With the proper preparations, anyone can explore anal pleasure. Lubricant is all you need to get started. To level up — for solo exploration, for partner play, or to prepare for anal sex — you should choose a body-safe sex toy that can be safely inserted and removed, and that will remain in place as long as you want it there.

After putting in more than 75 cumulative hours of research, including reading medical literature and speaking with nine experts on anal sex, we continue to recommend the stainless steel Njoy Pure Plug.

This beautiful all-metal butt plug causes no friction when used with lube, offers feelings of fullness (and, for some people, prostate stimulation), and stays firmly in place after insertion. A ring on the flared base makes this toy easier to grip than most. It’s available in three sizes, it’s absurdly easy to clean, and it doesn’t retain unpleasant smells.

GPS running watches represent a step up from fitness trackers: In addition to step counts and distance measurements, GPS watches offer a slew of advanced training metrics.

Since 2014, we’ve put 43 watches through the paces by taking hundreds of heart-rate readings and wearing the watches for long and short runs on trails and on tracks (as well as in races).

We’ve found that the Coros Pace 4 — with its speedy GPS acquisition and excellent battery life — is the best choice for most runners.

If you want more smartwatch-like features than the Pace 4 provides, we’ve found that the Garmin Forerunner 165 and Garmin Forerunner 165 Music offer the best overall value in the Garmin lineup.

I have a romantic vision of the kind of host I want to be: folded napkins, whimsical place settings, soft candlelight, an impeccably curated playlist. And what’s integral to that vision? A clinking, fully stocked bar cart so I can conjure up a drink tailored for each guest.

Unfortunately, while I can work on my Spotify skills and buy a couple tapered candles, it turns out time, space, and money are limiting factors in the beverage department.

Enter canned cocktails.

Great swimwear for kids can reduce some of the potential hassles of family beach days, leaving you with memories of fun in the sun instead of sunburn and sand rash.

Over the past six years, we’ve tried swimwear from about 20 brands with our own four kids, recruited additional kid testers to weigh in on finalists, and compared notes with other wedgie- and sunburn-averse parents on Wirecutter’s staff.

Imagine six mud-covered, diaperless toddlers and an adult in a white-carpeted room. Serve the kids sugary drinks, peanut-butter-and-Nutella sandwiches, and chocolate ice cream with caramel syrup. For good measure, give the tots some colorful slime to play with, hand the beleaguered parent a bottle of red wine, and then step away for a couple of hours.

We simulated this not-inconceivable scenario to test how well carpet cleaners tackle the worst gunk, grime, and goo imaginable. The bad news: We had to throw out the carpet. The good news: Our picks — the Tineco Carpet One Smart Carpet Cleaner and the Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Carpet Cleaner — cleaned up most of the stains they were confronted with in our testing.

An electric scooter can be a fast and fun mode of transportation—as long as your route isn’t too hilly, you’re comfortable riding in traffic, and you’re riding safely and considerately.

Two models from Segway Ninebot have earned our recommendation, with the Segway Ninebot KickScooter Max G30LP being the best option for most people.

A folding bike may be the most convenient mode of transportation on two wheels.

It can get you from point A to point B as readily as a full-size bike, but you can stash it in a car trunk, tuck it under a desk, or store it in a closet, on a boat, or inside an RV.

To suss out which folding bike does it all best for most riders, we pedaled and shifted, folded and unfolded, and carried and maneuvered 15 popular models.

After our 85-plus hours of research and testing, the Dahon Mariner D8 edged to the front of the pack, combining a comfortable ride and easy folding with good-enough components, all for a reasonable price.

Going for a walk is far and away my dog Dave’s favorite activity. (But also so is eating.) The sniffing, the squirrels, the street treats all enrich his three-times-a-day bathroom forays. And while I often enjoy our outings together, sometimes I just … don’t.

Nothing can make me less lazy or less cranky about crappy weather, yet some products can at least make the chore a bit easier.

After compiling a list of nearly 200 dog-walking accessories, I tested 60 products before ending up with the small mountain of recommendations you’ll find below.

No one needs all of these products. Beyond the essentials (a leash, a collar, and a harness), none of these items are necessary for a successful bathroom break. However, they can improve the experience, and some of them might turn an obligatory trek into a walk in the park.

After 22 years as a (middling) long-distance runner, I’ve made peace with the fact that some part of my body will always be sore, tight, injured, or in desperate need of massaging.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours poking myself with lacrosse balls, squeegeeing all of my limbs with a foam roller, and bending myself into a pretzel with resistance bands, chasing that elusive rush that comes with finally untwisting a knot, but nothing ever really seemed to hit that deep aching spot in the muscles.

Relief finally came four years ago when I got the Roll Recovery R8 Deep Tissue Massage Roller—one of our recommended gifts for runners—which is a plastic clamp that looks more like a medieval torture device than a massager. Around my house it is affectionately known as “The Clamp.”

The R8 is a spring-tensioned clamp with grooved rubber rollers on each side that squeeze and massage limbs. It applies so much pressure that some people may find it uncomfortable to use. However, if like me you’re someone who loves deep massages and the kind of poking and prodding that others may even think painful, you might find the R8 to be an excellent self-massage tool.

I spent decades quietly despising every bra in my drawer — until I discovered the ThirdLove 24/7 Classic Uplift Plunge Bra. The ThirdLove 24/7 is an exponentially better bra than anything else I’ve encountered.

In my frog-kissing quest to find the perfect match, I had sampled countless brands and styles. I knew I was wearing the right size, after subjecting myself to multiple manhandlings by imperious experts at bra fittings. But I had nearly given up hope.

“Hey,” I thought, “maybe this just isn’t in the cards for me, much how it’s unlikely I’ll ever learn to drive stick shift, make sourdough bread, or figure out how to fold a fitted sheet.”

It wasn’t that I had set a sky-high bar for my bras; my needs are not especially niche. I won’t share my bra size here — ’cause the internet is forever — but let’s just say that it’s covered by the first couple of letters of the alphabet.

The issue was always comfort: I had yet to own a bra that would do me the simple solid of showing up for work and then allowing me to forget that it was on duty.

Instead, I’d come home at the end of the day and rush to claw those constrictive nylon and metal offenders from my body — I couldn’t get my old bras off quickly enough. My husband would discover the undergarments discarded triumphantly throughout our home, dangling from end tables, tucked behind sofa cushions, and strewn across lampshades. (He used to remark that it made him feel like he was living in a sorority house, and he didn’t mean it in a fun-’n-frisky way.)

But my luck finally turned in 2021, when — two months into my then-new gig at Wirecutter — I took a leap of faith and ordered the ThirdLove 24/7 Classic Uplift Plunge Bra, one of the picks in our guide to the best bras.

Best for...

Best underwire bra for precise cup sizing

ThirdLove 24/7 Classic Uplift Plunge Bra

This versatile bra offers outstanding comfort and a subtle push-up, and the deep plunge works with many necklines. It comes in cup sizes AA to H—including half-cups, for a fine-tuned fit. But it might not provide enough support for larger busts.

$74 from Amazon

$74 from ThirdLove

$74 from Nordstrom

Why do I love it? Let me count the ways.