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I remember the first time I was enlightened as to the joys of a hot water bottle: I was staying with my grandma at her house in Leeds, it was the middle of winter and, even with the heating on full blast, my attic bedroom just never seemed to warm up. So, to help me go to sleep, she took me to the bathroom and showed me how to fill up an old hot water bottle before tucking me back up into bed. I lay there clutching it as though it was my most prized possession – and I’ve been hooked ever since.
The problem is, I grew up into an impatient adult. An adult who hates going downstairs to wait for the kettle to boil and who, far from being knackered after a day of non-stop playing with her Barbies, finds herself tossing and turning until the warmth has all gone. We live in an age where we can get whatever we want almost instantly, yet water bottles were lagging shamefully behind… until now.
Enter: the rechargeable hot water bottle, or water bottle 2.0 if you will. Related... This Octopus Sock Dryer Helps Me Tackle The Mountain That Is My Kids’ Washing It’s the humble water bottle but reimagined, I can only assume, by someone who felt the fear of shivering in silk pyjamas beside the kettle in the middle of the night just as much as I did. By someone who refused to accept that, in order to feel warm in our own beds or on our own sofas, we must first scold our fingers trying to pour boiling water into the tiny hole at the top of a plastic heating device.
If you have a partner who insists on turning the heating off at night, windows that let in more breeze than they should, or you feel the cold in the office, then this, my dear friends, is for you. All you need do is reach down and plug the water bottle into the accompanying plug, give it five minutes to heat up and you’re ready to go.
It’s the antidote to a hangover that feels as if it might kill you if you attempt to stand up; to crippling period pain that leaves you writhing in bed and to long car journeys with a menopausal mother who insists on blasting the AC in the depths of winter. Plus, it means that if you’re staying with in-laws or any place where you can’t access water without waking the house or tripping the downstairs alarm, you’re covered.Related... This £12 V-Pillow Gave Me My Best Night's Sleep In Years I’ve tried a few of these rechargeable life-savers out over the years, but this one stands head and shoulders above the rest for several reasons. Firstly, it stays warm for six whole hours – that’s Lord of the Rings twice! Secondly, it has a mini hand warming compartment, so you can heat your body and your extremities easily in one fell swoop, and thirdly, it’s small enough (25cm x 17cm x 5cm) to be slipped easily under your back to help sooth menstrual cramps.
I don’t mind admitting, if it wasn’t already obvious, that I am obsessed with it. I produce it, like a magic trick, when friends come around to watch a film and delight in showing them how it plugs in and miraculously heats up. In fact, I now have three at home because people so often ask for the magical, rechargeable water bottle before they ask for a glass of wine. I no longer check if the white is chilled but rather whether the water bottle is plugged in.
Do I miss sleepovers at my grandma’s house? Yes. Do I feel nostalgic about my childhood? Every single day. Do I ever miss the days of having to change my pyjamas because I’ve poured water down them while on tiptoes at the sink? No, no I do not. And neither does my grandma, who has purchased a rechargeable hot water bottle of her own.
In the same way that you might be a neat freak, I’m a heat freak and I don’t care who knows it. Buy it now: Rechargeable Electric Hot Water Bottle,
Amazon, £18.99Honestly, it’s life changing is a regular series where we talk about the weird and wonderful possessions we can’t imagine life without. Think of it as an ode to the mundane, bizarre and, sometimes, wholly unnecessary products in our lives.