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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Ajazz 308i keyboard.

I'm quite satisfied with it, even though it was meant to serve as a toy...

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

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

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.

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).

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.

Automatic/electric egg boiler. I use it almost every morning or at least once a week. It was like 10 euros at Lidl.

Egg boiler. On the surface it's just the most gadgety pointless product invented but I literally wore it out because suddenly I could have hard boiled eggs and no risk of setting my apartment on fire because I forgot about the eggs. After I move, it's the first thing I'm getting for my kitchen because low-risk hard boiled eggs are totally worth it.

There's a lot of seemingly 'useless' kitchen gadgets like this: full size food processor, waffle maker, breadmaker, even my ridic large instapot. I don't use them every day or even every week and no, I don't need them for daily life. Yes I can mince fifty thousand vegetables for this really complicated soup by hand or make bread from scratch or do whatever you do to make a pot roast without them--but I won't do those things. I know me pretty well now; if I want to make that soup, make some fresh bread, or do that thirty-step fancy pot roast, I need those tools or I'll default to frozen pizza and maybe have fresh Italian bread if I went to Central Market recently and remembered to grab it from the bakery.

Crocs. They are super comfortable and cured my foot pain. Still ugly, but I will never not own a pair as long as they keep making them.

More of a gift I got for Christmas than something I bought, but a rechargeable wand vacuum. Thought it was really stupid, but the dang thing is useful. I've used it for anything ranging from sucking up hair in the bathroom to getting the baseboards around the house so I don't have to get a duster to do it that way. Have even taken it out to the car to remove a lot of the dirt and debris that gets into the driver-side footwell.

Was so versatile, I persuaded my folks to get one as well. They now love it too.

Years ago, I drunk purchased a microwavable sandwich press off Amazon... it was a genuine surprise when it showed up and I considered returning it, but didn't. Brought it to work and now I use it three to five times a week; I genuinely recommend this thing to other people. It's so convenient and works really well.

[Link to the thing: https://a.co/d/41go0hD]

Rechargeable AA and AAA batteries. I really didn't think much of it at the time but I have been very happy to have them at hand especially once I made a system to keep track of the ones that needed recharging and the ones that were fully charged.

This cheap little indoor drone while working from home during COVID to mess around with on breaks and lunch. Turned out to be a ton of fun and in to a full blown FPV drone hobby/obsession.

Wireless charger - picked up from Ikea on a whim. Looks decent and appreciate not having to plug in charger each time. Probably better for phone battery too but don't quote me on that. Plus useful in charging my ear pods too(haven't plugged them as far as I remember)

ANTAGEN dishbrush. I was at IKEA and saw they had dish brushes for less than a dollar a piece, so I stocked up on a few.

They last forever as far as dish brushes are concerned. It did clean-up for 2 large meals every single day for over a year before it started getting worn out. We'd throw it in the dishwasher at night to clean and sterilize it.

An old Asus Chromebox CN60, I bought it because it was dirt cheap, as should probably be expected EOL ChromeOS device.

It seems like something that would be completely and utterly useless but once I put Linux on it I was able to use it as a handy little Server. I guess I didn't really think that it was stupid, but other people thought that it was stupid that I bought it.

A sleep mask. My sleep is so much better with one on. I still have shit sleep quality, but it isn't as shitty with a sleep mask. If I misplaced the mask, I wrap a black shirt around my eyes, but that doesn't work as well.

My girlfriend convinced me to get a nice instant rice cooker

Not for rice, though. It makes for a fantastic slow cooker for 1 or 2

MyFitnessPal. I had heard of it, but counting calories is a pain in the ass, no way I'd waste my time with that shit.

Workplace gives it to me for free, so why not take a look? Damn it's so fast and easy and it has made such a huge difference in dirt success. Just wave the camera over barcodes and the rest of the data falls in place. When you actually get enough protein instead of thinking you've got enough protein, then you don't have to feel hungry in a calorie deficit.

It seemed like a frivolous app, but it turned out to be the biggest driving factor for success. The key thing is, I didn't realize how much it appealed to the nerd gamer instincts. The same way out optimize a build/load out for increased performance like in Diablo, that's the same way rewarding feeling you get when you figure out new life hacks to optimize your macros even more to pack even more food into your calorie budget

Ember mug. I saw James Hoffmann’s review and went, “how good could it be?”

It’s the only mug I can drink from now.

I bought a milk frother recently. I don’t even drink coffee. But I saw that it was a great way to make a protein shake without clumps and easy to clean. It does do that. But it also been great for mixing my pre workout or soap for cleaning. I love it!

8 years ago, i got an EUC, aka Electric Unicycle, seamed difficult strange, i managed to learn how to ride it, everybody said i looked like an alien..

8 years later i ride a Veteran Sherman S (suspension model) and i freakngly still love to ride it!! Got a couple of friends hooked, now i've got a whole team in Greece! 😉

Not entirely stupid, but a butterknife. I've never used it to spread butter. I've used it to fasten and unfasten screws tens of times.