You don’t have to break the bank to fix your life. Sometimes, just a boring, affordable gadget, or even just a giant coffee pot, can solve your worries.
Here, 13 people share the small, and often simple, products that transformed their everyday life in 2024, from improving their skin, to hacking their sleep. And the best bit? Most of them cost under £20.
Eye mask with headphones
Claire Hubble, Head of Audience at The i Paper
I am a Girl Who Loves Sleep but – crucially – I cannot be alone with my thoughts for even one second. That’s why a blackout sleep mask with built-in headphones was a game-changer for me. Each night I am plunged into complete velvety darkness and soothed to sleep by the inane prattle of my current podcast rotation. This is bliss. All for the very low price of £17.50.
A Boot Buddy
James White, Digital Publishing Editor at The i Paper
This boot buddy cleaner is a game changer for anyone who plays outdoor sports such as rugby, football and hockey in winter. Previously I was cleaning three pairs of boots belonging to me and my kids, three times a week, at home. Now it gets done immediately after activities, by the pitch. Happy days. £15.99.
6-cup Moka Pot (Bialetti preferably)
Harry Robertson, Deputy Head of Audience at The i Paper
This costs me somewhere in the region of £20 and is – beyond dropping multiple hundreds on a real barista-style espresso machine – the best way to make espresso at home.
The other options are all deeply inferior. A cafetiere takes forever and makes multiple litres of weak, lukewarm coffee. A drip coffee is for Americans. An aeropress looks like a torture device from a superhero movie and a pour-over is for men who have never satisfied their wives. A moka pot produces good, strong coffee in a matter of minutes, and looks angular, chic, and faintly European on the shelf. A warning: don’t believe the “6 cup” claims – it makes roughly the right amount for one, or maybe two people. £22
The Halti Head Collar
Sadhbh O’Sullivan, Consumer Health Writer at The i Paper
This is admittedly only useful for dog owners, but it has been the greatest gift I’ve ever given myself. My dog (18 months, cockapoo) is very spaniel forward. She’s smart when she wants to be, determined and very energetic and has learned everything we’ve taught her. Except to not pull on the lead. We’ve tried everything but she would rather choke herself than walk next to us on the way to the park. I choose not to take this personally.
This collar, which is designed to guide the dog by the head rather than the neck, has completely changed our walks to the parks. She is free to sniff, explore, yawn, pant and meet other dogs without me worrying she will choke herself or strain my arm. Despite appearances it is nothing like a muzzle, and has doubled as something that helps her relax in new spaces. Once we’re off the streets and in open fields, she is unleashed and can run, jump and gambol like the proto-lamb she is. And neither of us have had to suffer on the way. £9.80
Box chopper
Kia Elise-Green, Features Writer at The i Paper
I bought a vegetable chopper box from Amazon in the summer when I was eating lots of salads and it was an absolute lifesaver. You put your food of choice under the lid, push it down and it gives you the perfect cubed or sliced vegetable. For someone who was banned from food tech at school for being “dangerous” (and admittedly an awful chef with no coordination in the kitchen) it saves me hours over the week. I didn’t tell my boyfriend I had one for ages and he presumed I’d practised finally being an adult. £15
Portable phone charger
Sophie Gallagher, Features and Lifestyle editor at The i Paper
This is the sort of answer that normally I would scroll right past. I’m not a tech person; I’m in an ongoing battle with our Alexa at home (she is so smug). But, I am a fan of scrolling through Instagram, of listening to the same Spotify playlist on repeat, and watching Desperate Housewives on my commute. This historically presented a problem because I’d get to the office with only 30 per cent battery to last me the rest of the day, when I need my phone to do my job. Enter the Anker portable battery pack. It lasts forever, isn’t that heavy in my bag, and has changed my life. £39.99
JD’s hot honey
Ally McKay, Sports Editor at The i Paper
I’m a pizza fanatic to the extent that I think I must have been a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in a previous life. I thought I’d seen it all when it comes to pizza and was deeply sceptical about the hot honey trend but I was utterly wrong. It makes fresh, homemade pizza taste amazing. It makes morning-after Domino’s taste amazing. It makes frozen pizza taste less like cardboard.
Other uses for this surprisingly versatile addition to the condiment cabinet include drizzling it on grilled fish and spreading it on a bagel with chicken and tomato. Recommended with bells on. £6.99
The perfect ear plugs
Kirsty Devine, founder of Small Devine Things
Loops Quiet earplugs. I had become super sensitive to noise at night, everything was waking me. When I say they have changed my life, I really mean it. They mostly shut out any snoring from my husband too, which was what started my noise sensitivity. £19.95
Beginner’s chopsticks
Harriet Morris, Eating and Body Confident Coach
I got these to help me slow my eating down. Slow eating really helps digestion and knock on effects of that are weight loss, reduced IBS, being more present for starters. Very easy to use and make you slow down without willpower. A true game changer! £6.45
The perfect lipstick
Faith Eckersall, Lifestyle journalist
My Fenty lip pencil. I must have spent a small fortune on lipstick/lip pencils/tints/glosses over the centuries and never looked at Fenty, believing the colours wouldn’t suit me. But this one in the ‘Pnut Butta’ shade does everything I want and makes me look like I’ve had a lip job. (I found it after I plucked up courage and asked the Boots girl what she was wearing – not something I’d normally do…) £19
Remote control switches for lamps
Emily Bootle, commissioning culture editor at The i Paper
They’re amazing. You get a plug attachment and a remote and then you just plug your lamps in via the attachment. The remote has five different buttons if you want to do different lamps in the same room. So now, rather than scrabbling around the skirting board, I just flop on the sofa and press the remote. Same to turn off. So mundane but honestly life-changing. £15
A phone case with a handle, £6.99
Eleanor Peake, senior writer at The i Paper
I am extremely clumsy. So clumsy that I drop my phone weekly (daily). The solution came in my £8.99 silicone phone case with a wristband so that it never slips from my hand. It also has a handle on the back so even if the wristband slips, I still have something to hold on to. Even better, the silicone means its near impossible to accidentally push it off the table as it grips nicely to whatever surface its on. A game changer for any phone breaker. £6.99
Pixi Under-Eye Patches
Nichola Ludlam-Raine, dietician and author
They’ve been a little lifesaver for looking fresh, even on busy days or sleepless nights (I saw the cast of Bridgerton using them and I was immediately sold). Of course, nothing beats the glow from drinking enough water and eating a balanced diet, but these patches are such a quick fix for tired eyes. I buy them on repeat from Amazon and theyʼre a lot cheaper than the ones that are individually wrapped in pairs. £22
