Most review sites have never touched the products they rank. We’re the opposite — if it’s on this site, it’s been in our house, on our bodies, or under our kids.
Here’s how it actually works.
We buy it. We live with it.
Most of what we review, we bought with our own money — and you’ll see the credit card receipts in our photos to prove it. When a brand sends us something to test, we tell you right in the review. Either way, the verdict doesn’t change: we’ve returned plenty of free stuff with a “we’d skip it.”
The family is the test lab.
A travel suit gets worn through actual airports. An e-bike gets ridden by a 7-year-old (with the seat all the way down). Sheets survive — or don’t survive — spilled rosé. Mrs. We Tried It is the toughest reviewer in the house, and if a product doesn’t make it past her, it doesn’t get our recommendation. The point: we test things the way you’d actually use them, not in a studio for an afternoon.
Months and years, not days.
Anyone can like a product in week one. Our reviews get updated as things break in (or just break). Some of our products have been in rotation for years — and when our opinion changes, we update the review and say so. You’ll see “Update” notes all over this site. That’s on purpose.
The rating, in plain English.
Every product gets a score out of 10. It’s not a lab measurement — it’s our honest answer to one question: knowing everything we know now, would we buy it again? A 9+ means we’d buy it again without blinking. A 7 means it’s good, with caveats we’ll spell out. Below that, we’ll tell you what to get instead.
What we’d skip.
Every review includes the stuff we didn’t like — even on products we love. If a review ever reads like an ad, call us out. The fastest way to lose you is to pretend something’s perfect.
How we make money (the honest version).
Some links on this site are affiliate links — if you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That’s how we fund buying more stuff to test. It has never decided a verdict: we earn nothing recommending you skip a product, and we do that constantly.
Got a product you want us to put through the wringer? Get in touch — if it survives our house, it’ll survive yours.