3 months ago, I thought I had lost my trusty USB stick and just bought a new one. Yesterday, while cleaning out all the creases in my washing machine, I found it in there. It had gathered some rust and was pretty grimy, but I rinsed it off, let it dry overnight - and lo and behold, it works, with all the data still intact.
Pretty resilient, these things…
(I suppose it doesn’t get much more Mundane and Pointless than that.)
Yeah, they are pretty resilient. But I’d still get the data off of it and put it on a new one. You really don’t want to be getting rust and stuff in your USB ports. And while the data itself is pretty durable, corroded leads can not only break the connection, but be quite fragile. It’s really not worth it when you can replace them so cheaply.
Never left one in the washer for an extended period of time, but have had the same one go through the wash more than once. Without any noticeable harm.
However, the dryer does seem to do them in. 
I once drowned my MP3 player in beer. It worked for about a year after.
Then the worthless thing died.
I’ve had good luck putting things through the wash. USB sticks usually make it, and my iPod shuffle has been through a number of times and still works great. My headphones didn’t make it, though.
I lost my beloved first ever USB stick 3 weeks ago. It turned out my ever vigilant and careful son threw it on the fire. It doesn’t work. I couldn’t even find any evidence of it. But that’s what happened it.
Beware. My GF put a SD card (similar flash memory technology I believe) through the wash and it apparently still worked ok. Then last week we found some of our vacation photos that were since saved on that card were corrupted. Never had that problem before. I told her to throw it away, not sure if she did.
I once washed and dried – on high heat – a stop watch. The display was all black when I pulled it out, but was fine when it cooled down.
Not bad for 14 bucks.
I accidentally washed my digital camera. To my surprise, it worked for several months afterward before it finally died. This impressed me so much I replaced it with another of the same kind.
My batting record for putting electronics through the washer is .500.
Modern day smartphone: died a horrible death.
Cheap $50 flipphone ca. 2004: works good as new!
I just found a USB stick at the bottom of my washing machine. I can’t tell you how long it may have been in there. Mine works too.