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Casserole dishes, electric heaters and silk shirts: your autumnal favourites show you’re hunkering down – with one eye on party season
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Jane Hoskyn Mon 2 Nov 2026 11.45 CET Share Prefer the Guardian on Google A utumn, we’ve been expecting you. After a September that seemed to miss the memo about changing seasons, October made up for it with serial storms and nights that drew in faster than you could say “fall back”. Time to hunker down and, whisper it, even put the heating on – or at least fire up an electric heater if you’re still holding out on the radiators.
But while you were drawn to the indoor pleasures of heaters, hot casseroles and hotter coffee , you’ve also had your eye on party season, or at least been thinking about venturing into those corners of your wardrobe that haven’t seen daylight since March. From a clothes steamer to breathe new life into your threads, a pencil skirt and sheer silk shirt to update your wardrobe, to a vitamin C serum to keep your skin glowing all winter, these were your favourite things in October.
View image in fullscreen Dreo fan heater
“Within a few seconds of activation, it had begun to make a chilly room feel cosy,” wrote Pete Wise of the overall winner in his test to find the best electric heaters . Five minutes later, on the highest setting, his “jumper was well and truly off”. Better yet, with a power rating of up to 2kW, you’d expect it to make a right racket – and it doesn’t. At a maximum of 46dB, Pete said it’s “far quieter than any other fan heater I tested”.
View image in fullscreen Habitat 5.3l cast iron casserole dish
Sophie Wyburd painted an irresistible picture in her roundup of the best casserole dishes : “Tinkering over a pot in the kitchen, glass of wine in hand … while the scent of beef shin ragu wafts through the house.” Yep, that’s me sold. At about a fifth of the price of the winning Le Creuset , Habitat’s chic oven-safe pot provides “brilliant heat retention at an excellent price”. It comes in autumnal orange , too (£47.50).
View image in fullscreen Dreamfarm Garject garlic press with peel ejector
Where there’s a casserole, there’s got to be garlic. Reader Stuart Hatcher recommended three things in Lucy Pavia ’s rundown of 15 everyday items that make your life a teeny bit better , and all three made it into your top 20 products of October. Your favourite was this garlic press that ended Stuart’s “time-consuming chopping”. (The other two, in case you’re wondering, are a pair of wrist wraps for weightlifting and a portable air pump that can blow up an air bed “effortlessly”.)
View image in fullscreen De’Longhi Magnifica Start ECAM220.60
“It makes espresso. It makes black coffee. It makes cappuccino. It produces hot water on demand,” wrote Sasha Muller in his five-star De’Longhi Magnifica Start review . “Simple to use, sensibly designed … For everyday coffee drinkers, it’s a great buy.” And many everyday coffee drinkers among you did indeed buy it – the fact that it’s suddenly dark at 5pm may have helped fuel your desire for a decent caffeine fix.
View image in fullscreen Philips 1000 Series handheld steamer
Free yourself from the iron with this lightweight handheld steamer from Philips – Zoë Phillimore ’s top budget pick in our guide to the best clothes steamers . “T…