What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?

RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 1031 points –

I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn't work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.

Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!

It went from stupid purchase to something I'd gladly replace if it broke.

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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.

For @Bazoogle & other battery nerds interested in SAFE & CONVENIENT battery storage, I humbly submit Storacell.

I've been using them at home for bulk AA & AAA battery storage & smaller on-the-go packs. Love them. Very straightforward design.

I was playing a lot of Skyrim and other games during the covid lockdown using a wireless xbox controller. I'd go to play a long session and the controller would die about 15 minutes in, which meant a 10 minute walk to the drug store to dump $10 on batteries or hope I had some left over from the last trip and I could find them. I eventually bought a set of six AAs and a wall charger for like $40. Whenever the batteries would die, I'd just swap them out for the ones that were already charged since it could charge 4 at a time, so I always had some ready.

Agreed! Just beware that the Amazon Basics ones used to be awesome (black or grey ones) but the new ones (green) are garbage. I have some of the older ones that are 8 years old and still going strong, where as the new ones wouldn't hold a charge after about a year of use.

I recently bought some Panasonic eneloop ones and although they are more expensive they seem to be much higher quality.

I've actually bought mine in IKEA. They have batteries and chargers and they work fine

as long as the capacity is good... i accidentally bought 500 mAh batteries recently and they're completely useless... I can use them just for the clock... luckily i have 2000 mAh ones, which I use a lot.

I'm curious, what's your system. I need something. I also have a problem where I'll put rechargeable batteries in a device, and then not use the device for months to years, where the batteries sit there unused.

I just have 3 boxes in a shelf. One for batteries that need recharging and two (one for AA anf the other for AAA) for batteries that are charged

Not OP but I tried to tag you, guess it didn't work, see my reply for a solution that I use!