The 24 Best Things Strategist Staffers Bought in July

I was a late AirPods adopter, and once I finally made the switch I quickly abandoned the wired headphones of my youth. But recently, I’ve been feeling a pull toward my long-lost buds and bought some on a whim this month. They’ve become my go-to headphones for chatting while running errands since the mouthpiece is far better at picking up my voice than my AirPods. No more “You’re muffled!” for me.

I love a HomeGoods gander whenever I’m by the store on the Upper West Side, and during a recent visit, I spotted several of theTeakhauscutting boards that Emma wrote about earlier this month at a steep discount. My boyfriend and I have been slowly replacing our plastic cutting boards with wooden ones (andMaterial Kitchen’s MK Free board), and this is my favorite of the wooden ones so far. It’s beautiful to look at and easy to clean — the latter point being my biggest gripe with the other heavy wooden cutting boards in our kitchen.

Is $430 too much to spend on a cat tree? Probably. Does the build quality live up to the price? Not quite — the plywood feels solid, but the pieces don’t fit together as tightly as they could, and the walnut veneer layer arrived a bit scuffed along some of the corner seams. That said, my cats have been loving this thing, and even if it’s a bit larger than ideal for my space, it looks a lot better than the plain scratcher it replaced. The first time I saw one of my cats playing with the ball on the string through the portal on the second tier felt like how I imagine it will feel to watch my forthcoming child graduate from middle school.

In addition to smelling as nice as any Aesop blend, this hand scrub does in fact neutralize the pesky and persistent garlic and onion smells that stick to your hands after cooking. I’m also happy to report that it does a pretty good job of toning down the spiciness from prepping chiles. I have a bad habit of not using gloves and subsequently touching my face, but so long as I wash my hands thoroughly with this stuff first, I no longer have to worry about watery eyes and fiery nostrils. My only complaint is that they don’t sell bagged bulk refills.

Deals writer Martha Tuberalerted us allto the lowest price ever on theGap sweater many Strategist staffers already have and love. I’ve long considered it but I didn’t reallyneedit, so I held off. But the brown color I wanted was $33 in the Gap app (almost 60 percent off), so I finally indulged myself. I’ll get plenty of use out of it soon, but even just trying it on, I can see why everyone loves it. It’s the perfect just-oversize-enough fit, and the shade is very nice.

My friendship group is heading into a wave of 40ths this year. My one-size-fits-all gift is a Diptyque candle (unless they have a preferred scent, they’re getting Feu De Bois). It hasn’t failed me yet.

I had been eyeing these shoes for a while upon realizing that the couple of black sandals I own were either in bad shape or precariously close to the ground for regular New York wear. But I was hesitant to buy them because for some reason they’re unavailable in my usual size eight. When in Los Angeles last week, I went to the Camper store in person to try on the 7.5 and the 8.5 in hopes that one would work. Indeed, the former fit perfectly. They didn’t have the black ones there, so I shipped a pair back to my apartment and am awaiting their arrival now.

McNally Editions just released the first English translation of filmmaker Éric Rohmer’s only novel, and as a Rohmer obsessive, I had to get it. It’s a languid summer tale (his specialty) set outside of Paris in 1939 — right before the onset of World War II. I can’t wait to read it on the beach in a couple of weeks.

My 7-year-old needed a rain jacket for summer showers, and after looking at a bunch of them, I decided on this one. It’s exactly what I was searching for: lightweight, not too hot, and waterproof.

I’m a long-time hiker and got into camping in the past few years, so I’ve been wanting to combine the two and try backpacking. I have plenty of small backpacks for day hikes, but I went on a “backpacking lite” weekend trip this month for which I needed a larger pack, so I ended up buying this 60-liter Kelty bag. I wanted something that I could use on future trips, but also that wasn’t extremely expensive since I’m just getting started. It’s a women’s style and has an adjustable torso system, which helped me get a comfortable fit. I didn’t have to pack too much for this particular trip, and the hike was short but strenuous, so I got a decent feel for the pack. I’ll certainly get a better picture of its pros and cons the more I use it, but based on this initial experience, there was plenty of space to pack my things, adjustments were easy, and I felt quite comfortable the whole time I was hiking. I ended up in a total downpour, and while the bag isn’t advertised as being waterproof, it kept my things pretty dry.

This month my boyfriend’s parents invited us on a vacation upstate to the Ithaca area, where we spent a lovely five days hiking the gorges, soaking in a hot tub, and hitting up the many wineries dotting the Finger Lakes region. As a thank-you for the trip, I sent them a trio of reds from Sonoma-based vineyard Dancing Wine, which I had the opportunity to sample recently and found to be very tasty.

AtFound in Ithaca, a massive antique marketplace located on the outskirts of the city, I came across this Seymour Chwast–designed baseball poster and snatched it right up. It was already matted and situated in a satisfyingly hefty silver frame, and cost $170 (aversion on Artsyis going for $450). I also found the same lithograph on eBay for just $75, but keep in mind it comes unframed.

My phone got hit by a wave at Riis Beach during Pride weekend, which I took as a sign from God to get a new case. Since writing aboutaesthetic phone caseslast year, I have wanted a rhinestone one — in general, my soul has felt a tug toward tacky, sparkly stuff of my aughts youth — and a search on Etsy led me to Judy Original Craft. I got it in cheetah print, but there are many other great patterns:stars,zebra,argyle.

The same wave that hit my phone also filled my Fila Skeletoes with sand; toe shoes are disastrous beach footwear. I am not a toes-out person but I really needed a beach sandal, so I looked online until I found these cheap, delightful memory-foam-soled Nike flip flops. They run a bit small but are so insanely comfy. I have started calling them “Nike Squishers,” which is not their actual name.

I’ve been lovingGap’s VintageSoft Terry Relaxed Joggers— I own two pairs and they really remind me of the old Entireworld pairs — so when I saw the sweatshort version marked down to a mere $20, I knew it was time to buy. They haven’t arrived yet, but if the sweatpant version is any indicator, I’ll be wearing them just about any time I’m lounging around the apartment this August.

I bought myself this olive green dress from Vince Camuto at theNordstrom Anniversary Saleand wore it to a community event I host on Long Island. I recently had a color analysis done and learned my palette is soft autumn, so I’m always looking for earthy shades like this one.

I paired it with these strappy gold shoes from Schutz. They’re dressy with a heel that’s not too high, which I wanted since I was on my feet for most of the evening.

My 10-year-old ran out of her favoritesunscreen stick, Neutrogena’s Wet Skin Kids, and requested another, but the brand does not make it anymore. Beach Defense appears to be its replacement, and I like that it’s a generous deodorant-stick size rather than the tiny version the old one came in (and so many other sunscreen sticks do). The 10-year-old confirms that the formula is similar or the same, and she likes the larger size because it can apply more at once and lasts longer.

After nearly a decade of ownership and a too-far-gone mishap with a melted protein bar, we had to replace the bag for our kids’ PlanetBox Rover lunchbox. And in replacing it I learned that sometime in the last ten years, PlanetBox started making aslimmer version. I got both, because the original served us well, but it would be nice not to have to struggle to fit the Rover into a backpack.

Chantelle’s bras are also the best-fitting bras I’ve found to date. They’re expensive, though, so I bought two new ones during the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.