Items you use that were not its intended purpose.

I noticed a lot of pro photographers using translucent plastic caps on their flashes to diffuse the light when shooting portraits and thought I’d try it myself. So I went to the nearby photo shop and found some.

Thirty freaking dollars?!? :eek:

Then I noticed the little plastic cups we using for refrigerating leftover baby food are exactly the same shape, size and translucency. A bit of scotch tape and you’re all set. Price? 10 for $3.

Word of advice for Q-tip users.

Do NOT use them to clean out your ears - I have a work colleague whose wife is an occupational nurse, she has also worked in schools, these things as far as she is concerned are the work of the devil when used this way, stuff happens, things go wrong etc.
Apart from the risk of introducing or spreading infection from one ear to another, there is also a significant risk if permanent damage.

Ah,but you’d stop if it was hurtin now wouldn’t you ? Yet every year plenty of folk don’t notice until its too late

A curled steel wire in my drill makes for an excellent high-powered mixer. Perfect for making the fomiest, light-as-a-feather batter.

That must be…loud.

Thanks for the words of warning. What can I say? I’m a punk; a wild man; a rebel. I laugh at danger. I live on the edge, daddy-o; it’s just the way I am. “Live fast and leave a clean-eared corpse” is my motto. I wouldn’t know how to clean my ears safely if I tried.

This is the best post you have ever made.

I use a dollar-store fingernail brush to wash my veggies.

I keep a beer mug on the kitchen table to hold my teaspoons. They don’t live in the drawer like the other spoons.

Nursing pads make good coffee filters.

I don’t want to know what “nursing pads” are, do I?

We use the little net bags from washing up tablet packs with our local Cub Pack… if you attach them to the belt loops they keep change, chewing gum, marbles etc etc safe.

If that post is any indication, I say yes. :wink:

They’re just pads nursing mothers place in their bras to stop visable leaking.

Whilst I’m willing to accept all this, could you please tell me how I’m supposed to clean my ears without using Q-tips? I’m struggling to think of an alternative, other than just having filthy ears.

Well, before you consider using Q-Tips for your ears again, at least read Paul in Saudi’s thread here. The image he burned into my brain ensures that a Q-Tip will never get near my ears again. shudder

Now I just use the tip of my short, blunt, clean fingernail to get out as much wax as I can. If it feels like there’s more than I can reach and it’s getting bothersome, then I’ll use an ear cleaning kit to get it out. If it isn’t bothersome then I just leave it be.

I’ve used my Jeep as a garden tractor, my motorcycle as a trencher and Fiat transmission parts as paint mixers. I pretty much am always using stuff in ways not dreamed of by the manufacturers. I’m kinda known as a “McGyver” dude, on steroids.

It is alleged that some deaf folks poke a hole in the eardrum with a needle, take a drag off a smoke, hold their noise and send smoke out their ears.
Sometimes late at night I pray that this is merely an Urban Legend.

And a corollary question is just what we SHOULD be doing with these hundreds of otherwise useless Q-tips. While they seem about right for ears – a cruel hoax, I’m sure – they don’t seem of much use for any of my other orifices.

Really, it’s certainly not an adequate substitute for a gerbil. :stuck_out_tongue:

Golden Taklon rocks!

They make excellent weapons for Star Trek action figures.

But that’s what they’re for! Next you’ll be telling us not to use a toothbrush to clean our teeth!

I clean my ears daily with Q-tips (or the storebrand equivalent thereof), and I will continue to do so. Because that’s just the kind of guy I am. A rebel. A wild man. I live life on the edge and don’t play by the rules. Danger is my middle name.

You can have my Q-tips when you pry them from my cold, dead ears.