When we moved into our Ojai house, one of the things I was most excited to do was search for and carefully select everything from a cleaning bucket to a bottle opener. As we’d kept our Brooklyn apartment, we needed to start from scratch in Ojai.

I’ve spent the last 15 years in the kitchen and home business, and I thought it would be an important exercise as I plan my next business to put myself in the shoes of a customer. Plus, I love shopping, which I guess is like saying, “Plus, I’m American.”

I wanted to experience what it would be like searching for a handmade mixing bowl in what I deem the perfect shape (more on this in a future post), or a good steamer for my clothes, or a reasonably-priced vintage rolling pin.

I plan to continue looking for things when I travel and to support local businesses wherever I can, but when we moved in I was managing two tight book deadlines, some other work issues, this Substack, and the remaining construction on our house. In other words, I was busy like many people, and did a bunch of my shopping on the Internet.

I have a leg up on most people because I know a lot of companies and small makers. I think of myself as someone who’s dialed into where to look and what to look for.

Yet the TL;DR is that it’s been a humbling experience. Shopping online has become a lot less fun. The ad industry has rendered it useless for discovering new products from companies that don’t pay for advertising—namely, individual designers and craftspeople. Internet product search is now a digital version of the Sunday circular: a place for big brands to push discounts and deals.

People say that online customer reviews have improved the experience of buying mass items (like a vacuum cleaner or a blender), because you can get a read on a product’s effectiveness. But this isn’t true. Amazon, for instance, elevates products with lots of positive reviews, which locks in a product’s position in search results, making it increasingly difficult for a better product to get traction. Often it’s pay-to-play with Amazon, where the only way for a company to get its product on the first page of results is to buy a “sponsored” placement. This makes shopping for the best product even more opaque and confounding.

There are review sites like Wirecutter and The Strategist, but even they have fallen prey to featuring brands that they know they’ll get good affiliate rates with. You rarely come across a brand on these sites that’s a one-person entity without a marketing budget.

Big brands compete for your dollar. Discovery and delight are dead.

But not if you talk to the right people. As has been the case forever. I now know who to ask about pillows, plates, and stoves: you. And for everything else, you can always ask me.

A few months ago, I heard from Grier Stockman, who I knew from Block Shop, a textile company she started with her sister. Grier had left Block Shop to co-found Rec League, a platform that collects the recommendations of tastemakers of all stripes—in shopping, travel, and beyond—which people can join to access.

Grier asked if I’d like to gather up my home, cooking, and travel recommendations. For this born list maker, the timing was uncanny. I had been keeping a huge spreadsheet of the products I was researching for our house. I also keep travel itineraries, book lists, and logs of makers that I like for my new business.

Today, I’m excited to share my Rec League lists and guides. Some are free, some are paid. (Scroll to the end for a special discount code.) Why? Because this isn’t just something I jotted down. It’s my style and point of view; it’s based on the decades I’ve spent studying home goods, working with makers, traveling, and learning.

While some products have affiliate links, most of the products I like come from makers and companies that don’t play the affiliate game. I don’t recommend with affiliate sales in mind; I recommend based on my taste and knowledge (even the products that are sold through Amazon).

You can think of it as a sourcebook that continually updates and expands—I will periodically add to existing collections and launch new ones (such as Outdoor Living and Tabletop). You’ll get updates (if you want) whenever anything new is added. I hope you’ll enjoy what I’ve shared and find it useful for your own lives.

Btw, paid Homeward subscribers will get a portion of these recs through my posts. But if you want a complete resource with everything in one place—including all my baking tools, glassware research, hosting gift recommendations, and everything I bought for the Ojai house—then Rec League’s the spot.

Yours in sharing the useful, the worthy, the unusual, the beautiful, and the delightful stuff,

Amanda

P.S. Free subscribers, here is a 15% discount that you can share, along with this post!

Paid subscribers, you’ll receive 25% off with this special code: ...