The T&N Team's Favorite Products

Jen Gotch, of ban.do, chatted with Apartment Therapy and revealed that her unsuspecting life-changing product is none other than her Tuft & Needle. We know that a mattress can truly turn your world upside down, for better and worse, and we’re thrilled to be on her list of must-haves. Check out her amazing interview here.

Her excitement for our product got us thinking–what can’t we live without? From online services to surprisingly impactful kitchen gadgets, we asked our team members to share their favorite everyday items that they’d kill to keep.

Meaghan–Design I can’t live without my OG Burt’s Bees chapstick. I often try other products, but end up coming back to Burt’s minty tingly goodness every time.

Wei-Ming–Team Experience “$36 for a pepper mill!?” you might say. It’s like a pepper shot gun. Effortless grinding that yields an extremely high pepper to grind ratio. For pepper enthusiasts, home chefs, and anyone in between.

Natalie–Finance Packaging-free bars that are as easily transportable as any regular bar of soap, leave zero waste behind, and last longer than any bottle I’ve ever used. Plus, we all know how much noise a shampoo bottle makes when it hits the shower floor. It’s the worst sound in the world. No more of that nonsense. Lush is my go-to brand for like 10 years. I LOVE them.

Eric C–Customer Experience I love to cook. It’s always been a hobby of mine, but I didn’t have a famous, seasoned Griswold cast-iron skillet until recently. It’s been a game-changer. The sear it puts on a quality NY Strip, or any other cut of meat for that matter, is second to none. It single-handedly has taken my cooking game to the next level.

Alyssa–Human Resources I think the link speaks for itself, but if you’re looking to step up your French kissing game, look no further than Dr. Tung’s Tongue Cleaner.

Brea–Marketing A few months ago I decided I was going to find my ideal hand cream–even if it was expensive. I decided I would buy travel-size, or at least smaller-sized, bottles of one lotion at a time from Amazon until I found one I liked. About the third or fourth lotion I tried was Vaseline’s Intensive Care Healthy Hands Stronger Nails lotion. I was drawn to trying it because I had noticed my nails were pretty weak and were peeling and breaking all the time, so I liked the idea that this lotion could help my nails too. However, from the first time I tried it, I loved it. I found it to be the perfect weight to soothe my dry, itchy skin immediately (Hello, Winter!) without being too thick or goopy. My husband, who hates the feeling of lotion on his hands, even likes it because it absorbs so quickly! I’m super addicted. I even brought a bottle into our HQ to share the genius with my team!

Editor’s note: Can confirm, this stuff is great. We keep it on the table equidistant between team members.

Jamie–Human Resources I have three dogs, a 2 year old, and one on the way–the amount of food and dirt that comes through my house can feel unmanageable at times but knowing that as I am tidying up in the evening I can have the Roomba running means I get to sit and relax with my husband a bit sooner! I schedule it to go every day at like 11 so I come home and the crumbs in the kitchen are gone!

Kendall–Social Media When people tell me they don’t have an Amazon Prime membership, it blows me away. Why not?! There’s nothing I haven’t purchased on Amazon: from a necklace that holds a slice of pizza (yes, I own that) to my kitchen table to last summer’s most worn swim suit. I enjoy going to the grocery store about as much as the next guy – which is likely not much at all. Amazon makes browsing and shopping for home essentials, groceries, and even clothing as easy as ONE click, and it shows up on my front door in 48 hours. Free UPS pickups make returns that easy, too. If my friends and family wouldn’t worry, I’d probably never have a reason to leave my house again.

Shelly–Marketing The second I hit twenty-one my friends all started panicking about preventative skincare, because why not add another thing to the list when you’re trying to figure out how to do basic things like your taxes and how to afford goat yoga when you work three unpaid internships. I dove head first into the world of pricey creams that promised youth and happiness. I have consistently stuck with one and only one product that I’ve tried for years now, and I can’t say enough about it. Mule Hell Trading Co’s Clear Complexion soap is everything. The moisturizers come and go, but a $6 cleanser and exfoliater will live in my shower forever. I buy bars in bulk and try to keep a minimum of two on hand at all times. My husband pretends he doesn’t care if we run out, but he’s obsessed too.

Ray–Customer Experience I hate carrying accessories, so when I found a product that allowed me to trash my wallet without adding bulk to my phone I was excited. It’s also nice to no longer sit with a slight lean to the right. At $11 it’s one of the best bang for the buck purchases I’ve ever made!

Sarah G–Product A couple of years ago I was in my typical routine of scrolling through Amazon for things I don’t need and came across wool dryer balls. They had a sheep on the packaging so I obviously bought them immediately and they’ve completely changed my laundry life. My laundry dries so much faster, I’m no longer itchy from my dryer sheets (which I really didn’t even realize was happening), and it’s led to a whole other obsession with essential oils to drip on them to keep my laundry smelling fresh.

Melanie–Social Mission You guys, the INSTANT POT is MAGICAL in so many ways that I could go on and on and on about its genius uses. It’s the one appliance in my home that I never knew I needed, but now I can’t imagine life without. It has changed my working-mom life in such a simple way. It allows me to be the laziest of cooks, in the least amount of time – all while making it appear as if I’ve spent hours cooking. #momwin! I’m still experimenting with it, and will be for months to come (hello, Pinterest!), but when I overheard my non-cooking husband telling people stories about how amazing the Instant Pot was for so many things, I knew it had affected more than just my life.