Hey,
It’s Pete Matheson with a new issue of Experiments in Progress.
Accessories are weird.
Nobody plans their year around them. They're the £30 afterthoughts you add to a basket… and then somehow they end up being the thing you touch every single day.
So I started thinking about which ones I'd genuinely buy again.
Accessories I'd Buy Again Without Thinking
So here's my honest list, starting with the actual accessories and getting progressively looser about the definition as we go.
🌀 Electric air duster: the one that pays for itself
A rechargeable electric air duster (around £30 on Amazon) that completely replaces those cans of compressed air.
Here's the deal with canned air:
You buy it, use it, bin it
Then buy it again… and again
It runs out at the worst possible moment
The electric version just recharges. No refills, no waste, no running to the shop mid-clean.
🔌 ESR Qi2 wireless car charger: set and forget
The ESR Qi2 MagSafe car charger (the CryoBoost one) is technically a phone accessory, and it just works.
Phone snaps on magnetically, charges wirelessly while you drive, and the little cooling fan keeps it from cooking itself on a long journey with navigation running. No fumbling for a cable every time you get in the car.
Source: Notebookcheck
📱 MagBak cases: the accessory I'll never skip
I'm still on my iPhone Air, and a proper MagBak case is the one accessory I genuinely never regret.
It protects the phone, it keeps all the features working, and the magnets are just… brilliant. Everything snaps where it should. Chargers, mounts, wallets, all of it.
🎧 Powerbeats Pro 2: gym buds that stay put
My workout earbuds Powerbeats Pro 2 are a no-regrets buy for the gym.
Secure fit that doesn't budge when you're moving, solid battery life, and the newer pair even does heart rate tracking mid-workout.
Source: NBC News
🎮 Steam Controller (2026)
The newly released Valve Steam Controller is connected to my PC and I love the customisation on it. The trackpads and per-game configuration are just on another level.
Using it with Steam games is incredible
I've even got it working with Fortnite (not a Steam game) by adding it to Steam
The mapping options mean you can make it work with almost anything
If you're a PC gamer who likes to tinker, this is a proper toy.
Source: Digital Trends
🖨️ A 3D printer
Once you've got one, you stop buying small accessories and start printing them:
Headphone hangers
Gaming controller hangers
IKEA SKÅDIS pegboard add-ons and hooks
…and the ones that barely count as accessories
Here's where I stopped pretending I knew what counts as an accessory. In the middle of this heatwave, these have all earned their place:
🌬️ TORRAS neck AC — the wearable neck coolers. Genuinely brilliant when it's this hot and you need to keep moving.
⚡ Neutonic sachets — for creatine and focus. My little productivity accessory. (Not sure they count, but they're on the desk every day.)
🔪 A proper pocket knife — lives in the studio, used multiple times a day for opening boxes and getting through packages.
🛒 My no-regret accessory shortlist
If you want… | Get this |
|---|---|
To ditch canned air forever | Electric air duster (~£30) |
Effortless charging in the car | |
To actually use your iPhone's magnets | |
Gym buds that stay in | |
A PC controller to tinker with | Steam Controller (2026) |
To print your own accessories | A 3D printer |
To survive the heatwave | TORRAS neck fan |
A desk box-opener | A small pocket knife |
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