u/mindstormer12

Is it possible to make economical HK milk tea or Lemon tea in the US besides some specialty stores that might sell them in very small volume for a huge premium as if it's gold? Or bulk buy the tea leaves from HK and vacuum seal and freeze them to last for years. I don't normally drink anything outside of tea/coffee especially with added stuff like milk and sugar but these drinks are such a treat--I really enjoy the strong tea flavor with just enough astringency to make you want to sip more.

Do they both use Ceylon leaves? At least with milk tea I believe it's a blend of two types of leaves--one to impart body and mouthfeel and the other for flavor. It probably wouldn't be feasible/economical to source that specific brand of evaporated milk but honestly I've had both the single-serving powdered tea (just the tea, you add your own milk and sugar) and it was maybe 95+% of the way there and certainly good enough as well as the ones that come in filter (which is certainly not economical). I think the powder I had might not even be particularly high quality or even fresh, but this drink doesn't seem like it benefits much from using high quality stuff.

I cook 4 bags of Lipton Gold Label on a saucepan for ~20 minutes, let it steep, throw in fridge to at least room temp, then add evap milk, sugar, and a bunch of ice. Considering I normally only drink loose leaf, I thought this was tolerable but certainly would not call it HK milk tea.

P.S. Do you bother pulling tea after for yourself or you find it not worth the time/effort? I don't really like dealing with fabrics, may a chinois and/or coffee filter and some height might be able to affective the same effect? Also I wonder if just the tea can be premade a day ahead since it's a bit time consuming for just one cup.

How to pick extension cords? Is it just any 12 gauge extension cord at some recommended lengths? My preference is buy-it-for-life for the average homeowner and minimal essentials that are versatile. It'd suck to find something that looks like it'd be good but realize it might be lacking yet it's not worth replacing so just lives with you for years.

• Are there extension cord accessories that make it easy to use long extension cords for short distances? A long cord will be needed to power a shop vac used to clean a car parked on the street--would it be possible to use cord as well around the house or are you much better off getting 2 or more extension cords of varying sizes? I suppose long extension cords is less efficient than shorter cord if possible, but I'd be surprised if this can even be measured when the electric bill comes.

• Similar to above, are you better off getting extension cords of different gauges?

• Any other considerations regarding usage, brand, etc.?

Any comments are much appreciated.

My mom has an issue with a product, contacted live chat on staples.com, they requested some documentation and return label was issued. The product is heavy and it's not convenient to bring to Fedex store. I can return for her in-store on the way from work, but I don't really know the details of the return nor feel like explaining it.

If the clerk wants to know more info about the return, are they able to simply pull up chat transcript, proof of delivery, and notes on the return? It's important because I don't think a full refund will be issued for the product without them knowing the context and I don't want them giving me a hard time especially when the one returning it isn't the one who purchased it.

Was looking for a spot cleaner to clean up a used car but it seems shop vacs do a more thorough job (you just need a spray bottle with cleaning solution (what would you recommend that doesn't leave a film?)). I've been wanting a shop vac for home use anyway. Quick search on Youtube shows Vacuum Wars recommending Vacmaster Pro Beast 5.5 HP but that was from one channel and also 6 years ago. Loose budget of around $100-300 and might even shop secondhand for something past budget otherwise.

Curious to hear from others (especially those who have experience with more than one shop vac) what they like and didn't like. For me, the priorities are: longevity of the shop vac (ideally replaceable parts if something fails, standard filters), versatility (besides car and basement, also carpet/fabric accidents), e.g. good hose adapters if third-party is not compatible), enough power for most jobs without being so unwieldy that you would consider hard whether to use it, easy way to clean the shop vac itself. I prefer smaller capacity without much trade-off in power (I'm not cleaning large volumes of liquid and the longest sessions would probably cleaning a car or a stroll around the basement). Noise also doesn't matter because I'd want to wear ear plugs anyway.

Feel free to share any other considerations and appreciate all comments.

Package was delivered to some neighbor. I want to have zero relationship with this particular neighbor. I searched for the area for my package based on the proof of delivery photo but don't see the package and it has been a few days and no one has re-delivered or left me a notice regarding the package (I'm not even sure if the package is stolen by someone else but from my point of view it doesn't matter because I didn't receive it). The package did not require a signature and is under $100 in value.

I suppose I simply contact seller and claim I did not receive it, then seller files claim for Fedex. Will Fedex then pursue the resident at where they misdelivered the package to at all or will they simply reimburse the seller after realizing their mistake?

Looking for BIFL-like stand mixer (used or new) for under $300, ideally self-serviceable with replaceable parts. Otherwise, a stand mixer at really great value. It's intended for 1-2 people but I do meal prep. I believe a KitchenAid can handle anything except bread (at least tough bread dough, though to be honest I probably won't be making any bread) so it should be avoided? It'd be for cookies and cheesecake for now, not sure if it's suitable for turning pork shoulder to ground pork with an attachment.

Brief search and it seems suggests DC motor and lift bowl are signs of a good one but that new KitchenAids are worse than ever? Not sure how to shop for a used one in Facebook Marketplace (examples of models and prices to expect for a used one?). This $200 one from Costco seems attractive even if it isn't BIFL-like.

Any tips, recommendations, and other considerations are much appreciated.

Looking for portable cleaner that has great cleaning power, is easy to clean, and ideally self-serviceable or easy to find parts/replace. Seems like people like the Bissell little Green but they have quite a few models. I want to clean old coffee stains from cars and pet messes on bed/carpet/backpack. I'm open to take some time to find a good deal on secondhand if it's high quality.

Any other usage tips or random tips in general is much appreciated. I don't frequently have messes and can also afford trading some minor inconveniences for stronger cleaning power. Just looking for a good product that can potentially last many years and not have to upgrade.

Purchased a hoodie to try for sizing (never tried Muji before), however, it sealed in see-through polybag. I've only ever seen ones that open with a sticky flap or are taped with a small piece of tape.

The return policy is "Item must be returned in original packaging" and unused. Can anyone confirm this does not include the sealed polybags?

I know Muji USA's customer support is practically non-existent and a PITA from just a minute of searching this sub, just want to double-check I can actually try out the sizing and that only the tags and item in new condition matter for potential return.

I have Wusthof knives, Japanese knive (SG2 steel), and a Chinese cleaver and looking for stones and all other accessories to sharpen them for practical daily use in home kitchen. Did some research but still overwhelmed by all the options. In particular, getting the right combination of stones (i.e. stones that don't overlap in functionality too much) seems tricky. Not chasing for the sharpest edge possible or a good polish (aesthetics and not functionality), only sharpening the knives and wearing as little material away to achieve that so the knives (and presumably the stones for home use) can last for decades.

• Shapton Pro 1000 seems like an obvious recommendation and the 1 stone to build everything off of, right? Splash-and-go is easy, the advertised 1000 grit is ~800 grit so sharpens faster.

• What about a coarse stone and a ~2k stone? Flattening stone? Strop (DIY with compound?)? Would a soaking stone be preferred at higher grit?

• Besides sharpening when they get dull, honing with a steel rod periodically in between applies to German knives to stretch the amount of time for the next sharpening and the strop does the same for Japanese steel?

I'm based in the US and might go to Japan in a few months--would it be hard to find recommended stones for cheap enough to be worth purchasing it there? SP1000 is on Amazon for $40 but from what I've read they are really only worth at most $25 and is what they go for in Japan (these stones are supposed to be considered cheap).

• In the Bethlehem area for now and Astound keeps silently raising price, most recently +15% to $37 for 30 Mbps. I'm sure other people's bills may be much higher for a family, but this is only for 1 person and I have always way more bandwidth than needed (I would prefer saving $5+ savings for half bandwidth without affecting my usage but they claim I have the lowest bandwidth option already even though they increased the bandwidth to justify the price increase silently). Any alternatives? It's not necessarily the price that's the factor, more so the practice of keep increasing the bill by $5 increments every 2-4 months with no notice. Also, I strongly suspect most people way overestimate how much bandwidth they need and overpay by 2-5x.

• For those who WFH and seldom uses the car whether you have any experience with auto insurance that charges by miles--how much do pay?

• My 2016 Corolla is in good condition and averages no more than 80 miles per month, yet the last 3 car inspections have costed me ~$1k in repairs each time in order to pass. I know the auto industry is full of predators, are there any honest ones? I find it hard to believe such a seldomly used car has developed so much problems all of which are critical to pass car inspection, especially since I have not experienced any problems driving it.

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EDIT: Guys, $37 monthly internet for 30 Mbps is atrocious... look at some of the data points already mentioned by some people here. Also, 30 Mbps for 1-2 people can be more than enough--it's enough for 4k Youtube stream. There's much better price for bandwidth deals, but it literally does not benefit 1-2 people's average workloads paying a little more for much more bandwidth--the priority is paying less for only what's needed. You can easily find out how much bandwidth your household actually needs by a simple calculator--most people have way more than they need yet it's very easy to reach a certain threshold where any more will not offer practical benefit. Also, you shouldn't be renting your modem for years--buy a used one off Facebook (I'm selling one as well) and you would have broken even in few months, potentially saving as much as ~$10-15 per month thereafter on renting the hardware.

If you want to know a real bargain, I pay $2.50/month for phone for 200 Mb data (enough if I don't watch videos on data and the Google map of the surrounding area downloaded in advance once a year, can always add more data in $5 increments), unlimited everything else.

I love wire shelves for efficient storage, but an issue is the contents accumulating dust over time and kind of an eye sore. Looked into wire shelving covers but they are at least $25 each (good quality ones for $50+ easily) for something you'd think would be quite cheap. Tarp costs ~$3-10 and can be custom-sized. I have at least 8+ wire shelves that would benefit from dust covers (I would probably not use them or find a better implementation for the ones in the kitchen that should look a little nicer).

• Is it possible to make wire shelving dust covers from tarp? Haven't found idea or how to go about it yet. Ideally it's opened/closed with a zipper but that'd probably be non-trivial for someone with little sewing experience. I can follow video guides well, but surprised I haven't come across this idea in my searches.

• Another idea is to get those semi-hard shelf liners as panels hanging on at least 3 of 4 the side of shelves with zip ties (you'd lift the liner up to access the shelf). Not completely dust proof but I honestly thing that looks much better than nylon/poleyster/glossy plastic that drapes over wire shelves. A more professional-looking option would be stainless steel panels (I strongly considered this to use for one of the shelves as backslash for food prep). Not cheap but will last forever.

I have very little DIY experience so feel free to share any ideas and implementations.

Don't have much of a home lab nor do I have a fleet of drives for a RAID setup. A Raspberry Pi 4 server with 2x HDDs has been fine for my basic needs like NAS, Syncthing, some Docker services, and git repos.

However, I'm looking for a more capable server that has 1-2 SATA ports and can handle a little more like basic recording of the front porch for real time delivery notifications (nothing fancy beyond that)--would Frigate NVR be overkill? I'm also looking for a router that allows VLANs for isolating IoT devices. The only real priority of the setup is keeping it minimal and low power consumption over time because it will only serve 1 person when they are home (me) most of the time.

• Would a server that runs Proxmox to run those typical home server services *and* something like OPNsense/pfSense be possible? It seems like any server can do this as long as it has two ethernet ports (one for modem, the other to a switch that supports VLANs)? Are there any other features to look for, e.g. is a switch that supports layer 3 necessary? I assume the risk of a server that also acts as a router is the internet is down if the server is down, but I think that would be tolerable because I can just plan the occasional maintenance at night and maybe automate that (I suspect the only real reason to restart the server would be updates to Proxmox since everything it runs is on a VM and those can be restarted without affecting other services?). Otherwise for those that have bad experiences with that, what might the two servers needed for those look like? My humble 50 Mbps internet plan is more than enough for me (mentioning this because I might also want to run VPN).
• What useful and cool things are you guys doing with your servers (particularly home-automation-related or AI-related) that might require a more demanding server? I might be interested in that as well but I think the server I'm looking for can handle that. I'm interested in self-learning programming for the purposes of making my life as simple and self-sufficient as possible.

Any other tips is much appreciated like recommendations on hardware including a basic security camera. I must stress I really prefer low-power and efficient hardware to satisfy the basic needs above--I'm not sure I need more power-hungry hardware for anything else especially since it's running 24/7 (energy bills are high here). I will probably look to secondhand parts too. I remember doing a search a few years ago and an Intel N100-based (<10 TBW) server seems right up my ally, not sure if it's still recommended today.

• * Just curious: what is a fair price range for a Corolla LE 2013, 71k miles, no issues except cosmetic wear on the exterior, clean interior as only one driver drives it for the most part, passed vehicle inspection this year? No history of major accidents, where can I find this for proof in a listing?
• Don't know anything about trading used cars and shopping for one: I assume miles is by far the biggest indicator for variance in price (assuming the car is decent, passes recent vehicle inspection, and priced categorically depending on brand and model)? How much do the years matter like for this car which is 10 years old but "only" 71k miles (both from buying and selling perspective)?

Invested in a chamber vacuum sealer (always wanted one), now looking to set up a system for meal prepping in a more organized and efficient way. No particular requirements other than avoiding heating plastic.

• I was thinking OXO glass container set that are both freezer and oven-safe (presumably air fryer safe as well, which I use more to be honest). However, these microwave-safe metal containers are captivating because it should be lighter and able to hold more volume for the space it takes up compared to thick glass containers.
• Souper cubes are not a gimmick, right? For those who have tried it how did you use it and recommendations on which sizes are most useful?
• Need to replace very old ice cube trays--anyone have experience with steel and silicone ones? Do steel ones work well and do the silicone ones retain odor or wear out over time the way silicone utensils tend to get tacky? Not just for water--I'm thinking freezing cubes herb-infused oil or concentrated stock, curry, etc.
• Reguar mason jars are freezer-safe and it's fine to use as long as you leave some room for liquids to expand? I can vacuum seal the smaller jars beforehand.

Any other tips and recommendations are much appreciated--open to any ideas.

I bought a chamber vacuum sealer and the intuition was to portion out a big piece of meat, marinade them, then vacuum seal each portion (each portion will be cooked as needed). However, with how well (chamber) vacuum sealers work, I'm wondering if vacuum sealing thin slices of cooked meat works well, which would save time on cooking and only require reheating.

Do you guys notice any freezer burn especially for cooked thin slices of meat or some other types of food? I know it's fine for bigger pieces like steak.

I'm curious what benefits least from vacuum sealing vacuum sealing or perhaps shouldn't be vacuum sealed at all, (assuming you're not freezing for only a few days which wouldn't be worth the plastic waste for me) .

Also interested in any other random tips to maximize meal prepping and the use of vacuum sealing to reduce day-to-day stress and time in the kitchen--excited to optimize for meal prepping.

For reference my preference in food is Asian, Italian and healthy food in general.

I have credits I need to use with Anker. My only power bank was a Nitecore which is short-lived. I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the similar sounding names and options from Anker for the products I'm looking for: a 2x USB-C port charger, ~10,000mAh power bank for mostly my Android phone (I only use the laptop in hotel or airport which can be assumed to have plugs), and wireless earbud. Don't need to charge laptop at max speed, decent speed is enough. Don't want wireless charging which is less efficient at charging.

• Which power bank and charger, or go with a power bank + charger combo? I'm a bit put off by these display screens--seems mostly wasteful and unnecessary for something as simple as these products usage-wise. My priority is reliability, longevity, lightweight, and futureproofing (not in terms of capacity but in terms of output for modern devices. I assume power banks that last more than 3 years is pretty good. I'm curious if a combo's longevity is limited to the power bank (I assume the charger shouldn't really fail in the ~3-5 years that might be expected of a power bank). I'm leaning towards purchasing them as separate devices to make more sense and not worth the presumably minimal weight savings, preferring longevity of the products.

• Any good wireless earbuds that can come close to respectable Sony/Bose? I listen to podcasts and classical and instrumental music. Clarity/soundstage is important, don't care for strong base. I assume the life of earbuds is also 3-5 years. I care wired earphones as well, but the convenience of wireless is sometimes essential.

Any other tips and considerations are much appreciated. Also feel free to mention any other Anker favorites to consider using my remaining credit for.

I have credits I need to use with Anker. My only power bank was a Nitecore which is short-lived. I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the similar sounding names and options from Anker for the products I'm looking for: a 2x USB-C port charger, ~10,000mAh power bank for mostly my Android phone (I only use the laptop in hotel or airport which can be assumed to have plugs), and wireless earbud. Don't need to charge laptop at max speed, decent speed is enough. Don't want wireless charging which is less efficient at charging.

• Which power bank and charger, or go with a power bank + charger combo? I'm a bit put off by these display screens--seems mostly wasteful and unnecessary for something as simple as these products usage-wise. My priority is reliability, longevity, lightweight, and futureproofing (not in terms of capacity but in terms of output for modern devices. I assume power banks that last more than 3 years is pretty good. I'm curious if a combo's longevity is limited to the power bank (I assume the charger shouldn't really fail in the ~3-5 years that might be expected of a power bank). I'm leaning towards purchasing them as separate devices to make more sense and not worth the presumably minimal weight savings, preferring longevity of the products.

• Any good wireless earbuds that can come close to respectable Sony/Bose? I listen to podcasts and classical and instrumental music. Clarity/soundstage is important, don't care for strong base. I assume the life of earbuds is also 3-5 years. I care wired earphones as well, but the convenience of wireless is sometimes essential.

Any other tips and considerations are much appreciated. Also feel free to mention any other Anker favorites to consider using my remaining credit for.

End-grain maple from JK Adams feel smooth, I gave it a couple coats of mineral oil over a few days. Every time I clean it with sponge with soap and water, when the board is wet the grains are raised (feeling a bit rough) and it catches the sponge, shredding very small pieces on occasion. Is this normal or have I not oiled enough? I don't want to be ingesting small pieces of plastic.

Also, for those who have used tung oil, how does the knife wear the tung oil "coating" over time--is the polymerized oil layer developing tiny specks of dust over time that can be brushed off or is it more like "soft plastic" where tiny valleys develop like wooden cut marks but you can't really feel the particles wearing away like dust?

I'm not a woodworker or do anything specialized (it might become a minor hobby), just an average homeowner that has been regretting not having a workbench that would make average home improvement and DIY jobs easier. The thing that puts me off is they can take a lot of space, which is only a big deal if it cannot be disassembled or folded when I need that space in the basement. I'd wager 95% of the time it'd just be useful to use it as a table, but the 5% of the time using it as intended would make jobs much easier. I already have wire shelving to store most stuff since it's incredible efficient and versatile.

• Looking for recommendations to build or purchase a workbench that can be disassembled or folded. I can afford a larger surface area (and I assume that's super valuable) since it can be stored against the wall. Besides that, I would also want vices and the usual essentials associated with a workbench. I have no idea what I'm looking for though--any ideas? I know it can be a very broad question--I just want something versatile and avoid the risk of picking something I think might work now, but wishing I went a different route. I did a quick Youtube search to get a sense of what I should probably be looking for, but they are all DIY making cheap but sturdy and seemingly heavy workbenches that are intended to a permanent fixture. Maybe 2x4s, plywood, and lockable caster wheels is enough for reasonably sturdy work? I'd love example of a guide to build a respectable one.

Any tips much appreciated.