How to Shop for Dinnerware

Choosing a set of dinnerware is a big decision, since it’s something you’ll use on a daily basis and for special occasions—everything from a morning bowl of cereal to a holiday dinner with family and friends. To help you navigate the sea of options, we’ve spent over 200 hours researching patterns, interviewing ceramic experts, touring a pottery studio, and evaluating hundreds of pieces of ceramic ware.

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The Best Dinnerware Sets

A good set of dinnerware not only sets the stage for memorable meals but also offers you an opportunity to express your personal style. A great set will bring a touch of class to any dinner table and remain in fashion for years, all while withstanding the rigors of daily use.

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The Best Women’s White T-Shirts

A great white tee is a wardrobe workhorse, but finding your go-to can feel like a daunting task—and an awkward fit, overly stiff fabric, or stretched-out collar can quickly consign a shirt to the back of your dresser drawer.

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The Best Basic Home Toolkit

You don’t have to own a home to need a basic home toolkit.

Anyone who intends to hang a picture, tighten cabinet hardware, put up a shelf or change out a lightswitch cover needs a selection of entry-level hand tools.

After spending 75 hours researching almost 70 home toolkits, testing 11 on a range of household tasks, and talking to experts about the essentials of any toolbox, we found that Home Depot’s Anvil Homeowner’s Tool Set is the best basic toolkit for most homes, apartments, or dorm rooms.

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Become Your Neighborhood Cornhole Champ With These Tips From a Pro

Backyard games of cornhole are a warm-weather staple for plenty of folks across the country. The classic yard game, often played with an ice-cold beverage in hand, is a fun way to spend a late summer afternoon with family and friends. And if you know how to play well—trust us, the road to getting good is a lot shorter than for many other games—it’s also a fantastic way to earn bragging rights.

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The Best Portable Power Station

If you’re going off the grid or prepping for an emergency, the Jackery Explorer 1000 can keep your electronic gear running for hours—or even days—at a time. It’s roughly the same size and weight as a small microwave, and it provides a steady stream of power without the noise or exhaust of a gas-powered portable generator. After 73 hours spent testing 16 portable power stations, we found that the Explorer 1000’s impressive max output, wide array of ports, easy-to-use interface, and rugged exterior helped it stand out from the competition.

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The Best Waffle Maker

Fresh, fluffy waffles may seem like a delicacy reserved for restaurant brunches and hotel breakfasts, but a good waffle maker can give you the gift of superb, easy-to-make waffles at home. After 70 hours of research, talking with four experts, and testing 30 models since 2014, we recommend the Chef’sChoice WafflePro Classic Belgian 840B for most people. It consistently delivers perfect-looking, evenly colored waffles no matter what kind of batter you use. It’s also highly customizable, allowing you to choose between six different brownness settings and adjust for either a uniform texture or a crisp exterior and moist interior.

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23 Gifts for Plant Lovers

For those who love plants, both in the home and out in nature, there’s no better gift than one that complements their hobby. We’ve curated gifts that will inspire the green-thumbed person in your life to learn about, tend, and celebrate the plants around them in unexpected, delightful ways.

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Our Favorite Things From Costco

Costco offers virtually anything you can think of, from a $950 wheel of cheese to car rentals. But it’s the great buys on staples and little luxuries that keep us coming back. To help you navigate the store’s vast offerings, Wirecutter experts assembled some of their favorite Costco purchases.

Note: Some of Costco’s products are only visible online depending on your location, so you may not be able to purchase all items on this list.

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The Best Charcoal Grill

Grilling with charcoal takes a little more time and attention than grilling with gas, but the payoff is that delicious smoky flavor you just can’t get from a propane flame.

After spending two days cooking 40 pounds of burgers, BBQ, and whole chickens, we recommend the Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22″. Thanks to more than six decades of continuous refinement, it’s the most versatile, most user-friendly, and best-performing charcoal grill we’ve tested.

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The Best Stud Finder for Home Use

If you’re hanging heavy pictures, mirrors, or shelves, you need to know where your wall studs are—and the best tool we found for the job is the C.H. Hanson 03040 Magnetic Stud Finder.

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These Wirecutter-Approved Graduation Gifts Are All on Sale for Less Than $100

On behalf of all matriculants everywhere: There are other gifts for graduates besides yet another copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go!

A great graduation present celebrates their big day and helps them as they stride forward into the next chapter of their lives.

No matter what milestone your favorite student has reached, these discounted, Wirecutter-approved graduation gifts pair nicely with a diploma.

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The Best Air Conditioner

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The perfect air conditioner slides gracefully in and out of your window, cooling you quickly, efficiently, and silently.

In other words, the perfect AC doesn’t exist.

But the closest thing we’ve found to that ideal is the Midea U MAW08V1QWT. We’ve been researching window ACs since 2012, and this Midea model is quieter and more energy-efficient than any window AC we’ve ever tested.

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The Best Hiking Socks

Any seasoned hiker will tell you that a good pair of hiking socks is a must-have on the trail.

Despite their simple appearance, hiking socks can be a complicated purchase.

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The Best Home Security System

Achieving peace of mind for your home doesn’t have to be pricey or difficult. Traditional home security systems often require long contracts and expensive professional installation, but most smart DIY security systems are affordable and easy to install, and allow you to pay for a monitoring plan only when you want it. Ring offers two of the most comprehensive and easy-to-use DIY home security systems we’ve tested: the Ring Alarm Pro and the original Ring Alarm. Both use the same simple app, offer multiple add-ons (including more choices for cameras and video doorbells compared with our other picks), and give you the option to sign up for pro monitoring without locking you into a contract.

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The Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers

If you’re a side-sleeper, you need a cushy mattress to relieve pressure on your shoulders and hips. But it shouldn’t be too cushy because the gravitational pull will strain your spine. For most side-sleepers, that means choosing a medium-soft to medium mattress.

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The Best Robotics Kits for Beginners

When we tested robotics kits for beginners, the Lego Boost set won over the toughest critics: kids. And robotics pros, makers, and hobbyists agreed. With its Lego-based design, built-in sensors, and expansive options for creativity, the Boost kit was the most fun to build with. Plus, the tablet app’s super-simple programming was the easiest to learn of any of the kits we tried.

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The Best Bundt Pan

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A bundt pan offers the easiest route to a cake that’s pretty enough for a party. No decorating skills are required, just a dusting of sugar or a drizzle of glaze.

After testing four bundt pans, we found a clear winner: the Nordic Ware Platinum Collection Original 10- to 15-Cup Bundt Pan. It’s made of cast aluminum, so it’s thick and sturdy but not too heavy, and it has a nonstick coating that allows cakes to come out cleanly even from tight crevices.

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The Best Memory Foam Mattresses You Can Buy Online

If you crave a slow-sinking, pressure-relieving mattress that will cradle you all night, a foam mattress might be just right. We’ve weeded through the endless foam-mattress options online and recommend six.

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The Best Hydration Packs for Day Hikers

Do you need a special backpack to help you stay hydrated during a hike? The short answer: no! But a hydration pack (a backpack with a built-in water reservoir) makes it easier to stay hydrated on the trail. After three months of hiking, we like the Osprey Skarab 18 (for people over 5-foot-8) and the Osprey Skimmer 16 (for those under 5-foot-8) because they’re well made, relatively inexpensive, and big enough to hold the gear and water you’ll need for a three-hour hike.

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The Best Portable Laptop Charger

A portable laptop charger is the ideal companion if you want to charge your laptop while traveling or working remotely, in an emergency, or anytime a wall outlet is out of reach. And it’s not just for laptops: With its built-in AC outlet, a laptop charger can power other small devices, as well, from vibrators and video projectors to breast pumps and baby monitors. We spent 25 hours researching and 79 hours testing 11 models, and we’re confident that the Anker Powerhouse 100 is the best option. It can keep up with MacBook Pros and other powerful laptops, it’s compact and lightweight, and it’s one of the few models that come with a wall charger to recharge the unit itself.

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The Best Mattresses for Back Pain

Contrary to popular belief, your aching back doesn’t need a firm-as-a-plank mattress. In fact, there is no specific mattress that’s best for back pain.

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The Best Sous Vide Machine and Gear

If you like to experiment in the kitchen, you might have fun with a sous vide cooker, a device that lets you cook foods slowly and precisely to the perfect temperature—think custardy eggs, effortless medium-rare steak, and falling-apart pork shoulder. After testing dozens of models since 2013, we’ve concluded that the Monoprice Strata Home Sous Vide Immersion Cooker 800W is the best sous vide immersion circulator for home cooks. Though this circulator lacks the app integration of more expensive wireless-enabled cookers, it nails the basics, with easy-to-use controls and precise temperature settings. It’s also remarkably affordable, a trait that is sure to please sous vide fans of all experience levels.

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The Best Washer-Dryer Combo (But We Don’t Recommend It)

Unless you have no other choice, an all-in-one, single-drum, washer-dryer combo is almost never the best way to do your laundry. We spent 10 hours looking into 13 models, and couldn’t find a model that works anywhere near as quickly as a separate washer and dryer. However, if a combo unit truly is your only option for washing and drying clothes in your small home, the LG WM3488HW is your safest bet.

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The Best Smart Plugs

Using a smart plug is the cheapest, easiest way to remotely control any electrical device in your home. Just plug one into an electrical outlet, and add a lamp, fan, or other on/off device. Then set it up with an app, and—boom—you’re making magic.

We recommend the TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim (EP25) for inside the home and the TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Outdoor Plug (EP40) for outdoor use, since they both work really well on their own and when paired with many other devices.

We also recommend the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip (HS300) if you want to be able to plug in and independently control and automate multiple devices.

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