I’m not a big fan of mass-produced plastic junk, particularly imported junk. Must every little thing we purchase be made of plastic, on other continents?

But once in a while, I come across a mass-produced plastic product that feels right. Usually, it’s the quality of the design and manufacture that sets such products apart from the oceans of crap that seem to fill our retail shelves. Often, but not always, they are made in Canada or the United States.

Case in point: The E-Z-Foldz step stool. At first glance, it looks like another one of these crappy plastic “gadgets” you might see on the cable TV shopping channel late at night. You could be forgiven for dismissing it without a second thought.

But this thing is great. It’s one of these plastic treasures that actually lives up to the potential, the promise, that the marketing material seems to offer. It folds flat, it opens easily, it feels sturdy when you stand or sit on it. It hasn’t pinched my fingers once…so far.

On my little C-Dory 22, it seems like this thing is just the right height, a lot of the time. It’s just right for my 3-year-old to brush her teeth at the galley sink. It’s just right for my feet if I sit sideways at the helm seat during a meal or conversation. It’s just right for stepping on/off the boat when tied up to particularly low dock floats. It’s just right for tying shoes, or for sitting in the cockpit to work on a decade-old tangle of nylon cord I found in a box of old “boating stuff”.

And when I’m done with it, I fold it up and put it away; it’s amazing how many narrow storage spots there are on the boat.

The downside: It has goofy “stick-on” plastic feet on the bottom…why? The whole thing’s made of plastic…does the structural material mark some floor surfaces? I don’t know. I don’t expect those little feet to remain intact six months from now. Also, while the only packaging is stickers applied to the stool itself (that’s good), the adhesive leaves a residue (that’s bad). Finally, I’ve only had it a couple of weeks: not a downside…it’s just that I don’t know how robust it is, or how well it will respond to the marine environment. We’ll see how well it ages.