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32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Treadmills. Intended for exercise, but globally recognized as the best clothes racks you never knew you needed.

Aggressive-Pin-170 , WalkingPad Report

Final score:

246points

POST

Brian N 9 months ago

It still counts as running.... away from your housework

108points

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Former GF gave me a model Death Star. Looks like pewter but I'm not sure. A bit smaller than a tennis ball. It looks pretty cool, but she was so excited when she explained "Look! It opens up! It's a grinder for dried spices when you cook!"
Didn't want to hurt her feelings by explaining that she had given me a weed grinder. I was dying inside holding in the laughter.

recoveringatty42 Report

Final score:

236points

POST

Zedrapazia 9 months ago

To be fair, you can also use it to bring herbs if you want to do that. Is even quite practical. I have one that looks like a fat round cat, and I don't even drink, let alone smoke anything.

99points

Everyday_ASMR , Chemist4U / Flickr Report

To find out more about how this conversation started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user EVERYTHING_WAS_TAKEN who posed the question, "What is an item that everyone misuses but the makers pretend they don't know?"

She shared that Q-tips/cotton swabs inspired her to ask this question. "I was looking at the pack in my bathroom and started wondering if there was other stuff out there like it," the OP told Bored Panda. "Everyone puts them in the ear, and the manufacturers definitely know that. I think I've learned a whole new world of how deep exactly some people put them from this Reddit post, though. Don't damage your ears, kids! Swab responsibly."

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Ozempic for weight loss which leads to shortages for people with diabetes.

Final score:

232points

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Sexual Harassment Panda 9 months ago

My 76 yr old mother with diabetes relys on Ozempic and will some times have to go without for a week or two because the pharmacy is out. Very concerning just for someone else's vanity.

147points

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Flat head screwdriver - scraper, pry bar. chisel, weapon, stake, etc...

Keveros , Tjcase2 Report

Final score:

209points

POST

Brian N 9 months ago

Also not recommended for your ear canal

210points

Acrobatic-Law-2114 , RDNE Stock project / Pexels Report

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose The 'Terms and Conditions' booklet. It's the world's most popular unread bestseller.

Final score:

196points

POST

Roxy222uk 9 months ago

We live in a world now where one app can require reading hundreds of pages of Ts&Cs. It's ridiculous and needs to be sorted out. It is not the fault of the consumer.

67points

SirKensingtonsSlop , Curtis Adams / Pexels Report

"I'm an artist, so I frequently misuse objects and repurpose them," the OP continued. "But this post was meant to find out about physical things that are misused in the same way by the majority of users, and is common knowledge."

And as far as why companies pretend that they don't know people are misusing their products, EVERYTHING_WAS_TAKEN supposes that it's for several reasons. "They would have to redesign something that already works properly for its intended purpose, so that just means extra cost on their side when they're not technically liable for misuse," she noted.

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose The drawer beneath your oven. It's for keeping baked goods warm, not for storing pans.

Final score:

185points

POST

Elio 9 months ago

Yeah that's where baking pans go.

226points

Elegant-Pressure-290 , Marco Verch / Flickr Report

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Kitchen scales. I bought one on Amazon that had poor reviews because you couldn’t measure out portions of a gram. My stupid a*s asked my husband why the hell someone would care if the measurement of their flour was 1/10 of a gram off.

He just stared at me until I got it lol.

Final score:

178points

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Yettichild 9 months ago

I use mine for weighing foster kittens =)

169points

EVERYTHlNG_WAS_TAKEN , gratuit / freeimageslive Report

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose I'll start : QTips/cotton swabs. Everyone puts them in the canal, but the boxes always pretend like they're made for the outside of the ear.

Final score:

176points

POST

Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago

You want clean ear canals, the nurse at the clinic I went to recommended Debrox. It comes as a little kit with the Debrox drops and a little squeeze bulb. Huge game changer for me. Followed the instructions to the letter and my ear wax is gone.

58points

PixelArtDragon , PerspectiveHuman3800 Report

"Also, tons of people would complain, so customer dissatisfaction," the OP shared. "And people misusing the item would find something else to buy, so customer loss."

"In some cases, you actually can't 'fix' the product to stop a specific misuse because it's being used technically properly but for a different goal," she explained. "So there's nothing they can do. And honestly, some of these misuses are so bizarre it would just be weird for a company to try to address it," she added with a laugh.

#10

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Back in the days of the Prohibition, a lot of grape juice was sold with extremely explicit instructions of all the things you'd need to do to ferment it but with the disclaimer of "here's what's illegal to do".

Final score:

175points

POST

Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago

In the pictured example. Strangely, the brick and the Benzoate of Soda are both shelf stable so they could have easily included it with the brick but they didn't. Hmmmmm....

34points

#11

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Think Johnny Appleseed was planting apple trees for the health benefits of apples? Nope it was to make cider.

Going way back, farming advances and the cultivation of grains was primarily to make beer, going way back to Mesopotamia.

Skid-Vicious , ELEVATE / Pexels Report

Final score:

143points

POST

Kate 9 months ago

Archaeology major. Can confirm: the agricultural revolution happened because beer.

104points

Fantastic-Sunshine , Abi Porter / Flickr Report

#12

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose I caught a friend of mine rubbing one of the antibacterial hand wipes from KFC all over his friends chicken. The little packet said 'a hint of lemon' on it, and he thought that he was meant to flavour the chicken with it...

Final score:

133points

POST

J. Norton 9 months ago

Oh, good god......🥴

126points

EVERYTHING_WAS_TAKEN went on to share that most of the responses to her post were unexpected. "I was thinking cotton swabs, Reddit was thinking drugs and other questionable activities," she said with a laugh. "Yeah, it was definitely interesting how many people answered the same things - I guess the question worked!"

"The funny ones to me were the people who hadn't seen my comment proposing the cotton swab, and started their comments with, 'There's no way this post isn't talking about Q-Tips...'" she added.

#13

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Cookie dough. We'll keep eating it raw.

kerdita , pickpik Report

Final score:

127points

POST

Cecilia Herrera 9 months ago

But it tastes so much better when baked.

45points

#14

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Back massagers.

ArcTan_Pete:

Especially the famous Hitachi Magic Wand for 'relieving sore muscles and back tension'

Telrom_1 , ajay_suresh / flickr Report

Final score:

116points

POST

SadieCat17 (she/her) 9 months ago

CERTAINLY NOT ONE OF THE KINDS SHOWN IN THE PICTURE!!!!!!! I sure love shattering my pelvis. /s

162points

#15

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Up until recently, Pedialyte. Marketed as a drink for babies, but was used as a hangover cure. Recently they started marketing to adults however.

bmg_7474 , Sean Freese / flickr Report

Final score:

110points

POST

Hphizzle 9 months ago

As an adult wth bowel issues, electrolyte drinks are a must. Luckily in Japan they sell non-flavored electrolyte drinks. They even come in gel style packs.

64points

BigBird2378 , Dennis Lamczak / wikimedia Report

Finally, the OP added that if we could misuse characteristics of animals however we wanted to, she thinks it would be great to misuse an elephant's brain, a lion's heart, a kitten's lovableness, and a T-rex's arms. "What could be better than a chicken with T-rex arms?" she asked. "Good thing humans are still relative blobs and we haven't figured that out yet."

#16

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Hydroponics kit. To help you grow some really big tomatoes, innit.

Final score:

109points

POST

boredApe 9 months ago

I've never used my hydroponics kit to grow pot (which is legal where I am). I actually grow veggies. You should try it. Much cheaper than using the grocery store and you get fresh year-round produce.

63points

TPS_Data_Scientist Report

#17

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose The various items that Hospital ERs have to remove from people’s rectums…

Final score:

107points

POST

Moë 9 months ago

“I accidentally sat on it” 😂😂😂

79points

anima99 , Cambodia, P.I. Network / flickr Report

#18

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Recently, I found out the existence of fake urine for "experiments" and "pranks."

The real use is to bypass drug tests.

Final score:

101points

POST

Beeps 9 months ago

Erm, Mr Smith, I have some good news for you: first of all, your drug test came back clear. And also, congratulations, you’re pregnant.

93points

RexBulby , Louisa Billeter / flickr Report

#19

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose No one uses Miracle Whip as a salad dressing.

Final score:

97points

POST

TheBlueBitterfly 9 months ago

Chicken salad, potato salad, macaroni salad.. not "greens and cut veggies" salad! (But it's better if you use real mayo anyway!)

89points

RedditUser3525 , Rob Brewer / flickr Report

#20

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose In the UK, sales of nitrous oxide cannisters used for whipping cream have skyrocketed in the past 10 years.

Spoiler: This isn't due to the correlation in popularity of 'The Great British Bake Off', it's due to its disassociative psychoactive effects.

Final score:

96points

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago

About 15 years ago there was this sketchy bodega around the corner from the house I was living in. Always thought it was weird they carried those keyboard dusting cans. Then my roommate told me people use them to get high. Then he proceeded to demonstrate. We don't live together anymore.

46points

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

See Also on Bored Panda

French Diver’s “Jewels” In Tight Swimming Trunks Become Talk Of The Town At Olympics

#30

Uncle Ben's rice. It's very popular for cultivating mushrooms of the magic variety.

FireInTheSky888 Report

Final score:

45points

POST

SadieCat17 (she/her) 9 months ago

In all fairness, most people use it for eating rice and not as a sanitary incubation pouch.

112points

_Weyland_ , Trekphiler / wikimedia Report

#31

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Not exactly misuse, but I've heard that those thin packets of sugar are supposed to be bent in the middle, not torn from the side.

Sounded bizzare, but it actually works. And leaves you with only a single piece of waste too.

Final score:

39points

POST

Daya Meyer 9 months ago

So we really need to learn how to rip up a paper bag? Like, is there a forbidden way?

28points

#32

32 Common Items That Are So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose Travel neck pillows. I’ve only seen about 5 people wearing them correctly (opening in the back, not the front) and I fly at least three times per week so I see them constantly.

Myzyri , Adam Dachis / flickr Report

Final score:

37points

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Rahul Pawa 9 months ago

The listings on Amazon for neck pillows all show people using it with the opening in the front. So if the photos on the listings show the intended use, then most people use them as intended, which may or may not be the best way to use them.

80points

Howdy, I'm Adelaide! I'm originally from Texas, but after graduating from university with an acting degree, I relocated to sunny Los Angeles for a while. I then got a serious bite from the travel bug and found myself moving to Sweden and England before settling in Lithuania about two years ago. I'm passionate about animal welfare, sustainability and eating delicious food. But as you can see, I cover a wide range of topics including drama, internet trends and hilarious memes. I can easily be won over with a Seinfeld reference, vegan pastry or glass of fresh cold brew. And during my free time, I can usually be seen strolling through a park, playing tennis or baking something tasty.

Read less »

I'm a visual editor at Bored Panda. I kickstart my day with a mug of coffee bigger than my head, ready to tackle Photoshop. I navigate through the digital jungle with finesse, fueled by bamboo breaks and caffeine kicks. When the workday winds down, you might catch me devouring bamboo snacks while binging on the latest TV show, gaming or I could be out in nature, soaking up the tranquility and communing with my inner panda.

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What do you think ?

POST

Kristal 9 months ago

Wow, I had no idea about all the drug stuff. Lol can you tell what I don't do? Miracle whip is disgusting though, it's not even useful as a door stop.

11points

Casey Payne 9 months ago

With enough drugs you can use anything as a door stop. I'd advise against it though. Leaving open a portal to another reality causes disruption in time and space and ultimately mass migration of lost souls to... The Twilight Zone.

1point

arthbach 9 months ago

What a boring article. Instead of being about new, creative ways to use existing products it all about how to use them with regards to drugs and alcohol. Boring, and not BP at all. :(

5points

SonicAlchemy 9 months ago

Despite the article title, I was pleasantly surprised and amused that the majority of these were about drugs and "masked" paraphernalia. When I saw Miracle Whip before I clicked the article I'm thinking "Ok, a bunch of people thinking they're chefs are going to spew about their lame food hacks and tell me that Country Crock isn't butter" but I actually loved this. By the way, those that commented on the poppers, stop acting like you only know because of what you've heard 😆

3points

QUINN SANE 9 months ago

Why are all of these about drugs? Do people think they’re cool and edgy because they do drugs? Grow up. This site is getting stupider by the day.

2points

KatSaidWhat 9 months ago

Um, they are not. And no, people don't think that at all, they are commenting on an article about misuse. Also, you need to grow up if you are going to be that naive about how many people use recs very safely without succumbing to the propaganda.

5points

ColorEd 9 months ago

So, drugs?

1point

TheBlueBitterfly 9 months ago (edited)

Stamp bags. There's such a booming stamp collecting market! Flavored cigarillos and wraps/cones. Rush, remember that stuff? "Do not inhale." Keyboard duster. Butane torches (and I don't mean the lighter-sized ones, the giant "for culinary use" ones.) The little cheap "rose in a glass tube" and metal "tire pressure gauge" you see on the counter in convenience stores and gas stations. Bonus if they sell soap-free steel wool (ChoreBoy) INDIVIDUALLY beside it!

1point

Tracy Wallick 9 months ago

I have one of those tire pressure gauges, what else are people using it for? (I don't even drink, so I'm oblivious)

0points

Isaac Nemo 9 months ago

What's the steel wool for?

0points

KatSaidWhat 9 months ago

Also do not inhale any thinning solvents.

0points

Csaba Horvath 9 months ago

Most of the mentioned products are not "So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose".

0points

B Jones 9 months ago (edited)

If one thing is true, it's that humanity has been putting all sorts of stuff in our bodies in all sorts of ways from the beginning of our species

0points

digitalin 9 months ago

I remember this exact thread on Reddit. You had to scroll for ages to find the q-tip example, because there was SO MUCH information for "alternative" uses related to.... substances. Very educational.

0points

Jaya 9 months ago

A better title: "People use objects for drugs"

0points

Gavin Johnson 9 months ago

The Harry Potter toy broom. Y’know for pretending that you are playing Quidditch? The fact that it vibrates and that older sisters all around the world suddenly started wanting to play Quidditch is a mystery…..

0points

Bloobee bloobee bloo bloo bloo 9 months ago

Back in the late 90s or early 00s there was a big fat pen marketed for children that vibrated to make cool squiggly lines. Bought one for my young daughter and it wasn’t long before I got rid of it. I just couldn’t get the image out of my head of her playing with a vibrator 😬

0points

Will Cable 9 months ago

Microwave ovens for helping to dry small items of clothing etc

0points

POST

Kristal 9 months ago

Wow, I had no idea about all the drug stuff. Lol can you tell what I don't do? Miracle whip is disgusting though, it's not even useful as a door stop.

11points

Casey Payne 9 months ago

1point

arthbach 9 months ago

What a boring article. Instead of being about new, creative ways to use existing products it all about how to use them with regards to drugs and alcohol. Boring, and not BP at all. :(

5points

SonicAlchemy 9 months ago

3points

QUINN SANE 9 months ago

Why are all of these about drugs? Do people think they’re cool and edgy because they do drugs? Grow up. This site is getting stupider by the day.

2points

KatSaidWhat 9 months ago

5points

ColorEd 9 months ago

So, drugs?

1point

TheBlueBitterfly 9 months ago (edited)

1point

Tracy Wallick 9 months ago

I have one of those tire pressure gauges, what else are people using it for? (I don't even drink, so I'm oblivious)

0points

Isaac Nemo 9 months ago

What's the steel wool for?

0points

KatSaidWhat 9 months ago

Also do not inhale any thinning solvents.

0points

Csaba Horvath 9 months ago

Most of the mentioned products are not "So Widely Misused You Might Not Even Know Their Original Purpose".

0points

B Jones 9 months ago (edited)

If one thing is true, it's that humanity has been putting all sorts of stuff in our bodies in all sorts of ways from the beginning of our species

0points

digitalin 9 months ago

I remember this exact thread on Reddit. You had to scroll for ages to find the q-tip example, because there was SO MUCH information for "alternative" uses related to.... substances. Very educational.

0points

Jaya 9 months ago

A better title: "People use objects for drugs"

0points

Gavin Johnson 9 months ago

0points

Bloobee bloobee bloo bloo bloo 9 months ago

0points