I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn’t work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.

Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!

It went from stupid purchase to something I’d gladly replace if it broke.

  • jantin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Scooter. Not an electric one. I had a thought once “hey I did ride one in childhood, maybe it can be a bit of nostalgic fun from time to time”. Got myself the cheapest Chinese thing I could find, “no point investing too much into a fad”.

    Turned out a scooter is absolute peak urban mobility. Short distances become much shorter. Mid-long distances become short. Granted, for a longer trip somehow the time gains diminish, probably because it’s not as efficient as a bike. But a scooter isn’t a long-hauler. It’s there to zip through an empty mall. It’s there to be folded up in a second and brought into a bus or a shop without being a hassle. It’s like 3-4 kg, not too fast for sidewalks but fast enough for bike roads, extremely easy to stop, doubles as a cart when carrying bags of groceries home.

    The chinese one broke after 1 season because I was riding it everywhere. Then I got myself one from a better company, I chose it for small weight and portability. It’s technically children’s thing but I’m well below weight tolerance and also smol so it’s easy to handle. It’s already like a 5th year and whenever it’s not raining or too cold I ride it for shopping, errands, leisure walks, to work… Almost daily.

  • mike94100@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Got a bidet as a joke gift for Christmas a few years ago, it has been an absolute game changer. Hate pooping anywhere but home now, I actually feel clean, and use much less toilet paper.

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    1 year ago

    An oversized poncho cape from the local Goodwill. It was woven in different shades of blue and while I’d never wear it outside, I’ve used it as a wearable blanket at home for a few years now.

    I found out it was actually hand made, and costs 300+ USD from the original shop. Bonus points, I feel like a wizard when I wear it

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Here’s an odd one my wife and I were just talking about. Some years ago, we were redoing our kitchen and the contractor told us to go buy the kitchen faucet we wanted. We went off, looked at several, and picked the one we thought looked the best with what we were doing.

    When the contractor went to install it, he opened the box and a battery pack fell out. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why a faucet would need batteries. It turned out that you can turn it on and off by touching it anywhere (handle, faucet itself, whatever), you just leave the physical handle open and set where you want it, then you can touch on and off. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever and we’d never use it.

    Flash Forward to now and it’s one of the most used conveniences we’ve ever bought. All those times your hands are covered in raw meat or other cooking mess? Just touch the faucet with your elbow. Rinsing a bunch of veggies one at a time? Tap on, tap off. It works flawlessly, unlike those touchless ones at the airport: no delay and works every time. We will never have a kitchen sink without it - my wife wants them for the bathroom.

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    1 year ago

    I needed a “lap desk” or something to put my laptop on, but I wanted it to be low-profile and I could only find a wooden cutting board. Now wooden cutting boards are the only thing I use as lap desks because most actual lap desks I find are super bulky.

  • FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    An ebike: I don’t even really drive anymore most of the time and it beats the hell out of being stuck in traffic. Getting around is fun again.

    I always enjoyed cycling and still ride my MTB, but for getting around town quickly, ebikes are hard to beat.

    • popemichael@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Same here with the ebike. I live near Seattle and everything I need is within a few minutes of ebike driving

      If I can’t ebike, then I uber and it saves me a ton

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      1 year ago

      can we get some more deets on what you use it for in terms of terrain/altitude/distance/weather?

      Seriously considering an ebike to replace a 20 minute car commute (12 miles). There are some 750w used bikes on my local craigslist for ~1-2k USD, but there’s also a super cool dual-motor bike with rear suspension for $3k. Any advice?

      • MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I have an ebike I use as my daily commuter for a distance of 11 km each way (6.8 miles) over decently hilly terrain in a windy city as a large man. It still only takes 25 minutes and I charge my battery once a week? Maybe twice if I’m tired and using more boost.

        Are you mechanically inclined at all? I purchased a motor conversion kit and a battery to convert my regular bike to ebike. It wasn’t really a difficult process, the hardest part was removing the bottom bracket as it was quite stuck. Took some thinking to get enough leverage without having the tool head chew out the bracket teeth. The rest was relatively plug and play. I was able to get the 500 W motor and 48 V 18 A hour battery for ~$1200 CAD together. I use it to commute to work so I wanted a longer range, if you don’t need as much power or as much range you could do it for cheaper.

        I went for a mid drive motor which are more efficient but more expensive than hub drive, if you’re budget conscious you could do a hub drive. From my understanding the hub drive can be more difficult for maintenance (the wheel is a special version, so you need to buy another wheel that works with the hub drive if any issues occur) but I’m no expert.

        All of that is a moot point if you don’t already have a bike to use, but you could find a local bike recycle store to get one cheap? Or you could get a new bike and convert that. I had a marin fairfax 2 that I converted over and it works great, haven’t had any issues and I’ve put on a couple thousand kms on it since converting (the display tracks total distance which is handy). I believe the marin was $700ish new from my local store.

        https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B083J95GJP?geniuslink=true&psc=1

        https://www.amazon.ca/10AH-Electric-Bicycle-Lithinum-Battery/dp/B09C1RP9KV

        You could search for other options if you don’t want to support amazon, there are different sites to source the parts from, those were just the first two that I saw.

        https://ebikes.ca/shop/electric-bicycle-parts/batteries.html?___store=canadian&___from_store=international

        Here’s a battery from a Canadian company.

        https://lunacycle.com/no-drill-battery-mount-kit/

        Here’s a mounting bracket for the battery if the bracket seems unsteady or the holes don’t line up like with mine.

        https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005664281095.html?pdp_npi=3%40dis!CAD!C%24+818.29!C%24+572.80!!!!!%402103205316878009193475419ef97f!12000033941099570!sh!CA!3139937923

        This is what I ended up going with. Let me know if you have any questions, I’d be happy to chat about the process more.

        All of this is canadian specific because I reposted the meat of it from an older comment, bug I’m sure you could find local alternatives easily enough.

  • kanathan@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    My wife bought me a Beard Bib as a joke gift after I found it online one day. It’s basically a smaller version of the bibs you wear when getting your hair cut, but with suction cups attached to the bathroom mirror to hold it horizontal and catch stray hairs when using an electric shaver. It looks ridiculous.

    I now use it every time I trim my beard, even if my wife still laughs at me every time she sees me in it. Cleaning up all the stray hairs was always a pain in the ass, but this thing does a surprisingly good job at catching 99% of the hair, and I can just brush it all into the trash when I’m done.

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    1 year ago

    Bug zapper flyswatter. Like you can buy at Harbor Freight for a few bucks. It might not be a terribly effective solution to the overall fly population, but in terms of grim-bloody-vengeance-per-dollar, it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made.

  • IDatedSuccubi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Mechanical keyboard. Almost had no money back then, but wanted to treat myself. It costed 100$, and I regretted it the next morning. Felt like shit, but it was so cool to type on.

    After 5 years, this metal-frame keyboard managed to survive many outside gigs, long travels, literal war, and it’s still with me. And I still love typing on it. Sometimes I code just to type. You can guess why I don’t use code completion tools.

    • corm@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      I got into mechs and bought a bunch of them over a few years, my last one being a ducky with silent reds.

      3 years ago I bought a microsoft ergo keyboard and have never looked back. So comfortable.

      Now, maybe what I should have bought was an ergodox, but I’m too happy to justify spending $150+ to try it out.

  • Dathknight@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    A 3D-Printer, I thought I just play around with it and get bored, but you discover so many things that you can do!

    The handle on the fridge broke? Print new ones. Need a Flowerpot? Just print one. The router needs a wallmount? I have one ready in a few Hours.

    Also I can watch it print for hours, very fascinating and calming.

    • ShooBoo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I got one to print parts for my drones thinking it would be no big deal and it turned in to a hobby in itself.

    • darreninthenet@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      So noob question - I got a 3D printer relatively recently and have printed a few things with it by downloading files from various websites.

      How do you go about making or getting files for your specific custom jobs like these please?

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        1 year ago

        I used FreeCAD to create my objects. It has quite a steep learning curve but it works for me.

        I heard good things about TinkerCAD which should be easier to use for some quick ideas.

  • BongRipsMcGee420@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I got the glasses with 90 degree prisms in them so you can read while laying down. The person on the product page looked like an idiot and thought it would be funny, but I’m on my 3rd pair now

  • AThing4String@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Bed sheet suspenders. Dumb problem, stupidly cheap, horribly made, and ABSOLUTELY fixed the friggin sheets being yanked off the corner of the bed twice a night by my tumble-dry-medium sleeper of a spouse.

    When they finally broke after almost 2 years I sewed some that’ll last 10 years and I don’t regret them at all.

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Maybe not stupid, but I purchased a pair of bone conducting headphones just because I thought they would be better for running, and harder for me to lose. I wasn’t expecting much, but damn, they have been so much better than I expected. Even though the sound quality isn’t quite as good, they work so much better with my sensory processing issues, and I can just leave them on all day without concern. Because I’ve got curly hair, people don’t even know I’m wearing them, and because they don’t go in my ear canal, they don’t impact my ability to hear/talk/interact with the world around me.

    • weariedfae@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Uhhh I have sensory issues but am uncomfortable while wearing headphones. What’s this? Do what now? What kind of headphones? I NEED ALL THE INFORMATION WITHOUT OPENING A SECOND APP THAT IS FULL OF ADS AND NO USEFUL INFORMATION!

    • lostferret@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Man i had the opposite experience. Bought some great ones for running and lab work but when i set them at a volume i could hear they were basically just normal headphones and everyone else could hear them too.

      Im a skinny dude with no hearing issues, wish they worked better for me.

  • Snowman44@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I got a really girly looking beanie (I’m a guy) at a white elephant gift exchange and it became my favorite beanie. It got stolen and I’m sad that I can’t find it again.

    • TomTheGeek@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Had a totally custom beanie made at Etsy. See if you can find something similar. They can usually customize it to get a close match to the old one.

  • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A while ago someone posted a picture on Reddit of an old cast iron rotary food grater/slicer and asked “what is this thing?”. A bunch of people said it was for grating things like cheese or slicing vegetables. Some people posted the original French or Italian names of it, which was difficult to find. Someone said look up “Rotary grater” and they’re all over Amazon for dirt cheap. I bought a cheap plastic one for like $20, figuring I’d use it a few times and forget about it.

    I use the damn thing multiple times a week for grating blocks of cheese. It can grate a 1 pound block of cheese in like 30 seconds, 2-3 rotations usually gives me more than enough cheese for myself. It’s so much easier to use than a box grater, and no possibility of destroying your finger tips or knuckles!