There are some things that you buy, certain that they're going to be wonderful and life-changing...and then never use.

My SodaStream, for example, continues to be a thing that I love...but not actually something I use all that often, because the bottles that you make the soda in are not machine-washable. And because it is very important to me to immediately throw away all instruction manuals without even opening them (because I like to live on the edge like that), I realized this only after machine-washing one and discovering an actual melted pile of plastic where the bottle used to be. And I really enjoy drinking water directly out of bottles for whatever reason and have bottle-washing PTSD from the thousands of bottles I had to hand-wash for our son when we lived in an apartment without a dishwasher...and so I don't use it. (Note: I have since repurchased the plastic bottles and rediscovered the obsession; it's a roller-coaster over here, what can I say?)

And then there are also things that you aren't quite sure whether you should buy or not, but then you do, and hey-o: there they are, getting used by you every single day.

Presenting: some of my personal favorite Random Excellent Investments.