HGTV’s Best of the Best Awards 2026: The 30 Absolute Best Products HGTV Shopping Experts Tested This Year

Rowenta’s Freemove Cordless Steam Iron is a workhorse for fighting wrinkles. It charges on a base, so you don’t have to worry about tangled cords as you move it freely to iron and steam. It heats up in less than 30 seconds and has a precision tip to help you get into all the nooks and crannies.

The Comfort Dreamer blanket was the best blanket we tested in 2026. We loved its heavy weight and silky, bubble-like texture, with a unique stretch that makes it really hug your body. Even with its fuzzy, soft texture, we didn’t notice any shedding throughout our testing process.

This laundry detergent is inspired by the scent of your boyfriend’s cologne on that hoodie you stole. Its woody, masculine scent is unusual for a laundry detergent, and we found it complex in the best way. We also liked that it came with an easy-to-use pump for dispensing.

Cooling, smooth and breathable, the Olive & Crate Eucalyptus Sheet Set is one of our favorites. We found the fabric breathable and moisture-wicking, and we also liked its soft, gentle feel against the skin.

Many people have decided to ditch their irons for steamers, but if you're having a hard time picking just one, the CHI Deluxe 2-in-1 Digital Steamer does both. Its best feature is a two-sided attachment that removes lint on one side and pet hair on the other as you steam or iron.

Out of the 20 models we tested to find the best space heater, the Dreo Tower Heat 718 was our favorite. It’s straightforward and extremely intuitive to use and, most important for a space heater, it heats a room quickly and effectively — even a larger space. We also found it had some of the best safety features of the models we tested, with built-in tip-over and overheat protection.

After testing the Hatch Restore 3 over three months, we found it’s one of the few sleep tech devices you actually need. It works as a sunrise alarm clock with customizable lights, a nightlight and a sound machine, making it a great option for people who want to improve their sleep and reduce phone use in bed. It helped our tester sleep better and wake up easy for more productive mornings.

Our best overall air purifier in our 2026 Clean Home Awards, the Coway Airmega Mighty 2, is an incredibly attractive air purifier. Its sleek design is more akin to a piece of modern artwork, and it also does an incredibly good job of filtering air. It covers large spaces, senses changes in air quality and handles air pollution with ease, making it an easy choice for our top spot.

Our best overall outdoor projector, the MoGo 3 Pro, stood out for its all-around quality and convenient setup. It has great sound, a premium 1080p display and built-in Google TV with such apps as Netflix. The included Powerbase Stand makes it easy to adjust the projection, so you don’t have to worry about stacking books to get the angle right. It’s also ultra portable with a design that breaks down easily for storage.

You’ll likely never want to go back to scooping litter after trying the Litter-Robot 5. We found it’s a lot simpler than it looks: The machine senses when your cat is inside, waits to run a cleaning cycle after your cat leaves and the litter clumps, rotating to remove the clumps and leave a clean litter bed. The automatic cleaning reduces litter smells, making it especially helpful for households with multiple cats. It’s pricey, but we found it’s a game changer for keeping things cleaner and taking some of the hassle out of owning a cat.

Public Goods Natural Dish Soap is simple, down to its packaging, and that’s what makes it great. It easily cuts through cooking grime, even tougher messes like dried-on eggs, and has a simple, plant-based ingredient list.

In our testing, the Attitude Kitchen Cleaner Spray lifted grease and dried residue with ease, leaving surfaces shiny. We liked its natural formula and pleasant, zesty scent, especially for a product we’re using in the kitchen.

If you need to quickly tackle an unpleasant bathroom smell, we found that these cleaner sheets are the ones to reach for. Just drop a sheet in the toilet, let it dissolve, brush and flush. The sheets clean the toilet and leave a fresh scent in the bathroom.

We were a little skeptical when we first heard of powdered dish soap, but the Blueland Dish Soap Powder Starter Set won us over. We found that the powder’s gritty texture worked really well to scrub away stuck-on grease. It’s also a great plastic-free option for an eco-friendly home.

One of the best tools we’ve tested for getting rid of kitchen crumbs, the KitchenAid Go Cordless Vacuum makes quick work of crumbs and debris as you cook. It’s small enough to fit in a drawer alongside your other kitchen tools, so it’s easy to grab for a quick cleanup.

This year, we tested 22 shower cleaners and scrubbed through a lot of soap scum, and we have high praise for Grove Co. Tub and Tile Cleaner Concentrate. Its concentrated formula goes a long way and, most important, helped us get rid of built-up shower grime during testing.

Having a little luxury in the kitchen can make it easier to get cooking, which is why we recommend this premium dish soap as a kitchen splurge. It’s the best-smelling dish soap we’ve tested, and it works just as well as it smells. It has the quality to match its price and also makes a great gift.

Our editor, Morgan Faulkner, put the Vego raised garden bed to the test over two years to see how it held up. Even after facing everything from direct sun in 100-degree heat to snow and pouring rain, it had no major flaws and didn’t scuff, warp or crack. Its modern, sleek design stands out from the range of available raised garden beds, and its great quality and durability complement its appearance.

You might not give much thought to choosing a garden trowel, but the right one can make gardening tasks significantly easier. We tested 18 garden trowels — digging, planting, scooping and weeding — and the Wilcox All-Pro Trowel was our best overall pick. It was incredibly durable and gave us the leverage needed to make digging easy.

The Giraffe retractable hose reel takes a lot of hassle out of yard work with its streamlined design that installs in only two steps. That's why we named it the best ground-mounted retractable hose in our 2026 Clean Home Awards. It retracts easily, so there’s no need to roll up the hose yourself. We especially like that it mounts directly into the ground, so there’s also no need to drill into the house as you would with a wall-mounted hose reel. And even though it installs directly into the grass in your yard, we found it surprisingly sturdy and durable.

To test electric pruning shears, master gardener Stacy Tornio cut hundreds of branches in her yard. Our best overall electric pruner, the DeWalt 20V Max Cordless Electric Pruner Starter Kit, is pretty hard to beat. It’s extremely lightweight, with a fast trigger response and a consistent motor, and it handled every branch we tested it on with ease. The kit includes an electric pruner and an electric pole pruner that share one battery, and we found it fast, powerful and comfortable for extended use.

We headed outside to till soil and find the very best tiller for soil preparation this year. After testing 16 models, the Honda Mini Tiller-Cultivator was our top pick. It was lightweight, easy to control, powerful and quiet, all while getting the job done.

A good garden fork can go a long way toward making gardening tasks easier on your back. Our best overall pick, the Hoss Standard Garden Fork, made light work of digging through even the toughest soils we tested.

When it comes to tree care, cutting back old branches helps encourage healthy growth, especially for fruit trees. We tested 20 pairs of loppers this year, cutting through hundreds of branches as well as vines and bushes, and the Milwaukee loppers were our best overall pick. They made consistent, clean cuts and tackled even large pieces of wood with minimal effort. We found them reliable and well-made, with the quality to hold up over time.

The Shark Stratos Upright Vacuum was the best overall vacuum for carpet we tested this year. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a cordless or robot vacuum, but it’s reliable and gets the job done. Its large dustbin also means fewer stops to empty it as you clean.

The Bissell CrossWave powered through both wet and dry messes in our testing, mopping and vacuuming without leaving things behind. Its intuitive design makes it easy to use, and it’s cordless with a base for charging. It also separates dry debris from the dirty water collected during mopping.

The Bissell PowerClean DualBrush Vacuum is a little noisy, but it was the best cordless vacuum we tested this year. It stands on its own and reliably cleans up messes across different floor types. You can also use it on upholstery.

Life with pets means a lot of hair, and you need a good vacuum to go along with it. The Bissell CleanView Swivel Rewind Pet Upright Vacuum was our best pick for pet hair on carpet. It’s designed specifically for pet hair, and comes with pet-specific attachments to help reach hair in tough-to-get-to spots. Of course, it picks up other messes, too.

Choosing a sofa is a huge investment, which is why we put the Koala sofa to the test so you don’t have to. Assembling furniture can be a hassle, but this one came together in only 10 minutes. We found it’s a great option for families; it resisted stains, cleaned easily and has machine-washable cushion covers. It even held up to our tester’s 7-year-old practicing WWE moves all over it.

We found that Article’s Lubek outdoor sectional was worth the splurge. We tested it over 16 months and four seasons, exposing it to sun, rain and cold weather, and found that the fabric and wood frame held up incredibly well and cleaned easily. Sometimes the best review of furniture is that nothing happened to it over time. With the Lubek sectional, we had little change to report, which is the ultimate seal of approval.