This itty-bitty wireless speaker ($11) is a lot louder than I expected, and the sound is very clear. It’s perfect for listening to music and podcasts in a hotel room, because it takes up almost no room in my luggage. — MF

I don’t get on a plane unless I am wearing Bose QuiteComfort 20 Noise Cancelling earbuds. These squeeze into a tiny super-lightweight pocket when off (unlike the headphone variety), and are simply the best noise cancelling apparatus, period. I routinely wear them the entire duration of a 13-hour flight. I arrive far more refreshed. — KK

I like to listen to podcasts in bed. I also sleep on my side, so earbuds and headphones hurt my ears if I use them. I bought the CozyPhones Sleep Headphones ($18), which is a headband with 1/8” thick cushioned headphones inside. They are comfortable and they roll up for travel. — MF

I use a squid outlet when I travel. In cheap lodging there is often barely one accessible power outlet on the wall and I have lots of things to charge, from camera batteries, to a laptop, to more than one phone. That’s just me. With a travel companion there’ll be even more items to charge. A squid splits the power to four flexible outlets. The flexibility gives more room for devices than a simple power strip. This 2-pack Squid is the cheapest, lightest, smallest one I’ve found. — KKaudiobooks

I’ve tried many ways to extend Wi-Fi through my house. Powerline networking, which creates networks through electrical wiring, works the best. TP-Link has a $58 kit with 2 units. One unit plugs into your wall outlet and router. The other unit can be plugged into any wall outlet in your house to provide Wi-Fi in that area. — MF

The $9 AmazonBasics Adjustable Tablet Stand was just what I was looking for in a kitchen countertop iPad stand. It’s made of sturdy plastic, adjusts quickly, and doesn’t skid or wobble. It can hold any size tablet — even smartphones. — MF

I bought the Amazon 7” Fire Tablet for $40. It’s great for reading ebooks, listening to audiobooks, and watching Netflix and Amazon Prime videos. But I also followed the instructions to install the Google Play Store, so I can add Android apps not available from the Amazon App Store. Now I have Google Maps, Gmail, Slack, Feedly and more on the tablet. — MF

Recomendo is produced by a tiny team of people who are passionate about tools. In addition to this newsletter, we have a website called Cool Tools with thousands of reviews of useful tools, and a new YouTube channel with brief hands-on video reviews every other week. If you like Recomendo, it’s worth your time to check them out. — MF

Every week Gareth Branwyn gathers the best workshop and maker tips he finds online and posts them on the Tips section of the Make website. There’s always a couple of good ones. Like last week: use the search term “grandfather’s” when searching Craigslist for bargains such as old tools, lumber, and other materials generated when someone clears out grandfather’s stuff. — KK

I got a great new 3D printer (the award-winning Original Prusa i3) and I’ve been using it to print useful things for around the house. The 3D design program I use is the free, web-based Tinkercad. It’s easy to get up-to-speed by watching a couple of brief introductory videos. I’m going to design a plastic ukulele with it. — MF

People have been hacking Ikea furniture forever, customizing and upgrading its modular units. Now Ikea has become a platform that highend designers create skins for. You buy the economical guts of an Ikea kitchen, shelving, or a sofa, and then apply new doors, handles, countertops, or fabrics created by legendary designers. This is a great New York Times summary article describing the ecosystem with links to the many companies that offer refined design layers for the Ikea platform. — KK

Over many decades, homesteader Lloyd Kahn has built his three beautiful homes by hand, and is the author and publisher of books about building personal homes. Lloyd lives in a fireprone part of California. He compiled a useful list of hints for people rebuilding homes after fires. The tips are so helpful they would be useful to anyone building a home anywhere. — KK

Owner manuals and installation guides contain far more information about a product than either the sales brochure, the online descriptions, or even Amazon reviews. The manual will have exact dimensions, all the parts, and caveats about what it can’t do. So my rule of thumb these days is to always download the product’s manual before I purchase the item. Impossible in the old preinternet days, it’s a no-brainer today. It has saved me many times. Regrettably, not 100% of products have PDFs that are findable, but the better products do. — KK

I use these neat hooks from 3M when I want to hang something on a surface I don’t want to damage, either a stucco wall, or a hotel room, or for a temporary hanging on a wood surface. Command Hangers employ an innovative glue strip to hold and release. The strip will securely hold the hanger for as long as you like (difficult to pull off), but will remove itself entirely, and easily, without marks or damage to paint at the end, using an ingenious particular physical pull. Hard to explain but it really works. I find they hold more than they specify. Command hooks come in all kinds of sizes, many styles, and reusable, too. — KK

My preferred system for storing lots of small parts (screws, Legos) in my workshop or studio is a multi-bin case. Many brands (Sortimo, Stanley, Amazon) made these at different price points but the form is similar. The clear lid of the flat case opens to a grid of different sized bins, which can be moved around to suit the contents. The cheapest ones, good enough for me, are 20-bin Storage Cases from Harbor Freight for $9. I have 20 of these trays stacked in a rack. — KK

My daughter and I have converted part of the family room into a maker space. We needed something to hold and organize lots of small parts, and that didn’t eat up a lot of tabletop space. This $28 cabinet with 44 drawers was just what we wanted. It’s tall, but some double-sided tape on the bottom has anchored it to the table to prevent tipping over. — MF

When mixing epoxies, resins, goops, paints, and glues, I always need to dispose of the gunked up mixing container afterwards. I try to hoard used take-out containers and paper cups yet run out. By far the best solution is to use flexible silicone mixing bowls. Nothing sticks. Turn them inside out to clean, and use again and again. They come in all sizes. You need only one each size. Since I mostly use small amounts of epoxy, I use the smallest silicone cup I could find, the Norpro Mini Pinch Cups. — KK

A true miracle device in my workshop is a right-angle attachment to my power drill that lets me drill or screw in tight places. This small geared unit allows me to fit the drill or screw tip into narrow spaces I can’t get the length of the drill into. Just imagine being able to twist the tip of your driver 90 degrees to the side. Now that I have one, I use it all the time. There are several makes. I use a Dewalt right angle ($21), because I have Dewalt tools, but it’ll work on any brand driver. — KK

In my workshop I use a Dixon needle-nosed marker for maximum accuracy. This is like a wire-thin sharpie that can reach deep into holes or tug close along edges to make a thin indelible line or dot. The handle is fat for your grip, but the business end is only 2mm wide and several inches long (like a hummingbird beak) making it perfect for precision marks on fabric, plastics, metals and wood. This Dixon is a slightly cheaper version of a similar Pica brand marker recommended by Adam Savage. — KK

I’ve used many different tape measures over my four decades of making things. My go-to measurer for the past 5 years has been a 25-foot Stanley Fatmax. It is comfy to hold, and not too big for my small hands. 25 feet is plenty for most jobs in the home or workshop, and best of all, because of its wide curved width, it will extend 10 feet straight out on its own. Reasonably priced. – KK