable headlamp

• KD polorized sunglasses

• 3 meter charge cable for the phone

• IR remote for the laptop (LibreELEC/Kodi)

• 0.5L waterproof bag inside my backpack for electronics

• RGB / cool & warm white LED string with remote

• magnetic phone mount with a suction cup

I think that's everything I use everyday under $20 without being ridiculous. And I do use each of these multiple times a day.

Poopknife

Speaking as an American - an electric kettle. Just a thing that plugs into the wall and boils water.

I use it for tea, of course, but I also use it any time I need boiling water for something, because it's faster than a kettle sitting on the stove and it doesn't use gas.

Depends on your lifestyle ofc but a cheap 6' tape measurer keychain has come in clutch more times than I can count. Within the past week I've used it to

measure the hatch of my car to see if a box could fit

compared a 14" pizza to a 17" to my friend group to figure what size pizza to buy

measured an entire house worth of soffit

The thing was like $5 and honestly gets more use out of anything in my EDC except maybe my earbuds and even then I barely touch them since graduating from uni

Floss picks. Flossing is actually more important than brushing and it's really nice to have a pack of floss picks at your desk so you can floss absent mindedly while watching a video or even in bed.

Boneconduction earphones. They are cheaper than you think and I use mine to listen to music while swimming. Also great for music when you need to be able to hear to things around you (it doesn't block any external sound, so don't use in noisy environments)

Pretty niche, but a citrus squeezer. I cook a lot of Asian food and it's much better to put half a lime in the squeezer at a time than try and hand squeeze the juice out.

USB cables with LCD displays. Now i can easily understand if a device is properly using QC or PD when charging, or whether there is an issue.

Driving gloves. Some halfway decent calfskin gloves make it nicer to drive, whether the steering wheel is hot in the summer, cold in the winter, or if you're going to be driving long distance. Not sure if real leather will be less than $20, but seen some cheap fingerless work gloves make driving more comfortable.

Clip on sunglasses that fit on my eyeglasses. Super easy to clip on, cost about ten bucks. So nice to not have to squint as much.

Dim light bulbs. Nearly every bulb in my house is as dim as I can manage. Some are salt lamps and some are those flicker fire bulbs. Either way, it makes the light at night a little warmer and a little dimmer, and all around a lot more cozy, which really is what one wants. Keep a couple of the overhead bulbs at the brighter end in case you need them, but dimmer bulbs make me a lot happier at night.

Swiss tech keychain pocket knife.

They have a microphillips and micro straight small enough to fix a loose screw on eyeglasses. The blade is serrated and sharp enough to make it through just about anything you really need to cut.

It looks enough like a key that (almost) no one questions it on my keychain.

I flew all the way to Florida with it on my keychain went through Disney with it on my keychain got to universal studios They actually recognized it and made me lose it.

When I got back I bought six more now somebody makes me throw one away I don't care.

"swiss tech utili-key" on amazon, less than $8

A convoy s3 flashlight with uv emitter, about $15 US.

I have a geriatric puppy who's starting to "leak", and this flashlight is really quick and easy to tell where needs to be cleaned up. Way easier than shining a regular light, missing and slipping on a puddle.

Use daily? Very few things.

I guess shower head with hose? The advantage is the water comes at you from a higher point, great for tall/medium height people like me.

The $8 Munchkin 10oz Sippy Cup. It's technically made for toddlers but it excels over any other travel mug unless you want insulation. I don't care about insulation because I don't want to wait an hour until it's a good drinking temp. Instead of some stupid spout mechanism that gets dingy and can't be washed in the dishwasher, there's a simple silicone lid you can drink from on all sides, and it's all dishwasher safe and super easy to clean. It also contains a perforated screen perfect for steeping tea leaves or cardamom tea. Of course there's the brilliantly simple spillproof aspect as well. I've had mine for 4 years and there's zero wear on it.

Smart lights to wake you up in the morning. Vastly prefer it to a normal alarm clock.

I'm pretty fond of these little Velcro straps I got from Amazon that are like 10cm x 30cm, you use them to push all your computer cables into them so you can neaten them up. I've got several of them strapped back to back and it's a pretty decent solution (and being Velcro you can just pull it apart later on)

• Leatherman metal bracelet with a lot of tools on the wrist. Not only it is strong and sturdy, but also looks cool. Also, saved me from being completely locked inside a room with no one around cause the door handle decided to break. Quickly disassembled the locking mechanism with the bracelet and was free in 2 mins, lol. Leatherman might be on an expensive side but there sure are alternatives. More than that, somehow I never had any issues with airports. They literally let me take it onboard every single time.
• Phone holder for bed, aka robo-arm. Watching content before/while sleeping has never been more convenient.
• A waist bag. No more stretched out jeans cause I keep all my stuff in the pockets.
• A gas lighter. Works as a candle substitute if necessary. Also stylish.
• A small but reliable kickscooter might be a great option if you need to go some distance that's too long to walk and too short for a taxi drive.
• A second usb-c charger for the laptop actually is a convenient thing if you need to carry the laptop across rooms. No need to carry the bulky charger every time.
• Speaking of chargers, consider buying a lot of 2 or 3 way wireless chargers for your mobile devices. I don't remember last time I bothered with plugging in my phone cause it's always charged wherever I go due to having wireless chargers everywhere.
• On an expensive side, but a good sturdy metal gaming chair.
• A portable SSD. Saved me by having all my backups many times.
• A usb-A and usb-C compatible flash drive.
• Paper cups and plates I guess? I don't like doing dishes and those two both eliminate the need to, but without a downside of being plastic.
• Gonna sound strange, but a ladder. Replacing burnt lightbulbs with a chair is a nightmare, at least in my house.

Good quality kitchen knives. Makes cooking a much better experience.

milwaukee fastback with screw driver attachment. I'm no contractor and use this thing all day everyday. Primarily as a knife but the screwdriver has came in clutch countless times. You can get a two pack for under $20

Good nail clippers. My toe nails grow hella fast and if I don't keep 'em trimmed, I end up spending a lot more on socks. Good trimmer is like $5. Though I wish they came in bright colors since I quite often misplace them or they fall off my night stand and are a PITA to find.

A metal 2mm mechanical pencil set. I use it for woodworking and absolutely love it.

A victorinox pocket knife! Really comes in handy for many purposes

My tiny skillet designed for a single egg and my small silicone spatula. It's also just big enough for a slice of Spam.

A "traveler's" journal that consists of a cover and replaceable notebook refills. Cheaper than having to buy entire journals once you finish the last one (though uglier, since these refills don't have cool covers), you can interchange them based on context/what you require and journaling is pretty great by itself.

Snag Nab-It and an electric depiller (fabric shaver).

Miracle makers during sweater season.

Reading glasses, unfortunately

Velcro for my remotes, I have various places to stick them around my room, game changer

Two items I can think of: a bluetooth/wifi controlled multicolored lightbulb and reusable K-cups

Rather than setting up strips of lighting along my ceiling in my apartment, just changing out the bulb in my lamp is a really simple way to have full customization of a room's lighting. Nowadays, I find myself just lying in bed, changing the color and brightness of the bulb on my phone as I listen to music, changing it to whatever feels the best. Even for regular use, changing how bright or soft the white light is can be useful.

As for the K-cups, it makes for a really easy method of making coffee at the office. Due to a long commute, I have to wake up earlier than I would like to arrive at the office on time, and it generally leaves me little time to prepare coffee at home. During the summer I usually prepare cold brew the night before, though in fall and winter, I prefer warm coffee and I find it easiest to grind whole beans myself, prepare a K-cup the night before, and then brew once I arrive. Simple and clean with very little hassle.

Carabiners. I bought a bunch for accessory and gear hauling when climbing long routes/distances. They've since been used for a lot more. I find endless use for them and usually have one clipped on a belt eyelet.

Tea bag squeezer. No more burned fingers trying to wring out the last drops from my nightly cup of PG Tips.

A good 10-20k powerbank

A slim beater knife like the Buck 722 Spitfire (had mine for almost a decade).

multi-chambered pill fob; bulk caffeine pills.

A quality water bottle.

Bamboo sheets (soft, smooth, anti-static)

Magnetic USB c connectors

Alligator forceps

I have an espresso maker. Knocking the coffee grounds into the garbage was kind of gross. So I got a cheap knock box to kick the puck out was a really nice treat.

And the espresso maker too, I guess. Being able to make a fresh, hot Americano in a couple of minutes is great.

Toothbrush

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Leatherman micra pocket knive

A good pair of pants.

A keyholder, quite usefull

electric kettle can be used if hot water supply is off. Ive used it to make lukewarm water for shower when they were doing mainteneance on the pipes

I don't know how petty you want us to be, but here is my list (some of which has been stated)

• shoe laces
• reusable water bottle
• sunglasses
• wrist watch

I thought about listing food, and things to eat it on/with, but that would be too much haha. I do use these things daily tho...

A pocket knife and a small flashlight. You don't realize how often you could use either until you have them.

My knife is an Opinel #8 (~$20) and my light is an Aurora A33 (~$20).

I carry a bag most of the time, so I've got a little extra room than most, but I'd probably still carry both if I didn't. The pocket knife is the size of, well, a pocket knife and the flashlight is only the size of a sharpie.

I would personally recommend the mucai h61 lga 1155 alliexpress motherboard I own one in my own personal rig and have been using it for almost 3 weeks now and it's been smooth sailing Its £10 less than most other used motherboards and it has an additional m.2/mini pcie slot