8 Impulse Buys on Amazon I Actually Use
Some would say I have a problem with impulse buying.
The bigger problem is probably that I have an unusually high success rate with my Amazon purchases, which makes it very difficult to learn anything from my behaviour.
Every time something random from Amazon turns out to be genuinely useful, I get a little more evidence that perhaps buying things after thinking about them for approximately four minutes is a sound financial strategy.
So, these aren’t the Amazon purchases currently gathering dust in a closet while I pretend they never happened. Here are eight impulse buys I actually use.
This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. Everything recommended here is something I’ve actually purchased and tried myself.
1. The Giant Vegetable Peeler I Bought Because of a TikTok Recipe
I bought the OXO Good Grips Large Vegetable Y Prep Peeler for exactly one reason: a stupidly simple TikTok carrot salad that kept showing up in my feed.
I made it. I LOVE IT.
I am far away from being a teenager but I’m not ashamed to admit that TikTok does influence me. I saw people making these enormous ribbons of carrot and/or cucumber and decided my existing vegetable peeler was clearly inadequate and bought a giant one.
Side note: For a long time, I had a standard, old-school vegetable peeler. I wanted to make Mediterranean Zoodles (zucchini noodles). Enter the OXO Good Grip Julienne Peeler. The julienne carrots are perfection for carrot salad too. Like pasta, pick your preferred shape and texture: julienne or ribbons.
I made mine with sesame oil, rice vinegar, coconut aminos and/or fish sauce, plus Everything Bagel Seasoning because I didn’t have sesame seeds.
The unexpected part is that the OXO peeler turned out to be much better than my regular old vegetable peeler at… peeling vegetables.
I kissed my old vegetable peeler goodbye and threw it in the thrift store pile.
It’s ridiculously sharp and fast. What started as a specialized tool for one TikTok salad has now replaced my old peeler for basically everything, and I use it two or three times a week.
Would I buy it again? Yes.
See the vegetable peeler I bought on Amazon →
2. Glow-in-the-Dark Covers for the Remote Nobody Can Ever Find
My bedroom TV: I have owned several versions of the Amazon Fire TV Stick over the years, and I have two complaints about the remotes.
First: they’re black. This is common amongst the world of electronics and remote controls, but WHY?!
I know why. Black is a safe color choice.
I wish the ‘80s and neon would make a true comeback just so I can find my things. OK, well, obviously I like neon in general.
Do you know what happens to small black objects in a house when someone (where did my husband put it???) doesn’t return them to the place where they belong?
They disappear. I get angry and start furiously ripping the sheets off the bed and looking under pillows. I eventually find it and think about how many years of my life have been wasted looking for things I NEED RIGHT NOW.
I’ve been practicing happily singing “Don’t put it down, put it back!” around the house so hopefully that will promote some healthy brainwashing in my household.
I digress.
Second: The battery covers on our Fire TV remotes eventually seem to loosen up and start falling off. Potentially because they have been flung across the room too many times while I was ripping the sheets off the bed.
Enter these extremely glamorous glow-in-the-dark silicone Fire TV remote covers.
They solve both problems. The remote is considerably harder to lose when it’s glowing green or purple, and the silicone keeps the battery cover firmly attached.
They’re not perfect. Getting the cover onto the remote is a bit of a struggle, the holes could line up slightly better, and you have to wrestle it off again when it’s time to change the batteries. The little attached string also doesn’t stay on particularly well, but I’m not actually hanging it on anywhere so it doesn’t matter much.
I use the remote every day, so this is one of those tiny purchases that has eliminated a tiny annoyance I was experiencing constantly.
Just a note if you want to order this: make sure the covers match the version of your Fire TV. I made this mistake twice and caught it before they were shipped.
Would I buy it again? Yes. Mostly because “we” are incapable of putting the remote back on the shelf.
See the Fire TV remote covers I bought on Amazon →
3. Travel Cutlery That Now Lives in My Car
This one started with my sister.
She has a set of travel cutlery she has recommended to me a couple of times and, at the time, I didn’t think to ask her why she loves it, but if I were to guess, I would bet she doesn’t like using “public” cutlery.
My reason was different.
Travelling with celiac disease can make eating on the road complicated. I’m asymptomatic, so in the past I’ve occasionally taken chances with things like bunless burgers or supposedly gluten-free restaurant pizza when there weren’t many options.
And even though I wasn’t getting sick, there was always that little bit of guilt or worry in the back of my mind. You spend a lot of time and money trying to stay healthy with celiac disease, so taking unnecessary chances because you’re hungry on a road trip feels pretty stupid.
On a recent trip I finally said, “Let’s just go to the grocery store and figure it out.”
And we did.
We bought Schär sourdough bread, Havarti slices, prepackaged gluten-free deli turkey, chipotle mayo dip to spread on the bread, a tub of pre-cut watermelon and my beloved Riceworks Sweet Chili chips.
Honestly? Perfectly decent road-trip lunch. Shout out to my husband who also eats gluten-free, just for me. It’s more romantic than it sounds.
The only problem was that we then had to hunt down cutlery.
So I bought these stainless-steel travel utensil sets to permanently keep in the car. They have a fork, spoon, knife and chopsticks. They’re dishwasher safe and they’re contained in their own little cases instead of becoming a collection of loose plastic forks inevitably flying around the car.
I specifically wanted stainless steel because I wasn’t sure what to make of some of the wheat-straw options I kept seeing while shopping for them. Gluten?
The only mildly annoying thing is that they can get mixed in with our regular cutlery when they go through the dishwasher, so I have to remember to fish them back out and return them to their cases. But that’s really not their fault.
These are also going to be great for a camper or hiker.
Would I buy them again? Yes. Grocery-store road-trip lunches are officially part of the plan now.
See the stainless steel travel utensils I bought on Amazon →
4. The Teva Sport Sandals I Didn’t Want
I live in a mountain town.
And sport sandals are part of the uniform. The uniform I don’t want to wear.
I resisted.
Then I remembered I’m not 20-something anymore and I CANNOT SPRAIN MY ANKLE AGAIN. I am not just an overthinker. I am also clumsy and my balance sucks. But I can stand and paddle at the same time (with much practice) so there’s that.
I needed something secure enough to wear getting my paddleboard in to the water on rocky beaches and eventually practicality won me over. I overthought it (big time) and ordered the Teva Hurricane XLT2 sandals. I sized down based on some review recommendations (maybe they would look cuter too), put them on and…
Oh.
I get it now.
They were immediately comfortable. They’re secure, easy to wear and have somehow gone from my specific rocky-beach paddleboarding sandals to the sandals I wear basically every day in the summer. FYI, I purchased the purple “Mesh Total Eclipse” and I got them on sale for $70 CAD.
So yes, I will wear parts of this uniform and, heaven forbid, I will fit in.
Would I buy them again? Unfortunately, yes.
See the Teva sandals I bought on Amazon →
5. Pretty Floral Glass Tumblers That Were Supposed to Be for Iced Coffee
I do not suffer from a shortage of drinking vessels. Particularly stainless steel ones because I hate the taste of plastic.
Yeti? Yes.
Stanley? Yes.
Owala? Obviously. (My favourite.)
At this point I can pretty much guarantee that if there’s a popular category of water bottle, I own one version of it.
So naturally, I bought four embossed floral glass tumblers.
The original justification was iced coffee.
My daughter was buying a lot of expensive iced coffees from cafés, and I convinced her that we could make yummy iced coffee at home with instant coffee.
Thank you to the Greeks for teaching me about instant coffee cold foam.
The glasses come with plastic lids that you can use with or without the included glass straws, which makes them useful for iced coffee to go, but that isn’t actually how we use them most.
They immediately became our regular drinking glasses.
They’re a great size, the embossed flowers feel nice in your hand, they’re genuinely pretty, and I like drinking out of glass because there’s no metal or plastic taste.
Do I trust glass straws? Not entirely.
Have I broken one yet? Also no.
Would I buy them again? Yes. Did I need another category of beverage container? Absolutely not.
See the glass tumblers I bought on Amazon →
6. The Lawn Mower Technology Forgot
This might be my favourite purchase on the list.
Our gas lawn mower was driving my husband insane, so this was actually his idea.
Gas. Maintenance. And then, after doing all the things required to own a bulky machine whose sole purpose is to cut grass, sometimes the damn thing still wouldn’t start.
Eventually he thought: why are we doing this?
So we ordered a LawnMaster 16-inch Push Reel Mower.
No gas.
No battery.
No cord.
No engine.
You just… push it.
And I don’t understand why everyone with a reasonably small, fairly even lawn doesn’t own one of these. We went with the 16-inch because, as a general rule, middle size feels safest.
We have a front and back yard. Don’t ask me for land measurements because I have absolutely no idea. I’d call it a small-to-medium amount of grass. For that, this thing works incredibly well.
It’s lightweight. It’s quiet. It takes up less space and fits in the shed. It starts every single time because there is literally nothing to start.
And mowing the lawn is satisfying and weirdly PEACEFUL.
My neighbour a few doors down has an electric mower that she plugs in and loves, but now I’m looking at that thinking even that seems unnecessarily complicated.
I am curious how long it’ll be before the blades need sharpening, but so far that’s the only question mark.
Would I buy it again? Yes. I wish we’d bought this way sooner.
See the LawnMaster Push Reel Mower on Amazon →
7. The Clothing Steamer That Retired My Kitchen-Table Ironing System
My previous ironing setup was extremely sophisticated.
I put an old-school iron on the kitchen table with a heavy towel underneath for protection.
I don’t have room for an ironing board, and honestly, most of the time my wrinkle-removal strategy was to throw the offending piece of clothing back into the dryer and hope for the best.
This is wasteful and doesn’t even work particularly well on some fabrics, I know, but did I keep doing it?
Yes.
I live largely on hope and a prayer.
So I bought this 2-in-1 handheld clothing steamer and iron.
I’d never actually owned a steamer before, although my mother, queen of all household tasks, uses one, which should probably have been enough evidence that I needed one years ago.
It heats up quickly, I can leave the clothes hanging while I steam them, and it actually gets the wrinkles out. It also converts to iron mode if I ever want to use it the old-fashioned way.
It’s slightly heavy and I recommend dumping the water before storing, but that’s about the only complaint I have. It’s compact enough that I could easily see bringing it while travelling too.
And no, I haven’t gone back to ironing things on the kitchen table.
Would I buy it again? Yes. The dryer will only be used for drying.
See the handheld clothing steamer on Amazon →
8. The Vibration Plate I Was Fully Prepared to Return
I hemmed and hawed over vibration plates for a LONG time.
They kept popping up. I kept looking at them. I kept wondering whether they actually did anything or whether I would be buying a large vibrating platform that would sit in my house while I felt silly for falling for another gimmick.
Then Prime Day happened.
Eventually I thought, screw it. I’ll buy the vibration plate. For the love of all things Amazon, it will be an easy return.
I kept it.
I use mine every day. Speaking only from my own experience, my legs feel less sore after I use it and I find the whole thing strangely relaxing. My mind feels calmer afterward too.
Is everyone going to have the same experience? I have no idea. Probably not.
I’m not going to tell you that standing on a vibrating platform while your ass jiggles to the point that it feels itchy afterward is going to transform your health, cure anything, or change your life. That’s not what this is.
I’m just telling you that I bought one after debating it for ages, fully expecting there was a decent chance I’d send it straight back, and instead I use it every day. I recommended this exact vibration plate to a friend, she bought it, uses it daily, and had the same experience.
It’s also easy to store, which matters because I don’t have a large house with endless amounts of floor space, so I absolutely did not need another giant piece of exercise equipment taking up space.
Would I buy it again? Yes.
See the vibration plate I bought on Amazon →
Is Impulse Buying a Good Idea?
No.
Will I stop doing it? Also no.
If I bought random things online and they were consistently terrible, I would learn something. I’d become cautious.
Maybe I’d mature a little.
Instead, I buy a giant carrot peeler because I want the ribbons to be ribbons like they are on TikTok and it turns out to be fantastic. Why am I rummaging through the fridge trying to find something to peel? Is this an undiagnosed disorder?
I replace a gas lawn mower with technology that predates the automobile and start wondering why everyone else hasn’t done the same thing.
I buy sandals I actively don’t want to like and wear them every day because it’s not always about style.
I remind myself I’m not a teenager, even if my brain doesn’t realize it, and function is becoming a hefty part of my buying decisions. When did I become an adult?
I will eat my gluten-free granola in my Tevas like EVERYONE ELSE.