Every month or so, we like to ask our staff about their favorite stuff — whether it’s board games, smart tech, or kitchen gadgets. And the results are usually very different, very interesting, and a lot of fun.

Since Amazon is pushing a lot of deals as part of its annual Prime Day sale — which ends in just a few hours, if you weren’t paying attention — we looked through some of our recent “favorites” articles and found deals on a lot of the devices we like. So, we thought we’d list a few in case you have read about them in the past and thought, well, that sort of sounds good, but it’s a bit pricey. (Or — that’s pretty cheap, but maybe I’ll wait until the price goes down even more...)

So, what follows are some of our staff’s most-liked games, smart home devices, kitchen helpers, travel gear, and pet tech.

Becca Farsace, senior producer

The best part about the game Splendor is taking a moment to look around and watch your friends thinking really, really hard. This is a board game that has no board, just cards and chips, where the objective is to collect gems and acquire capital and property. It is best played with three to five people on a large table, and it involves a whole lot of strategizing, thinking, and endlessly scanning cards. This makes for great thinking faces!

I ditched the box for a small pouch and now bring this game to most bar hangs. And when I’m at home, I find it best when paired with a long playlist that you won’t have to spend any extra mental strength thinking about. 

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, reviewer

Finding a board game that will entertain a 13-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy, my partner, and me is a challenge. We’ve cycled through all the classics as well as newer options — Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Catan, and more. While these are all great, inevitably one of the group develops a passionate dislike for the game (usually after a few too many losses) and it drops off our rotation. However, Evolution: Oceans has been a constant crowd-pleaser for over six months now, and we all love it. 

Part of the Evolution series from NorthStar Game Studio, Oceans is a beautiful, complicated, compelling, and challenging strategy game. You create new species to fill your ocean and fight to develop them and keep them alive using adaptations and abilities such as schooling and speed, tentacles, and parasitic abilities. 

Cards give you your powers, and these are gorgeously illustrated, making this game a visual feast. It does have a fairly steep learning curve, but once you get going and the strategies unfold, the gameplay is smooth and relatively fast-paced. There is a fair amount of player-to-player interaction, so we’ve had a couple of temper tantrums, but nothing big enough to knock this one off our family’s top spot… at least not yet.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, reviewer

Don’t you hate it when you come home during a rainstorm and your sprinklers are running? What a waste of water! With a smart sprinkler controller, you can avoid this kind of insult to Mother Earth. I’ve used a Rachio 3 Smart Sprinkler Controller for a few years now, and it reliably adjusts my irrigation system to not run before, during, or after a rainstorm, even adapting based on the amount of rain that falls. The Wi-Fi-connected system uses local weather data, so I do have to keep an eye on it; if the forecast calls for an inch of rain but we only get a sprinkle, my garden might go thirsty. But its easy-to-use app makes this adjustment something I can do from the comfort of my couch. It’s a lot like using a smart thermostat and just as satisfying in terms of feeling good about saving precious resources (and money).

Sean Hollister, senior editor

The single fastest and most reliable device in my entire smart home… is whichever dumb-as-a-brick appliance I plug in to this tiny box. Seriously, I’m pretty sure the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini is the only smart home device that’s never let me down. Whether it’s a string of Christmas lights, a garage freezer, a hot water recirculation pump, a humidifier, a bedside lamp, or a fan — all genuine examples from my home — I always know Alexa or Google or Siri or Home Assistant will flick that virtual switch in an instant and / or follow my programmed schedule.

Plus, I get some energy savings, too! My Brother printer used to draw 4W all day every day; now, I only spend 0.5–0.8W for the Smart Plug Mini it’s plugged in to. I just wish TP-Link stopped making so many new versions so I could tell you which one to buy. I do know I’d have bought these energy-monitoring ones if I’d had a little more foresight. 

Victoria Song, senior reviewer

I always lose my keys. I must open the Find My app every single time I need to leave the house to find them. It’s worse when I go for a run because it means having to stuff them in a running belt, pocket, or worst of all — my sports bra. So, installing the Nest x Yale Lock has been a game changer for me.

For runs and walks, I can head out the door with nothing but my headphones and smartwatch. It’s so freeing! The same goes for just leaving my house to do literally anything. My spouse and I have the questionable habit of listening to scary true crime podcasts right before bed. That used to mean playing rock, paper, scissors to see which of us had to run down three flights of stairs to check if the door was locked. Not anymore! Now we can just ask Google Assistant or whip out the phone. I love that we can also create temporary guest passcodes for pet sitters or relatives who visit. It’s only been a few weeks, but this has been the simplest yet most high-impact quality-of-life upgrade I’ve done in a long time. 

Victoria Song, senior reviewer

At my last apartment, I kept all my plants in the windowsill. Unfortunately, we were on the ground floor, there were bushes outside, and whenever my spouse opened the window for some fresh air, we got fungus gnats. 

First, I tried neem oil and diatomaceous earth, but they were stinky and didn’t work well. You know what did? Good ole sticky bug traps. Push ’em into the pot and watch in fascinated disgust as it catches all of the nasty critters. (Just be careful if you have cats or other curious pets — one of my cats had a small bald patch on his butt for a week after a trap got stuck on him.) They’re also cheap and handy in the summer if you’ve developed a fruit fly situation in your kitchen.

Kaitlin Hatton, senior audience manager

I’ve never been a great cook, so in an attempt to get me to eat more home-cooked food, my mom gifted me an Instant Pot. This was years ago, and I’ve never looked back. I am the queen of soups, but it’s such a handy tool to cut down cooking time and effort on almost any dish. For the most part, you just toss in all the ingredients, set the timer, and go about your business.

Becca Farsace, senior producer

Okay, hear me out! Watering cans take up too much space, and single-use gadgets are a waste of money. So, ever since I got overly involved in my coffee routine, I have been watering my indoor plants with the Aroma Housewares Professional electric kettle (this is, sadly, no longer sold, but any similar kettle will do). The gooseneck is perfect for making it over the ridge of a pot, the spout is small so it allows for control over where the water is falling, and the handle makes it feel just like a watering can. Plus, it sits on my counter looking pretty, right next to my faucet where I need to fill it up. So, instead of buying a kettle with an open mouth spout, just buy one with a gooseneck and bada bing — you got a two-in-one gadget. Just make sure it has cooled down before you start watering!

Victoria Song, senior reviewer

A lot of people will tell you that rice cookers are single-use appliances meant only for rice — they’re wrong. A rice cooker is best at cooking rice, but it can do a lot of the same things as an Instant Pot. For instance, you can use it to cook hardboiled eggs or oatmeal, steam vegetables, make porridge, make one-pot meals, and even bake a cake. 

I grew up with giant 10-cup rice cookers at home, but I didn’t appreciate how versatile this appliance was until I left the country for college. A tiny two-cup rice cooker kept me fed in my cramped 250-square-foot Tokyo apartment. It was programmable, so I could wash my rice, stick it in the cooker, and know that when I woke up late for class, I could still whip up some ochazuke or oatmeal for a quick, cheap, and nutritious breakfast. (It also took the hassle out of steel-cut oats.) Whenever I had a craving for sweets, it was so easy to take pancake mix and bake a Japanese-style cheesecake for one.

I’ve since graduated to a 5.5-cup Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker, and it’s one of the handiest tools I have for meal prepping. When I was sick I made ample use of its porridge setting to make a congee-type dish with chicken and ginger — just like my mom used to make when I was a kid. The fact that it’ll keep something warm for days meant I could crawl out of bed, scoop out some porridge, and crawl back into bed with minimal effort. When I’m feeling lazy, I throw eggs in there, and bam — some extra hard-boiled protein. Mine also comes with a little basket, so it’s super easy to throw in veggies or steam frozen dumplings.

But what I like most is that rice cookers are more space-efficient than Instant Pots. In my kitchen, the one spot where I could fit an Instant Pot is instead occupied by a rice cooker, blender, and spoon rest. A multitasking kitchen gadget that doesn’t take over your entire counter? That’s a must if you live in a small space.

Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor

We use a lot of garlic in my household, and traditional garlic presses never did it for us — they usually produced a messy, slushy paste. A friend of ours introduced us to the garlic rocker, which is not only fun to play with but produces beautifully minced pieces of garlic, perfect for sautéing and other uses. And it looks like a strange work of art, which means we can keep it on the counter just for show.

Kaitlin Hatton, senior audience manager

[In 2023], I committed to traveling more, and so I took a look at the gear I had that could be replaced after years of trekking the globe. My ratty old secondhand carry-on bag was the first thing to be replaced. After several days of weighing the pros and cons of various travel bags, I stumbled upon this Lumesner carry-on backpack on Amazon, and it fit all of my needs. It can carry a laptop, several days’ worth of clothes, my 40oz Hydro Flask bottle, and more. The bag even includes some packing cubes. It’s very comfortable, and the weight is well distributed when it’s completely full. It’s an inexpensive alternative to many name-brand carry-on bags, too. So far, I’ve used it on a handful of trips, and the quality has held up. It also holds onto pet fur, though, so I had to add a small lint roller to my travel necessities. But that’s just life while traveling with a dog anyway.

Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor

Okay, it’s time to admit it — I have a well-used, not-at-all-new, not-at-all-smart car. It’s a 2007 Honda Civic, and the most technologically advanced thing it does is allow me to roll down the windows by pressing a button. No Bluetooth, no screens — nothing like that. It’s not that I don’t like having tech in my car, but I’m the sort of car owner who holds onto their auto as long as possible until it starts to become more expensive to fix it than to buy a new one. And so far, I haven’t hit that milestone.

Not that there aren’t issues, the most serious of which lately is that the port that I used to plug into in order to listen to my music on the car’s stereo system no longer works. (Not to mention the fact that my Pixel 6 doesn’t have an audio port anyway.) So, I’ve compromised by using a small portable speaker (a several-year-old Ultimate Ears Roll), paired via Bluetooth to my phone, to act as the speaker for my mapping directions, music, and audiobooks. At least this way, while I’m visiting friends and relatives over the summer months, I won’t have to depend on the very old-fashioned method of listening to whatever happens to be on the radio. 

Sarah Jeong, deputy features editor

Nobody wants to carry a power strip or an extension cord with them on their vacation. It’s probably unnecessary if you’re staying in relatively modern buildings and definitely unnecessary if you’re camping. But sometimes you want to stay in a charming historical hotel or a lovely cabin in the woods, and it’s only when you go to charge your devices at night that you realize that the only electrical socket in the bedroom is in the corner farthest away from the bed and there’s already two lamps plugged into it. 

Older buildings especially suffer from what I can only describe as loose socket syndrome, where those very convenient modern boxy socket extenders with five different USB and USB-C charging ports simply cannot stay in place and fall right out of the wall because they’re too heavy. After one (totally pleasant) vacation where I had to charge my phone, watch, AirPods, and laptop in a weird corner of my room with the plug-in charging hub propped up on a strategically balanced mountain of books and sham pillows, I bought this Anker combination extension cord / power strip. It’s not a full power strip — just a cube with a few sockets along with USB and USB-C charging ports at the end of a five-foot cable. I’ve brought it on a few trips since then. It takes up extra space in my suitcase, but each time has left me feeling vindicated about the purchase. 

The three prongs at the end of the cable are static, rather than folding flat for easy packing. This is key because the loose sockets of older buildings reject the beautiful convenience of folding prongs. There are more than enough sockets for one person, and with some finagling (and maybe an extra charging brick), it can accommodate two people’s devices.

If you’re traveling overseas, don’t forget to purchase a different plug type for the region you’re going to or pack an adapter. 

Victoria Song, senior reviewer

In my youth, I forgot to pack plug adaptors for international trips one too many times. Buying them once you’ve landed in another country isn’t always easy, either. And if you’re like me, your relatives in rural Korea don’t always have more than one plug for your American devices — in which case, you’ll have to share with your six other cousins. Nope. Absolutely not. Which is why I never leave this country without a universal travel adaptor.

Basically, it’s six plug adaptors in one. Depending on which one you get, it might come with USB ports so you can charge multiple devices in one outlet. Granted, it’s bulkier than buying one or two specialized adaptor plugs, but if you’ve got a multi-continent itinerary, it’s a game changer. What I like about this one from Epicka is that it comes with a spare fuse in case things go sideways with voltage.

The only caveat is that, although it says “universal,” it’s technically only the four most common types of plugs. That’ll get you by in most countries, but it’s not a guarantee in places like Brazil, South Africa, or India. Even so, I’ll take this over price gouging at airport electronics shops or having to take time out of my schedule to visit a local hardware store.

Sean Hollister, senior editor

Maybe someday Apple will realize that it wasn’t the brightest idea to artificially limit the reach of its MagSafe charging ecosystem, and you’ll be able to plop your phone on a magical minimalist disc that charges it at high speeds. In the meantime, a standard Qi charger is about the best you’ll get — and the bulky but practical iOttie Easy One Touch Qi does it with the satisfying snap of springs. When you push your phone into its waiting jaws, it depresses a button that causes those jaws to firmly snap closed on either side of your device. When you want to remove it, you pinch a pair of levers with your finger and thumb to release as you grab your slab. It’s wide enough to fit practically anything on the market, save an opened Samsung Z Fold. I’ve used one for years with Android and Apple phones alike, including newer MagSafe handsets. 

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, reviewer

I couldn’t live without my automatic pet feeders. I have a total of 14 mouths to feed in my household — one dog, one cat, lots of chickens, a bunny rabbit, two kids, and a husband. Making sure everyone gets what they need when they need it could be a full-time job. Being able to delegate feeding the dog and the cat to two separate PetSafe pet feeders means two fewer mouths for me to worry about. 

In the PetSafe app, I can program how many meals they get each day and what time each is fed as well as determine how big each portion is — helpful now that my 74-pound puppy, Gus, is on a vet-instructed diet. The cat, Smokey, has his feeder up on a table so Gus doesn’t sneak in any extra portions. (There are some feeders that can recognize your pet based on their chip, but the table works, too!) If someone needs a snack, I can just press the button on the feeder, and they get a little extra, or I can ask Alexa to dispense a specific amount. It’s the kind of hands-free convenience that makes the smart home so helpful.

Antonio G. Di Benedetto, commerce writer

We have two cats, Pouncey and Oscar, who have always shared a litter box. Oscar, the younger one, is quite messy — jumping out of the box with reckless abandon and spreading litter all over. We initially had a covered box to slightly circumvent this, but last year, we opted for a pricey self-cleaning one to keep things tidier. (It was on sale for a little more than $400 then.) Like much smart home tech, it’s excellent in some ways and not so great in others.

I love that I’m no longer scooping litter every day, and if we ever go on a trip, we don’t have to ask friends or family to handle poop duties in addition to feedings. But it’s a blessing and a curse because, if I don’t empty out the waste bin on time, it piles up too high. Ever tried opening a jam-packed kitchen drawer with a ladle sticking up inside it? You know that sense of frustration when it hits the top of the frame and the drawer gets stuck? Picture that, but instead, it’s clumped-up cat pee smearing across the underside as you pull it out. Yeah, not ideal. So, it handles the daily duties, but it keeps me on schedule, or I end up wrist-deep in the other doodies.

Update, July 17th: Adjusted the intro to account for the fact Prime Day is drawing to a close.