There are things that I hear people talking about for ages, about how great those things are, and I’m too Anxious About New Things to try them. And then one day I DO (or else someone does it for me, as when I was 21 and my dad signed me up for an email account, knowing I wouldn’t have done it until my thirties otherwise), and my life is REVOLUTIONIZED. My parents use the expression that something “has improved the quality of our lives.” And while that sounds like the kind of thing people might say about a new vaccine or an economic upturn, they use it for things such as a new shower caddy.
Ever since I had my second child (and, perhaps more importantly, moved to a house no longer within walking distance of the post office), I’ve been whining about how hard it is to go to the post office: the lines, and the limited hours, and hauling children in and out of the car for what ought to be a 2-minute errand, and why don’t they have a DRIVE-THROUGH?? My dad kept saying and Saying and SAYING that I could get a pre-paid label online and have my mail carrier pick up the package, but I felt like…maybe I couldn’t. Like what if that cost more money? what if I weighed it wrong? what if my mail carrier hadn’t heard of it and thought I was being presumptuous? what if I had to print it on special label paper instead of regular? what if there was a pick-up fee, or or or?
And no, and in fact the prices are LOWER if you get a label online (though the options are more limited), and I’ve now printed out DOZENS of labels and I haven’t had to go to the post office in ages. Paul installed a robe hook on our mailbox post so that I can put bigger boxes in a bag and dangle them from the mailbox. It is EASY, and it has improved the quality of my life, and maybe you should try it too: USPS Click-N-Ship.
Another major life-improver has been Amazon Prime shipping
. I resisted this for ages because it is SEVENTY-NINE DOLLARS PER YEAR, and I could pretty much ALWAYS get free shipping ANYWAY by getting my total over $25. BUT! Something I had not considered was that I would also get free shipping on things I shipped TO OTHER PEOPLE. Whenever I send a gift (and often it’s NOT over $25), I get free shipping. This has made it way less stressful to send birthday and Christmas gifts.
I also hadn’t considered how much FASTER the shipping would be. Or, rather, I HAD considered it, but I hadn’t thought it would matter. What do I care if my new Doonesbury book gets here in 2 days or 2 weeks? But what it really means is that I can time the arrival of gifts, and don’t have to order 3 weeks ahead of time to make sure it gets there. This is especially useful around Christmas, when the speed of the super-saver shipping slows to a painful crawl—and meanwhile the Prime shipping items are still zipping through in 2 days.
And around the holidays, Amazon starts offering all these great deals on things, and I CAN’T always come up with $25 of stuff to get the $2 deal. Or sometimes I find a great gift on December 21st, and I can still get it on time. And I have two friends with birthdays right near Christmas, and it’s great to know their gifts won’t take a million years to get there. And sometimes I order food items, and I don’t want them in transit for a long time.
And there have been many times we’ve needed something, and I haven’t seen any way to get to a store in the next few days, and so I’ve ordered it on Amazon and it’s gotten to me before I would have been able to go to a store for it.
Anyway, it’s expensive, but it’s better than I imagined, and it has improved the quality of my life, and maybe you should try it too: Amazon Prime shipping.
What things/services have improved the quality of your life?
I’m always on the fence about Amazon Prime. I use Amazon a lot, but like you, I almost always am over the $25. I hadn’t thought about it from the gift perspective. Genius!
Shelly | July 21st, 2010 at 10:15 am
Get ready to have your mind blown:
Did you know that you can SPLIT the cost of Amazon Prime?
I didn’t know that, and I personally haven’t, but a friend of mine one day was talking about Prime and how fabulous it is, and they said, “Yeah, and really, since I bought it with FriendX and FriendY, I only had to pay a third of the $79.”
SAY WHAT?
So they went on to explain that you can split the costs with up to 4 or 5 people. And I was all, “DUDE, I HAVE BEEN SHOULDERING THIS BURDEN ALONE FOR TOO LONG.”
Sarah Lena | July 21st, 2010 at 10:41 am
One thing that has improved the quality of my life drastically is grocery delivery. I love grocery shopping- wandering through the store makes me feel like I’m splurging, but it’s money that I’ve already earmarked so it’s allowed. However, living in a city makes shopping less fun. Stores are more crowded, more expensive, and when I started grad school- grocery shopping became just another thing that cost me TIME. So grocery delivery… I thought forver it wouldn’t cover my area and how expensive? And what about sales? And how much do you tip a guy for bringing you $150 of food?!? But it’s often free (if you shop the special for free delivery) and you can’t tip the delivery person, and they automatically give you every member coupon and sale. And that time? I might have spent two hours between driving to the store and shopping and drivng back. Now I like to spend those two hours at home with a cocktail and some music and wait for the food I ordered online to come to me. Much better quality of life.
Molly | July 21st, 2010 at 10:43 am
Hi, Swistle! When weighing your packages to do the shipping labels, do you just use a regular scale, or something special? Thanks!
Carrie | July 21st, 2010 at 11:01 am
Love Amazon Prime too - and students can get it for free! I’m not a student, but my husband takes occasional grad classes, and all you need is a valid .edu address. Score!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/student/signup/info
Suzannah | July 21st, 2010 at 11:18 am
Ordering pizza online. I hate talking on the phone, so it eliminates that, plus I can see all of the specials and discounts before I order without having to *shudder* ASK.
Also, Redbox, especially when you can reserve a movie online and pick it up later.
Tessie | July 21st, 2010 at 11:20 am
Amazon Prime has saved my butt on many occasions when sending gifts to my MIL in another state! Agree with the above comment, ordering pizza online is wonderful! I’m not sold on the grocery delivery yet, but not against it either. I need to go grocery shopping, maybe I’ll try it online again and see how it goes. I haven’t done it in years. Our delivery people do accept tips though.
Tracy H. | July 21st, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Anything I can do online improves my quality of life. Examples: ordering take-out, renewing prescriptions, making dentist appointments, setting up quotes for home renovations.
LoriD | July 21st, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Netflix! Especially now that there is Netflix Instant, which brings me to the other brilliant thing in my life: Roku, which allows me to watch my Netflix movies on my TV.
Annika | July 21st, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Aww, shoot. Ok, ok. I swear I’m not being some lame-ass sycophant, but Swistle has indeed improved the quality of my life. (Well, her and a handful of other bloggers.) The blog format has made it so much easier for me to connect to other people, even if I don’t really, y’know, TALK to them or whatever.
And also? Duuuuude. I have a .edu address and I am all over that free Amazon Prime thing for students. THANK YOU ALL.
Sahara | July 21st, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Sara Lena- I wrote and re-wrote and finally deleted a paragraph about how my FRIEND was sharing the costs of Prime!
Molly- Oh, Molly, that sounds WONDERFUL. I have to see if it works in my area yet.
Carrie- I used to have two scales, both postal scales from an office supply store. One measures in ounces up to 5 pounds, and that one wasn’t very expensive; the other measures up to 50 pounds, and that one WAS expensive. (I bought both a long time ago, not for this.) The 50-pound one broke (children: this is why we can’t have nice things), so now I use our bathroom scale for heavier packages: it’s a digital scale that measures in tenths of pounds. I usually add a few tenths of a pound to what I enter as the package weight, just to be sure.
Suzannah- WHAT. I have a valid .edu address!! I am totally checking this out.
LoriD- YES. I wish EVERYWHERE did online booking. I booked our JCP portraits online last time, and it was SO GREAT. I could see all the openings, and I could take my time deciding, and I DIDN’T HAVE TO TALK TO ANYONE OR SPELL MY NAME REPEATEDLY.
Annika- Oh, yes, me too! Netflix! Love!
Sahara- Aw. MWAH. And also, I agree: the blog world has totally improved my life.
swistle | July 21st, 2010 at 2:44 pm
I am glad to read of both these services because they are things I have been resisting a LONG time.
Question: How do you weigh the mail? It’s the only thing holding me back.
My thing:
DVR
Couldn’t do without it. Wouldn’t want to.
Devan | July 21st, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Devan- I have a 2-pound postal scale for smaller stuff, and I use our bathroom scale (which measures to 1/10th of a pound) for heavier stuff. I first made sure the scale was accurate by weighing something at home before bringing it to mail from the post office, but I still usually add a couple tenths of a pound to the weight just to be sure.
swistle | July 21st, 2010 at 4:44 pm
I hope the Amazon student link works for everyone! (Here is where I get all nervous that I promised more than I can deliver or something but it worked for me!)
Suzannah | July 21st, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I also love Netflix instant viewing and TiVo, I haven’t watched a commercial or a show at the particular time it’s been broadcast in so long I hardly know what to do when I’m on vacation and have to watch regular TV (usually find I end up reading a book instead of dealing with the hassle). I also love the hold function at our City libraries - I can get any book they have sent to the library nearest to my house and pick it up there. Lovely, lovely library. Finally, overnight diapers have greatly improved the quality of my life by helping my daughter not to feel wet and therefore cranky at 4:30 am or similar.
Maggie | July 21st, 2010 at 5:26 pm
A little late to the show…
I love our PVR. I get to watch decent tv without staying up really late and I can just rewind if someone triggers her ball popper. (on a related topic “kids stuff that improved the quality of our lives” the excersaucer was worth every penny.)
I also make good use of those square reusable grocery bags–they hold tonnes, stay upright and never break. It reduces my grocery hauling time and decreases the chance I’ll lose something in the back of the car.
Oooh and I love our silicone lids–they just plop onto any bowl and you can stick it into the fridge. Since I bought them I never have to battle with Saran. It turns out I really hate Saran wrap. (The lids are from Victorian epicure and are availabe online.)
Bunnyslippers | July 29th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Bunnyslippers– WHERE DO YOU GET…. Oh. You totally anticipated this question! I hate saran wrap too!! Must have the lids!!!
YES to those reusable grocery bags. I LOVE how soft they are to carry, and how I can use way fewer of them because they hold so much, and…well, basically everything you said.
swistle | July 29th, 2010 at 9:50 am