Home and Kitchen

News, reviews and articles about home and kitchen products.

This Victorinox knife block also serves as a tablet stand

victorinox knife block tablet stand

There are a lot of cooking apps and videos available for tablets.  You can watch videos as you cook to learn new techniques or follow a recipe in your virtual recipe box, but whatever you’re doing on a tablet in the kitchen, you’ll need a stand to keep it safe and viewable.  There are countless […]

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Now you can control your light switches with WeMo controllers

wemo light switch

I recently reviewed the Belkin WeMo Smart Home Automation Switch, and I’m still happily using four of them everyday to control my table lamps and the Fake TV.  There are some rooms, like the bathroom, that don’t have table lamps, but I’d still like to be able to remotely control my ceiling fixture in there.

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Poo~Pourri, an awkward subject and rather, well, smelly

Poo Pourri 1

We all know poo happens, but did you know it doesn’t have to stink?  Yep, you heard me right, you can have stink-less #2 too by pre-treating your loo with a product called Poo~Pourri.  One of our most advanced senses, our sense of smell, isn’t fooled by covering up poo odor with fragrance.   Poo~Pourri doesn’t just

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Tailgate in style with these cooking appliances

max burton 12v cooking appliances

Whether you want to have a nice spread for your tailgate party before the big game or travel in an RV, you’ll appreciate these Max Burton appliances.  They plug into a car’s 12V power outlet and prepare a meal as you travel.  The Digital Stove to Go (top, left) has a 1.5-qt capacity and reaches

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Build your own Steampunk thermometer

thinkgeek nixie tube thermometer

I have a fascination with nixie tubes, or vacuum tubes that ThinkGeek calls the LEDs of the past.  These tubes aren’t being manufactured any longer, but there are still some available that are being used to make Steampunk things like clocks and thermometers.  You’ll need to know how to read schematics and how to solder

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Moistly is a gadget that helps save your leafy friends from a horrible death of dehydration

moistly

If you have houseplants, you’ve most certainly experienced the tragedy and self blame that comes along when your neglect causes their untimely demise. You don’t have to be a plant killer anymore, the Moistly easy to use plant buddy is here to help you. What is it? It’s a sensor that will beep and blink

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Become the master of your domain… err, dishes!

dishmaster

In my search for retro, mid-century items, I stumbled upon an interesting item for the kitchen that really does qualify as a gadget.  The Dishmaster was developed “in 1948 in the post-war years when the American kitchen was being re-invented”, and it replaced a typical faucet with a gadget that could make washing dishes easier.  The Dishmaster

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ShowerTunes Shower Curtain – Now you can take a shower with the boys from New Direction

showertunes

Now you can take your gadgets into the bathroom with the ShowerTunes Shower Curtain / Liner. The curtain features a built in waterproof speaker system and a special play-through/see-through pouch to place your smartphone or tablet. Watch and listen to music while you shower, or take a call while you soak in the tub. The

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Control your entire house with the Revolv system

revolv home automation

If you’ve started trying to automate your house and find you’ve now got a variety of systems doing various tasks, you should check out the Revolv Smart Home Solution.  Simply power up the Revolv hub in your home, and it uses the proprietary FlashLink system to join your local network (you’ll need to enter the

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Charge an emergency flashlight in your bed-side lamp’s socket

moma led lightbulb and flashlight

Here’s a new one for me.  This low-heat LED lightbulb from the MoMA Store becomes an emergency flashlight when you need one.  It screws into a standard socket, and it produces as much light as a 40W bulb using only 6W of electricity.  The LEDs will produces up to 60,000 hours of light.  When you

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Xtreme Life DVR and Landscape Stone Surveillance Camera review

petrock01

I’ve been searching for a way to keep an eye on my summer cabin while we’re not in residence, and the Xtreme Life Landscape Stone from KJB Security products would seem to be the answer.  It claims to provide unattended surveillance with minimal operator intervention and ease of operation.  I guess we’ll have to see about that…

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Ostrich pillows now for the whole family!

ostrich pillow junior

What started off as a “concept piece” apparently found a niche somewhere, as the oddly shaped and worn Ostrich pillow has now produced an offspring: Ostrich Pillow Junior.  This pillow is exactly the same as its big daddy, just sized smaller and in two “kid friendly” interior lining colors – red with white polka dots and

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Archimedes would be moved by the STRONG LIKE BULL Bottle Opener

stronglikebullbottleopener

The ancient Greek scientist and mathematician Archimedes is attributed as stating “Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I will move the world!”  If so, Archimedes would probably have liked drinking beer with Brian Conti, creator of a crowdfunded Kickstarter project to produce a unique bottle opener. 

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Grow your own food on your windowsill

modern sprout

There’s a hydroponics supply store near my house, but I’ve never been in there because I always think of illegal substances when I think of in-home hydroponics systems.  These planter boxes from Modern Sprout take hydroponics out of the musty basements and put them on your windowsill.  They may look like simple wooden boxes, but

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Make personalized gift wrapping paper with your own photos

giftskin personalized wrapping paper

We’ve told you about a variety of products that you personalize with your own photos – books, stretched canvas, 3-d figures – but I’ve never seen this product before.  GiftSkins lets you make custom gift wrapping paper using your own images.  You can even add a personalized message, so your paper will be absolutely perfect

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Technogel Sleeping Anatomic Pillow review

drscholls technogel 3

The average person gets 8hrs of sleep per day, that means most of us end up spending a 1/3rd of our lives in bed. If you spend that much time doing any activity, you should be as comfortable as possible right? Technogel Sleeping products have been designed with the mission of “making your world more comfortable”. I

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Unikia offers unique products that protect your lunch

compleat robust

If your lunch is as important to you as it should be, you probably want to protect it from possible mayhem. Norwegian based Unikia offers all sorts of innovative products, but their unique variety of food containers is what first caught my eye. The Compleat Robust is a lunch box that features an impact resistant shell, a

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Walhub is an easy way to add storage to your light switch

walhub

When you live in a small house or apartment, storage space is a valuable commodity that has to be managed well, or your house might end up looking like an episode of Hoarders. That’s why I love the concept of the Walhub. It is a replacement faceplate for single and double gang wall switches that

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Maintain your close-cropped hairstyle without visiting a barber

single handed barber

Okay, this looks like a tragedy waiting to happen, but Hammacher Schlemmer is offering a device that is designed to let you cut your own hair.  The Single Handed Barber uses a “rotary cutting system and razor-sharp stainless steel blades” to cut your close-cropped hair as you move the device over your head in a

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