Jan 06, 2025

January 2025: our readers went practical

If December is generous, January is stubborn. Nothing on this month's list was bought for fun, and we mean that as a compliment. Our readers spent January dealing with the floor by the door, the car in the driveway, and the resolution taped to the wall.

The resolution purchase

The STOTT Pilates essential reformer wall chart was the most January item imaginable, and also one of the smartest. It is a reference poster rather than a piece of equipment, aimed at people who already have access to a reformer and keep forgetting sequences. Several readers told us they bought it after realizing their new routine was failing not from lack of motivation but from lack of a plan they could see from the mat.

The winter entryway problem

Two readers independently described the same scene: salt, slush, and a hallway that never quite dries. The Guardian Platinum indoor wiper floor mat is a commercial-grade mat, and that is exactly why it keeps showing up on our lists in the cold months. Home mats saturate. Wiper mats are designed to be walked on by hundreds of people a day and keep working, which makes them almost indestructible in a house.

Cars, covered and hitched

January is when people plan for spring, which is why the Draw-Tite receiver hitch made the list well before towing season. The readers who bought it were mostly preparing for camper or bike rack season and wanted the installation done while the shop was quiet.

The NCAA Miami Hurricanes premier car cover is the one item this month that was partly about fun. It is a functional cover with a team on it, bought by people who are storing a vehicle through winter and see no reason to be subtle about it.

And the least exciting item of the month

Scotch film strapping tape rounded out the list, almost entirely from readers boxing up decorations and mailing things back. Strapping tape is the one most households do not keep on hand and then desperately want on the one day a year they are shipping something heavy.

Reading the month

What strikes us about January lists, year after year, is how little overlap they have with December lists. It is the same people, one week later, buying completely different things. The mood swings from abundance to maintenance almost overnight.

That is worth keeping in mind if you are trying to shop more deliberately. The January version of you is a better buyer than the December version, and if you can move a few decisions into that window, you will make better ones. Not everything can wait. But hitches, mats, storage, and gear can, and our readers seem to know it.

Next month the list will loosen up again. It always does around the second week of February, when everyone remembers that winter is not permanent.