What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?

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.
- Bidet crew represent
  
  There are dozens of us!
  
  Bidet 2024!!!
- baby wipes are the next best thing when you need to go on the go!
  
  Just don't flush them please. Even the "flushable" kind clog pipes.
- Bought a $80 bidet but it won’t fit my apartment toilet

When I worked at a small startup, we were moving to a new office and I was asked to help with the buildout. I engaged with the flooring vendor, and he came by one day to drop off a carpet sample. He put it on my desk where my mouse was. It was a rectangle sample of tight knit office carpet, about 18”x22”. When I got back to my desk, I just put my mouse on top of it and started using it as a mouse pad. That was 15 years and 3 companies ago, and I still use it as my mousepad. It’s perfect for the mouse to glide on, soft enough for my wrist to rest on, absorbent of sweat or drink condensation, and large enough I never hit the edge. I will never not use it. It is my mouse carpet, and I love it.

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
- How do you know you're not a wizard when you wear it? Have you tried magic?
- I bet its fantastic orb pondering wear.
- That sounds like a game changer.
- I was a Snuggie hater for many years, but I got an off-brand one as a Christmas gift probably 10 years ago and I live in that thing when I'm at home. It's great for when I want to be cozy and play video games but don’t want to put my controller under the blanket.
- Shadow wizard money gang
- If you ever break or have surgery on any part of your arm, you'll be very happy to have that cape in the winter. I have a couple from when I broke my wrist and used them again when I had shoulder surgery.
- You need to get a matching wizard hat

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.
- Does it have a timer safety thing? I know my cat would turn the faucet on and let it flood the house lol.
  
  It does! It runs for minutes without retapping, but not like ten minutes. Never really timed it, and only noticed when I was filling the sink up (it's a big sink).
  
  I have a Delta branded one. Yea it goes off after a few minutes.
  
  the wet bandits strike again!
- I bought a house with these and didn't realize it had this feature for like a year (batteries had died). Now I love it. I find myself taping every faucet it use and am annoyed when others don't turn on.
  I actually bought a handfree soap dispenser to go next to it, which is a great combo. Preparing meat or something, I can clean my hands and tap sink with elbow and not worry about cross contamination of everything.
  
  My wife and I always laugh when we catch ourselves tapping other faucets. The soap dispenser sounds like a good idea.
  
  They make wall plug adapters for them, no more batteries.
- This sounds like something I'd like to get for the shower, but with multiple memory settings, that's a much different product.... Unless I ducted two shower knobs.... Oh fuck I feel a project coming on...
  
  We're about to redo our bathrooms and have started looking at things. One thing we saw that sounded cool are these new thermostatic shower controls: you set them to a temperature and it mixes the water to keep it at that temperature regardless of fluctuations in the hot and cold input. Huh, sounds neat. So we looked at one - over $3000 for just the valve. It doesn't sound that neat.
- You can buy wall plug adapters for them no more batteries.

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.
- I read that as “fap desk” was intrigued then disappointed.
  
  For fap desk you really want silicone
  
  Just cut a hole in the cutting board
- Duuuude. That's a creative idea I might also use if I need a lap desk again. And something easy for if you need to put a laptop on a soft surface, won't be wobbly like the bean bag ones.
- I also ended up doing this after my dad suggested it as an idea... and it's actually a really great suggestion, they work fantastically well for this purpose!
  
  Yeah it's exactly what I was looking for! The one I'm currently using was actually the only cutting board that was big enough in the store that I was in, so it has goofy cookings decals all over it 😂
- The "epicurian" brand is perfect for this, or their knockoffs. Its like 1/4" thick (6mm) composite wood. I have one that even fits in my laptop bag - way better than any designated "lap board" I've ever found.
- That's what I ended up using as well. Best ten euro

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.

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.
- 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
  
  Feel free to check out !micromobility@lemmy.world
- 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?
  
  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%21CAD%21C%24+818.29%21C%24+572.80%21%21%21%21%21%402103205316878009193475419ef97f%2112000033941099570%21sh%21CA%213139937923
  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.
  
  You don't need much, 500w is enough.
  
  My advice is that range/battery life depends greatly on things like rider+cargo weight, terrain hilliness, and which assist setting you're using (or worse, if you're just using the throttle and not pedaling at all). Get more battery than you think you need. (The exception is if the bike you choose is more of an "e-road bike" that would still be pleasant to ride without assist, but most e-bikes are not like that, and you wouldn't want that kind of bike for commuting anyway.)
  Otherwise, the 750w bikes are perfectly fine -- you do not need that "super cool dual-motor bike" for commuting.
  IMO, the other main factors you should be considering are cargo capacity, drivetrain style and budget.
  Regarding cargo: you can carry groceries etc. with a basket and/or rack on a regular-style bike, but if you want to carry a lot of stuff (or kids as passengers) you should look into long-tail cargo bikes or even a box bike (a.k.a. "bakfiets" because they're popular in the Netherlands).
  Regarding drivetrain style: there are two main types, rear-drive and mid-drive.
  Rear-drive tends to be cheaper but slightly less pleasant to use because it relies on a cadence sensor to activate the assist. In other words, when you start pedaling there's a bit of lag before the assist kicks in, and when it does it's either on (according to the setting you picked) or off. It's not "variable" in terms of responding to how hard you're pushing the pedals, only whether they're turning or not.
  In contrast, mid-drive systems can sense the torque being applied to the pedals, and can apply assist more immediately and more smoothly in response to how much effort you're trying to use (at least, that's what they say -- I've never tried one myself). However, they tend to cost more.
  Based on my use-case (which involved carrying two small kids to school), I bought a Lectric Xpedition, which AFAIK is the cheapest electric long-tail cargo bike currently available. I've been very happy with it so far and think that bike, and Lectric bikes in general, are a good recommendation for people who want the best value-for-money.
  For people with other circumstances, I might make some other recommendations:
  If you're doing a mixed bike+transit commute, taking the bike with you on airplane trips, or otherwise carrying it around a lot, I think going all the way to the smallest/best-folding bike you can reasonably have -- an electric Brompton -- is worth it.
  If you want to carry a lot of cargo, but (unlike me) you also have plenty of money and space to store the thing, a high-end bakfeits with a Bosch mid-drive and Gates carbon belt instead of a chain is what you want. Those things can cost $10K, though!
  If your needs are generic -- you don't specifically need cargo capacity or folding -- and you aren't completely mechanically hopeless, then get a rear-drive bike from a lower-end-but-still-well-known mail-order brand like Rad or Lectric (either new or used via Craigslist).
  If you are mechanically hopeless and/or still clueless about what you want and/or have a higher budget and are willing to pay for good service, find a local e-bike shop and let them sell you one of their bikes that they recommend. It'll cost more than the previous suggestion, but they'll have the best support and will be able to do the maintenance on it for you. (This is apparently a bigger benefit than it seems, because although you can get a regular non-electric bike worked on anywhere, I've heard that lots of bike shop mechanics are unwilling to work on e-bikes they don't sell themselves.)
  One last thing: whatever you do, avoid random no-name Chinese bikes from Amazon/Ebay/Aliexpress/whatever. This is one of those cases where you really do want a company with a US presence (it doesn't have to be a "US company," but they need to at least have a US phone number/mailing address) to hold accountable for warranty issues and to have some confidence that they're complying with US safety regulations so the battery doesn't burn your house down or something.
  
  I ride an ENGWE EP-2 Pro, I got it because it was on sale for $700, can fold up into the back of my hatchback, and seemed to have a reasonably well designed battery. It is fun, it looks kinda cool, has lots of features including cruise control, but is by no means the best bike.
  It weighs 74 lbs and the range in practice isn't all that great: Part of me wishes I saved up a little more to get a Lectric Xpedition because it has crazy range and more storage. If the battery goes out, this thing is not fun to pedal uphill.
  Farthest I've ridden is 12 miles one way, took about 40 minutes. On average I usually ride maybe 1-5 miles a day, not far really but everything is pretty close to me. The only major exception is when I take it joyriding, up to maybe 20 miles. I have only had it for a couple of months so far so I don't know how it'll do in cold weather or snow, but I suspect the thicc tires would do well even without chains.
  Speaking of extreme weather, extreme cold and heat are problematic for batteries, so don't expect to go on a big journey in -20 F cold or 110 F heat.
  I can tell you that my best advice would be to find your nearest reputable bike shop, get their input based on what they carry, and then do your own research to verify it's a decent brand before you buy. One of the most important and often overlooked things when people buy an ebike is whether they can get it serviced or not.
  Another possible consideration if you're handy would be to take a traditional bike you think would be ideal and then use a conversion kit to make it electric. If you are mechanically savvy, you'd get more bang for your buck and would probably do all your own maintenance and repairs anyhow.
- Hell many people can get by with just a cheapo e-scooter.
  
  Privately owned ones are illegal in the UK :( you can only use ones owned by rental services and they're only in a few cities

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.
- Similarly - i love my bug a salt
  
  I use it almost daily. Glad I bought 2, we stay strapped out here.
- I bought like 10 of these at Habitat for Humanity and gave them out during a fly outbreak. Some of the neighbors looked at me weird (granted it was the first time I met them) but I'll swear by these things. I hate killing bugs but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

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.
- My bathroom has the worst-designed sink ever, with a tap that's too long, a sink basin that's too thin, and a medicine cabinet that means that if I want my beard hairs to fall into the sink while trimming I have to literally have my face pressed up against the mirror which is, of course, not something you can do while trimming a beard. I got one of these things too and it's so good. 10/10, would buy again.
- Cmon man, provide a link!
  
  Here's a link to it on Amazon
- Alternatively, get a mirror that hangs on the back of the door and shave in front of that (if using a buzzer that you don't need to keep rinsing in the sink). It's so much easier to just grab the broom or vacuum cleaner and get it all off the floor in two seconds than chasing stray bits of hair around your faucet handles and random objects on your counter.
  Also, if you do have to clean up those bits of hair on your counter, use a piece of TP. Wet it a little so that hair sticks to it better, then either fold each wipe into the middle or start a new piece before doing the next wipe so it doesn't just leave old hairs behind when you're trying to pick up more of them.
- Similarly, a nice fog free shower mirror for me. My wife would get so mad about stray hairs (it's easy to miss some when it goes everywhere) Got a waterproof trimmer and started doing it in the shower - cleanup is super easy now!
- Yes, same exact scenario here. My wife got me one as agag gift for Christmas, I used it and it makes clean up so much easier. I don't know how much they cost, but I would say it's worth $20!
- Just shave in the shower? That's what I do

My wife got me a fitbit. I resisted a little bit because I didn't want to have yet another device to monitor, charge, and maintain etc. I've been really surprised and impressed and how effective it has been in subtly encouraging me to make some small improvements in my habits. Not a bad deal for $100.
- This one really shocked me, too! I got a Fitbit to monitor my heart rate because of a genetic condition, but fast forward a couple years and I'm running a mile and exercising multiple times a week.
  Didn't see that coming, but a nice result!
  Tbh, I hate the Fitbit though. I hate that it's owned by Google and they charge me to see my own data. I'd love to switch, but I can't find alternatives that check all the boxes from a Charge 5....
  Edit: if you're looking to get a Fitbit and wanna save some money, thrift stores often have electronic sections full of em! My bf got his charge 5 for 50$ from a goodwill. Same one 100$ more in the target across the street.
  
  Tbh, I hate the Fitbit though. I hate that it’s owned by Google and they charge me to see my own data. I’d love to switch, but I can’t find alternatives that check all the boxes from a Charge 5…
  That's the issue that so far has kept me from buying a smart watch/fitness monitor.
  I've had my eye on a PineTime for a while now, but I'm not sure if it's ready for general consumer use or still an early-adopter kind of product. (Although I'm an engineer, I don't necessarily want to buy a project in this particular instance.)
  
  I haven't checked if this works with all the premium features but I know for the sleep tracking ones you can get them by linking your Fitbit account to Google Fit and viewing it in the Google Fit app.
  
  Charged to see your Fitbit data? What does that mean? I have no problem going back years across various devices.
  
  Some insurance providers cover the low end ones, or offer discounts.

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.

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.
- I love my mechanical keyboard. I grew up on Apple IIs, so mechanical keyboards are what I learned to type on. If keyboards don't have a big chunky feel and sound, I'm disappointed.
- 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.
- I don't really care about the feel of a keyboard, but the fact that you can replace a broken switch is very amazing. Previously my membrane keyboard only last for about 1-2 year before I need to throw it away because some of the key stop registering. Now I can just replace the switch for <$1
- Which war?

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.

Custom-made ear plugs. Even if you only wear ear plugs occasionally (I do when in a noisy hotel, or when a neighbor goes a bit too crazy), they are so worth having.
Basically you go to an audiologist and they put something kinda liquid in each of your ears to take a mold of your ear canals. A couple of weeks later, you have plastic earplugs that have the exact shape of your inner ears.
Upsides: • They work, always. I would typically use wax or silicon disposable ear plugs before that, and sometimes in the middle of the night they might move and let the sound in; those don’t. Also, foam disposable ear plugs don’t stay in my ear, don’t ask me why. • They never hurt. Since disposable ear plugs get shoved into your inner ear until they take the shape, they continuously push against the walls of your ear canals. I would often feel kinda bruised after using them for a long time. • They are crazy comfortable. Put your ear on a pillow, and you barely feel them at all. • But do they block too much sound? That’s up to you. Basically, you choose the level of noise you want to keep out, which I believe is achieved by using different kinds of plastic.
They’re not a trivial purchase (I think mine cost $150), but then you use them for decades, so it’s definitely worth it. It was a stupid purchase in my case, because I bought them on a whim out of anger against my neighbor’s party one night; but they’ve followed me everywhere since!
- As for them staying in your ear, do you pull up on your earlobe when inserting normal ear plugs? I discovered this a while ago and it took in-ear stuff from being absolutely unusable to working great.
  
  I did! I noticed it written on a box of disposable earplugs at some point, so I abided. It made things marginally better in my case, but not by much. Either I was doing it wrong, or it’s that ear canal shapes are different enough that different people have to have different solution (why on Earth can some people use foam earplugs all right, and yet they just spring out of my ears?? 😆)
- Don't know if I'm losing my mind but I thought the inner ear was beyond the eardrum
  
  Oh you’re probably right; I’m no specialist and I’m referring to the ear canals as “inner ear” in my post and could very well be wrong in doing so.
- This post has me very intrigued
  
  You can buy a DIY kit for ~$20. Mine work great, though I’ve never gotten professional ones so I can’t compare.
  
  I use IEM's constantly and usually use a silicone tip, but honestly it's time to get molded. You just have to be disciplined enough not to lose them.
- I have a set of these designed for musicians, theres an open channel through them, and you put a special "button" at te outward end, that lowers volume without affecting sound quality. I think the company is called "Etymotic Research"
  
  Oh my, I had no idea this was a thing, but this sounds amazing!
- I lose wireless earbuds enough that I don't listen to media on the go, so I'd be scared to buy custom earplugs and lose them too.
- As a guy that had his inner ear literally scooped out, I can confirm custom ear plugs are a MUST HAVE for anyone. I use mine for swimming and places with a shit ton of dust cuz I can't get water or other stuff in my ears or it makes them really hard for the doc to clean. They also just look really cool and I managed to get a few of my friends to get some as well.
- i'm currently waiting for a pair of custom molded titanium earplugs with interchangable filters. epoxy ones costs 180, Ti 200 € in central europe.
- I just got a pair in Canada they were 300 bucks. My ears are so small nothing else fits. 10 out of 10 would buy again.
- I had some but lost them unfortunately after a few recent moves in a few years. They had a good 20 year run at least
  Can confirm they're way way better than anything not custom

Monitor mounting arms that connect to the back of the desk. I have 3 times as much room on my desk now. It's amazing how much room monitor stands really take up. It's not just the actual stand but really the surrounding area because you can't really set any large objects in the vicinity. It really is a game changer to gain a lot of desk space.

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.
- I bet it looked amazing on you! I hope you'll find a worthy replacement.
- 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.

Small adhesive rubber bumpers or “feet” that came in a variety of sizes to put on the bottom of things. Was under $5 but has brought me some joy going around my home putting feet on anything that isn’t level or could scratch or makes noise. Something oddly satisfying about it.
- Similarly, the felt version of this. Nice for if you need to move something, ie furniture (we have wood floors).
- I did this too, everything had feet by the time I finished. Everything.
- Also great for any doors (cupboard or otherwise) that can bang the wall when opening. Especially the ones where the hinge makes it open with some force. Just find the place where it makes contact with the wall (often the handle, but it depends on your setup) and put the bumper on the wall in that spot.

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

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.
- I love my bone conducting headphones. You don't have to take them off to hear anything else. I can hear traffic and feel safer when crossing the street when out for a run
  
  I pretty much live in mine now, even when I'm not running or cycling. I just have low level music playing all day, and I can still interact with the world. And for whatever reason, it's easy to process the music and people talking to me without my brain getting overloaded like it does when I try and do that with regular headphones (even those with sound passthrough)
- 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!
  
  To be clear, these don't reduce my sensory issues. It's more accurate to say that they enable me to wear headphones with background music etc, without adding to my sensory issues
- 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.
  
  That makes me wonder if they were sitting properly on your bone. The reading I've been doing (mine are on the way as we speak) says that they should be silent to others at normal volume for yourself.
  Or maybe you got ripped off?
- I'm looking at getting some at the moment. Do you mind sharing which ones you have? Prices where I'm at seem to be all over the shop.
  
  Shokz "OpenRun Pro"
  I did zero research on them, so I have no idea how they compare to other options out there. I bought them after losing my 3rd set of in ear buds...
- Bought mine for work. Need a second pair for around the house. I LOVE them.
- Are there any that work off of Aux cable only? Couldn't seem to find one that would be good for a desktop setup
  
  Not that I've seen, but aux to bluetooth adaptors are really cheap
  
  There's also USB to Bluetooth adapters if you don't have to go through the analog audio signal.
- These look amazing!! I even came across a couple of water proof ones. This will help me big time in my preps for triathlons
  
  @wipeitonthedog @ada any recommendations for waterproof ones? Love swimming as a form of exercise but would love some music to go along with it.

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!

A Raspberry Pi. I bought it out of a whim and now I use it as a portable desktop computer, I can use Alpine Linux with my files and my setup on virtually any system that doesn't whitelist MAC addresses.
Especially handy when your university has contracts with Microsoft so you aren't supposed to use competitive software, I feel like I'm breaking the law.

A bidet off of Amazon, cheap and easy to install. I wasn't sure that I would like it but I like to only go at home now. Wife loves it.

A burr grinder for coffee beans. I thought coffee snobs were full of shit. I was wrong.
- Which one did you get? I'm looking for a good one that won't break the bank.
  
  Not op but I have the baratza encore. Not exactly cheap but could be affordable if you save up. They're 150 new on Amazon and go for around 80-100 on ebay here in USA. It's really good too, especially if you stick with coffee only being a casual hobby or even just want your morning coffee to be good and don't wanna futz with anything else.
  Also an FYI, if you ever do get around to doing espresso, you'll see a ton of PPL saying you can't use it for espresso. They are honestly just more enthusiastic about coffee than I am, because I used an online deep cleaning video from Baratza to change the gap between the burrs and it does espresso just fine to my tastes. Like it does well enough that I can't justify the expense of a better one yet and I've had it like 3 years already.
  Obv there are better ones, and there are cheaper ones, but th Encore will just last you a long time in your coffee journey, and potentially forever if you only ever want it to do non-espresso grind sizes
  
  The Barazza Encore is a good entry level burr grinder, it's what I started with. They'll run you about $125-$150 and won't do espresso, but they're great for any type of coffee brewing method that doesn't require fine grounds.
  
  Picked up a manual Javapresse burr grinder that I use with an Espro P3 french press. was a reddit recommendation, as i recall.
- I got my husband a manual coffee grinder when he got into coffee. I thought it was stupid to spend over 250€ on a stupid coffee grinder for a phase he would drop soon but oh well. I was wrong. Neither did he drop the phase nor was the grinder not worth it. It is a great grinder, I love it myself, and I am enjoying coffee so much more now. The snobs were indeed right all along.
- Lol I have one but don't notice the difference. I mostly bought it because my husband tends to overdo things (like more coffee in the grinder, grinding longer). So I got it so he'd only have to press one button and we'd get consistent coffee. What difference do you find with it?
  
  Coffee comes out a little easier to drink while simultaneously more flavorful than my blade/spice grinder. I'd love to give you an answer but i've always been really bad about describing taste. I'll try to remember to ask my wife when she gets home since she's the resident sommelier.
- Same! I only tolerated coffee before the pandemic and thought I just didn't really like it, I had a Kuerig, then a Nespresso machine and all were "meh" tasting to me, I drank it for the caffeine, not the taste. While everyone else was making sourdough bread during the pandemic I became a coffee nerd, largely because I could no longer walk to the store and pick up the Nespresso pods. I got store bought whole beans and used a simple $30 electric herb grinder and was like "alright, this is better than the pods". I then dropped about $130 on a Barazza Encore and that was miles better, even with store bought coffee. I switched to fresh roasted delivery coffee and that was even better. Then I dropped $500 on an espresso level grinder and that was even better, but not anywhere close from the cheap blade grinder compared to a burr grinder. I cut myself off there.

An air fryer. It was a bit of an impulse buy and I didn’t think I would use it very much but as it turns out it’s much more versatile than I initially thought. I’m actually considering getting rid of my regular oven since I’ve rarely used it since I got my airfryer.

An Aeropress Go.
I'm far from a coffee snob, but figured I'd give this $25 piece of plastic a try because a good friend was raving about it. In the year since, it's been my favorite way to make myself a cup of coffee-- the ritual of it helps me structure my Saturday morning, the coffee tastes better than I thought coffee could taste, and I'm more excited to look at the flavors and whatnot from locally ground coffee.
- Cheapest and easiest way to get into espresso-adjacent drinks. Is it going to give you that espresso experience? No, but for literally 1% of the cost of an actually decent espresso machine, you can up your coffe game extraordinarily.
  Get an Aeropress, a good grinder with fresh beans, and a digital temperature kettle, and you'll be shocked at how good coffee can taste.
- My parents got me one to use on motorcycle camping trips a few years ago, and it's so handy. I'm thinking about one of the larger ones to keep at home.
- Oh second this, had one, used it for couple of months. Pretty nice overall for cost vs quality.

Pizza bag. A really good one
Didn't think it would be a big deal but it's a game changer for takeout pizza. Hell, it's usually warmer than deliveries since I don't make any other stops
Massive difference even for a place 8 minutes away, and gets me warm great pizza for the places 20 or so away
- Nice! Do you have a link or model?
  
  Sure
  First off, there's plenty, but AVOID this type at all costs
  https://www.amazon.com/Insulated-Deliveries-Delivery-Personal-Professional/dp/B09H14HJJX/
  It's thin and sucks. Look at the sides, and the flap. Thin thin. It's the type of bag DoorDash has and there's a reason pizza shops have way better ones. I have one like it (out of my 2 bags). It's not worth it considering you'll probably have it for years. Don't save $10 just to be disappointed
  Something like this, you can see the difference. Much thicker
  https://www.amazon.com/DEAYOU-Insulated-Delivery-Professional-Transport/dp/B09FLFL5BT/
  I believe this is the one I have, which is like the thicker second link, but it doesn't seem to be available as a single bag purchase
  https://incrediblebags.com/products/fabric-12-and-14?variant=31670265577541
- Know what I use? A blanket! Works extremely well.
  
  Well, if you have seat warmers, that could be ok

I always have the opposite problem, I buy something I think is really smart and then never use it
- This is the normal pattern. But sometimes we get lucky.

A cheap usb microscope. I wanted to get into macro photography but my eyesight is pretty terrible even with glasses and struggle to see fine details so struggled to set the mounts up. (Small insects, grains, etc)
Saw a usb microscope for 20€ on Amazon and thought for 20 euro it’s going to be terrible but worth a punt. It’s bloody brilliant. Have used it for a whole variety of things from threading needles to soldering work, repairing stuff with glue and tightening up glasses as well as the macro stuff. Coupled with some ‘helping hands’ it’s a permanent fixture on the pc desk.
- Hey you just reminded me I have one of those! Mines basically a tiny webcam on a stick, works great! ... Now where did I put that thing?
- Along the same vein, I bought a flexible desk lamp with a built in magnifying glass for this type of stuff - use it almost daily.

A set of small neodymium magnets. Didn't have a plan, only they looked "super cool and strong wow".
Used for:
Locating needles in the carpet.
Fishing keychains out from behind sofas, gap between garden deck and house, and so many other places.
Makeshift fix for an old cabinet door that tended to glide open.
Holding nails and screws while fixin' stuff.
Attaching a soda bottle to the office lamp in a way that is easy to undo while still pissing off HR.
Slapping it on a screwdriver to make it magnetic.
Fidget toy.
Regular ol' fridge magnet.

VPN. I bought it during the pandemic not for privacy or government spy conspiracy shit, but because it was on "sale" (something like $40 for 38 months or something) and I wanted to try out if skirting geoblock was worth it. It's now probably one of the most-used tech we have in the house. Great for running Max obviously but also for work.
- Considering I got 3 years worth at about $1.50 a month, I get more than enough content every month to make the cost worthwhile. I don't use it much for privacy but I use it a lot to access movies and such.
- I got a VPN and I find every app I try to use it with doesn't recognize the alternate country I set it to, or detects I'm using one. I thought I'd get a lot more use out of it than I do.
  Am I VPN-ing wrong?
  
  Depending on what you want to use it for, you may be able to set it to another location in your country. I'm in the UK, and setting mine to London or Edinburgh gets around a lot of location blocks for some reason.
  
  Find a less popular vpn provider

A toy accordion I bought at a truck stop 30 years ago. I blew all of my $30 in vacation spending money on it and everyone said I'd regret it. It ended up kind of joke\prop instrument in all my bands and I still have it and it's still fun to play.

A reusable floss tool. I was trying to cut down on waste by ditching those single-use floss picks. It's just a forked piece of plastic that you thread with standard floss. I bought it 5 years ago and it's still going strong!

An impulse buy of a $20 micro wireless Bluetooth keyboard. Holy shit. Rock-solid design, ludicrously long battery life, excellent signal transmission, a replaceable battery with the option to use AAAs, a usable trackpad with sensitivity settings. I cannot stress enough how impressed I am with this device as an electrical engineer.
Now I can actually get real work/play done when I'm too depressed to get out of bed. It's also really useful for working with a Raspberry Pi. That plus a cheap LCD means I can just use it like an ordinary desktop.
If anyone is interested in this product, ask for a link and I'll post it in the comments.
- Its been 22 mins.
  Sad to bring you guys the bad news it but it was confirmed that OP was electrified while changing the AAA batteries in his keyboard. Apparently it also has a feature to scale up the voltages of the battery and OP accidentally pressed it.
  RIP in piece OP
  
  Am dead. This is son. The will told me to post this link. RIP in spaghetti, never forghetti.
  
  That or he spilled Mtn Dew on his keyboard
- Post the link! This isn't Twitter where you get penalized for posting links.
  
  Here's the link. I didn't know you get penalized for links on Twitter. I'm just really hesitant to advertise stuff. I absolutely hate advertising and I didn't want to fill up your feed with random products if no one was interested in the thing. I wanted to wait until there's actual interest.
- Had the same reaction to buying a cheap trackpad/keyboard all in one - ended up buying a few more so I could have one in each room... Good for main pc, laptops, phones and tablets, Flawless signal, insane battery, such good tech
  I found having a big glass of water next to my alarm, which I can chug as soon as I wake up does wonders for getting out of bed and fighting off the AM blues - hope you're good
- I have KDEConnect, but I'm in a weird situation where my desktop and phone are on different networks. Desktop is on Ethernet, and phone is on Wifi. Can't afford a wireless adapter for my desktop at the moment. I got Debian with KDE last month, so I'm really looking forward to using it whenever I move out.
- Please post the link!
  
  Here's the link.
- For people asking for the link, I personally have iClever BK03. Bought it so I can use my phone on the go and don't have to drag a laptop. It's been great. Charged it once so far in past year or so and that was just to make sure. Awesome build quality and great to type on.
  
  Tbh that's probably a better keyboard, but I really was not kidding about the "not getting out of bed" part. I ended up getting this because I can literally lie down in bed and cradle it like a video game controller.
- Yeah I have a tiny one with a trackpad for setting up raspberry pis and a bigger fold out one for typing on my phone when I'm traveling, they make everything so much easier
- Oh wow, didn't think there'd be that much interest. Here you go: link.
- Link? Is it one of the below?
  
  Nope! I haven't tried it, but it would have been too big and expensive to be in the running at the time. Here's my link.

A cheap little green alien soft dog toy. My dog has destroyed every soft toy we've ever given her except that one. The head ripped a little at the seam, but we just re-sewed it. She hasn't made a big hole to pull out the stuffing somehow. And she loves it.
I wanted to get a backup, but the company doesn't make that toy anymore. I got an alternative from them and it got torn apart within a few days. I guess it was too good of a dog toy.
- The best dog toys seem to be the children's plushies att IKEA. They are built to be abused.
  
  Quite ironic, considering IKEA popularized cheap disposable furniture.
- I have a similar thing going on with a Barbapapa soft toy. Though we didn't buy it, my dog found it when out on a walk. Initially I put it on an electric cabinet in case someone came back for it, but a week later he found it again under a bench and I figured we gave it a shot so we brought it home.
  Thing is shockingly resilient. It has a few perforations, which I fixed, but all the dog toys we've had break one way or another and are almost impossible to mend. Even ones specifically advertised as sturdy. This one just keeps going. It doesn't have a squeaker either!
- My large dogs will tear up even the most 'durable' dog toys in a matter of minutes. Nylon? Kevlar? Doesn't matter. But if I give them toys meant for really small dogs, they don't tear them up at all. Go figure.

A mini keg of a Christmas beer. At the store after drinking a bit, thinking "Oh it's a little cheaper per ounce, lol". My wife rolled her eyes, but she lets me do stupid things. Next day I was thinking "Well that was stupid." But it was a few days before Thanksgiving, and we opened it then, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Draft beer, at home! Fiddling with the stupid pour thing. It was just fun to have something different.

A stupidly cheap (£2?) fleece I bought off a sale rail on a whim, thinking I would never wear it.
I practically lived in that thing, and still use it today.

When Teavana still existed, I bought a teapot and some "teas" (Teavana was mostly herbal tisanes...but still.)
I don't drink coffee, so I imagined the teapot wouldn't ever be used...but somehow it ended up being a big hobby for me. Bonus: fancy teas from online stores are cheap to ship, because they're basically dry and lightweight. Like, if you want to become a food snob about anything? Tea really is the way to go.
The one learning curve I had (as an American) was learning that you DON'T steep the tea longer for stronger tea. You use more tea leaves/more tea bags. Steeping too long turns the tea bitter. (I thought I disliked tea when younger b/c I'd only ever had cheap tea bags left to steep for far too long.) Also, when brewing a green tea, they're really reactive to boiling water, so you REALLY don't want to use boiling water or it'll be a bitter mess. You want to either boil then let it cool, or get a fancy electric kettle where you can set the temperature so it's appropriate for green tea, oolong tea, or black tea.
- I got addicted to PG Tips extra strong blend when I was in the UK and now I import it. I feel like such a snob, but I don't care. They wouldn't think I was a snob for drinking it in the UK!
  
  There's a small tea retailer in the UK, What-Cha.com, and the owner does a "mystery tea" option which he uses to get rid of slower-moving teas, or teas he might have had to buy to get a better choice on a tea he wanted to get from a wholesaler. Or sometimes teas he just wants people to try.
  "Mystery tea" sounds dodgy, but it did a great deal to expand my horizons, because even these mystery teas were really, really good (far better than ANY grocery store tea in the USA) and opened me to teas I might not have otherwise tried.
  I'm TOTALLY a snob importing teas from the UK...but what can you do? America is a coffee-culture country, not a tea-drinking place, and the local stores just have tisanes or crappy bottom-tier tea (basically, tea dust from processing higher grades of tea is packaged into teabags and sold in grocery stores--and people don't know how crap a tier of tea that is!)
- Oh boy. Similar story for my wife and me. Now we've got 3 gaiwans, 4 yixing clay pots, and two cast iron pots. And now we do a little tea ceremony everyday. It's a great way to just sit together and chat without other distractions.
  
  I never quite got into the tea ceremony part, I admit. (Maybe because I live alone and don't have anyone to share it with.) My first teapot was glass, and I like viewing the color of the brewing tea. Plus, the gaiwans/yixing are so small...I'd rather brew a big pot and have it last than have to go back to re-steep teas.
  I know I'm probably missing out on the experience of the tea changing flavors subtly as it's steeped and re-steeped...I just can't give up my big glass pot, haha.

Shower mirror. It has a base that suctions to the wall and a reservoir that you fill with hot water so that it doesn't fog. I had no idea how much better it was than shaving at the sink. If I'm in a hurry I'll sink shave but I love shower shaving and I love that mirror.
Edit: Here's the one I use. No major complaints, just remove the mirror between uses and re-suction every once in a while.

A PVC pipe cap.
I was making a lightsaber for my kid, and bought a length of clear PVC from Home Depot. (I know, they have bad politics, but Lowe's didn't carry clear PVC.) My local store didn't have any clear PVC or clear accessories in stock, so I had to place an order for shipping, so I got a couple things "just in case" for the build. One of those was a pipe cap.
Didn't end up using the pipe cap, because lightsabers don't have that sort of end. It now sits at my desk as a teeny tiny trash can. Bits of thread from sewing, nail clippings, tags I clip off of shirts, a lot of things fit in the teeny tiny trash can. When it's full, I empty it into the trash, but for a rather small pipe cap, it holds quite a bit of small trash.

Magnet tape. Made hella magnets out of stickers

I bought an Ember mug because I thought it was silly. I ended up really liking the temperature control. I don't rush my coffee/tea. Now every sip is as hot as the first one.
The new Ember costs, I think, half again as much as the first iteration. It's a cute gimmick but I certainly wouldn't pay what they're charging now.
- My wife and I each thought these were cool but refused to buy these for ourselves. Instead, we got them for each other for Christmas/Channukah one year. It is the best "stupid" gift I have ever got. I have a little Aeropress set up in my office and it's great. Nothing like coming back to your desk to a hot cup of coffee after you have been away for an extended time. I think they were like $100 when we got them.
- I must drink my morning tea out of a HotJo Travel Mug. This is non-negotiable. I had a beautiful black one which I dropped and smashed and now the only one available is white. Or I can get it with some crappy logo on it from eBay. So I drink out of a white one. It's less enjoyable somehow, but still more enjoyable than not drinking from a HotJo Travel Mug.
  (Incidentally, if it looks familiar to you, it was used on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but that's not why it's my mug of choice.)
  
  Wow, those mugs do look pretty nice.
- I wasn’t familiar with Ember mugs; but I have a USB coffee mug warmer at my desk which does the same thing provided you don’t need mobility, and was like $20 I think. I love that thing.
- I have long considered something like this.
- I got a heating plate for my home office, but none of the mugs I have really seem to work well with it. They all have this lip/concave bottom that means most of it doesn't make contact with the plate. At least I think that's the culprit. It does help a little but not a lot.
  I hate cold tea at least if it was meant to be hot.
  
  IMO tea can be hot or cold but never room temperature.
- I like my mug a lot. It helps a lot with because I refuse to drink my coffee and tea that has gone cold.

Bought some stainless steel wire rope over day, like 500' of it for 25 bucks. I've used that shit for everything. Stringing garlic up, strong lights up, garden trellis, hanging anything and everything. Still got a good 100' left 8 years later.

I wanted to buy a small silicone spatula for specific uses, but they were only sold in a set of 5. I was like what am I going to do with that many spatulas but they're super useful and are amazing at scraping and I love having extras so I don't have to constantly wash them.

A Potato Ricer. My wife thought it was dumb as hell, until she made the best mashed potatoes we've ever had. It's like a massive garlic press for potatoes

Backscratcher! My mom bought me a cheap one as a silly stocking stuffer one Xmas, I thought it was funny, then I started using it. I have since upgraded to a solid bamboo one that I keep by my bed, it's amazing.

Sleephones. I bought them to listen to ASMR before bed thinking they were way overpriced. I've used them every night for the last 6 years
- I listen to space docos or podcasts, no matter how busy my thoughts are, the sleep headphones go over the top of them and I am asleep in minutes.
  
  Yeah I have AuDHD and for me it's all about listening to something that occupies the speech centre of my brain so that my thoughts can't spiral
- Those thing saved my life (nearly). I had a terrible period of insomnia which started to really impact my ability to operate during the day and after trying pretty much everything I spent the 60 bucks or whatever those thing cost and started listening to audiobook when going to sleep and it cured me.
  My first version was wired but seeing how much I used them, I ended up buying a Bluetooth one because waking up with my face tangled in the wire wasn't that great.
  I love those things. I'm honestly scared the company would go out of business.

Ajazz 308i keyboard.
I'm quite satisfied with it, even though it was meant to serve as a toy...
- It looks like its made of tums
  
  It surely does.
  But it's surprisingly enjoyable to use with CEMU and Zelda:BotW
  
  @RanchOnPancakes lol what a great visual 😅
- Interesting, I bought one once and didn't like it. Much rather use a real mechanical keyboard, and they make plenty that are compact.
  
  Even a run of the mill gamerboard with no-name switches is better than pretty much any membrane board, but particularly one that's competing on looks. You can even grab a set of of circular keycaps for $15 or less if you must have the typewriter look.
  
  I do like my Meko Blink

A wedding ring. Turned out that third time was the charm.

Altough it is not really stupid, I bought the game Witcher 3 expecting I would'nt like it much. Turned out it is the best game I've played and bought the expansions too

A long shoe horn.
I got it cause my formal shoes are a tight fight. It has been a game changer, it is a whole new experience wearing shoes, even the normal ones.

10 lengths of 10 foot 1/2" copper pipe. when I bought it it was cheaper than now by a lot. I ended up never using it for plumbing because we went with a larger diameter and different material. Now I have the coolest patina curtain rods ever.

Automatic/electric egg boiler. I use it almost every morning or at least once a week. It was like 10 euros at Lidl.
- Out if interest, do you really have eggs for breakfast that often and if so, did you before you purchased it? Or can you do something else with it too?
  
  I did eat eggs before but mostly fried on a pan. Now I usually eat them boiled and then use an egg slicer to slice the egg to thin slices and put them on a sandwich.
  Sadly no you can't really use it to make anything else. Just regular chicken eggs. Here is a similar product. (In finnish sorry).

I'm here in my van on a hot hot day doing 'work' (in this case a little browsing of lemmy).
cooling me down is a "arctic air' USB fan with a little water reservoir providing a misting action. I think I said, "as seen on tv" like six times after buying it because how stupid can you get -- but i needed a fan and this is what the local hardware store had that ran on USB.
Wow. I love it. Fast, quiet, low power, good air, and the misting function is awesome. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. (assuming it doesn't break within a week).