18 Simple Joys That Make Us Preposterously Happy

Like new socks, and wobbly babies falling on their patootie

Aug 06, 2026

While winning the lottery so you can buy a really ugly boat to park in the rich people marina, along with a captain’s hat with those two beer can holders and straws on it, would be an awesome feeling — many of the greatest joys in life are the simple ones.

Although the boat thing is pretty good.

My parents did that.

When I was little, before they lost everything in a real estate crash, they bought a big ole houseboat they bought with some friends. It wasn’t new or fancy, but it was some of the best times of my life. I loved it. The yacht-nozzles in the marina did not. My parents, who never back down from a challenge, painted big ole flamingos on the sides of it.

That wasn’t enough though, so they painted top hats and monocles on the flamingos.

My parents are phenomenal (and probably explain why I am the way that I am).

But for those of us without top-hatted flamingo boat money, we can make ourselves proposterously happy with the simple joys of life…

1. A Pull-Through Parking Spot

Oh, the sheer joy of a pull-through parking spot. It’s like the parking gods smiled on you, called ahead, and reserved it specifically for your Corolla.

Pulling through is the parking equivalent of not pulling out.

2. Folding the Perfect Laundry Stack

I’ve been folding laundry for over 30 years now and still haven’t figured out how to fold everything exactly the same every time. It’s quite mind-boggling to me that the stack of laundry never looks like the perfect starting Jenga lineup. It looks more like the second-last move in a game of Jenga, and my laundry is about to collapse on itself like a laundryian celestial supernova.

My leaning tower of laundry makes me giggle every time.

This will remain a great joy until somebody builds a clothes dryer where the clothes come out folded. How did we put a man on the moon almost 60 years ago, have a computer in our palm, and AI that can do everything for us — and still no self-folding laundry apparatus?

3. Pooping

I’m talking about a particularly good poop. The kind that makes your pants fit better. The kind that makes you feel lighter on your feet. The type of crap that cleared out the fart tunnel for a few days.

4. Knowing What You’re Having for Dinner

The daily struggle of figuring out what to shove in your pie hole to avoid dying is possibly the biggest, ongoing battle of adulting. But those days where you already know what you’re having for dinner — ooph, adultian perfection.

Maybe your partner picked, maybe your phone automatically and accidentally ordered Uber Eats, maybe you have that big wheel from The Price is Right and each box is a meal commandment. However you do it, it’s a grownuppian win right there.

5. Firefly Raves

There’s nothing more zen-inducing than watching fireflies put on nature’s light show for you. It’s a silent rave right there on your porch. Spotting some of those bioluminescent buddies could put a smile on the most crotchety of faces.

6. Baby Laughter

Hearing a baby laugh is nature’s Lexapro.

That sweet little maniacal cackle can instantly brighten your day. The work behind making and keeping a baby is too much for my arse though, so instead of making, borrowing or stealing one — I just look on TikTok for animals making babies laugh. I highly recommend getting this in your algorithm, because it’ll make you happier than a tornado in a trailer park.

7. Book Shopping

Will we likely just add them to the pile of 47 other books we bought and totally plan on reading even though it’s been a year? Yes, but pfft — mind yo business, book stores are just literate dopamine.

8. Your Favorite Song Coming on the Radio

Could I just stream it on one of the endless music apps I have on my phone? Yes, but it hits different when it just randomly plays on the radio. It’s like the radio-ian gods are playing it just for you. Even better is that there are tens of thousands out there rocking out with you, in a psychic musical bond.

9. Finding Money

The move to digital money has robbed us of one of the great pleasures of life, finding money. Maybe you found money in a pocket, maybe in the laundry machine; either way it’s a major dopamine win. We know that it’s our money, in theory; but when you find it, it’s not — it’s free money.

10. Waking Up With No Alarm

There’s a special place in hell for whoever thought to create a digital version of a rooster to wake us up in the morning with an ‘Aeehhh, aeehh’ sound. But props to the person who created the snooze button.

Waking up to an alarm sucks. But when you get to let yourself wake up naturally, when your brain intended? Super win.

11. Babies Falling On Their Butts

Is it mean to watch a baby walk like someone who just did nine shots of tequila, and hope they fall on their butts? Yes, but it’s a natural human instinct. It’s just too cute to pass up watching them fall on their Pamper’d patootie.

Have I slightly nudged a baby to fall over?

I mean…yeah.

My apologies to my nephews, but them falling on their Huggies-wrapped butt was too big of a temptation. I’m glad they don’t read my stuff, and will never know. And I’m especially thankful since, despite being only 12 and 14, they’re both bigger than me and could kick my ass (but I could just hide behind grandma, who they’re still afraid of).

12. That Freshly Baked Smell

It doesn’t even matter what was baked. Anything, cookies, bread. It all smells like heaven. You could cook a cinnamon-coated tire, and it’ll give you an instant smellgasm.

It’s the culinary equivalent of that new car smell.

13. New Socks

Old socks just don’t sock as well as new socks sock. While a nicely worn-in pair can be nice, that feeling of putting on a fresh pair is a premier adulting experience. That fresh supportive cushioning is unparalleled. Putting on a new pair of toe tubes is a real footgasm.

14. Car Window Dogs

When you see a car on the road with a dog with its head out the window, that’s a win for the day. Watching those big ole gums flap in the wind while it tries to eat air is a free serotonin boost every time.

15. Matching Laundry Socks

They all match, every single one of them. It’s a modern laundry miracle when it happens. Plus, it means we beat the laundry sock monster who wasn’t able to suck our single sock into a black hole of hosiery.

16. A Compliment From a Stranger

I could live for months solely off the compliment from a stranger. A young lady complimented my dress a couple months ago while I was in Walmart; I was grinning ear-to-ear for a week. The only way that moment could live rent-free in my head any longer is if it had pockets, so I could’ve shoved my meat paws into them, twirled, and exclaimed ‘and it has pockets!’

17. Clean Sheets

Slipping into freshly washed sheets is the best night of the week. Could we do it every night? Technically, yes, but putting on a fitted sheet is exhausting. And you have to put them on straight from the dryer so that you don’t lose your mind trying to fold them, which is akin to folding origami into a fire-breathing dragon.

18. A Warm Towel

Warming a towel isn’t difficult; simply throw it on spin cycle for a few minutes, or wet it and nuke that fluffy summabitch with electromagnetic radiation. But most of us don’t do it.

We wait until we encounter a warm towel out in the wild. On the happy end of that spectrum, you’ll get one during a luxurious spa experience; on the crappy end, you’ll get one in a hospital.

Microwaving a towel definitely sounds like an easier way to warm luxury than getting stabbed.

When you take a moment to recognize the joy in the small things, you’ve learned how to live well.

There are a lot of things that we can’t afford, and other things that we have no control over in life — but relishing a roll in a fresh set of clean sheets (especially with freshly-shaven legs, men, you really should try this) is a simple joy that’s free and on-demand.