What’s your top BIFL purchase, that might not in itself has been all to frugal, but long term, will be?
After having 5-6 different office chairs over the last 10 years, none of which I liked. I went and bought a Herman Miller Aeron chair. It’s ridiculously expensive, but I’m so pleased with it and hope to keep it for well over 15-20 years. If that actually succeed, I will have spent less money one chairs than if I hadn’t bought it.
What similar items (cheap or expensive) do you feel the same about?
Something that I’ve not seen a lot of people talk about is a good lidded kitchen trash can.
When I moved out I picked up the best looking option from Lowes, figuring maybe something marketed as meant for use by tradesmen might hold up. Hinge broke in the first month. At the end of the day all you need is a bucket with a lid, but when this cheap plastic molded crap is being sold for ~$60 I wanted better.
Picked up a SimpleHuman bin on sale a few years ago and haven’t had any issues. Think it was around $200, so stupid expensive for a kitchen trash bin, but it looks and works just as good as the day it came out of the box. I would have easily spent more by now on the cheap Lowes bins.
Never had any escaping smells (which can cause quite a surprise on trash day when you pull the bag out and get hit with what it has been hiding in there). Easy as hell to change bags, no fussing with stretching the bag around the top to get it to stay or hoping the first few things don’t pull the bag down into the bin with them. If you slam down on the foot pedal the lid doesn’t go rocketing up and slam against the cabinet it’s stood up against, it still opens nice and smooth. The lid doesn’t slam shut when you’re done either. Iirc they’re also warrantied for some outrageous amount of steps on the foot pedal mechanism.
It sounds stupid to be so obsessive about such a minor household object, but if your kitchen trashcan is the central trashcan in the shared space of your home like mine is, then it’s something everyone in the house is going to interact with at least once a day. If it’s shit or lets smells out then it’s going to do that right in the middle of the most used spaces of my home. Similar to a good mattress, bedsheets, a good pair of shoes, for me this falls into the category of something I use often enough where it makes sense to spend a little extra.
I’m sure there’s more cost effective solutions for good lidded trash bins that keep the smells locked away, but for something that was me taking a chance with some gift money I’ve been impressed.
Yeah we have kitchen and bathroom simple human trash cans that are all 10+ years old. I buy rubbermaid for the office though, people are rough on them.
Something that I’ve not seen a lot of people talk about is a good lidded kitchen trash can.
I accidentally did the reverse of your BIFL with my trash can.
I was at IKEA, and went, “Cool! A retro trash can!” And I got it. Because it looked retro. It’s the type that looks like a stereotypical trash can, round lid and all.
…the materials hold up, but it sucks. There’s a reason the general design of trash cans changed from this type to the ones with the step-pedal.
BIFL isn’t usually really ‘for life’ since we buy practical stuff as adults.
But… when I was born in the '60’s someone gave me a simple, elegant little steel cup and plate, with cartoon bears engraved in simple lines for decoration.
The plate is still in the cupboard with the general plate population, and the little cup is perfectly sized for a double shot, so it lives on top of the espresso machine and gets used daily, adding special value each time because it’s a joy to use, and old like me.
