The Best Full-Size Strollers

A full-size stroller needs to do—and be—many things.

It must safely and comfortably transport a child from A to B for several years, while also seamlessly supporting a family’s day-to-day activities. Depending on where you live, and what your day-to-day life looks like, you may rely on your stroller to be a cargo carrier for groceries and extended outings. You might need a stroller that you can easily fold and carry with one hand—say, to regularly toss in the back of your trunk, to carry onto public transportation, or to lug up several flights of stairs. Or maybe you want a stroller that facilitates a regular jogging routine or is built to handle a walk off the beaten path.

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The 28 Best Gifts for 2-Year-Olds

Keeping up with the developing skills and interests of a 2-year-old can feel like a sprint (sometimes literally) or a guessing game. “Play is how they start to understand the world,” said Heather Singh, who was until recently the director of educational programs at the Thinkery, a children’s museum in Austin, Texas.

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The Best Vacuum Cleaners

If you want an affordable, versatile vacuum cleaner—nothing fancy, but something dependably solid—look for a bagless upright vacuum that costs about $150. It will work well for most people in most homes. (The Shark Navigator line has been our favorite for this style for many years.)

But if you’re looking for something different, we’ve also rounded up the best of the rest—from cordless sticks and long-lasting canisters to cheap handhelds and even robots—for all types of homes.

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You Don’t Have to Ditch the Switch When You Switch to Smart Lights

Smart-home confession: It can be tedious to have to consult a phone or smart speaker just so you can turn off smart lights (there, I said it). Personal confession: Some members of my household regularly trigger a smart-home meltdown by flipping off the switches that power all the smart lighting, rendering them, well, stupid. Alas, a smart house divided cannot stand.

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Our Favorite Watering Cans

Almost any vessel that holds liquid—from measuring jugs to that half-finished glass of water on your desk—can water your plants, but a well-designed watering can does it better, with less mess and considerably more style. Here we share our four favorite watering cans for everything from houseplants to flower beds.

Our picks are intended for gardeners of all ages (we’ve had nearly 20 testers ranging from 9 years old to 70-plus). We researched and tested dozens of cans in a wide variety of garden settings, and our picks include an all-around plastic can for outdoor gardening; an affordable, all-purpose can for houseplants; a can with an extra-long spout for hanging plants; and a small metal can for succulents and small pots. If those don’t work for your needs, we’ve also identified several other good watering cans.

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The Best Upright Carpet Cleaners

Unless your carpets are subjected to marathon-levels of foot traffic, you likely don't need to buy an upright carpet cleaner. Aside from spot-cleaning major stains, one wash per year is plenty for most people, so it makes more sense to rent a machine or hire a pro. But if you want fresh-looking rugs at all times, get the Bissell DeepClean Lift-Off 66E1. We tested eight models, and this was the only one that completely cleaned up our mess.

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Bed Bath & Beyond Is Bankrupt. But You Can Still Use Its Coupons.

Bed Bath & Beyond is shutting its doors after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, marking the end of an era for coupon clippers everywhere. Once upon a time, Bed Bath & Beyond’s storied, oversized “Big Blue” coupons could be found in every mailbox, circular, and email inbox, but Bed, Bath & Beyond has stopped accepting them. A few other retailers have stepped in snag sales away from BB&B’s liquidation, though. Our deals team dug in to see what’s worth it.

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The Best Dishwashers

Any dishwasher—even a cheap one—can clean your breakfast bowls and dinner plates, as long as you use a decent detergent. But the best dishwashers can handle the tough jobs and are also quiet, reliable, and easy to load. After digging through thousands of customer reviews and stress-testing 17 models with seriously crusty dishes, we’ve concluded that the Bosch 300 Series is the first one you should consider.

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Can You Recycle Styrofoam, Bubble Wrapping, and Other Shipping Packaging?

So many of us have been there: guiltily wondering what to do with piles of plastic bubble wrapping, air pillows, or peanuts from a package.

How do you responsibly dispose of this junk?

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4 Smart(ish) Things to Help You Wake Up Easier

Sleep is, for many people, a favorite pastime. The only downside is having to actually get up. The mental fog, the dark room, the uncomfortable temperatures beyond that cozy bed, and the day ahead make you want to pull up the covers rather than rise and shine.

Though most rely on the power of an alarm clock (or the clock on a smartphone) to get out of bed, you can use a slew of smart gear to not only make waking up easier, but to ensure you have a better sleep.

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The Best Cheap Printers

Printers are not our favorite household gadget, but sometimes they’re necessary. If you run a home business that has to generate receipts, shipping labels, or tax documents, for example, or if someone in your household is in school, you probably need a basic printer. Here are a couple of relatively inexpensive models that we recommend based on our tests for our guides to laser printers and all-in-one inkjets.

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The Best Car Vacuum

If you want to vacuum your car, we think there are much better options than buying a car-specific model that plugs into your vehicle’s 12-volt outlet. You might even already own a vacuum that will do the job just fine. But if you’d like a dedicated tool, the Black+Decker Flex Vacuum BDH2020FL is our favorite cordless handheld vacuum for car cleaning. (We used to also recommend the Dyson Humdinger, but it’s currently unavailable.) The Flex is capable of handling the tough-to-reach areas in a car with its long, flexible hose. It comes with multiple attachments and has enough run time to clean a vehicle from the dashboard to the trunk (including the upholstery and hard-to-reach crannies, like the armrest storage box) in one go. And unlike dedicated plug-in car vacs, it's a multipurpose machine—it works just as well around the house.

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The Best Travel Car Seats

Let’s face it: Traveling with little kids can be a slog. But a lightweight, compact, easy-to-install travel car seat is one tool that can help make trips a bit easier.

We’ve tested 14 travel car seats for infants and up, and examined how they perform in various circumstances, including during air travel and in rental cars. The Chicco KeyFit 35, one of our picks for the best infant car seats, is an excellent choice for both travel and everyday use. For an affordable and easy-to-use convertible car seat for toddlers and preschoolers, we recommend traveling with the Cosco Scenera Next. The backless, lightweight Cosco Rise is great for booster-age kids.

If you’ll be hopping in and out of taxis or rideshares with a baby, the Doona is a unique but expensive infant car seat that converts to a stroller. And instead of purchasing a dedicated convertible car seat for travel, another option is to bring yours along with the Britax Travel Cart.

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The Best Instant Camera

Instant cameras embody the magic of photography: With the press of a shutter button, you can capture the world around you and see tangible results in seconds. For high-quality, retro-cool prints at a reasonable price, we think the Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 is a great choice.

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The Best Shower Curtain

A good-looking shower curtain is an easy and inexpensive way to spruce up even the most drab bathroom. We spent 30 hours on research, interviewed two designers and a house cleaner, and tested 13 candidates in a variety of materials to find our favorite: the Threshold White Waffle Weave Shower Curtain. It offers the best combination of good looks, reasonable price, easy care, and durable materials.

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The Best Camping Tents

Whether you’re thinking of hitting the road or staying close to home for your next car-camping adventure, you and your loved ones will need a comfortable place to sleep. After researching more than 65 tents, talking to tent designers and tent-pole manufacturers, and sleeping in a total of 27 tents on seven weekend camping trips, we’ve concluded that the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 Tent is the best car-camping tent available now for two people, and the Eureka Copper Canyon LX 6 Person Tent is the best choice for most families.

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The Best Ductless Mini Split Air Conditioner

A mini-split is an efficient, scalable way to add cooling or heating to specific rooms of a home. Also known as ductless mini-split air conditioners and heaters, they consist of one or more wall, floor, or ceiling-mounted indoor units connected to an outdoor compressor. They’re easier to install than a full ducted system, more efficient than window units or central HVAC, and they often make sense as a supplement to your existing heating and cooling equipment—giving a boost to an isolated area of your home. Add in thermostat-like controls alongside smart-home integration and mini-splits start to sound pretty great—but they aren’t cheap, with installation costs that can reach into the five figures. (Many local utility companies offer rebates to offset some of that.)

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How to Clean Your Fan or Air Conditioner

A filthy fan or air conditioner is not only less efficient at cooling you down, it’s also a potential health risk, especially if you have sensitive lungs or allergies.

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The Best Portable Mini Projector for Movies

A portable movie projector combines the convenience of a phone or tablet with the big-screen appeal of a TV. None of these small, portable projectors rival a good TV or traditional home-theater projector in performance, but the Xgimi MoGo Pro comes the closest of any we’ve tested so far. Plus, the MoGo Pro has Android TV built right in, so you can access a ton of movies without having to connect an external media player.

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Brooklinen’s Sitewide Sale Includes These 11 Wirecutter Picks

Brooklinen consistently earns top marks in our sheets and bedding guides for its luxe-yet-durable construction, everlasting softness, and modern prints. Additionally, its products remain some of our most popular recommendations, featured in our gift guides for grandparents, Father’s Day, and even college dorm essentials. If you’ve wanted to see for yourself what the hype is all about, Brooklinen’s Birthday Sale, which ends on May 8, is a great opportunity to replenish your linen closet and spruce up your space.

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The Best In-Wall Smart Outlet

An in-wall smart outlet looks and works like an ordinary electrical outlet, yet it can also give you the power to automate any appliance or device you plug into it. And you can control it with an app or by voice commands using a smart speaker. Some in-wall smart outlets also have USB ports for charging portables or even directly powering devices (such as indoor security cameras).

We like the Geeni Current+Charge because it offers all of those features at an affordable price, and it has an easy-to-use app. (Unlike some models, however, it doesn’t allow you to monitor how much electricity you’re using.)

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The Best Sunscreen

The best sunscreen is the one you’ll apply liberally and often, so it should be affordable but still feel and smell good on your skin.

After extensive brand-concealed panel testing, we recommend the physical sunscreen Blue Lizard Sensitive Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50+ and the chemical sunscreen Banana Boat Light As Air Sunscreen Lotion SPF 50, which best suit most preferences.

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Apple’s HomePod Is a Good Smart Speaker. But the Mini Is Better for Most People.

The Apple HomePod is back. Nearly two years after discontinuing the original HomePod, Apple has resurrected the Siri-based smart speaker with minor improvements. Although the second-generation HomePod looks almost identical to the original, the formula was altered with some subtle design twists and new features, including temperature and humidity sensors, support for spatial audio, and integration of the new Matter smart-home protocol. For most people who favor Siri and HomeKit, these upgrades don’t make it a must-own speaker—the smaller, lower-priced HomePod mini is the better choice. But for music lovers, the new HomePod competes sonically with other popular smart speakers from Amazon and Sonos, even if it may be a matter of preference.

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The Best Turntables and Record Players

There’s something refreshing about listening to a physical record versus streaming your music. The relative inconvenience of it forces you to focus more on the music, rather than just have it provide background noise to your day. A good turntable or record player should make this process more enjoyable by being easy to use while also delivering sound quality that brings the music to life. We recommend the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo because it includes all the qualities required to create the most enjoyable listening experience.

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The Best Shop Vacs (or Wet Dry Vacs)

There are messes and then there are messes. For the latter, your best bet is to break out a wet/dry vac. These heavy-duty vacuums suck up water, sawdust, nails, and screws with equal vigor. We’ve been testing and using them for years, and our favorite is the Ridgid 12-Gallon NXT Wet/Dry Vac HD1200. We also have a recommendation for a more compact, cordless model for smaller messes.

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The 29 Best Cheap Mother’s Day Gifts Under $50

If money were no object, most people would choose to buy their mothers castles, islands, or their dream homes. But, of course, money is an object, and a lot of people are in the position of having, well, not so much of it. But fret not, oh cash-strapped progeny! You can still show the mom in your life that you care without breaking the bank. Below, we’ve rounded up our favorite gifts that are available for $50 or less.

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The Best Lawn Mower

Mowing the lawn is a chore, but it’s one you might actually look forward to with the Ego Power+ Select Cut Mower LM2135SP. A good cordless mower blows away any gas option on convenience, because it doesn’t need fuel, there’s no exhaust, and it requires only minimal maintenance. This particular Ego stands apart from all other cordless mowers with its long run-time, short charge time, polished dual-blade cutting, excellent mulching ability, and user-friendly interface. Cordless mowers are still pricier than gas ones, but because the latest cordless models nearly match the top gas mowers in cut quality and performance, it’s hard to argue that paying more is not worth it.

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