As my wife and I have gotten older we've come to appreciate tools that are designed for us older folks who don't have the grip we used to have or just feel like we could use a little more convenience. We've accumulated some tools in the last several years that we really like because they make life a little easier on us. So I'm going to tell you about a few of them here. Most of them are pretty inexpensive, although one was a splurge for us. I should say up front that we have no affiliation with any of these companies and my comments here are just based on personal experience and opinion. There's no implication here that you will like these products and, for all I know, you might have found a better or cheaper alternative. That said, here are some products that my wife and I have found to be particularly useful.
Firm Grip All Purpose Work Gloves
I like these gloves, which I bought at Home Depot , although you might be able to find them at other home or garden stores. I use them for gardening as well as working on projects around the house and yard. They have some padding in the area where you might bang a knuckle or otherwise need it and they have a really good gripping surface. Although they fit snugly, the fabric of which they are made seems to breathe well and they are comfortable to wear. I haven't had them long enough to speak to their durability, but they have held up well so far.
OXO Good Grips Jar Opener
I have to admit that I like every OXO product that I have ever bought, but this jar opener is one of my favorites. Over the years I have bought a variety of jar openers and, while most of them seemed to help, this Good Grips jar opener is the simplest design and most effective that I have used. It fits a wide variety of bottle caps and jar lids, is easy to use and easy to clean up.
Chef'n PalmPeeler
This is one of those “why didn't somebody think of this before now?” products. It is a vegetable peeler that fits in the palm of your hand. To peel something you just fit it on your finger like a ring and move your palm over the veggie you are trying to peel. The movement is natural and peeling is easy. It is also easy to clean. Chef'n also makes a zester and a corn stripper with the same basic design, although we haven't tried them yet.
Zyliss Pizza Wheel
This is another one of those products that seems so natural to use that you can't imagine why it took somebody so long to come up with it. It is a pizza cutter with a soft plastic housing that serves as the handle. The cutting wheel is totally encased in the housing except for a small arc at the business end. When you use this pizza cutter you press straight down on the axle of the wheel, which gives you tremendous leverage. When you're done cutting pizza you just swing the housing open, pull out the cutting wheel and wash them both.
Keurig One-Cup Coffee Maker
This is the splurge I was talking about above. You can definitely buy a good coffee maker for less money. However, we got ours on one of those sales at Kohl's where they cut the price way down and then send you a 30 percent off coupon that applies to sales items. So we paid a lot less than the “normal” sticker price. We also discovered that it pays to shop around for this item because quite a few stores carry them and the prices do vary between stores. You can also buy them online of course.
Yeah I know, there are bajillions of coffee makers out there and I think my old girl and I have tried most of them. They all seemed to have drawbacks, though. Most of them take longer to brew the coffee than we are willing to wait in the morning. We have had coffee makers that keep a well of water hot so that they brew more or less instantly and, yes, we understand that that is not the most environmentally friendly thing to have because it has to use energy to keep the water hot. We also understand that some people think that makes the water taste funny. For us, however, the primary requirement was that we have that first cup of coffee in the morning quickly before murder and mayhem ensued.
We had a couple of problems with the coffee maker that made coffee very quickly though. One was that it only seemed to work well when we made a fairly large pot of coffee and some mornings we didn't want to drink that much. The other problem was that some mornings I want to drink tea, and the coffee maker didn't work for that so I had to get my hot water for tea in other ways, none of which worked well for me. Microwaving the water seemed to me to make it taste funny and while heating water in a conventional tea kettle worked fine, it takes a little while.
The Keurig coffee maker has solved those problems and then some. It does keep water hot constantly so that it brews coffee almost instantly. In addition, it brews the coffee from little pods that are designed to brew just one cup. You can set the size of cup that is brewed to one of five different sizes. We have found that you can use the pods twice, so we get two cups out of each pod. There are lots of pods available so if, e.g., my wife wants to drink vanilla decaf and I want to drink regular French roast, we can do that without any waste. In addition, there are pods of tea of various kinds so my wife can have her coffee and I can have my tea and we can both have them nearly immediately in the morning.
But there's more. This little gem makes iced tea instantly. You just fill a big glass with ice cubes, pop in your favorite tea pod, and press the “iced tea” button and there it is, instantly brewed and instantly ice cold. More yet: You can get a little coffee container that fits where the pods go. Then you can put your favorite coffee, tea or whatever in the container and brew your drink with that. Finally, if you just want some hot water to put into a cup with your favorite tea bag (or instant coffee if you are that perverted) you can do that too.
All of these gadgets make life a little easier and most of them won't cost you an arm and a leg (unless you use the peeler or cutter with absolute abandon anyway) so they are a few of our favorite things.
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