Why not just have a backup handy? I mean I know you might be stuck if you aren’t home, but I would look at having a backup since you travel so much.

I have bought cases from Travel Pro, Samsonite, and Beis within the last year and have been happy with all three. (All three have different uses…Travel Pro-checked, Samsonite-carry on for 3 days max for business travel (has laptop pocket/charger), and Beis- more for leisure or if I am going to be gone for a week. I am super happy with the Beis for the price that I may end up getting one of their checked bags for a long trip next year.

We have a 15 year old Dyson DC14 All Floors model. It works fine and I would classify it as BIFL. I would consider another Dyson in the future. We only had area rugs (all hardwood in 95% of the house, the other 5% was tile—kitchen and bath) and it worked fine. We have more carpet in our current house a large area rug, and hardwood look tile floors and it still works quite well.

Yes their sizing is insane. I am a 9.5 wide so my first few pairs (including points) are a 10.5. I really should’ve bought 11s or 11.5 in the points. I have settled that in the future with the flats that the 11 does fit me better. I actually prefer the flat to the point tbh. I have one pair of 11 flats. I would sell my 10.5s but they haven’t re released what I want to replace the smaller ones with yet (red camo, copper, and Python fig) and probably won’t. Bummer.

Yes Vionic inserts are great!

If you buy them a size to size and half to big (two sizes up for points) you can add insoles to them. I like the Vionic 3/4 insole.

I wish the Allbirds looked good on my feet. I have heard good things about the Allbirds insoles as well but haven’t tried them.

Yes you can wash them but hope they don’t shrink. I washed my favorite pair (red camo points) and they shrunk the tiniest bit. Washed on cold and hang dried. I was soo bummed. At least if you have to replace yours they are black and they keep those all the time.

I have a Miele (discontinued Futura Crystal, which we bought when it closeout priced) and I really like it. It was $1500 including taxes. I never thought I would spend that much money on the dishwasher. They had two lower end models (which would’ve been about $900 and a $1200 after tax iirc) but my husband ended up loving all of the movable pieces of the model we have. If you don’t need all that then the basic starter Miele will last you for long time; especially if you don’t plan on moving anytime soon.

I highly doubt $450 will get you a BIFL dishwasher, but I have found some great appliances for a good 50% off from stores that are changing our floor models. The dishwasher we had at our old house was a high end Kitchen Aid I bought for about $400 and the only reason it was discontinued was that Kitchen Aid added a 3rd row to that model. We had it for a year before we had to sell that house and it was flawless (I would’ve bought it again but didn’t care for the 3rd rack design of the newer model in 2020).

Also fwiw on the Bosch the all slanted dish slots drive me crazy….I am pretty sure I am in the minority on that on but those slanted dish slots are what kept me from even considering Bosch.

I also switched to almost Corelle dishes because it is soo much easier to load than heavy stoneware.

Good luck finding something that works for you.

Banana Republic tees are great.

Check out Liberty Flatware by Sherill manufacturing. It is the company that used to be the original Oneida. They also sell 3 samples for $10. We needed extra forks last year and decided we potentially needed a new pattern but ended up buying three sets of sample forks now use those when we need them. Also bought some soup spoons from them.

I have a 9 year old (I think) Speed Queen and I have used a variety of detergents from Tide Simple to Gain (currently using All Free Mega pods) and it hasn’t been an issue. When I use powder I always dump the powder in the bottom. With liquid I have always just put on the clothes. Worth pods I turn the water on out the pod in and then add the clothes. I usually don’t extra rinse.

Mueller makes a good one, but honestly we use our stove top Le Crueset on a daily basis.