Automated litter boxes. We had one for a while - it was a godsend at the time, since we had two ferrets AND two large Maine Coons. It … didn’t live long, with that kind of abuse, but it was nice to have while it lasted. (Purchased secondhand for a couple of bucks, before you ask why I didn’t return it or whatever.)
The only thing wrong with auto litter boxes is that some cats don’t like them. So we have both kinds, because a couple of our cats think that the auto litter box is WONDERFUL and the other two won’t use it.
Yeah, well, the wife gets the car with the steering wheel radio controls (and the satellite radio, for that matter).
mmm
My stand mixer. I had to live without one for nearly two years after the first one died. (I happen to be the only person I’ve ever met who could kill a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It took 15 years of abuse.) I was so happy to have one again, I named mixer number two. Ruby. She’s beautiful.
Also, high thread count sheets. I will never sleep on anything lower than 400 again, and 400 is pushing it.
BTW, I call such objects practical luxuries. They are the little things in life that make life so much better.
High-end, well-made firm mattresses. I had a chronic backache as a young woman, off and on from age 19 to age 35. When I was 35, and against my thrifty upbringing, my husband bought one of these better mattresses, and after sleeping on it for a week my chronic backache was gone for good. Up until then I thought a mattress was a mattress and couldn’t figure out why anyone would pay more for such a frivolity.
Same goes for well-made shoes. Feeling pain-free and energetic at the end of a long work day is worth every extra penny they cost.
Thanks for the advice about my nose, everyone. I actually do have Aquaphor, and ended up using it at night when I went to bed, so that I couldn’t rub it off. I just didn’t want to put it on and then have to reapply it again and again and again.
Now the problem is eyes that won’t stop watering, but I don’t know what “frivolous” thing will make that stop.
And yeah, add texting to one of my “frivolous things I thought I wouldn’t need” list. I don’t have a smartphone, but I used to think “ugh, why would anyone need to text?” Then I got it added onto my plan and I found I actually preferred it to actually calling people (because I hate talking on the phone).
Same with camera abilities, actually. I used to not care, but now one of my criteria for picking out a cellphone is “must have decent quality camera.” My phone has one of the only decent photos of my late kitty, Frizzle, as its background.
Toilet paper.
Air conditioning. Not so much today because Sydney’s weather is cold and wet but Monday night was a terror to sleep in without the air con. Time was, I couldn’t imagine ever having need of it, especially not in a car. Now, I wouldn’t be without it.
Western style healthcare, personally I have no problem with lack of it but have seen it bring a pregnant woman to tears( I don’t blame her at all). It makes me think people only find the character House charming because they’ve never heard “I don’t care whether you live or die” in person from a doctor, or seen bodies gathering flies in a morgue.
I always forget they are there. :smack:
Raises hand!
I’ve killed one!
Now we need to form a club.
Benadryl will take care of the watery eyes. But I can’t say it’s frivolous. It’s a stock item in my household.
Quick threadjack: My eyes used to water constantly until I saw a little blurb in a magazine that said to take Flaxseed Oil Pills for it. I take 2 pills every morning (I can’t remember the dosage, I think they’re 1000 mg each, but 2 pills of whatever it is) and my eyes do not water anymore. And it’s not psychosomatic: I ran out of pills once and put off buying more for two weeks until I found myself in the health food store miserably wiping my eyes going “I need flaxseed oil pills!!”
/threadjack.
Rice cooker. Even a cheap one, although a nice one with a warmer is awesome. As much as I love rice, I avoided cooking it while I didn’t have a rice cooker (although I’ll usually cook extra and stick it in the freezer so it can be ready in five minutes instead of thirty).
Woohoo! I’m in a club with Athena.
Kind of expensive club, huh? 
Yeah, but it was cool to get a brand spankin’ new mixer when it happened.
I still have the old broken one in the garage. Mr. Athena keeps wanting to throw it out but I just can’t…
I’ll go you one further and say car AC. My Dad would never buy a car with AC - said it was silly. But once I got old enough to afford a car I damn well got AC and after one ride in the summer with my Mom (I think I took her to run errands or something) she made damn sure their next car had AC. I think old Dad is even comming around to the idea 15 years later 