11 Gadgets Under $10 That Solve Everyday Problems

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Steve Jobs once said that customers don’t know what they want until you show them. And he was right. But he was also lucky because he was showing people iPhones and not, say, rechargeable nose trimmers.

Of course, when Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, Amazon wasn’t the global behemoth it’s since become. Now there’s virtually nothing Amazon doesn’t sell, and a lot of it is dirt cheap. In the post-Bezos world, Jobsian marketing principles no longer apply. Customers still may not know what they want, but if it’s cheap enough, they’ll buy it anyway and then throw it out and buy something else.

Thus begins our quest to assemble a list of cheap gadgets that are worth every penny, which should come in handy around the shopping season. If you treat them right, these may last you for many holidays to come.

It’s the middle of the night when you wake up and need to head to the en-suite bathroom. You snap on the light and you’re blinded because it’s too bright. Or worse, you wake up your spouse, who can’t easily get back to sleep even with their favorite sleeping app.

This scenario may sound exaggerated, but if you’ve ever been there, you know it isn’t. Or, to spin it back to Steve Jobs, you just don’t realize what you need. In this case, it’s a motion sensor light for your bathroom.

Decent motion-activated lights for around $10 that don’t require any drilling come in two varieties. They’re either battery-powered stick-ons like the Star-Spangled LED Puck Light ($8.99 for 5), or they plug right into a socket. The latter are more like smart night lights. The BN-Link Backlit Motion Sensor ($12.34 for 2), for example, has an auto mode that only activates with motion, plus a night mode that gives a dim light until activated. 

In both cases, you get to see at night without waking anybody else up. And you’re good to go for years because the bulbs are LEDs and use very little energy.

Those of us driving around without built-in infotainment displays in our cars have tried every so-called solution for mounting our phones: suction cups, clips, vent mounts and more. The more expensive and heartier the holder, the faster they wilt, with one exception: peel-off phone magnets.

This WixGear offering costs $6.99 and is simple to use. First, peel off the film on the back. Stick one on the back of your phone (or preferably your phone case), stick the other on your dashboard, and bring your phone close to snap them together. It shouldn’t plop to the ground ever again.

A few caveats here. One, the stickiness of the adhesive makes this a permanent fix, so don’t expect to move the magnets around once they’re on. Two, we recommend finding a vertical position on your dashboard that’s close enough to tap, but not too close to a vent. Extreme temperature changes might lead to your phone slipping, while heat blowing on it is never good.

And three, a phone stuck to your dashboard can easily become dangerous. Don’t spend too much time playing with it; you could easily get distracted. Apple has also reported that magnets can influence photo quality in certain cases, so keep an eye on that. All said, for speaker phone calls, Google Maps or playing music in your car, peel-off magnets are a tested fix.

There are two types of people: those who are aware of keyboard gunk and those who have blissfully never observed it. If you don’t make a habit of cleaning your keyboard, the first tool you’re likely to reach for to remove gunk is a brush. You may, with much practice, reach a state of competency where you can finagle stray brush hairs into the cracks around individual keys and dislodge the detritus of your typing life that way. It works, but you can do better.

A handheld, mouse-sized vacuum cleaner may strike you as effete, and in a sense, it is. But for those who like a clean keyboard, a vacuum is quicker and much more efficient than hunting for crumbs with a brush.

Our recommendation also comes with a nozzle, brush and USB charging cable, amenities that nudge it a bit over the $10 mark. While you can find cheaper options, caveat emptor. Some of them look good but get horrible customer reviews. For best results, disconnect your keyboard from a desktop PC (or shut down your laptop) before you clean.

If you haven’t kept up with other forms of computer cleaning, it’s also worth learning how to clean your screen the right way.

Yes, it’s just a lowly phone stand. But it could be a life-saver. If you doubt us, you’ve probably never had a last-minute Zoom interview where, in lieu of propping your iPhone up against a fruit bowl, you opted for a grainy, handheld shot that gave your potential employer a bold view of your inner nostrils. That isn’t the only reason to invest in an inexpensive, versatile phone holder, however.

Modern versions of iOS and Android can turn your phone into a webcam, which is a great way to reuse an old smartphone. But unless you own a folding phone, you’re back at square one.

A budget stand like the Nulaxy solves this problem neatly. Whatever stand you end up with, make sure it’s universal so you don’t have to buy one for everyone in the house. It should have a gap at the bottom to make room for the charging cable, and remain steady whether in landscape or portrait.

There is perhaps nothing more disturbing than a wax-bejeweled earbud. Actually, there is: having to send your dirty, malfunctioning bud back to wherever you purchased it for a diagnosis of “ear wax accumulation.” The minds behind the $6.99 Hyashee earbud cleaning pen are on our wavelength here. 

Hyashee’s earbud cleaners are geared toward AirPods, though the flocking sponge and brush combo will get the job done for any other brand too. As an alternative, there are other universal options like the Midukit cleaner kit. At $9.99, this comes with everything from the Hyashee Cleaner Kit, plus blobs of purple putty and some brushes. Dirt sticks to the putty so you can get it out that way.

Investing a few dollars in an earbud cleaner could improve the longevity of your buds, which makes a difference if you own a quality pair of AirPods. It could also save you from the disgrace of having to send your grimy headphones to a horrified technician at Best Buy. This applies even more if you’ve got kids with earbuds of their own.

There always ends up being someone who appears less often in family photos because they’re the one behind the camera. To restore balance to your family, consider a remote Bluetooth camera shutter. The ATUMTEK Wireless Camera Remote Shutter is a popular choice; it’s $8.99 and comes as a two-pack. It should pair with your phone up to distances of ~30 feet, and is compatible with both Android and iOS.

The Zttopo Wireless Bluetooth Camera Shutter Remote is about the same price. Reviews for both hover around 4.5 stars on Amazon. Just be warned that you’ll need a tripod (or at least a stand, as above) before you assemble your first full family portrait.

You might not even need to buy a new flash drive to make this work; rifle around in your desk drawer and if you get lucky, you’ll unearth a dust-covered treasure from 2011. If you can’t find one — or if this is a stocking stuffer for techy friends or relatives — you can always order something like a basic Sandisk 32GB USB 2.0 drive around $9.99.

Why would you want to turn a USB stick into a portable antivirus? Because it might be all you need to clean up an infected Windows machine without having to call the Geek Squad. There are plenty of other neat ways to use an old USB thumb drive aside from storage, but this is our favorite.

When an attack strikes, it can take over your OS, locking you out of your antivirus. When you boot up an antivirus from a separate disk (your USB drive), you can bypass the infected system and clean it from the outside. ESET SysRescue Live is one example that’s bootable from a flash drive.

For many of us, the main duty of our Google Nest Hub or similar device is to serve as a bark-activated kitchen timer. “Hey Google, set a timer for 20 minutes!… Stop!”

Considering the expense, why not just buy a digital kitchen timer? They’re a lot cheaper and you won’t have to bark at Google ever again. This minimal DALSHABET timer kind of looks like a Google Nest Thermostat, which is to say, it looks pretty good. It’s also magnetic, so it sticks to your refrigerator or any other magnetic surface in the kitchen. And it’s cheap at $9.99, though it could drop a little depending on sales.

The only part you might have to get used to is setting it manually. But that’s just a twist of the dial. Is this extra manual labor worth it? If you want to save money and avoid adding yet another sporadically obedient screen of dubious utility to your home, this little $10 dial should last you a while.

As with many aspects of digital hygiene, there are competing views on webcam covers, as well as various methods for physically blocking access to your computer’s camera.

Former FBI director James Comey admitted to taping over his laptop’s camera. Meta CEO and former human Mark Zuckerberg was photographed doing the same in 2016. If you’re worried that your camera might accidentally pop on when you don’t intend it to, a set of $8 BLOCKED vinyl webcam stickers might be useful. Keep in mind that an attack’s goal is more likely to install malware or trick you into handing over credentials than to spy on you.

If you’re on a Mac, the camera will never turn on without its accompanying green indicator light. You may also damage your screen if you slap on a traditional slide cover, since razor-thin laptop design doesn’t allow room for them. That said, for work laptops or desktops you’ve had for a while, a vinyl sticker is low-cost protection against suddenly appearing at a team meeting in your pajamas.

If we ever calculated how much time we’ve lost, as a species, to USB-related inconveniences, we would drag USB’s creator before the ICC. His name is Ajay Bhatt, by the way, and he’s been hiding in broad daylight reaping the fruits of his evil genius since 1996.

Yes, it’s just a cable. But oh, what havoc USB can wreak. The problems are endless, but the source of our grief is usually the same: we have the wrong connector for a device. Our machine could also feature the wrong port for the cable we’re trying to use. Or, if we’re on an Apple laptop, we probably don’t have enough ports. In all three cases, we’re stuck.

The usual solution is to buy an adapter, but that can still run into issues. Maybe the adapter only works for one situation, like USB-A to USB-C. Or we shell out way more for a multi-purpose hub that has ports handling a bunch of different connections, including HDMI. Fortunately, there’s a middle route that costs a lot less: a USB adapter kit.

This 12-piece IANFAN USB kit, at $8.59, offers a bunch of adapters that should cover any USB compatibility issues you face. If you want a handier solution geared to USB-C compatibility, try the Povdite charging cable adapter kit, which comes with a case and its own charging cable. Whichever you choose, you’ll be doing your part in the fight against uncontrolled cable sprawl.

Wireless charging pads present an interesting dilemma for the sustainability-conscious gadget shopper. Will replacing one accessory (a USB cable) with another (a charging pad) actually make your life easier and the planet better? Or will you just feed the yawning maw of your accessory drawer one more tasty meal?

A charging pad still needs to be powered by a cord, so it’s not truly wireless. But once you plug it in, you won’t have to worry about USB compatibility anymore, as long as your devices all support wireless charging. If you can find a quality charging pad that powers multiple devices, that’s even better. But that can get tricky, especially when your budget is 10 dollars.

Cheaper charging pads also might not charge as quickly, as outputs vary. And one station might not be enough for a whole household. That said, if you want to test the waters, this NANAMI Fast Wireless Charger Pad costs $9.99. It works with Android phones, iPhones and even earbuds, with a maximum charging power of 15W.