Are there any household gadgets you found unexpectedly useful after you'd gotten them?
Are there any household gadgets you found unexpectedly useful after you'd gotten them?
I was thinking about how I missed having an indoor thermometer that measures humidity. It's such a small specific thing, one I'd never think of getting unless pushed to it (which I was by one particularly dry winter). But I like having one now.
What are your small, "random" or "junk drawer" type of gadgets that you actually use or like having around?
I got a carbonization machine. I've been drinking way more water these days. I always thought I liked soda because of the sugar. Actually I liked the fizziness. It gets fizzier than anything else I've ever drank.
I can't agree more! I have tried both soda stream and drinkmate and would recommend the drinkmate. It's just better, you can fizz juice and non-water drinks. Soda stream is also a consumer boycott target if you don't want to support the genocide in Palestine. 😬
I've been wanting to get one for forever, but was told you couldn't carbonate non water drinks, and to mix flavor into the carbonated water (which, to my thinking, would make it go flat...). In the drink mate, could I make Kool aid (with Splenda) and carbonate that? Cause if I can have fizzy cherry drink, I'll be a happy boy.
Cold, fresh seltzer water is the nectar of the gods. If you get unflavored seltzer in a can it has a noticeable unpleasant aftertaste, which I guess is why almost all of them are flavored. But plain filtered tap water in a seltzer maker? Glorious.
I've had a hacked up sodastream for over a decade. I get a 20lb co2 tank connected to it. Seltzer all day for months for like $30/refill
We used a soda stream for a little while until we realized how stupid expensive they are. Then we donated it and went to the local beer brewing shop and asked how we can make our own carbonated water. He hooked us up with a 5 lb canister of Co2, a valve, a hose, and a connector that goes on 2 liter bottles. Now we can make carbonated water in larger quantities for pennies on the dollar compared to soda stream. It costs about $35 to refill the Co2 canister and it lasts 6-8 months worth of constant use.
A bit on the costly stuff but I find the vacuum cleaner robot (not sure it's called this in English) very useful. The house is cleaner to be vacuumed every day (even if it's not as efficient as manual vacuuming or cleaning). Especially with pets and children.
Safe Cut Can Opener, traditional can openers should be extinct. It unrolls the original seal so there's no sharp edges. It also doesn't leave a lip, so none of the insides get stuck on the ledge. Then, if you don't use all the can, just plop the lid back on and throw it in the fridge.
I only ever used this sort of can opener:
But most cans are now like this:
Lime and lemon squeezer, since I like to make cocktails this was essential.
I have a counter top commercial grade juicer and it is an absolute pleasure to use. Manual citrus juicer
Is there a specific model you’re talking about? I’m getting a lot of different results searching online and I’m not sure they’re the same. I’m not a fan of the can opener my wife has, though; its cuts are jagged and uneven and sometimes gets the outside dipping into the food.
I have the following and it works really well.
https://www.starfrit.com/en/mightican-can-opener-with-soft-grip-3
If you like boiled eggs, you need a boiled egg timer.
It's a clear "egg" made of heat-tolerant plastic with a color-changing temperature gauge visible inside. You throw it into the pot when boiling eggs and it lets you know when the eggs are soft boiled, medium boiled, or hard boiled. It's very readable even in boiling water, and the results are always perfectly accurate. These things are totally worth the few dollars they cost.
I dunno. No matter how "heat tolerant" plastic claims to be repeated exposure to high heat seems like it'd increase the chance you'd be dosing all your foods with micro plastics and other plastic related chemicals.
Like I'd never put anything made of plastic that touches food in the microwave myself, heat resistant or not :#
May I suggest an actual timer? Almost all of us already have one, it's even more precise, and does not require additional plastic waste. 7:30 makes a perfect medium egg every time.
Can confirm. Elevation may cause variance though.
I got an egg cooker that came with a small measuring cup for water, which told you how much to put in for soft/medium/hard-boiled. It's about $10 and cooks up to 7 at a time. Others can do more. I'm never cooking eggs in a pot again, as long as I have this.
I’ve seen those, and while the appeal of something I can set and not have to turn off at an exact time is there, I always felt like cleaning it looks like a bigger hassle than cleaning a small pot.
The one I remember seeing had you puncture the base of the eggs, and then they sit on a plastic tray over a heated metal pad. The metal pad is attached to the heating element so you can’t just scrub that with soapy water if any egginess sticks to it. The plastic tray also looked like it had a lot of nooks and crannies where all sorts of eggy proteins can get stuck.
That and single-purpose appliances don’t really appeal to me as I don’t have much space. Not to discount how helpful they are for people with different physical needs than me, but I don’t know.
I eat enough hard boiled eggs that I consider getting one every so often, which is why this comment is as unnecessarily long as it is.
I have one of those, it's completely useless. It had novelty value but the eggs never came out the way I wanted them. I've gone back to a normal timer.
I got this bundled with a pot and it changed my life.
Got a few cheap ones from Amazon Each one worked once and the egg still came out harder than was supposed to
huh. We always just toss our eggs in the kettle and boil them in there.
I got a set of metal picks from Harbor Freight for like 3 bucks. They're similar to the pick tool that a dental hygienist uses. I use these things nearly every day to scrape stuff out of a crevice, retrieve something out of a narrow hole, pull stuff out of a tube or straw, precision clean corners of things, etc. I love them.
Can confirm, I have the same set, and I do probably use them every day. It's one of those tools that you don't realize how often you need it until you start using it.
I wish you would clean my house with those things.
Those are the ones!
A night light that turns on automatically as it gets dark. No more stumbling around when I have to pee in the middle of the night.
We have small lights that plug into the socket. They turn on automatically when there is movement and it is dark, or if the power goes out. We can also take them out of the socket and then they become flashlights.
When we built this house we specified power outlets in each toilet for exactly this reason. The low light levels from the motion sensor lamps we have don't sear your eyeballs when you get up in the middle of the night to pee.
I think I'd like to get this; do you have a brand you can recommend?
I've been using this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074N9LRCQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1. Fun to choose which color or let it change colors on its own.
Indeed, being Belgian and an adept of the real French fries (double cooked) I was not convinced at all. In the end, I still prefer real fries but I find the air fryer very practical to cook (or warm up quickly - unlike microwave oven it does not make stuff soft) all sort of food.
Small electric fan oven doesn’t sound as magical as air fryer. Good product, great marketing.
I was gifted an air fryer a while back. While it's generally useful, cleaning if after each use is really obnoxious imo and so I hardly ever use it.
It's a lot easier to clean a pan I used in the oven because I can just pop it in the dishwasher. I can't pop the air fryer in the dishwasher. It would destroy it.
Came here to share air fryers.
I hate kitchen gadgets. Even toasters.
But I like this!
My kitchen has a solid ban on any product with the word "maker" in the name. They're all junk that take up space and do a worse job than conventional methods.
An air fryer though. That was money well spent.
The idea of getting something before I know its usefulness confuses me. Do you mean finding that something is more useful than you expected?
If that's the case, I once had an alarm clock which curiously had a thermometer in it to measure the temperature in the room. I was able to use it - for years - to hold my landlord to account for being shitty on the heat during the winter.
Sometimes its a gift. My bread maker was a gift, and it brings me a lot of value, but I prob won't pay for it.
Other times it's something pushed on you for fun. My wife made me buy a thermostat gun and now I love it. I test it on the kids too for fun.
I have a digital clock with thermometer feature and a dedicated thermometer. I've been logging the measurements every half an hour for months. The clock is ~1.5-3 degrees off (or the other way around, who knows). Just be aware they are not always super accurate.
The idea of getting something before I know its usefulness confuses me.
My spouse buys things because they seem neat. Uses them once or twice, then not again.
Seriously the most useful thing I ever bought for around the house is barely even a gadget. It's literally just a screwdriver where you can flip the tips and the shaft so that it has four tip sizes; two Phillips and two flatheads. Oh and also a tape measure. That tape measure will save you literally all of the headaches when it comes to purchasing furniture. A good socket set of Allen wrenches for assembling set furniture too.
. A good socket set of Allen wrenches for assembling set furniture too.
I'll push back and say that the 3-pack of imperial, metric, and SAE hex wrenches you can get these days are better than a socket set
Sure, ratcheting is nice, but the ability to rapidly service ANY hex item without dicking around with my sockets or having to memorize which exact size a specific screw has been amazing
Just grab the matching collection of wrenches (idk what to call them, Swiss army wrench?) for the size you're working in, or all 3 if you're unsure, and you'll be done in no time!
I bought several of those flippy screwdrivers and keep 1-2 on each level of the house and in the garage. I never have to leave the floor or often the room to fix something I notice is loose.
InstaPot. I hate gadgets and things that have limited purpose so when this was gifted to me I planned to regift it. I use it so often I got an upgrade model. Totally worth the counter space!
What can you do with those?
- Put a layer of frozen meatballs on the bottom. I use Trader Joe's party sized balls.
- Add dry pasta
- Pour sauce over dry pasta.
- Fill sauce jar with water and dump that in.
- Put the lid on set it to go for 8 minutes on high pressure. Wait for it to finish and then release the pressure.
- Yum yum in the tum tum
We mostly use ours to make rice, potatoes, and artichokes. Not all at once but I guess we could. Oh, and for hummus we get the perfect chickpeas in like 45 minutes from dried. It's amazing.
On top of the other reply, soups, chili, ribs, whole chickens, the filling for chicken pot pie, pulled pork, shredded chicken for tacos, and so on.
On top of the other two replies: Mine has a setting to make yogurt. You just add milk and about a tablespoon of active culture yogurt
edit: oops wrong reply
Bamboo tongs for taking hot things out of the toaster. They even have magnet built into the handle so I just stick it on the side of my fridge when not in use.
I just use chopsticks ...
That's a great idea! I haven't burned myself lately reaching into my toaster oven, but it's only a matter of time
I have a few motion activated lights in my house and really love how convenient those are. One is an in wall light switch and another is a screw in one in a ceiling light socket.
I also use my pour over coffee set daily. And my coffee grinder.
I bought a cheap little wire cutter and keep it in my junk drawer. Great for cutting zip ties and twist ties on packaging.
I keep a water bottle in the fridge. Always have cold water and hardly use glasses. Bring it to the table when you eat.
Lazy Susan on the dining room table for salt, pepper, toothpicks, pencils, sticky notes, etc.
Long plastic dollar store shoehorn by the door.
I get big packs of 3M clean removal hooks from Costco and use them all over the house to hang keys, pants, hats, string lights, jackets, etc.
attaching things to the walls (hooks for jackets, backpacks, pictures, tools, etc) is a game changer.
I have a few motion activated lights in my house and really love how convenient those are.
I thought about installing a few of these, and then I realized that I don't always want lights to come on when I'm in a room, especially in the evening. How do you deal with that? I did install one in my wife's closet though, and she loves it. The light comes on as soon as she opens the door, and she feels oh so fancy with that feature.
Lots of other great ideas in your list too. About the cheap wire cutters, I had the same for years. I needed to cut something really rigid for a custom job on my truck and bought a good, American-made set a few weeks ago. They're sooo much better than the cheapos I was using. I recommend splurging and getting a good set of cutters, even if you don't need anything heavy duty. They'll perform for any job, last a lifetime, and be more of a pleasure to use.
My motion switch in the main floor bath also senses light so it does not turn on when it is sunny.
My motion switches in the basement laundry and garage might also be light sensitive but it is always dark there so I always want them to turn on.
I think to do what I think you want, I would investigate X10 or other home automation hardware. That stuff lets you program switches so you could set it to never come on during certain times (for example). X10.com
X10 used to be much cheaper than most other home automation hardware/software.I agree that spending more gets better quality tools but I don't want or need great quality in my junk drawer. Nor do I want to use expensive tools on packaging. The expensive tools go in my tool bag to get used and abused on "real" work.
I bought a variety pack of scouring pads and brushes that I can attach to my cordless drill. Super handy for cleaning stuff that would otherwise take some major elbow grease. Probably bad for my drill, but it's worth it to me.
I made one of these years ago with a round dish brush and a long bolt. One of the most effective cleaning tools in the house. That plus “barkeepers friend” cleaner will take care of any hard-to-scrub grime.
Extendo arm. It's goofy as hell but it's a god send when there's a bunch of random crap on the floor. They also have deceivingly good grip strength too.
Hand held vacuum. I don't think this is that niche anymore but it works really well for cleaning tables, random tight corners and I park it next to my clothes dryer to easily clean the filter. I also use it a TON for sucking up bugs. Buy a corded one since battery operated ones die fast (I went through 2 or 3 of these personally)
Bench scraper. Easily removes 90% of any grime on hard surfaces. Honestly more effective than a rag and detergent. When I bought mine I decided to try it out on my "thoroughly cleaned" kitchen counter and removed a disheartening amount of grime. Afterwards I use some detergent just to sterilize everything.
I use my grabby arm thing constantly because bending over kills my back. Sometimes I'll dual wield the things lol
bend your legs
Having worked in restaurants I am amazed that more people dont use scrapers to clean counters etc. It does such a better and quicker job than scrubbing.
I bought mine as a paibt scraper at a dollar store. Works just fine.
Yeah, I actually use a cheap kiwi nakiri and flattened the edge 😆
Hand held vacuum
We splurged on a Dyson battery powered vacuum that can transform between a floor vacuum, and a hand-held vacuum. I thought it was going to be a goofy novelty, but my wife really wanted it, so we got it. It's awesome! We completely stopped using our corded vacuum, and eventually donated it. It was just such a hassle compared to the Dyson. The Dyson is expensive, but it is so very useful and convenient.
My ex got the dyson in the breakup. I'm still not over it.
Bitch.
I clean up my toddler's mess every day and those extendo arms have saved my back
A Moka pot, it’s the best coffee I’ve tasted, I’ll never go back to using those coffee machines with the basket and the glass carafe.
Also, a really good chef’s knife, kept really sharp. I use a couple of Global ones.
A good pair of titanium scissors. They aren't very expensive, but cut things far better than cheap scissors. They last a lot longer, too; I've had mine for a few years, and they're still sharp enough to cut my skin if I get a little carefree. I got a two-pack and keep a pair with my lunch box for foodstuffs I need to open at work. I even carried a pair around at work for a while when I needed them to cut zip ties, shrink wrap, and banding.
Alternatively, a good pair of hand-forged, high carbon, Japanese steel scissors. They are very expensive, but they cut like a dream and I feel like a bad-ass every time I cut something.
Had a rice cooker in my kitchen for years because my brother brought it. Never really made use of it until I got my second dog because it became super cost effective to make their food, and a big part of it is brown rice.
Did not know that!
what recipe do you use for the dog food?
1/4 lb of ground lean turkey
1/2 cup mixed veggies
1/2 cup brown rice
1 tablespoon of high quality finishing olive oil
It's basically a shepherds pie with no potatoes, seasoning or gravy (though you could make a gravy for it if you wanted to take the time).
I got a Zojirushi at the thrift store and I love it, but then I realized that the pot has a nonstick coating inside, and there doesn't seem to be a replacement that doesn't have nonstick. No more rice cooker for me. :(
I bought a small rice cooker a while back. I have pancakes way more often now, which has really helped cut down my breakfast budget. I can snag a month of breakfast for like 5 dollars. Yeah sure, they're extra thicc and not as nutritious as a full complex meal, but its a lot less of a hassle than actually heating up the skillet and cooking a meal while I'm half-asleep.
You're making pancakes in a rice cooker? I'm intrigued
Me three.
I bought an air fryer a while back. I have taken up equestrianism now, which has completely fucked my finances.
Never understand how people can eat full hot meals as breakfast.
And pancakes are dessert/snack...
the trick is that i'm American. We've evolved to seek out large meals and sugar rewards in our environment kind of like ants
A quality knife sharpening system. It'll change your life. Keep your knives razor sharp at all times with minimal effort, and all of your cutting experiences will be far better.
Sharpener or edge-straightener?
Ideally both, but I meant an actual sharpening system. Either a series of progressively finer stones, some crock sticks, diamond rods, or whatever works best for the individual.
I didn't know there were "systems", I use a Pyrénées slab that works like magic, but you do need some elbow grease. Is it a power tool you're talking about ?
I've used many different systems and the one that works best for me are the diamond rods with an angle brace. This is the one that I use, but there are several different brands available. I also have the Worksharp electric belt sander system, and that works really well too, but it removes a lot of metal, so I only use it sparingly. I used to have off-brand crock sticks and those are pretty cool, but they take a lot of time and still have a margin for user error. I used nothing but stones when I was younger, and that's a cool system that gives the user a lot of manual control, but good stones are expensive, you need several of them, they're bulky to store, and there's a lot of room for error. Any of these are good options, and there are more still that I didn't mention. It just comes down to personal preference.
Project Farm has done a few videos on knife sharpeners. His testing is usually pretty straight to the point
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Lu71ewVSw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBINMUdlJ14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEDyYJJ6f9MI actually was just re-watching them as my whetstone has seen better days, and I'm pretty sure it's now too curved to continue on
I've been loving the spider skimmer my wife got me for christmas.
This! So great when simmering/cooking stuff one has to fish out of a pot. Mine is used almost daily at home!
Battery powered handheld vacuum cleaner. Though I'd only use it for bits and bobs and still use the big Dyson for most of the cleaning, but the hand vac gets used a lot more. Also, a spot cleaner for carpets/upholstery. I did expect it to be useful, and it means we no longer periodically hire a rug doctor, but i hadn't appreciated how useful a wet vac is for spills, not to mention the time the dishwasher drain pump failed and I didn't have to mess around bailing it out.
My power tools in the garage are Hitachi, and they make a stick vac that takes the same batteries. We call it the electric broom, and it's a game-changer for cleaning up the kitchen.
Same, but Makita. My parents had a handheld Dyson, and it was a pain at times because they had to charge it when it died, or you found no one had charged it at the worst times. Because I always have a spare Makita battery it's just a case of swapping them over and sticking the dead on on the charger while you continue vacing
Ha! I just posted the same thing. We have the Dyson V11 and eventually donated our corded vacuum because it never got any use.
I bought a griddle scraper thinking it was only for cleaning but it's become one of my main cooking utensils
It wasn't a gadget, but we put a grocery bag dispenser on our wedding registry. We ended up getting it, and it was nice to have a good place to put them that was easy to grab them out as needed. Haven't used it nearly as much now that we are using reusable grocery bags, but it's still nice when I need to put a bag in my office trash can.
This has been good for us for a different reason. I'm not pathological, but I do have a tendency to keep "useful" things longer than needed. A grocery bag dispenser crammed tight is a decent agreed standard for "we have plenty of grocery bags."
I think my 11 year old was the most surprising.
One of those little steel k-cup filters. I don't get locked into their dumbass ecosystem and I can still make a good single person cup of shitass costco joe instead of a whole pot or doing a whole pour over maneuver.
The pour over is pretty easy, and not much different than cleaning out the cup.
I'll often grind 2-3 uses of beans at a time and just store the grounds in a baggie.
Our office only has a kuerig machine. I choose to bring in my aeropress and a hand grinder. 1000% better than what the office has.
One of the breville milk frothers: https://www.seriouseats.com/best-milk-frothers-5189329
It's paid for itself since I make my own chai latte's at home every morning. Impulse purchase that I've used every day for years.
How do you do that? Every chai recipe I've looked up has been overly complicated.
I use tea bags, these ones which I find in the international / indian food section of a larger store: https://www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca/tea-masala-chai-bags-special-international-blend-1/p/21050375_EA
I use a big travel mug so I toss 2 tea bags in and fill it about 1/2 way with water. While it steeps I put the milk in the frother and when it's done, squeeze out the bags + pour the milk in. Add sugar as desired.
I've tried various loose leaf chai's but I personally don't find the difference in flavor worth the effort / price compared to these bags. Making it from scratch with spices is a lot of work and I'm way too lazy for that.
Laser thermometer. It makes cooking things at really specific temperatures a lot easier.
Some long-handle sundae spoons. They're incredibly useful for getting to the bottom of a deep jar or yogurt tub.
Collapsible screw-together travel chopsticks. They take up virtually no space, come with their own holder so they stay clean, and you've always got some nice chopsticks to eat with.
Blue painter's tape. You can label anything (especially stuff that's going into the freezer), and it'll peel off again without leaving any residue.
Beaded reusable cable ties. It's always nice to be able to tie up a power cord.
A nice headlamp. It's really nice to be able to put on a headlamp and have your hands free when you're doing stuff outside at night. Fair warning: you may fall down a nice flashlight rabbit hole.
I came to specifically to promote the infrared thermometer. Glad to find it near the top of the list.
It's so helpful for so many things.
For most intents and purposes the cheap harbor freight infrared thermometer is as good as the far more expensive models.
My friend regifted me a milk frother. I use it every morning. Nuke the milk for 30 seconds and whip it up. Add to any coffee for a great treat.
Halogen oven: I live alone, and even though it's relatively small, it's big enough for me (unless I want to cook a pizza). It preheats much faster than a regular oven, so meals take much less time to make if I'm just throwing something in it too cook.
Headphone stand: I got a stand that you can hang headphones on, and it's so much nicer than just tossing it on the table or whatever.
Battery powered lamp with a flexible "spine". I have an adjustable lamp which charges via usb and has a flexible neck. It saves the hassle of trying to prop up a phone or something with the torch turned on.
Did you know you can get toilet roll holders that have a little shelf for you to put a phone on? If you browse on the can, they're rather handy.
Extension cables: If you have a desktop or tv, you can just grab some USB, hdmi or audio extensions and swap things using that instead of leaning behind the device.
Egg cooker thingy: I have a thingie that you put a certain amount of water in and it boils an egg using the steam and turns off when done. Saves the effort of setting a timer or boiling a full pan of water.
Kettles: Apparently not a thing in the US? I don't know how you live without them.
Extension cables: If you have a desktop or tv, you can just grab some USB, hdmi or audio extensions and swap things using that instead of leaning behind the device.
This is what my receiver is for, with regard to the TV. But yeah, even in that case I have a spare HDMI that hangs out near the front of the TV for laptops.
Kettles
Lots of Americans have ones that sit on the stove. I have one that plugs in.
Part of the issue is that most outlets in American houses only provide 120v power, only special outlets provide 240v. So even though an electric kettle will boil faster than one on the stove, it’s not significantly faster like it is in other places.
Jarkey: https://www.amazon.com/JarKey-Jar-Opener-Original-Solid/dp/B01MSLKIVB/
and
Jar opener: https://www.amazon.com/Suffering-Arthritis-Strength-Non-Slip-Heavy-Duty/dp/B07QVWJ6VN/
Handy to open tightly sealed jars. However, both snapped off after years of use, and this reminds me I should really get a replacement.
For a jar opener, go right past the kitchen aisle or page and into hardware. Get a rubber and plastic strap wrench. if you get the two pack, keep the big one int he garage and the smaller one in the kitchen.
I find a butter knife has a similar effect as the first tool you linked. Jam it into where the lid meets the jar and then twist and/or pry to pop the seal. It's been the quickest and easiest way to open these kinds of jars for me.
I've seen other people just smacking the lid with a knife for some reason and I have no idea what that is supposed to accomplish lol. Doesn't work that way.
Tapping the corner of the lid on the counter or cutting board a few times will also loosen the lid nicely most times. The main reason this works is it creates a small gap in the lid that equalizes the negative pressure inside the jar to atmospheric which is what makes screw top jars so hard to open most times
This is how I completely bent one of my stainless steel table knives - trying to pry a homemade jam jar open 😅
We got the under cabinet Un-skru kind, and it works like a dream.
We have a pretty nice Cuisinart air fryer/toaster oven (model is TOA-70 I think), and it is the best. I basically use the "real" oven only for proper baking (very rare) and larger frozen stuff (still fairly rare). All leftovers and "heat and eat" stuff goes into the toaster oven. I also use it for toasting, just to keep the popup toaster off the counter, and as an air fryer I like the results from its tray-like basket much better than the icy-center foodballs that come from trying to get a reasonable amount into the deep but otherwise tiny baskets of cheaper air fryers.
For an actual junk drawer item, we have a 50-foot reel of twist tie (with a little guillotine cutter) that has proven invaluable for lost twist ties, torn garbage bag pulls, arts & crafts, and even the occasional picture hanging until we got a proper reel of that wire.
Maybe a bit the other way around: I replaced specialized gadgets with a simpler "tool"
Since I switched from "specialized" clips for food bags to simple clothespins, my life is so much easier.
Clothespins are easier to get on food bags and easier to get off.
Microwave plate cover. Don't have to clean the microwave as often. No wasting saran wrap or trying to use a plate as a cover. I was living with my parents a long time ago when I first heard about these and had to get one. My Dad made fun of it at first but he then admitted how useful it was.
A meat masher.
I thought it was a dumb gimmick until I used it for a big batch of chili and fell in love.
Seriously. Get one.