Products that make me happy

I’m a picky person. Being a designer, most products I purchase end up having some design flaw that likely goes unnoticed by most people, but just drives me nuts. I can’t stand how the LCD on our microwave is unreadable from above. The futon that can’t keep it’s cusion in place frustrates me. The coiled garden hose that has lost its spring throws me into a fit. That’s why I get so impressed with the simple products that just do things right.

Here’s a few simply great products I’ve discovered over these past winter months….

Venta Humidifier

The Venta Airwasher is a good humidifier. And, in the world of humidifiers ‘good’ is great. If you live in MN, you know you need one of these things to avoid your skin turning into a cracked, dry, itchy landscape. The typical offerings are the evaporative ones that require constant filter changing or the heat ones that require a constant scraping of the mineral deposits off the element. Either way, they’re a pain, and we typically would just buy a new one each year rather than attempt at rehabbing the one from the previous season.

The Venta system is different. It’s a simple box with a fan at the top. Inside is a large, plastic, rotating drum. You add a few drops of their additive to the water, fill it up and turn it on. Every two weeks you dump out the old water and put in some news. At the end of the season, give it a quick hosing and you’re set for next year. No filters. No crusty deposits. The only drawback is that it ain’t cheap (we paid $300), but, it’s as low-maintenance as you can get and has a 10-year warranty. Humidifier season is over, so perhaps you can find a deal.

The Clip-n-seal

The clip-n-seal system consists of two pieces of plastic. A rod and a clip that goes over the rod. It does one thing and it does it amazingly well…it seals bags. Chip bags, freezer bags, cereal bags, diaper bags, anything. We bought a few dozen and I’m still finding uses for them. My 3-year old also finds them to be a great toy.

Posterhanger

I haven’t actually used the Posterhanger yet, as I’ve just discovered it. However, it’s another one of those so-simple-it-has-to-be-good products. We actually purchased some nice art posters on our last vacation to portland. At $20 a pop, they are nice, but not *that* nice in terms of value. Unfortunately, the options for hanging a poster are few. You can get the cheap Target or Ikea frame (which never does the poster any justice), you can tape it up (really, only an option if you live in a dorm), or you can find a really nice large frame (nice, but hardly worth it for a $20 poster). In the end, I ended up building my own frame, but had I discovered this earlier, this would have been the solution.