I try my best to buy multipurpose items for my home to reduce the amount of “stuff” I have to store and maintain. If a product can do more than one thing for me, I am sold! When it comes time to buy anything new for the house, a multipurpose version is the first thing I go looking for just in case. Granted, there probably aren’t any pot holder/spatula combo units, but many things do come with the ability to multitask. Off the top of my head, I can name a few things that get used almost daily in the house that serve dual purposes:
Our toaster/convection oven by Cuisinart. Expensive? Yes – too much, in fact. But having the convection oven means chocolate chip cookies taste better. 😉
The DVD/VCR player. I used to want 10 different pieces of stereo equipment to try to show off, but now – the less the better. So this DVD/VCR combo unit takes up only a single space but plays DVD’s, VCR tapes, and CD’s.
A coffee grinder/maker. Best purchase ever! Put the beans in the top in the morning, and they get freshly ground for that morning pot of coffee. Downside? Cleaning it. But still, the coffee tastes better and I didn’t need another unit for grinding the beans.
My iPhone. I used to carry around a cell phone AND a Palm Pilot until those first Treo’s came out. But now I have a phone, the internet, my email, text messages, games, videos, music, and photos all in one tiny little device.
I am sure there are some other things in the house, but those are the first things that came to mind. Which brings me to you – do you buy multipurpose products when you have the option of doing so? If so, what items in your house serve dual purposes? Maybe there is something you have that I need here at my house!
I’m definitely a fan of multi-purpose gadgets, and I love my iPhone for the same reason you love yours. Has an insane amount of functionality with such a small form factor.
I still go single-purpose when ultra high quality is important though. Like I have a Rode Podcaster microphone because it offers much better recording quality than a headset would.