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The Best Rain and Snow Boots for Kids

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“People who get their feet wet must learn to take their medicine,” Mary Poppins declared as she dispensed a mysterious liquid from an unlabeled bottle to her wary charges in the 1964 film. We now know that you can’t actually catch a cold from being wet and cold, but parents are still just as passionate about keeping children’s feet warm and dry. Great rain or snow boots can assist with this worthy endeavor. After testing 36 pairs, we have eleven to recommend, in sizes from toddler to tween. Some excel in snow; others are made for splashing. But every boot on this list will help kids brave the elements with comfort, style, and resilience. Everything we recommend The Bogs Essential Rain Tall is our favorite overall rain boot due to its seamless construction, excellent traction, and convenient handles. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter The Bogs Essential Rain Mid is the same fantastic boot, just shorter and without those easy-pull-on handles. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter ...
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The Best Gear to Outfit a Vacation Rental or an Airbnb

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Whether you’re a brand-new Airbnb host or looking to improve your VRBO or HomeAway reviews, stocking your rental with the right supplies is essential to providing guests with a comfortable, hassle-free getaway. Since 2018, we’ve mined the knowledge of frequent travelers and interviewed Airbnb Superhosts  We’ve also reflected on our own hard-earned lessons as short-term rental owners to determine the top items to invest in for your Airbnb or other rental property. from Wirecutter: Reviews for the Real World https://ift.tt/L0utl1X via IFTTT
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The Best Online Flower Delivery Service

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Like love itself, flowers can be delicate and unique. And that is exactly why it’s so tricky to get both right. In our many years of testing for this guide, we’ve found that online flower delivery services are spotty. Think shipping delays and cargo jostling, extreme temperatures, and variability in when and how buds will open up. Plus, they’re not cheap. To that end, we think most people are best served by a reliable local florist who can deliver their own bouquets at peak bloom, without shipping complications or additional overhead. But if you don’t know of a local florist, online services can be a useful and convenient option. Over the years, we’ve tested more than a dozen services at different times of year, ordering various arrangements to ship to multiple locations around the country. Only one service — our top pick UrbanStems — has regularly met our standards for reliability, longevity, and a crowd-pleasing assortment of stylish bouquets. We also recommend Costco , a trustw...
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13 Great Gifts for Listening to Music

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Music is one of life’s essential joys. And we all know someone who is especially passionate (or obsessive) about the equipment they use to listen to it. Of course, it’s easy to live in fear of gifting the wrong tech. Happily, our audio experts have spent hundreds of hours vetting headphones, speakers, and more so you can choose the best audio gifts for the audiophile in your life. Looking for other techy or thoughtful gifts? Check out our best gift ideas for photographers , gadget lovers , and people who have everything . from Wirecutter: Reviews for the Real World https://ift.tt/YhAy3Qg via IFTTT
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A $1 Fix for Your Wobbly Towel Bar (and Almost Anything Else Hanging on a Hollow Wall)

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This is an ode to the toggle bolt, an elegant and inexpensive fix for wobbly towel bars, not-so-floating shelves, and any other fixture that needs to hold some weight on a hollow wall. For less than $1 per bolt, I’ve purchased my freedom from wiggly wall mounts. The loose towel bar in my bathroom was one of those nuisances that my family tolerated, even as it regularly drained our patience and made our lives a little bit worse. Anytime I heard someone washing their hands, I feared that this would be the hand-drying towel tug that would pull the bar out of the wall again, setting me up for yet another attempted repair. Part of the issue: Towel bars are usually 24 inches long, but a typical American home’s wall (to the extent that such a thing exists) has a solid wood stud every 16 inches. One end of that bar won’t line up with a stud. To make up for that, most towel bars come with a couple of plastic drywall plugs, meant to hold support screws steady in a hollow wall without the sup...
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