We buy cloth diapers for our baby, as a greener, cheaper and healthier alternative to disposables. Several companies make cloth diapers with snaps or Velcro fasteners, but those can hit $20 apiece or more.

Flat diapers are much cheaper, and can be folded to fit any size baby, but there’s no built-in fastener. The traditional approach used to be safety pins, but it’s a daunting task to pin a diaper without stabbing the baby or yourself with the sharp point.

The Snappi diaper fastener is a rubber elongated “T” with plastic teeth at each of the three ends. The teeth hold the diaper securely, but are too short to go through the diaper and into the baby. Putting the Snappi on is about as easy as using Velcro, and taking it off is even easier. It’s simple to clean and has a lifespan of about six months.

We tried an off-brand version first, and it nearly sent us back to pins -- the teeth wouldn't hold, and the plastic bits that connect the teeth to the stretchable body of the “T” always separated from the rubber. The Snappi brand fasteners never gave us any trouble.

I’ve had the same one for almost ten years. Sometimes called the “two-bit snapper,” it’s a very simple and clever spring-based hammer that you use instead of the nail set-hammer combo normally used to pound in finishing nails. It’s excellent when you need to put up molding in tight spots and corners. Its compact size means that it can always live on your tool belt. You just pull back one end and the spring does the hammering for you.

It seems to be a lot more accurate than a center punch-hammer combo, since one hand holds the tool and nail together, while the other pulls back to snap the spring; you get fewer errant holes around the nail you’re trying to punch in. It’s one of those tools that is so simple, I wonder why more people don’t have one. I’ve only used it for finishing nails, but Spring Tools makes it in other variations, as well. This tool is just so elegant: simple, functional and as utilitarian as a bicycle.

I bought this sugar dispenser from King Arthur Flour a couple of years ago, and it’s been a sturdy, reliable tool. It’s sized to accommodate a five-pound bag of sugar. You slide the bag inside, open it up, trim the bag top to the level of the top of the container, and put on the lid. There’s a little flap on the inside of the lid that fits right inside the bag of sugar, holding it open and keeping the sugar from sifting down the sides. The lid has two openings, one is a small pour spout, and the other is large enough for scooping out sugar with a measuring cup. The spout is slightly flexible, so if a lump clogs it I can squeeze the sides of the spout to crush the lump. The whole thing is ant and waterproof when sealed shut.

This is not a sexy matte-black high tech kind of tool, just a solid, well thought-out container that makes working with, and storing, sugar or flour much simpler, easier and cleaner. Using it makes me very happy.

Also, King Arthur Flour’s online store and print catalog are packed with tons of nifty cooking tools. The King Arthur Flour’s Cookie Companion and Baker’s Companion books are fabulous cookbooks.

Greywater is the term for all household wastewater except for the toilet and kitchen sink. This is the only comprehensive book I know of on the subject, and in this fifth and expanded edition, Art Ludwig explains how to choose, build, and use a variety of simple greywater systems. There are clear drawings for sending washing machine water into the garden (with or without a drum), for putting diversion valves on bathtubs or showers, for creating “mulch basins,” for ultra-simple setups like “Garden Hose Through the Bathroom,” and “Dishpan Dump (Bucketing)” -- the latter of which I've been practicing lately to the great benefit of both septic system and compost piles.

There’s a large section on branched drains -- splitting the flow and dispersing greywater to a number of mulch basins in the garden -- using gravity flow, no pumps or electricity. Mistakes made in greywater systems over the years are documented here, along with suggested improvements, and there's a two-page System Selection Chart with a comparison of 18 different systems.

I have the Stanley Panel Carry, previously reviewed on Cool Tools, but greatly prefer the Gorilla Gripper, which works with panel widths from 3/8 to 1 1/8 inch. It is about six times more expensive, but it works significantly better for moving large panels.

The Stanley tool goes under the bottom edge of the sheet. This can be awkward if it’s heavy material, such as plywood, and seems more likely to result in damaged corners. Using the Stanley holder, I had to bend my back at an awkward angle to pick up the sheet -- the length from the tray (where the bottom edge of the sheet rests) to the handle is too short. The Gorilla Gripper lifts from the top of the panel, so there’s less need to bend before lifting, and I can keep my back straight. Also, with the Gorilla Gripper it's easier to adjust your balance, since you don't have the friction of the material moving the tool from side to side.

Mead making, beer brewing, bread baking, urban poultry raising, container planting, pirate gardening, foraging, pickling, bicycle-powered hauling, solar-oven making and anti-car culture ranting are just a fraction of what you’ll absorb plumbing the archives of HomegrownEvolution.com. Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, husband and wife urban homesteaders, guide those of us who can’t make it back to the land on how best to incorporate aspects of it into our modern city-bound lives.

They’re encouraging, but don’t preach or pretend to be perfect, and therein lies their appeal. Erik and Kelly are friends of mine, and over the past few years their website and their book, The Urban Homestead, have led my household, step by small step, to be less consumptive and more productive.

I’ve tried lots of different small notebooks. Field Notes are the best ones I’ve found, small and thin enough to really have with you all the time, in a shirt or pants pocket. I’ve carried them for over a year, and my small notebook is used every day for ideas, shopping lists, account numbers/passwords (coded, of course), design sketches, references.

I am now laminating the covers with simple self-seal lamination sheet to lengthen the life of the cardboard cover.

I love leather, but all the leather and Moleskine notebooks (previously reviewed on Cool Tools) are simply too thick for me to carry all the time in a pocket, which is where the Field Notes pads have made the difference.

When I began gardening I used a generic plastic watering can from a hardware store, but it didn’t give a gentle enough flow for newly planted seeds, nor a fast enough stream for larger plants that drink a lot. The polyethylene Haws can’s separate spout attachments—right angle downspout and oval brass rose—are outstanding features that make it a versatile performer. The right angle is useful for pinpointing the spot I’m aiming to water and also for avoiding watering a plant’s leaves. The brass rose angled upward lets forth a gentle rain for delicate seedlings; angled downward it gives a still-gentle but stronger dispersed stream. With both spouts removed, a solid stream shoots straight out of the can for deeper watering and hitting the tough-to-reach corners of my raised beds. Two “parking spots” on the body of the can hold the spout attachments not in use, so they’re never misplaced. Changing modes -- and changing back -- couldn’t be easier.
The only drawback I’ve encountered is that the fine holes in the brass rose clog easily and need to be cleaned regularly to work well. But until I graduate to drip irrigation, this is the perfect tool.