Feb 06, 2026

February 2026: quiet month, curious cart

February is our community at its most eclectic. There is no unifying occasion, the weather is uninspiring, and people buy whatever they have been thinking about. The result this year was one of the odder lists we have run, and we enjoyed it enormously.

The drinks flight

Three flavors of Slingshot Coffee sparkling superfruit tea landed in the same month: citrus elderflower, blueberry jasmine, and peach mint. Several readers bought all three deliberately, as a tasting, which is a very February thing to do when you have decided to drink less of something else and want the afternoon to still feel like an event. The blueberry jasmine had the most defenders in our inbox.

The gym bag

SPRI chalk block and chalk ball was bought almost entirely by gymnastics and climbing families, right as the winter competition season gets serious. The chalk ball version is the one to get if anyone in your household objects to a cloud of dust, which most households eventually do.

Two home items

The Laci ten panel extendable panel track blind was February's project purchase, covering wide sliding doors where curtains never quite work. Readers made the same point they always make about window treatments: measure the opening, then measure it again at three heights, because walls are not square and nobody tells you that until it is too late.

The Smith's scissor set with sharpener was the small practical win, and a reminder that most households have four pairs of scissors and no sharp ones.

The book we did not expect

Season's Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree is a photographic history of mid-century aluminum trees, and it sold in February, which is either two months late or ten months early. The readers who bought it were design people and collectors rather than holiday people, and at least one bought it for a coffee table specifically because it starts conversations.

Why we like a month like this

A themed list tells you what season it is. A list like this tells you who is actually here: a climbing family, somebody redoing a sliding door, three people experimenting with better afternoon drinks, and a reader with a serious interest in the design history of artificial trees. That is a community rather than an audience, and February is the month it shows.

One small practical note from the tea drinkers. Sparkling beverages in glass are heavy to ship and easy to lose to a dropped case, so several readers recommended buying a mixed pack first rather than committing to a case of one flavor. That advice generalizes to almost any new food or drink product: buy the smallest quantity that lets you find out whether you actually like it.

March will bring the usual spring surge, and our inbox is already filling with garden questions. February is the last quiet month, and we intend to enjoy it.