Things you couldn't live without

[Werehalfwaythere]

what can't you live without in your home?

We're moving soon and have scope to make some improvements in our new home. I'm looking for inspiration on those things you use everyday that, now you have it, you couldn't live without it!

Thanks!

So, a scollapiatti is a draining rack to save any others wasting their time looking it up. A totally common, normal thing in a British kitchen. If mine was built in I wouldn't have the view out of my kitchen window. Each to their own.

My one has a specific set of button presses that make accidental use impossible.

Boiling water tap

Drawers in the kitchen cupboards - means you never have to kneel down to ferret in the back corners - so easy to put crockery away and get it out

Utility room

Under floor heating in our (cold) en-suite

Larger shower cubicle

Eye level oven

Separate wine/beer fridge so much more space in actual fridge when entertaining/Christmas etc

Downstairs loo
good size utility room, we have our dishwasher, washing machine, fridge freezer and microwave and many cupboards out there - still remember the wow factor when we viewed the house as I’d somehow missed the fact that the house had one.
patio doors to garden, brings the outside in, assuming it’s a lovely view of course.

So jealous!

Wood powered heating.

We barely noticed the energy price increases.

The surrounding countryside and woodlands

I’d never stayed anywhere longer than 18 months before we moved here. We’ve just celebrated 20 years in this house. I’ve finally put down roots. It’s less the house. Far more what surrounds it. I discovered that my ADHD needs to be immersed in nature if I want my feet to stop itching.

Single Induction Hobs (from LIDL) & InstantPot & Small Moveable Oven

Our gas company (the liquid sort) went bust right at the beginning of the pandemic and left us dry. We haven’t bothered finding a new one. My “for now” fixes offer more flexibility in the kitchen and I’ve got rid of the cooker.

Portico

We were really lucky. Due to the position it’s an absolute sun trap in late autumn and winter. If the sun comes out, even when it’s really bloody cold, it’s warm enough for us to sit outside and grab some free vitamin D. I’m usually browner in the face in February than July. July is too hot to face the sun after 7am (I live in N. Italy). It really helps lift the mood. Even if it’s just a day here and there during the grey, shitty seasons.

Deep Freezer

I wasn’t sure, because of all the bending over and having things potentially buried at the bottom. But it’s great to really be able to batch cook and have special offers loaded in there for the days when we get snowed in, or I can’t be arsed to face the supermarket.

Starlink

OMG the speed, the reliability, and the portability. I get better speed and less outage than my friends who have access to the fibre thingie they’ve buried in the road in town. It was hell during the pandemic with 3 of us working from home online. Just hell. And everytime there was bad weather we’d have outages, lag, or plain old no internet for a day. Since we got starlink we’ve only had two outages for a few hours. Once when we got hit my a bloody tornado (most unusual here) immediately followed by what looked like a tropical typhoon (unheard of). Once when a huge storm system circled above us for 24 hours and tried to fry / drown us. In both cases I ended up having to turn the electric off at the mains and unplugging everything anyway (not risking another lightning strike frying all my electrical stuff again). By the time I turned the electricity back on the connection was live again and running at normal (super fast) speed. I’m not sure how good it would be in a built up area with lots of high rise buildings. But outside of the big city, if you can access a bit of Northern facing sky, massive game changer.

Drawers in the kitchen cupboards - means you never have to kneel down to ferret in the back corners - so easy to put crockery away and get it out

Changing the kitchen cupboards to drawers was a game changer when we had a new kitchen installed two years ago.

Is Starlink really that good to be worth three times the price of fibre?

I have a little café with a boiling water tap. It’s three years old and starting to get faulty. It frequently won’t stop boiling, spits and hisses. I have to turn the fuse off to stop it. I’d never have another. It scares me.

And for those that don’t want to google, this is a scolapiatti cupboard…

Two loos and a utility room.

Sorry, posted without pic

I did.

Water softener (south east)
Philips Hue with motion sensor / automation via Apple Home.
Robot lawn mower
Multiple wired wi-fi access points (UniFi)
True fibre broadband (1Gbit)
CCTV
Smart Doorbell (Reolink, Subscription free)

We used to pay €70 for the (required) landline and “high speed” < insert bullshit emoticon > internet. Starlink is about €50. Nobody is going to lay a cable in the tiny place I live in. Cell service is quite poor so the little “soap bar” modems only worked if went out into the garden and waved it around until we found a good spot.

Further up from me in the town they have recently laid the fibre cable thingie. I’m not sure if the cable is faulty, or not big enough for all the people it’s intended to serve, but while generally better than the non-cable option, the people I’ve talked to are quite disappointed, because it didn’t resolve the issues they hoped it would.

I work from home and much of my income relies on Zoom working well. Plus all three of us stream different entertainment at the same time (due to wanting TV in a different language, or aimed at a different generation). So for us it is worth it with knobs on. Had we been paying €15 a month previously, bearing in mind the speed and reliability issues, I’d still happily pay the difference.

It really depends on the context. If somebody can access cheap, reliable, really fast internet in their area for significantly less, then no, not worth the extra expense for them. But if the reliability and speed is an ongoing issue, the extra expense could be a sweeter pill to swallow than the constant frustration. I’m a lot less stressed now that I don’t have to cancel lessons and lose income due to outage or the super-sluggish periods where I couldn’t even log on to Zoom.

If I am ever forced to move (god forbid) I’m putting the starlink dish in the moving van first. I’d give up my dishwasher before the dish. And I bloody love having a dishwasher 😅

A Washing machine . We didn't have one when we first moved into our house and I had to wash by hand for a year . Luckily we had an old spin Dryer given to us which was a god send .

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies i had to google this lol

Interesting. Starling in the UK is £75 per month whereas my fibre is £25. I get 50mb/sec which does all my needs (work / streaming etc).

Downstairs loo - we have older relatives with limited mobility and this makes visiting so much easier for them

En suite - essential with two tween dds taking over the family bathroom!

Lots of storage - makes life so much less stressful

Patio doors straight onto garden - I find this really uplifting and wouldn't want to be without it.

Slight sidetrack here, but our tumble dryer went kaput some years ago. We decided not to replace it and see how we go - hardly miss it, only really for towels and bedding (which go on the line mostly anyway).

Yes! I’d never heard that word before. Every day’s a school day on mumsnet.

I put my table at the window so instead of only seeing out when standing at the sink, I can eat all my meals, do my jigsaw/sudoku/journaling and chatting with family with that view.

Insulated conservatory roof/ceiling. Has made the world of difference - we can actually use it all year round now.

Unfortunately, due to the constant wet weather this year I have had to use my tumble dryer more frequently than I would like

I grew up with the table at a window. It was lovely. Very calming. I still miss it!

definitely love having tiles throughout downstairs, fantastic in the winter with a dog who brings in mud and sand.

Bi fold doors (or any sort of patio or french) to open and sit just inside, whether it’s sunshine or rain.

Oh and my 1930s Zeppelin docking tower for welcome the toast of pre war European society to Blighty. Sorry but as some of the suggestions have been so weird I thought I’d add mine 😂