To ask what the best gadget is you ever bought - large or small

[polkadotpjs]

I was just washing up the crusty dishes that DH helpfully put in "to soak" and used some pampered chef plastic scraper to get the grot off and thought how simple yet clever (yes I might the two cheapest items at a party years ago).
I feel like I need more stuff like this. Small or large but to make my life easier. Tell me yours ? I fancy being nosy and I'm bored

Rice cooker.
Rice is cooked to perfection. It’s a game changer. And it keeps it warm.

Instant pot (multi cooker) was the first thing that came to mind. It’s got a slow cooker, you can cook dried beans in less than an hour without soaking them, it makes perfect rice, you can even prove bread in it if you don’t have an airing cupboard like me! Total game changer, I use it all the time.

I am with @GingerAndTheBiscuits I love my Eufy . About £200
Also good grips Oxo gravy separator , no more trying to skim fat off gravy . £10

Silicone egg poacher whatsits about £3

Electric veggie chopper, electric potato peeler, electric can opener.

I have carpel tunnel and don't have the strength in my wrists anymore to chop and peel things so these have been a godsend!

My Dolce Gusto coffee machine, not overly expensive and makes lovely coffee quickly.

Gravy separator jug from Amazon (Oxo good grips also make one, I think). Clear plastic jug with a lever in the handle and a hole in the bottom. You release the stock with the handle and stop the flow before the fat begins to escape. Works brilliantly.

My potato ricer! No more lumpy mash!

Think it was about £15, I’ve had it years but I love it!

Nespresso machine

I second Taliskerskye with an electronic rice cooker. Introduced to them by a Korean friend in Uni, and never looked back. Keeps the rice warm for up to a hour, so just pop the rice in sometime in the hour before it is needed, knowing that come dish up, the rice will be cooked perfectly

Not sure if it’s classed as a gadget but I bought a Chromecast at the start of lockdown last year. Was fed up of using my laptop all day for work and then looking at it at night while watching Netflix or Prime (because that’s all that was happening then)

Meant I could cast straight to my TV which helped with the separation between work and home

Another Eufy Robovac lover here.

Melon baller.

We have one at home and one in the caravan.

Womaniser

Shredding scissors with 5 blades. Mainly so we can make tiny squares to scatter for our DS to hoover up. Keeps him amused for hours!

@wingsofsteel

Weight watchers omelette maker. My attempts at making omelettes the traditional way always ended up really bad scrambled egg. With this I can just pop in the mixture whilst I get on with something else and always get a nice, fluffy result.

Best gadget ever though was a cheap plastic microwave rice cooker I was given as a student. It was basically just a plastic bowl with a lid and a slightly smaller bowl with holes in the bottom in the middle. Perfect rice every time- even with cheap student budget rice. It sadly broke a few years ago and I have not found anything half as good.

I have the Joseph Joseph microwave rice cooker and I will never cook rice any other way now! It's used several times a week and cooks rice perfectly. I love it

I see I’m not the first to mention it but we have Google Home and it’s been making life loads easier and less prone to errors. A marvel in the kitchen for timers, measurement conversion, shopping list, looking up replacement ingredients, etc. as well as playing music and the radio. It even sets the oven temperature (though that’s not been the wonder I had hoped for).. My kids also use it for recipes (but I’m still too fuddy-duddy and like to use my tablet and the ones I’ve bookmarked over the years). I use it to control our lights, the heating, TV, kettle, fan etc. I set alarms and reminders and get it to ring my phone when I’ve lost track of it! It turns on the heating and outdoor lights when I drive up to the house at night. It’s been brilliant and keeps getting better as we add more ‘smart’ appliances and play with the routines.

[quote NeedATan]@LakieLady thanks. And it's better than the rug doctor?[/quote]
Definitely better, @NeedATan.

Leaves the carpets almost dry afterwards, and really clean.

Ooh this thread is dangerous. I have just ordered a Bissell carpet cleaner

Carpet hair remover. It's bloody amazing.

I finally found a travel hair diffuser... it’s a travel size hair dryer with a small diffuser attachment that actually works, like a real one, not the stupid sock/condom thing that claims to be a diffuser.

The best part was that it was cheap! I would have paid anything for this. And I found it as a fluke, I was buying a crappy alternative and asked the people in the shop if I could test it on one of their open box clearance hair dryers and after they agreed I opened the box and the diffuser came out. They thought I was crazy, because I damn near wept with joy.

(my curly hair traveler friends will know the brilliance of this product)

a strawberry huller
a simmer mat - so easy with rice, you can just walk away and come back when it's cooked

Nebula projector. It's streams Netflix/Stan/prime etc and it's like being in a cinema - from your own bed.

That also means there's no need for a tv in the lounge so all our meals we eat as a family, with no tv

An Insinkerstor waste disposal unit . Peelings , leftovers go straight into the sink .

@saltinesandcoffeecups

Ohh what's it called ?

Not small and not cheap - not not sure it counts as a gadget - but we bought a Ninja Foodie a few months ago and it is amazing!! A total game changer in cooking quick teas. Hardly seem to use our (knackered/old) oven any more!