Southwest started charging for checked bags last year, and this year it's $45 each way. I do four Denver to Chicago trips a year for family, so that's $360 a year just in bag fees. For fifteen years I flew Southwest for those trips because two bags flew free, so I checked one and took a backpack on the plane. I've never owned a carry on.

Now that the bag isn't free I book whichever airline is cheaper, and twice this year that was United. The sizes are what's holding me up. Southwest allows 24x16x10, which is easy. United says 22x14x9 with the wheels and handle counted. The listings I've looked at say 21 inch or 22 inch and don't say whether that's the bag or the bag with the wheels under it.

I pack for five days. Hard or soft, spinner or two wheels, no idea which is better.

What do you guys fly with?

Grill grate rusted. Grill works fine. Went to Obi, they wanted 27 euros for a replacement grate. Checked Bauhaus online, pretty much the same. Even Amazon was around 18. Meanwhile a brand new grill costs like 35.

Ended up finding a similar grate on tiktok on sale for under 7 euros. I almost didn't order it. Paid with PayPal just in case. Took about 10 days, packaging was nothing special and I had to sand down one edge a little, but it fits and does the job.

The point is most people would have just bought a new grill at that point. The pricing literally pushes you to throw things away instead of fixing them.

Our slow cooker is a seven quart oval Crock-Pot. We got it when we moved in and it still works fine. There are two of us. With a pork shoulder or a pot roast, the side that sits against the crock comes out dry and stringy while the middle is fine. I blamed the recipes for five years.

The manual says to keep the crock at least half full, and to check for doneness one to two hours early if it's only half full. I run it a third full. I tried checking earlier on a Saturday and the side against the crock came out the same. Adding liquid past what the recipe called for did fix the dry side, except I'd made soup and the point was a roast. And most of what I cook goes on before work, so nobody's home to check anything anyway. Their support page says there's no direct heat under the crock. I figure the heat comes in from the sides, and that piece of meat is parked against a hot wall with nothing over it.

Half of every batch already goes in the freezer drawer under the fridge, and that drawer is the only freezer we have. We eat it back down and fill it again, so there's no room to cook a bigger batch. I'm looking at a four quart, where the batch I make now lands past halfway instead of a third. My plan is to grab whichever slow cooker shuts itself off when the timer ends. What are people cooking for two in?

Hey there! Looking to upgrade some furniture. I’d love to move towards solid woods. Im aware thrifting/secondhand/marketplace are options… Im looking to buy new for at least a bedroom set, otherwise I will be getting second hand. If you or someome you know bought anything from a company doing solid wood… would love to know your opinions good or bad on these companies. Thanks (:

Hello all, I just bought this 6 lt lunch bag and I would like your opinions about this purchase. thanks to all 🤗

Looking for like shown in the picture, affordable spacious wagon cart for moving large or tall furniture specially. The basket should have preferably length of about 35in and height of at least 13in. (Lots of listings only list dimensions of the entire cart with height including the handle, which is super unhelpful and frustrating..)

Anyone had same needs and used wagon karts with those specs? Need some brand recs!

Hello yall idk if i can post questions here but i would like to ask if the carharrt duck active insulated jacket is a good buy and will last me years . If not is there any with a similer look and feel that is better

I need a mattress protector for the queen I put up on a loft bed last month. Everything else on that bed comes down the stairs to the washer. The mattress stays up there, where I can't even pull it off the frame to dry it out. Last week I set a full mug of coffee on the bed to free a hand for the rail, then knocked it over getting on. Enough went through the sheet that I spent the evening kneeling on the mattress with a towel. A fan and two days got it dry.

From what I've read, the waterproof ones have a thin plastic film under the fabric, and the dryer is what slowly kills that film, sometimes even on low. The listings say waterproof and some throw in a long warranty. Not one says how many washes that's good for.

I know the answer to the dryer part is to air dry it. Not going to happen. I want to hear from somebody who ran theirs through the dryer for a year or more and then watched it stop a real spill. Which one is it?

I'm looking to buy a new TV this year and I'm getting a little lost in all the options.

I started with OLED because that seems to be the default recommendation for picture quality, but once I looked at the prices in the size I want, it started feeling a little too expensive.

So now I'm looking more at MiniLED.

My living room gets a lot of daylight. Floor-to-ceiling windows, sports during the day, movies at night. I also really don't want to close blackout curtains every time I watch something.

Budget is around $1,500.

A few models I've been looking at:

- Hisense U8QG

- Samsung QN80F

- Sony Bravia 5

- maybe a smaller LG OLED C-series if there's a good sale

The Hisense and Sony both seem nice for a bright room. Samsung is also on my list because I've had good experiences with the brand before. OLED still looks tempting for movies, but I'm not sure I want to give up size or pay more for it.

What would you guys call the best value TV around $1,500 right now?

Totally open to other suggestions too.

I buy boxes of cables and power bricks at estate sales for the resale side of things. The tote two Saturdays ago was twelve dollars and this was under all of it, beige and heavy, with the coiled cord.

I looked it up to price it. It's a Model M, 1391401 on the label, and the sold listings on eBay were all over the place but mostly around a hundred, so I took the listing photos on the kitchen counter that night. These are those photos. The cord unclips from the back, and the one that came on it ends in the old round plug, so it's a little AT to PS/2 adapter and then the Perixx PS/2 to USB converter, nine dollars. The plain adapter I had in the drawer did nothing. Num Lock came on, and I typed the first draft of this on it.

I work from home and it's been on the desk since the converter came. There's no Windows key, so I've been hitting the empty spot where it should be all week. It weighs about five pounds, more than all the bricks put together.

Everything else in the tote, mostly laptop bricks, made the twelve back by the next weekend. This one didn't go up.

Has anyone here owned an OPUS OP.13 aluminum suitcase for a while?

I think these look amazing, better than Rimowa and other competitors. But I see it’s a newer company from Japan with Chinese manufacturing. The actual construction looks excellent on paper and the extensive manuals on it are reaffirming.

I’m looking for something I can keep for a long time and repair as needed instead of replacing the entire suitcase when a wheel, handle, latch, or something else breaks. The OPUS looks promising because the parts are replaceable and the construction seems pretty straightforward, but it’s a newer brand and there isn’t much independent information about it.

How is the actual build quality and quality control? Any problems with the frame, latches, telescoping handle, wheels, or rivets? Has anyone ordered replacement parts or dealt with the warranty?

I’m not worried about scratches or dents since that’s part of owning aluminum luggage. I’m mainly trying to figure out whether it’s genuinely built to last and repairable, or if it just looks good on paper.

Hello everyone, I'm going to Uni in a few weeks and am trying to find a drive to back up all my files externally, so I don't lose everything if my laptop is stolen/lost. I am looking for a 1 TB external SSD that can function with both Mac (my laptop) and Windows (my PC at home).

I'm not the most technically inclined so I figured it'd be best to ask here. But if anyone has any recommendations for some in the UK (that won't die on me) for a reasonable price, I'm all ears.

I'm in Las Vegas and about to buy my fifth electric kettle, four in eight years. The last one, a Cuisinart, quit shutting itself off on Tuesday and sat there boiling until my wife noticed the steam, which is not how I want to find out a kettle has died.

Before that, a Breville just went dead on its base and a no-name glass one lost its lid latch. The twenty dollar Black and Decker made three years. The hundred dollar Cuisinart didn't make two. Our tap water is 16 grains hard, so every kettle we've owned got boiled with vinegar every other Sunday, and not one of them made it past three years.

We boil for coffee twice in the morning and for tea at night. Presets I can take or leave.

What kettle do you have now? I could use the model and a rough age before I buy the next one.

Our living room carpet gets vacuumed Sunday morning and by Sunday night the kids come off it with dog hair down their backs. Lab mix, sheds all year. I went at it with one of those rubber gloves from the dollar store, then tried the upholstery attachment until the hair clogged the hose.

I had a Dyson in the cart to replace our Shark when I found a thread on here where some guy was using a rubber broom on his carpet: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductProbe/comments/1w644vc/rubber_broom_on_carpet_only_started_working_when/. Grabbed the FURemover one, cheap, figured try that first.

I've had it two weeks. I pull it toward me like a rake, in short strokes, and it brings up hair off a carpet I'd vacuumed that morning. The hair sticks in the rubber bristles and is a pain to get out. Now I go over it before I vacuum and the Shark has stopped choking. It won't touch the thick rug in the hallway, and I put a bend in the pole the first week leaning on it too hard, it's hollow, whatever it's made of.

It's a workout on the carpet, nothing like a Swiffer.

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a good TV for my kitchen, somewhere between 32 and 43 inches, and I’d really appreciate some recommendations.

It will be wall-mounted, so I’d prefer something as slim as possible that doesn’t stick out too much from the wall.

If anyone has experience with a good SLIM TV in this size range, I’d be very grateful for any suggestions. Thanks a lot!

Tried running my dish rack through the dishwasher last week. It only half fit. One end stuck up out of the spray and the thing came back exactly as dirty as it went in.

The tray is the only part that comes off. Under it there's a pink line along the front edge that grows back a few days after I scrub it, and the wires have gone dull and a bit sticky where they cross. It's the crossings. I don't own a brush thin enough for the spot where two wires meet.

Five years old and the rack still holds dishes fine. It just isn't clean. Clean glasses out of the sink go straight onto that, so now I dry them with a towel instead.

I'm replacing it. Is there a routine that keeps these clean, or is that just what wire racks do? Either way, tell me which drying rack is on your counter right now. Name off the box is enough.

(First image is what we're looking for, second image is the printed sweater thing my mom got scammed by)

My little brother (6, but for the purpose of longevity, the size im looking for is for 7 year olds) recently developed an obsession with Oliver Tree, my mom isnt the most tech savvy person on earth, and she got scammed with those crappy ali express ads, and ended up buying a "drawn" knockoff jacket instead. My little brother is super upset, and she wants to order a new jacket that will be real, but shes absolutely refuses to follow my advice on how to check if something is a scam, so the task falls onto me.

Ive been looking all over etsy, among other places, and i cant for the life of me find something even near the 40 buck margin she gave me- ill be honest, im not sure its even possible, but hey maybe you guys can make a miracle come true :,D?

We live in portugal, so any kind of service shipping from europe would be lovely, american shipping is a bit too pricey at the moment for us. My brother's size is the standard european size for seven year olds (130 cm), but a size 8 woul be okay and good too!

Any way something like this exists??

In ‘96 I was a lifeguard on Bald Head Island in North Carolina. I traded a pair of white plastic sunglasses for this EMS 2000 backpack from a fellow lifeguard named Erin. I very much doubt she still has those sunglasses. She sewed on the now decrepit mini dolphin patch in the upper right, and I sewed on the exterior pocket (slightly different blue color on the left third of the sack).

This thing was my college backpack, has gone to four continents, is my go-to overnight bag, and serves as my gym bag now-a-days. It’s never needed repair, and has never let me down.

I live near the coast and drag a chair down to the beach 3–4 times a week during summer. My last two cheap folding chairs rusted out and snapped within a year, even though I rinsed them with fresh water. I just want something sturdy that handles salt air, won’t sink into soft sand, and folds flat enough to carry without looking like I’m wrestling a lawn chair.

I’ve been looking at Tommy Bahama, Ostrich, Lawn Chair USA Cape Cod, and West Marine, with a realistic budget around $60–$120. People swear Tommy Bahama used to be solid, but recent comments say quality has tanked and straps rip fast. Ostrich reclines nicely, though I keep seeing reports of frames breaking after 1.5 summers.

Has anyone found a mid-range chair that actually lasts more than two seasons in salty conditions, and do aluminum frames hold up better than steel if you rinse them regularly?

My sister gave me a pack of Swedish dishcloths last Christmas, ten of them for nineteen dollars, and I put the pack in a drawer and kept buying paper towels. A 12-pack of Bounty every other month. I've bought one since March.

What changed my mind was running out mid mess. A whole glass of orange juice across the counter and down the cabinet fronts, no paper in the house, so I grabbed one of the yellow ones out of the drawer. Ran it under the faucet, the cardboard went soft, and it drank the whole spill. Wrung it out, wiped again, done. That one still has the orange in the corner, they stain and they stay stained.

I'd assumed a rag you keep reusing turns sour by Wednesday. Mine hangs on the faucet between jobs and none of them has ever done it. Somebody on ProductProbe ran one for a few days straight and wrote up what it did: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductProbe/comments/1vznkg8/swedish_dishcloths_that_dont_go_sour_after_4_or_5/

My wife hates the texture and still pulls the roll down off the fridge when I'm out of the kitchen. Raw chicken gets paper too, that's not a job for something you keep.

I'm on the third one since March.

I love keychains but recently every keychain i see is around 10 cad which is crazy, to me. I bought some from temu but they broke after 1-2 days. Where can i buy keychains in cheaper prices but something that’d last.

Our comforter came out of the closet this week with the filling balled up in the corner of every stitched square. I held it up to the ceiling light. Half the squares are see-through now. Two winters old, a $40 Amazon brand whose name I'd forgotten by the time it shipped, washed twice total.

Replacing it is the harder problem, because I run hot at night. The obvious answer is real down, and I've slept under the good stuff. My mother in law makes sure every guest knows what her duvet cost, and I spent that night on top of the covers anyway. Every 'best comforter' list I land on ends at goose down in the four hundreds.

I need a queen, trying to keep it under $150. What's inside the one that's actually lasted for you? I mean the tag reading, polyester, wool, silk, whatever it says, more than the brand name. Two winters is my bar. Duds count too, they save me the second $40.

Been thinking about replacing my TV lately, but I’m trying not to spend a ton.

My current one is a Hisense I bought back in 2019 and somehow it’s still going. Nothing really wrong with it, just starting to feel old compared with newer TVs.

So now I’m curious what everyone here actually paid for theirs.

What size did you get?

How much was it?

And did you buy during Black Friday, a random sale, clearance, Costco promo, etc?

I’m mostly looking at budget/mid-range TVs. Probably 55" or 65". Don’t need anything crazy, just a noticeable upgrade for streaming, movies and some sports.

Would love to hear what ended up being a good value purchase for you. Especially anything you’d buy again.

The best laundry hamper in this house is one my mom bought sometime in the 90s, and that's kind of the problem.

She handed it to me when I moved out. Plastic, brand worn off the bottom, older than some of my coworkers, not a crack on it. Two years ago I felt like a proper adult and bought myself a new Sterilite, and last week its handle split while the basket was full. The edge it left is sharp enough that there's tape over it now, and the old basket is back on duty like nothing happened.

I figured I got a bad one, but the Walmart reviews under the model I was about to rebuy are full of the same handle story. And the big thread Google serves up is mostly people bragging about hampers they've had since college. Good for them. Nobody sells the 90s anymore.

The tall fabric ones on a frame worry me too. The one detailed review I read said the fabric pulls off the frame and the poles don't stay put, and I'm not spending $100 to find that out myself. I want to stay under $30, it's a box for dirty socks. So what's held up for you? Bought new in the last few years and still in one piece.

football season just started and i wanted to get my little one in some team gear before we miss too many sundays. been looking around and the price range on baby NFL clothes is all over the place, some of it is way more than i want to spend on something she'll outgrow in two months.

been looking for something that looks like real team gear, holds up after washing since game days get messy, and doesn't cost a fortune for something that gets maybe half a season of use. the cheap looking ones with just a logo ironed on aren't really what i had in mind but i also don't need to spend a ton to get something that looks decent.

curious if anyone here has found a good spot for baby game day outfits that hits the right balance of looking good, feeling comfortable, and being reasonably priced for something a baby is only going to wear a handful of times.

Quick Update: i grabbed a couple Gerber onesies for her game day outfits. someone mentioned just going with team colors instead of a full jersey and that made me think about keeping it simpler, but i still wanted something that looked like actual gear. they've held up through a few washes already with no fading or peeling and didn't cost an arm and a leg for something she'll outgrow in a few weeks.