Amazon’s Black Friday Sale: Our Picks For the Best Deals

Welcome to the unofficial-official start to holiday shopping. Whether you decide to brave the stores in person or stick to deal hunting online, Black Friday through Cyber Monday are prime days for savings. Whether you’re looking to find a great gift or are just shopping for a gift for your home (or yourself!), Amazon has some serious deals going on. We’ll be updating this post throughout the coming days with our picks for the best deals for your gift list and your home, so you won’t have to look far to snag a steal.

If you’ve been considering a new mattress, today’s a great day to get a deal on one. Worried about buying a mattress online without getting to test it out? Tuft & Needle offers a “100 Night Sleep Trial” — if you don’t like yours they’ll refund your money and ask you to donate yours to a local charity. Here are some Tuft & Needles reviews from Apartment Therapy readers.

I’m sure I’m not alone in being curious to learn more about my ancestry and genetic health through DNA testing. After sending in a saliva sample, 23andMe returns 75+ online personalized genetic reports for you to pore over, 5 of them related to your ancestry and 70 about your health risks. Read more at 23andMe.

Drastically reducing the price of the cult-favorite Instant Pot seems to be a new Black Friday tradition. Have a small kitchen or cook for one person? Try the smaller version for $49.

If a traditional slow cooker is more your style, consider this top-of-the-line wifi-enabled version that lets you control it from afar — perhaps from your desk at work!

Tired of your kids borrowing your iPad all the time? This was my best Black Friday purchase last year. The 16 GB version is $20 cheaper but I highly recommend you get the 32 otherwise you’ll find yourself “managing storage” on a daily basis. Another recommendation: a monthly subscription to Amazon’s FreeTime. For a few dollars a month ($2.99 for Prime Members) you get access to hundreds of kid-friendly apps, books, movies and shows.

Two of the the four colors of this doorbell (Satin Nickel and Venetian Bronze) are on super sale today. “Answer” your door whether you’re not actually home or are just too lazy (or sick, or tired, or just plain busy) to go to the door yourself. When someone rings your bell you can see them, hear them and talk to them via your smartphone, tablet or computer.

I wrote a review of this litter box a few years ago and can personally recommend it especially if you travel frequently, are pregnant or want to change the cat litter as infrequently as possible (isn’t that everyone?).

Upholstered headboards have never been more popular (I bought one two years ago and am never going back) and this tufted version is a classic that won’t go out of style.

If you’ve been holding off an a vacuum cleaner upgrade, today’s the day to finally hit the buy button. Dyson’s engineering and suction power are no joke and their Ball vacuum is perennially popular.

Still not ready to spring for a pricier Dyson? The Hoover Air has “Steerable Technology” to easily maneuver around furniture and corners and weighs less than 14 pounds.

If you long ago gave up printed magazine subscriptions, maybe it’s time for a rethink. I find flipping through an actual magazine very relaxing especially in the food and home categories. There are a lot of Black Friday deals today on magazine subscriptions —- printed or Kindle — many for .50 cents or less an issue. A few favorites: Martha Stewart Living, Rachel Ray Every Day, Sunset, The New Yorker, Wired and Elle Decor.

There are good deals on a few FitBit trackers today, but for my money, I like the slimmest one, the Alta. Four of the six colors are on sale today: black, fuchsia, blue/gray and the peppy coral one above.

Several Apartment Therapy staffers have bought this for their kids and raved about it to me. Essentially, its a clever mashup between hands-on, tactile play and a digital game. The Genius Kit comes with an iPad base plus five games: Masterpiece, Numbers, Words, Tangram, and Newton. Note: you must already have an iPad to use.