your compass in American life
You spent a pretty penny on a beautiful cashmere sweater, wool blanket, or down jacket. But when your investment piece needs a good cleaning, suddenly you’re faced with another expensive prospect: paying for dry cleaning. Fear not! Many pricey, delicate…
Dorie Chevlen/NYT Wirecutter Whatever the material of your curtains, the biggest concern is dust, pollen, and other debris, which make their way into the pores of the fabric. But simply dusting your curtains every few weeks or gently vacuuming them…
Michael Murtaugh/NYT Wirecutter; food styling by Maggie Ruggiero Plain potato chips Most of our panel liked Herr’s Crisp ’N Tasty Potato Chips for their golden color and good potato flavor but found them to be blander and less light and…
Alexa Speaker The fourth-generation Amazon Echo sounds good and works with most smart-home devices, including Zigbee-compatible ones. The Echo (4th Gen) is the latest version of the original smart speaker, with all the Alexa functions (besides the ones limited to…
About This Game A fantasy farming sim with an RPG twist like you’ve never experienced! Immerse yourself in over 30,000 lines of dialogue, romance any (or all…) 23 characters, embark on side quests, interact with hundreds of unique NPCs, solve…
Noise-Cancelling Headphones The BBC article states that five NHS audiology departments reported an increase in young people being referred to audiologists for hearing issues—only to discover that their hearing tested within the acceptable range. Instead, the problem was the way…
Editor Dishes on Her Favorite Kitchen Tools Depending on the task, tools such as (from left to right) a mandoline, a microplane, shears, and a personal blender can help circumvent the need to chop on a cutting board (and lighten…
Best Tampons Until recently, tampon manufacturers were not required to disclose exactly what is in their tampons or in what quantities. New York in 2021 became the first state to mandate that all menstrual product makers disclose all of their…
Smart Lighting This powerful, feature-packed strip light is bright enough to function as a task light and can serve to add some colorful flair. Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Matter, Samsung SmartThings Who this is for: Strip…
Beautyblender Trio Bundle 3-piece Kit Beautyblender Trio Bundle 3-piece Kit While Supplies Last 3-piece Set (2) Beautyblenders (1) Blender Defender Member Only Item Online Price $ Less – $ – Price Per : For item price, visit your local Costco…
Flipping on lights, adjusting a thermostat, and even unlocking a door may be challenging or simply tedious for anyone who has disabilities. Smart-home technology allows some of those everyday tasks to become, well, everyday for everyone. “Technology done right is…
Photo: Emma Bridgewater In the midst of the pandemic, when supervising editor Daniela Gorny and I both discovered The Great Pottery Throw Down on HBO Max, we fell in love with Emma Bridgewater’s pottery. Many of the mugs (and bowls,…
Thermoses of 2025 Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter Top pick All of the thermoses we tested kept drinks hot over over a long day, but the Stanley Classic Legendary Bottle 2.5 QT stood out in almost every way. (It comes in…
JOEL: Hook up an ethernet cord to your laptop, everything will be great, and I promise you that. CHRISTINE: That feels so 1990s. ROSIE: Yeah. Get in the Wayback Machine. CHRISTINE: I’m Christine Cyr Clisset. CAIRA: I’m Caira Blackwell. ROSIE:…
When you’re making an aging-in-place plan, personal safety should be a top priority. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one out of four people 65 and older fall each year. The US Fire Administration (an…
Shelves Worth I want to be traveling, yes, but for certain things—say, sleeping or getting dressed—I also kind of want to be home. Which is to say, I would like to bring my whole bedroom with me—or at least my…
These Tiny Mise En Place Bowls Are a Meal-Prep Wonder Before I went to culinary school, I took “cooking up a storm” quite literally. That is to say, my kitchen almost always looked like a hurricane had blown through it…
Makes Taking Believe it or not, I love my trash can. It’s sleek and easy to wipe down, it has two compartments (one for trash, one for recycling), and its soft-close lid doesn’t bang shut. It’s made by Simplehuman, the…
Like most of the moka pots we tested, the Moka Express is simple yet effective, lightweight yet sturdy, affordable yet stylish. It’s uncomplicated to use, unlike traditional espresso machines (which require some practice and know-how and cost hundreds of…
Photo: Sarah Kobos Top pick The SanDisk Extreme Pro is the fastest UHS-I card we tested and is covered by a lifetime limited warranty. It has a good price per gigabyte, too. The 64 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro…