# What normal things do you feel no need for? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069 "2010-07-17T23:50:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/21 "2010-07-18T11:06:29Z")
They’re more commonly known as “salad spinners.” ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/22 "2010-07-18T11:34:25Z")
When my parents come to visit (about once a year) they lmost always buy for our house: An apron A coffee plunger I guess I really should stick these items in a cupboard somewhere in between visits, but I always forget and give them away to someone who would actually use them. Second the watch thing - metal ones make my wrists break out in spots and I don’t like plastic ones. But I notice more and more people going without those since mobile phones. I’m a long-term nonwatch-wearer though. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/23 "2010-07-18T15:29:19Z")
A phone on a camera. The capacity to connect to the Internet through your phone. I can understand some people having a requirement to be constantly available. I am not one. I go out to escape the computer. One I do have and could easily do without- a crock pot (slow cooker). ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/24 "2010-07-18T15:46:57Z")
Cable TV, we’ve only got one channel without it, but you can only watch one set of crap at a time anyway. I’m a bit of a minimalist, combined with a total lack of funds to afford most things anyway, so my list could go on and on. ---
**Author:** ![PsyXe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PsyXe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyXe)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/25 "2010-07-18T15:50:15Z")
Oh, I forgot in the OP - a hairdryer. AND I’ve got hair down to my waist! In any sort of communal away-from-home situation I’m the obvious go-to person for a hairdryer, and I have to tell people sorry, I don’t actually have one 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/26 "2010-07-18T16:00:47Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > A phone on a camera. > > The capacity to connect to the Internet through your phone. I can understand some people having a requirement to be constantly available. I am not one. I go out to escape the computer. > > One I do have and could easily do without- a crock pot (slow cooker). God, I could never live without my crock pot! I have three! Different sizes! ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/27 "2010-07-18T16:16:07Z")
A visit to a spa. This covers facials, massages, manicures, and pedicures. I’m not against those things, but I think it’s an enormous waste of money, something bored rich housewives do to pass the time. A bread machine. I’ve made a few loaves of bread in my time, lately using the no-knead recipe - I LIKE to make bread. My mother insisted on giving me a bread machine for Christmas, it’s still sitting there unopened, but the cat loves to curl up and take a nap on the box. A set of ‘fine china’ and go-with wineglasses, for all those dinner parties a bride is supposed to throw. Good for thems that haves them. But I’ve given away two complete sets of dinnerwear I’ve received in my married life, and the wineglasses sit on a high shelf, virtually unused in the last 20 years. (the only pattern I’ve ever lusted over is only available in England. I’ve collected a lot of beautiful, odd plates and such over the years and use them instead of a matched set.) The vast array of skin products, hair products, and expensive makeup for women. Yes, I use that stuff, but I’m talking the complete lines of anti-aging stuff, the $20 per bottle designer brands of shampoo/defrizzer/conditioner/gel. The Chanel makeups, lipsticks, blushes, mascaras. Who buys that stuff in the department stores? I don’t know how they stay in business. Cell phone. Don’t need one, don’t want one. I have a landline with an answering machine attached, which I hate enough. In my case, little good ever comes from a phone call! A gas grill. I would probably find one as handy as a pocket on a shirt, and maybe someday…but I like my little cheapie charcoal grill, it’s a lot of trouble and mess, but stuff just tastes better cooked over charcoal. Does having a truck that comes and sprays your lawn with poison to make it look nice count? Every other lawn on the block seems to sprout little warning flags every spring. I will see my lawn full of weeds and crabgrass and look like total shit rather than dump chemicals on it. Suck it, lawn nazis. ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/28 "2010-07-18T16:22:34Z")
Sat nav - I always know where I am and where I’m going. And I don’t mind getting lost anyway because you see new places. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/29 "2010-07-18T16:37:04Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > HD television. > > 3-D anything. > > Blue-Ray. > > SuperPhones. Digital telephony in general. Do I really need to spend an extra ten bucks a month for a digital line? Why? I am not listening to Brahms over the phone, now am I? > > A ‘desk’. I find a nice table I can cross my legs under to use, and have no clue why I’d want something twice the cost for half the utility as a nice flat space to spread out on. > > A fancy car. A car is pretty much necessary, but to me it’s a tool, not a status symbol. Except for the TV, this would pretty much be my list also. I would add TIVO to it. Also don’t ever want or need a leaf blower and believe all users should be hanged. ---
**Author:** ![Schrodinger\_s\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Schrodinger\_s\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schrodinger_s_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/30 "2010-07-18T16:51:40Z")
Television. (well, I’m keeping my brother’s for him, but my roommates are the only ones who turn it on…) A smart phone Air conditioning in the summer/More heating than absolutely necessary for the pipes in the winter. (More so because my house is old and leaks the temperature control like a sieve.) People can put on more clothes and the cat is covered with thick hair. New clothes. I make most of my own out of thrift store finds to get exactly what I want. A car. I live on a little street in a city where parking is a pain. It’s just easier to take the bus. Salon haircuts. I picked up the habit of cutting my own living in a tiny town where none of the salons could handle curly hair and it stuck. An electric coffeemaker. French press coffee tastes better, and you can use it to brew loose leaf tea as well. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/31 "2010-07-18T17:15:52Z")
> [@Schrodinger\_s\_Platypus](#): > > An electric coffeemaker. French press coffee tastes better, and you can use it to brew loose leaf tea as well. I’d probably be a French press kind of guy if I didn’t have such a woeful family history of heart disease. My current diet of crap foods is bad enough for my heart without adding extra cafestol to my morning coffee. I’ll agree with the car and the cable/satellite TV, though. Both are things I once had, but ended up deciding that the expense and worry combination didn’t really add up, so I dumped them. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/32 "2010-07-18T17:29:19Z")
A timepiece which attaches to my body Shoes (In the Summertime) Stationery TV Most things advertised on TV It’s all about simplicity for me. My husband, on the other hand, is a gadget guy and has a couple of everything so we balance out. He is also generous to point out that if he weren’t so well-stocked there would be a number of things I would feel a need to own and he’s probably correct on that. ---
**Author:** ![Schrodinger\_s\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Schrodinger\_s\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schrodinger_s_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/33 "2010-07-18T17:39:06Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > I’d probably be a French press kind of guy if I didn’t have such a woeful family history of heart disease. My current diet of crap foods is bad enough for my heart without adding extra cafestol to my morning coffee. That’s an unpleasant discovery. High cholesterol runs in my family as well. And I love press and Turkish coffee… ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/34 "2010-07-18T18:28:31Z")
A TV. A bed or blankets… use two sleeping pads and a sleeping bag instead. Different soap-like substances for the face, the body, the hair, the dishes, what have you… I just get a big jug of Dr. Bronner’s and use it for everything. In-room furniture. My bedroom consists of the aforementioned sleeping pad arrangement and then heaps of stuff laid out haphazardly in backpacks and Trader Joe’s grocery bags. I guess you could add “neatness” to the list 🙂 A wardrobe. I only have like 3-4 shirts that I wear on a rotating basis. It disgusts some people, I’m sure, but at least I bathe with semi-regularity… Oh, and of course, _style_. Never knew it, never missed it. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/35 "2010-07-18T19:41:07Z")
A TV. What little I may want to watch is invariably available online, so why bother? More clothes than I actually wear. I’ll be the first to admit I have more than I really need, but I have enough clothes to get me through both a week of casual and a week of work. Figuring out what to wear is enough of a pain as is; why would I want even more clothes? A car (at this point in my life). There’s just so much to deal with when you own a car. Fancy cookware. I currently own one nonstick skillet, one nonstick pot, a 9x13 baking pan, and a muffin tin. They all are pretty much the cheapest possible. Thus far I haven’t encountered anything I wanted to cook but couldn’t for lack of equipment. My mother has a lifetime’s accumulation of just about any type of pot or pan she could possibly use, and as a result, her cupboards are perpetually crowded. (I do admit I’m seriously tempted to invest in a cast-iron skillet, though). ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/36 "2010-07-18T20:00:14Z")
A big screen or LCD television. Our “small” 27-inch works just fine. For that matter, more than one television. Video games or electronics for our older son (he’s only 4 - I still haven’t figured out why he “needs” electronics like hand-held video games or child-targeted mp3s). ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/37 "2010-07-18T20:18:15Z")
Do pants count? ---
**Author:** ![tygre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@tygre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygre)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/38 "2010-07-18T21:12:35Z")
A minivan or SUV, despite living in the suburbs and having 2 kids. Our Honda Fit can haul anything we need, and has the bonus of getting 35 mpg and being a breeze to park. Our other car is a Civic and perfectly servicable for driving around. A DVR or VCR that is hooked up to the cable TV. We watch so little TV and would never get around to watching recorded stuff. We basically have the cable for the kids and for sports/periodic Lifetime Movie fests (okay, the latter is for me). Massages, manicures, and pedicures – any spa treatment with the exception of hair coloring/salon cuts. I don’t like being touched by people I don’t have a relationship with, and am very fussy about my feet being touched, so… I do love makeup and am a bit of a girly girl, but I like to do my own treatments. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/39 "2010-07-18T22:44:36Z")
> [@tygre](#): > > Massages, manicures, and pedicures – any spa treatment with the exception of hair coloring/salon cuts. I don’t like being touched by people I don’t have a relationship with, and am very fussy about my feet being touched, so… > I do love makeup and am a bit of a girly girl, but I like to do my own treatments. It’s not just me! My husband wanted to get me a spa day for my birthday next week, and I got the weirdest looks when I demurred, telling him that I don’t like strangers touching me… (Besides, we’re broke. Can’t justify that kind of expenditure, even if I wanted it.) I also cut my own hair, since it’s very hit or miss to find someone who can manage very thick, very curly hair. No hairdryer either, Hubby loves his smart phone, and uses it extensively to make his job easier. I use my phone to telephone people and to receive calls (when I feel like answering,) and to check what time it is. Therefore, I have whatever was the cheapest basic phone available on his plan. Some things that have been mentioned by others in this thread, however, I would have a hard time living without: Even a crappy hood over the stove is better than none, especially when I’m searing something in an iron skillet (or when I forget to take the iron skillets out of the oven before preheating… :smack:.) I like my (old, crappy, paid-for) minivan very much - it’s awesome for hauling 3 kids, dog, husband, used washing machines, bushels of tomatoes, son’s houseful of buddies who want to go to DQ, piles of groceries, etc. It’s also easy to parallel park, since the hood extends only a couple of feet beyond the driver, and the rear windows are pretty big. And the seat level/big side door makes it really easy to load baby and carseat without a lot of twisting and back pain. (Hubby gave me a funny look when I told him that my “win the lottery” splurge car purchase would be a BRAND NEW minivan!) I don’t need much by way of television, but I do like to turn on the TV now and again - Antiques Roadshow, Jeopardy, Big Bang Theory, Top Chef, History Channel International, National Geographic Channel, Dangerous Catch, and college football make me very happy. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069/40 "2010-07-18T22:55:12Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > They’re more commonly known as “salad spinners.” For years, I thought salad spinners were fictitious, a parody of over-the-top appliance enthusiasm introduced alongside the “turnip twaddler” in the cartoon “Bloom County”. I was quite surprised when I actually encountered one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-normal-things-do-you-feel-no-need-for/547069.md?page=3)