There’s a good deal of new research that connects things like happiness and satisfaction to experiences rather than to material goods. If you want to be happy, the advice goes, buy experiences, not things. There’s some truth to this, of course, but the reality is a bit plex. After all, don’t you also have “experiences” when you use “things”?

In fact, I want to take a moment to write a brief note of thanks for a little material item that has notably increased my life satisfaction. It’s a small thing, a piece of metal with a rubber flipper on the end. It’s technical name is the Danco 10051 Disposal Genie. A couple years ago I read a piece by Megan McArdle that focused on gift ideas, and she mended the Disposal Genie. As she wrote, “If the Oxo vegetable peeler is the least romantic gift ever, the disposal genie is surely in second place. It’s basically a slightly better disposal blocker; it lets the stuff you want to go in the disposal (water, small bits of food) get in, while the cutlery stays safely in the sink. If you aren’t quite ready to stuff this in a stocking, think about stuffing it in your own disposal.”

I took her advice to heart and bought it for myself. And boy am I glad I did. Every time I’m washing dishes or cleaning the sink I enjoy at least a brief moment of appreciation for this little invention. Sure, “it’s basically a slightly better disposal blocker,” but that slight improvement is enough to give me an uptick in life satisfaction every time I use it.

So thank you, Megan McArdle, for mending the Danco 10051 Disposal Genie, and thank you to Danco and all the people who worked to create this little miracle. I have been blessed by your work.