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Gadgets, are you a gadget person?

TheCatWoman

Do you have to have all the latest gadgets? Do you have drawers full of stuff that was bought for a reason and is still there because it will come in useful one day?

I think the world falls into two camps those who like gadgets and those who don't. Unsurprisingly I'm not a fan of gadgets, I prefer one thing that works well and stick to it, my ex husband was a gadget person, he's see me doing something like sewing a button on a coat and then try and get me a gadget specifically for sewing on buttons, some that would sit in a cupboard 364 days of the year. I often find that gadgets take more time than doing something by hand.

What gadgets do you really use and find useful, for me its my potato ricer, it makes such good mash, and my vintage needle threader, much sturdier than the wire loop ones, but not good for thick threads.

Parents

  • Electronic gadgets - no.

    I've seen 5 decades of gadgets come and go and they all end up in the bin, mostly sooner rather than later. Bad value and bad for the environment.

    Tools that have good, practical uses - yes.

    I use a lot of tools in my renovation work and finding that one tool that can, say extract a nail that needs to be dug out of a finished piece of wood with minimal damage, will pay for itself after only a few uses as well as saving a lot of time, pain, splinters and dissapointed customers.

    Quality is one of the most important criteria for selection with price only second. Most tools will be used lots and hard so need to be able to be used for hours at a time and often under some phsyical duress.

    I recently bought a table saw as I'm doing a lot of parquet floor restorations and installations and having this to shape the blocks of wood for the edges and corners of rooms, for borders at thresholds and to carve out spaces under the blocks for, say a pipe under the floor that is a bit high, all save hours of time, make the finished job much better looking and make me look more professional.

    It costs about £300 but has saved me twice that in time costs, never mind the residual value, other tasks it gets put to (trimming doors, cutting packing pieces to fill off-square door frames, making cabinets etc) and the increased probability of being referred for other projects.

    I do have a sewing machine that I use for re-upholstering furniture and it has an attachment for doing buttons but it takes longer to set it up than sewing one button by hand. I used to use it when I was making clothes for a business and it was practical then but I havent used it in 20 years.

  • in reply to Iain
    Iain said:
    I've seen 5 decades of gadgets come and go and they all end up in the bin, mostly sooner rather than later. Bad value and bad for the environment.

    I often think of this......and shudder!  All those iPODS......all those "Spiralisers"......all those "halloween decorations".......all that STUFF!!  I wonder how long the coffee machines and air fryers will be in vogue?  I wonder how long it will be until mindless consumerism of "stuff" will end.....and how that end will be achieved.....again, with a shudder!

  • in reply to Deleted User

    I always keep my xmas decorations, I've never had a lot of the gadgets, I spent so long moving around from place to place, that for years if I couldn't pack it into a nissan micra I didn't have it. I do have more stuff now, but it's a miniscule amount compared to many people.

    I think a lot of people just buy rubbish as something to do, my ex's family were a bit like that, his Mum bought a bread machine and then got bored of making bread after a couple of months and his sister bought a new hoover because she was bored of her dyson that was working perfectly! I mean bored of hoovering I can understand, but bored of the actual machine, that I don't get?

    Is AI a gadget for gadgets?

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  • in reply to Deleted User

    I always keep my xmas decorations, I've never had a lot of the gadgets, I spent so long moving around from place to place, that for years if I couldn't pack it into a nissan micra I didn't have it. I do have more stuff now, but it's a miniscule amount compared to many people.

    I think a lot of people just buy rubbish as something to do, my ex's family were a bit like that, his Mum bought a bread machine and then got bored of making bread after a couple of months and his sister bought a new hoover because she was bored of her dyson that was working perfectly! I mean bored of hoovering I can understand, but bored of the actual machine, that I don't get?

    Is AI a gadget for gadgets?

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