Garmin Nuvi 1390LMT for those wondering.

I was shocked when I found out that, it not only worked, but still could hold a decent charge and had a new map update available dated July 22, 2026. Although the unit is hardly used now, it functions just as well as it did 15 years ago, with the GPS still locking on quickly upon bootup and it giving accurate directions.

Link for those who want to try update their old GPS as well.

EDIT: Turns out the traffic antenna still works as well

I'm fed up.

There is the mental load of constant repairs. The frustration of vacuuming only to have to sweep again immediately after because the vacuum doesn't vacuum anymore. The disappointment when your well-researched expensive cutting board cracks after two months of normal use. The anger when the highly-praised sewing machine you bought to mend all your falling-apart-after-a-few-wears clothing shows up on your doorstep and only runs at maximum speed. The worry that the one brand left that is supposed to make things of quality might have just been bought and will be enshittified next in the name of shareholder value. And the squeaky car dashboard that serves as a constant reminder that everything you own, including your car you spent a year's salary on and that is probably spying on you, is destined for a landfill.

I'm tired. When will it end?

Looking at Room and Board couch and loveseat. Also looked at Pottery Barn which was even more. I don’t necessarily plan to have them for life, but I don’t want to buy junk. Is $7k what people are spending? Hopefully I don’t get downvoted into oblivion. TIA!

Around 10 years ago now, one of my wallets was posted to this subreddit for a review, and overnight my job was born. Thanks to this subreddit I've been very fortunate to build a life with my wife and now child here in Australia as a leatherworker.

Recently, a new US tariff policy announcement was made. The scrapping of the $800 De Minimis exemption which then forces all goods entering the US to incur a tariff. This tariff is to be paid prior to shipping. Obviously I would have to incorporate that tariff into the price of my wallets. With that decision, Australia Post have had to suspend most forms of postal service to the US. This includes shipping of my wallets to US Customers. Most of my customer base in based in the US. 90% or so. Also, as Australia has a 10% tariff rate, the decision also states that any country with a tariff rate under 16% should have to pay $80USD per item entering the US. Incorporating that extra cost, as well as the extra cost of shipping, immediately more than doubles the price of wallets, which is unsustainable. With the flick of a pen, the business which was born here on this subreddit is more than likely over.

I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who has ordered a wallet over the years. I hope they serve you well for years to come. I hope a solution is found where I can continue to do business as usual, but the forecast is grim.

Thank you again.

- Chris Rose of Rose Leather Crafting.

He says it still charges perfectly well.

EDIT: So most of you have brought up the fire risk. A few seemed to think it was fine. I looked it up and it does seem to pose at least a mild fire risk.

Since usb-c cords come with many electronics I have more cords than I need. I’m just going to give him a cord in exchange for me cutting up and tossing his cord.

Just realized I've spent $180 on cloud storage subscriptions over three years - nearly as much as the cameras cost ($280). I'm basically renting access to my own footage forever.

This subscription model is the tech industry's new cash cow, and it goes against everything BIFL stands for. Why sell something once when you can charge monthly forever? Every major security camera brand does it because perpetual revenue beats one-time sales.

The worst part is how they've rigged the game. Companies now deliberately cripple their hardware without subscriptions - limited storage, locked features, cloud dependency. They're not selling cameras anymore, they're selling monthly access to basic functionality.

Looking for true BIFL security cameras - buy once, own completely, no ongoing fees. Willing to pay more upfront to escape this subscription stranglehold. Any recommendations for cameras that actually embody the "buy it for life" philosophy?

edit: Did some Googling after posting this and came across a brand called Ulticam. On paper it looks like the kind of “buy once, no subscription” option I’ve been looking for, but I don’t know anyone who’s actually used it. Has anyone here tried it? Curious how it stacks up against Eufy, Amcrest, etc. Would love to hear some first-hand experiences before I pull the trigger.

I keep waiting. But every summer, she still runs like a top...

Colemans, Chicago, Illinois
L.L. Bean, Freeport, Maine
White's Boots, Spokane, Washington
Red Wings, Red Wing, Minnesota
Champion, Rochester, New York
Mystery Ranch, Bozeman, Montana
Gregory, Salt Lake City, Utah

Proud, high-quality American heritage brands are now enjoyed more abroad than at home.

It frustrates me that America’s pre-1980s culture of quality died, leaving us stuck in “crapitalism.” Yet in Osaka, Japan, I was surprised by how common long forgotten American brands are: Coleman, Gregory, even niche tactical brands like Mystery Ranch worn by everyday commuters and hikers. White's Boots, Red Wings, L.L. Bean drastically more available w/ multiple Japanese exclusive colorways available too. Why does Japan embrace durable, heritage gear that most Americans ignore?

It’s frustrating I have to buy these products internationally, even though they’re made in the U.S.

What happened to our own culture of quality?

I am sick of my silocon utensils with metal handles breaking at the seem. These are relatively cheap at 12.99 each, and they are fully encapsulated in silicon. This is good, right?

Darn Tough have to be the most ridiculously over priced product I'm seeing constantly shilled over the history of this sub reddit. Do you guys realize you can buy socks with the exact same blend or maybe even slightly MORE wool for 86% less money per pair at Costco...

I've had the same Merino Wool Costco socks for 10 years and they're just beginning to get holes ... Costco socks are my BIFL socks, and I'll die on this hill.

I guarantee I'll get down voted for this from the completely brainwashed/the shills/bots but whatever. if I can save even 1 person tons of money with this post I'll be happy.

you gotta be a rich mf to buy darn tough....

EDIT: OK I get it, the Warranty does in fact make DT a "true" BIFL product... But I just can't get over the cost. I'll continue buying Costco Merino Wool but that's just me.

ALSO IM SPEAKING FROM IGNORANCE AS I'VE NEVER WORN A DT SOCK.

Final edit: also, imagine losing darn tough socks 😂

I love Sony’s other products, but I will never buy another Sony TV.

I've followed the subreddit for a while. I suspect that there are a lot of people here who have had poor self control in regards to money and spending in the past. And that they are adopting a new "BIFL" attitude as an excuse to continue buying things that they cannot afford, by justifying its lifetime value.

Let's face it, no clothing is "for life". Fashions change, your body gets bigger or smaller, and some things that you wear in your 20s and 30s just look out of place later in life. Even the idea that you're buying something to hand down to a future generation is very presumptuous, especially when you consider all of the things that are in our parents' homes that we want nothing to do with.

Regards to home appliances, if the item hasn't broken yet it's pretty wasteful and irresponsible to go out and buy a new, bifl, expensive version just so you can throw away the old one.

This does not apply to everyone and everything, but having spent a few years living in a country where the quality of consumer goods is much lower than in the United States, and everyone survived just fine, I'm finding that this sub sometimes devolves into unhealthy consumerism. Some people seem to have the idea that there is a silver bullet, and that once they replace every item in their life with its bifl equivalent they will somehow be satisfied and free from want. But it doesn't work like that!

Took it home and washed it, but I want to sand the top down a little bit to get it back to looking new. Did I make off like a bandit?

Some time ago, you could buy something cheap that fails very quickly, or you could buy something expensive that lasts a long time. It used to be more cost-effective to buy the expensive thing, because during the lifetime of the expensive thing, you would have spent even more money in total replacing the cheap thing every time it failed. But as far as I can tell, this is no longer the case.

Now, it seems as though in the best case, you're spending 5× as much to buy something that will last only twice as long. It seems that now, it's actually more cost-effective to buy the cheap thing and keep replacing it. I've been hearing reports of appliances that are specifically engineered to last a little bit longer than the warranty, then reliably fail very shortly after, when the warranty is expired. Not to mention that warranties in themselves are getting shorter and shorter, covering less and less, and requiring the buyer to ship the product to the company at their own expense for the company to even decide whether to do anything.

It seems that pretty much every company that has a reputation for reliability is now using their name to sell inferior-quality products at a premium price. I've been hearing reports about multiple quality issues from new models from companies such as Miele, Speed Queen, Vitamix, BlendTec, Bosch, and many others that are often recommended in this sub; Speed Queen and BlendTec in particular have either sold to a private equity firm or gone public, which inevitably leads to steep quality decline. You will, of course, find defenders of those brands, but the things they say come across as either astroturfing or someone who has naively swallowed the marketing of those brands.

Perhaps these days, if you truly want a BIFL product, your only option is to go somewhere like Craigslist, Kijiji, or Facebook Marketplace, and hope that you can find someone selling their perfectly good older thing at a reasonable price because they found themselves not using it enough to justify keeping it, because they want the newer model with more fancy features, or because it broke in a way that's easy to fix and they just can't be bothered to do so.

To what extent am I wrong about this?

This beauriful Japanese rice bowl is about 100 years old. It was bought i believe in Niigata prefecture by my wife’s grandmother and it was already second hand when she baught it. This bowl has been passed down through the family ever since.

Today, our 4-year-old daughter eats rice from the same bowl every day. I love feelinf about how four generations have shared meals from this single piece of pottery.

Everything seems to have Wi-Fi, touchscreens, apps, and software updates now. Some of that stuff is useful, but it also feels like there are way more things that can break or become unsupported.

If you had the choice between a cheaper “smart” appliance with a bunch of connected features and a more expensive basic one that was built to last 15–20 years and could be easily repaired, which would you buy?

I’m starting to think I’d rather pay more upfront for something simple that just does its job for years. Curious if people here feel the same. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

I hope this counts. I suppose metal tools might be low-hanging fruit for BIFL.

I have no question that this thing's useful lifetime is longer than my own.

I realize this is counterintuitive to the group, but are there such things you shouldn't bother paying more than bare minimum?

The first two pictures are of new shirts I got that have managed to rip within the week of purchasing them, the second is an older(poorer quality) one that's ripped recently. Why does this keep happening?

Wanted one of these for a while, couldn't justify the new price. I think I could live with this one.

This is missing the inner pot, need to go source one now! If you have suggestions of where to get one, let me know.

i have been trying to find a new quilt for my bed. i have scoured this sub for recommendations and tips on what to look out for, and many of the comments on these threads seemed like they were genuinely helpful. but i keep finding myself stuck in this same paradoxical loop, which goes like this: people recommend something because they've had it for years and it's held up really well, but that means they bought it years ago and if you bought it today you're almost guaranteed to get a significantly worse product, likely at a higher price. alternatively, you can look at more recent recommendations, but that means no one knows yet if it'll withstand the test of time (or in the case of bedding, the test of multiple machine washes).

it increasingly seems to be the case that if you want something and you want to BIFL, you must put in hours of research, probably buy something much more expensive than you were originally planning on, and even then there's a good chance it just falls apart because the speed of enshittification has made it so that information about a product's quality from more than a year ago has become outdated.

apologies if this is a point already frequently discussed here, i'm just so frustrated with how much time and energy i have to put into buying mundane things, and how the best answer always seems to be to create a time machine and buy it from the past. it leaves me feeling so defeated. how does everyone deal with this?

My family and I all buy similar quality clothing. Not cheap SHEIN crap but not high quality by any means. Mine lasts 10X longer than theirs for one simple reason: we do laundry differently. If you want clean clothes and to make it last, here are some simple tips.

1. Always wash on cold, extra rinse, less detergent. From following r/cleaningtips for years I’ve learned how it’s truly the rinse cycles that get your clothes clean and washes the suds and grime out. Cold works just as well as hot with smaller loads and/or extra rinse cycles. It will save you money too!

2. Avoid your drier like the plague. It’s super convenient but breaks your clothing down. It’s best to hang it up to dry, you can buy sturdy metal drying racks that very well may be your most BIFL clothes-related purchase over time. Anecdotally, this is the absolute best thing you can do to extend the life of your clothing. It’s will save you money too!