What do you think the most useless item is that is found in >95% of homes in your country and the residents of those homes had to pay good money for it is? My vote would be an iron. The whole concept of ironing clothes seems wasteful and useless, as they will look exactly the same after an hour or so’s wear, and for that hour the actual benefit of pressed creases is nothing anyway.
If they use it for ironing their clothes, then it’s not useless. The fact that you see no utility in ironing their clothes doesn’t mean that they don’t. Presumably they do; otherwise they wouldn’t iron them.
A useless item, by definition, must be one that isn’t used. I don’t know *what *the most useless item is, but I know *where *it is. It’s right at the back on the lowest level of that awkward corner cupboard in the kitchen; the spot that’s so difficult to get to that you never get to it, and have forgetten exactly what item has been banished there.
In my house, the minipimer…
Mom insisted that I needed one. It’s been used once. By her. In ten years! I just mix stuff by hand.
Here’s my suggestion:
one of the attachments to the vacuum cleaner.
Many of the attachments are important and useful --the longer hose extension. the narrow nozzle thing for tight spaces, etc…
But what’s that little round brushy thing for?
Huh ?
Leather couches. Promise. Particularly good for those with the buttons spaced evenly, know which ones I mean?
Furniture cushions.
(Actually, the ‘little round brushy thing’ is for doing your baseboards. The soft bristles shift the dust, regardless of the baseboard dimensions, and the vacuum sucks it up, making for a very thorough job!)
The cat.
The bed frame.
Is that a stick blender? I use ours all the time. Making “cream of” soups without pouring the soup into the blender/processor makes it a very valuable tool.
I’m with you Nava, someone gifted me one a decade ago. I still have never used it! Forgot about it until you mentioned it, then I remembered I have one of those too!
(Some people just don’t fancy lots of appliances for every little thing, and I’m one of them. If you enjoy them, have at it, but they aren’t for me. )
See, my mother uses hers, or rather, has her kitchen help do it. But anything I need to whip up or mix, I can do it by hand and prefer to do so (I hunt down every little bit better by touch that way). There is a local brand of cocoa powder which has even made “our product leaves undissolved clumps” their slogan at one point; well, when I mix it by hand it bloody well dissolves, because any clump which does not will get chased and ground the hell down!
The particular example is mine, but I’ve seen many other cases where there is some appliance that gets zero mileage, generally a gift. A fancy coffeemaker for a house where nobody drinks coffee. A kettle for another where tea is considered exotic and chamomile something you drink under medical orders. A kitchenaid for someone whose idea of cooking consists of calling for takeaway. A supahdupah power tool for someone who defines them as “those noisy, useful things my siblings have” (hi, Littlebro!).
My house.
- Blu Ray Player; I stream most of what I watch
- Sandwich maker; don’y know why its there.
- Most decoration pieces.
Your head. Seriously. After I’ve cut my hair (#2 on the trimmer) I give myself a once-over with the vacuum with this attachment so I don’t shed bits everywhere.
I was going to say the mysterious light switch that doesn’t seem to do anything (we all have one), but since that’s not something I’ve actively selected to pay money for, I have to say that for me, the answer is a hand mixer. I just don’t make anything anymore that requires a mixer.
Winner.
Our current vacuum cleaner didn’t come with one. Instead it has some hard, turned the wrong way, ridged thing. Useless. I have one from a previous machine but there’s no place to store it on the current one. So I end up not using it as much as I should.
Steak knives. But they usually only pass through temporarily on heir way to being re-gifted.
Exercise machines.
Someone gave us a potato masher. Useless and nigh impossible to clean.
We use our stick blender for sauces and soups, yes. It works wonderfully for butternut squash soup, really any cream soups. Hand mixing is great, you can get the clumps, but the stick blender adds air and gives it a wonderful foamy texture.
A husband. Being one myself, I know.
Actually, I’ll go with jtur88 on the exercise equipment.