In 2025, Wirecutter’s journalists rigorously tested over 4,000 products — all to find the crème de la crème for you. We slathered on countless moisturizers, tasted mountains of yogurt, and logged miles and miles to break in brand-new flats. We crawled down many a rabbithole: Is Quince, the beige-millennial fever dream, any good? (Not really.) What happens to all the stuff you return online? (We unboxed a 450-pound mystery pallet to find out.) Is it possible to erase yourself from the internet? (Nope.) And it was a year of learning: Martha Stewart shared her secrets to hosting. The Times’s fashion critic Vanessa Friedman told us, once and for all, the best pants to wear on planes. And professional chefs dished on their comfiest shoe recs. We, your newsletters editors, lived and breathed all of that coverage. We read about every single new Wirecutter pick and how it can make someone’s life easier or more beautiful — and, yes, got a few things for ourselves along the way. Below, we’re each sharing the single Wirecutter recommendation that really, truly changed our lives for the better this year. As always, thanks for letting us into your inbox. Cheers to 2026. Can a white tee actually be life-changing? I’d argue yes. Rarely has something so seamlessly and quickly become a constant in my wardrobe as this modestly cropped and super-soft Buck Mason white tee did this year. I wear it with everything from track pants to barrel jeans to sweats to blazers, and nearly every time I do, someone asks me a version of: “Where’s that white tee from? It looks sort of perfect.” My friends, it is.
After a few particularly grueling weeks of scrolling and typing at work rendered my hand extremely sore, a simple mouse swap all but eradicated the pain overnight. (Sometimes it’s actually that simple.) Unfortunately, my exact savior mouse — the older version of our tech expert’s favorites — is no longer available. But it has the same size and shape of this newer one we recommend: a small dome that lets my hand rest comfortably and at a just-right height that means I no longer need to lift or strain my fingers to click around.
This year I moved into a new apartment that lacked a little entryway corner where my side table and key bowl once sat. For months, I tried to convince myself that I was the kind of person that could remember to grab my keys and work ID without a dedicated place for them to stare me in my face. But after arriving at Wirecutter’s office without my badge for the fourth time, I had to admit defeat. This Yamazaki key rack — one of our favorite small entryway solves — changed everything. Perfectly compact, minimalist, and magnetically stuck to the front door. My peace has been restored. I despise bugs, so when I discovered pesky gnats crawling on a beloved pothos this year, my immediate instinct was to just throw the whole plant away. (Harsh, I know.) But after some thinking — and a few deep breaths — I decided to order these sticky fly traps that are designed to attract and kill the little pests. Now every new plant that comes into my home gets a bright yellow trap added to its pot. I’ve yet to see more than a few gnats since. We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more ›
If the most popular products of 2025 are any indication, you spent the year upgrading your homes with new air purifiers, bath towels, and toothbrushes. And treating yourselves (or perhaps some lucky giftees) to fluffy socks, diamond huggies, and … a beanie with a built-in headlamp. We all contain multitudes, it would seem. The 100 most popular picks of the year→
In our weekly newsletter, The Gift, we’ve spent the entire year handpicking what we consider to be truly perfect gifts. The ones that resonated most with readers in 2025? Quite the eclectic bunch, actually — everything from an Italian desk calendar, to a floral signet ring, to a timeless fisherman’s sweater. The gifts you’ve loved most this year→
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