I'm not up to writing a whole article, but here are the first 5 I thought of, even if not my top 5:

1. Screens. Especially durable, claw-resistant screens. We live in the Caribbean. Enough said.

2. Extension cord / surge protector combos. Everything is plugged into one of those. So, when it blows, we lose a $15 surge suppressor, not hundreds of dollars for a TV and microwave. (to use a recent example)

3. Memory foam mattresses. Bad back. Restless husband. Do the math.

4. Curtains with grommets. Seriously, what brilliant mind invented these things? I remember sticking curtain pins into curtains, which hopefully had pin tape but might not. It was a nightmare. And the curtains always ended up tilted at a weird angle because you got the pins too high or too low.

5. Flap-top trash cans. See previous comment about Caribbean, and open trash cans attracting all sorts of bugs. Plus, our cat loves to go dumpster diving, and will upend all trash baskets throughout the house unless they have flaps. (She got her head stuck in one once, and that was enough to teach her it was a bad idea... after she raced around madly trying to get it off, and we were laughing too hard to help at first.)