actually, as a kid we made rubber-band guns from them
I just learned about elastic shoelaces in the thread below. I am delighted with them.
It doesn’t take much strength when it’s just a glued-on piece of plastic.
I’ve had the control panel fail too. I replaced a fuse a couple of times, but the third time it was beyond my skill so we bought a new microwave. At least I bought a multimeter along the way, which is great for testing batteries.
The limited life of pushbuttons is a huge pain in the ass.
I had thought that the pushbuttons on my microwave wore out, until I moved. During the move, I wrapped tape around the microwave, to keep it from opening, and when I removed the tape, I also removed the remove-film-before-using-the-device that I hadn’t realized was covering the buttons, revealing the pristine buttons underneath.
At least on my appliances the problem isn’t wear on the outer surface but that the film or buttons underneath that makes the electrical contact stops working.
I’ve found that wrapping the stems of a bunch of bananas with duct tape will prevent them from getting too ripe. The skin will still turn brown, but you’ll still have firm, non mushy bananas for the whole week.
I will try this. Hope it works!
I’ve tried many life-hacks for extending the useful life of bananas, but the only one I’ve found to actually work is just eating apples and oranges instead.
My simple advice for bananas to prevent from going too ripe is to buy them when they’re still green. I like them when they’re green or yellow, but not brown.
Bananas! Into the refrig if too many are ripening at once. Banana bread, simplest stuff to make ever. Smoothies. Or course we have three ravenous grandchildren over almost every day. 
Growing up, my mom would make me light a match every time I stank up the bathroom. In my extensive experience, it doesn’t work, precisely because the pungent smell of the sulphur from the struck match doesn’t replace anything in the ambience, it only adds to it. So now you have a bathroom that reeks of human and match farts.
As far as microwave touch buttons going bad goes, that’s one of the reasons I always opt for a microwave oven with mechanical dials. They never fail, or not at least in a decade or so of daily use.
I drop one of these tablets into the condensation pump once a month.
Our microwave doesn’t have a handle; it has a big button you push that opens the door. I guess to avoid what happened to you?
Also has the added benefit of not having a handle jutting out so you have some shelf space in front.
Based on my - limited to a couple of decades worth - of experience, neither do to touch buttons go bad.
The odd case were on a different Appliance to touch buttons would go out I recall it made for an interesting intellectual puzzle… like sidestepping 10:00 by using 9:99 or so for a couple of years.
I was replying to this and other such posts:
“My microwaves always fail because the touch panel goes bad.”
I don’t use microwaves with touch panels, but I have had many other devices go bad because the touch panels / buttons failed.
I’m told that if you put a perfectly ripened banana into the fridge it will stay that way far longer than at room temperature. The skin will blacken and look dreadful, but the part you eat will stay nice.
We buy bananas just for smoothies, and if they get mushy before I get around to freezing them, it’s banana bread.
The other day I wanted just the peel (my husband gives it to one of his plants as fertilizer), so I ate one of the perfectly ripened bananas on the counter. Blech! I never did like to eat them plain.
NICE! Really nice; constant, controlled application and inexpensive (4 year supply? OMG) to boot. Thanks for sharing.
Thread winner nominee.