Hasta La Ideas

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

Sadly, I have deleted the email from the reader who sent this week’s unitasker selection to us and cannot give proper credit to him or her. However, that individual is due ample credit for leading us to the Baby Butt Fan:

New parents are so often the target of excessive product marketing. But, as any parent who has raised a child from infancy can tell you, so many of those products are unnecessary. And, as is the case of the Baby Butt Fan, the products are often more hassle than they are worth.

I’m confused by the product makers who believe new parents can’t figure out how to fan their child’s rump with a clean diaper or use a dry cloth to wipe her down. Because, let’s be honest, if a new parent can’t figure out one of those two tricks I highly doubt they would be able to keep charged batteries in this device and have it with them every time they change their child’s diaper.

Thanks, again, to whomever it was who led us to this very special unitasker.

Need help getting organized? Buy the DRM-free audiobook version of Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week today for only $8.99.

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

You know those mornings when taking a spoon out of a kitchen drawer is just way too much to ask of you? Sure, you somehow have enough energy to make a pot of coffee, get a coffee mug out of the cupboard, take the gallon of milk out of the refrigerator, pour both coffee and milk into your mug, and return the coffee caraffe to the coffeemaker and the milk to the refrigerator — but retrieving a spoon is the straw that breaks the camel’s back? Whoa, Nelly, NOT A SPOON!

Well, for those mornings when using a spoon or swishing the contents of your mug around is just more than you can bear, there is the Stainless Steel Stir Mug:

What cracks me up most about this unitasker is that it supposes you are too lazy to stir your beverage with a spoon, yet somehow not too lazy to hand wash the electric mug, which is a requirement. You’re also not too lazy to constantly keep it powered with two AAA batteries. I’m not sure the creators of this device really had their target market properly identified.

Oh, and the fact that it doesn’t work with iced beverages is another strike against it. It’s sugar at the bottom of a glass of ice tea that bothers me more than any other mixed drink.

Thanks to reader Donna for introducing us to this wonderful unitasker.

Need help getting organized? Buy the DRM-free audiobook version of Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week today for only $8.99.

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

First things first, this week’s unitasker selection is obviously a multi-tasker. (It holds your toilet paper AND your iPad!) And, if there were some sort of strict rules to how we select unitaskers, it likely wouldn’t qualify. But, since our only criteria for picking unitaskers is: “Does it make us laugh?” It, technically, qualifies … because we cannot stop laughing at the CTA Digital Pedestal Stand for iPad with Roll Holder:

It appears we have devolved so greatly as a society that we cannot use the toilet without also using a mobile device. Ew, ew, ew! Just ew! But, also, hahahaha!

Thank you, reader Adele, for sharing this with us and giving us all a good laugh.

Need help getting organized? Buy the DRM-free audiobook version of Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week today for only $8.99.

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

To save money on our wedding, my then-fiance-now-husband and I decided we would make chocolate suckers for our wedding favors instead of buying a hundred small doodads. Neither of us had worked with candy before, but that didn’t stop us. We headed to a local cake and candy supply store and got all the supplies the nice saleswoman said we would need. We purchased chocolate discs, two candy molds, sucker sticks, candy bags, and headed home.

Making the chocolate suckers was fun and simple. We melted the chocolate discs in the microwave in a pyrex bowl, poured the chocolate into the molds, inserted the sticks, and put the molds into the refrigerator to cool. When the suckers were hardened, we put them in candy bags, tied them with a ribbon and were done. The saleswoman told us if we didn’t have a microwave we could have used a double boiler for melting the chocolate and if we didn’t have a double boiler could just set an aluminum bowl over a pot of water on the stovetop and create one to use when melting the chocolate. But, since we had a microwave, we went the easiest route of all.

Knowing now that melting chocolate is an easy process involving only a bowl in the microwave or a (real or make-shift) double-boiler on the stovetop, I was confused when reader Claw sent me a link to the Babycakes Chocolate Dipper:

It’s a mini-crockpot that keeps melted chocolate warm. You still have to melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler and then transfer the chocolate to the Chocolate Dipper to be able to use it. The one and only time I can imagine using this item is if you are having a chocolate dipping party of some kind … but even if you do have a chocolate dipping party, are you going to have so many chocolate dipping parties that you need a special device? A fondue pot could certainly be a good substitute, and if you don’t have one I’m sure someone in your neighborhood does that you could borrow for the one time that you have the chocolate dipping party. My guess is you could also just use your regular-size crockpot on a low setting to keep chocolate warm.

But, if you’re just working on your own and aren’t having a party, all you need to do is pop the chocolate back into the microwave for a few seconds if it starts to harden. If you’re using a double boiler, you just dip your item straight into the double boiler because the water keeps the chocolate warm.

This seems to me to be one of those items that could be useful once or twice, but otherwise just takes up space. And, since there are so many other ways to achieve the same results, its once or twice usefulness is even suspect.

Need help getting organized? Buy the DRM-free audiobook version of Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week today for only $8.99.

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

Fondue is one of those things that when you eat it you feel like it’s the ’70s and you’re in France. Ooh la la! Oui! Right on! It’s a communal experience. It’s a chance to wield a sharp fork in close proximity to your friends and family. It’s one of the rare times you can stuff your face with gobs of saturated fat in the form of hot cheese and chocolate and no one judges you harshly because you’re sharing a fancy meal.

However, this week’s unitasker selection takes all of those awesome things about fondue and destroys them. Introducing the Personal Fondue Mugs:

Nothing about these mugs is a throwback to the ’70s or France. Mugs with candles in them screams, “21st century America!” It also screams, “Danger! Danger! Watch out for the tipsy lady walking around the party with molten hot cheese and an open flame!”

These mugs kill the communal, shared experience of fondue. They even kill the awesome long sharp fork and the ability to wield them near those you love. These mugs ruin fondue fun.

I also can’t come up with another situation in which you could use these. You certainly can’t drink out of any container with an open flame. I imagine doing so would drip candle wax (and eventually the whole candle) right down the front of your shirt — which, let’s all agree, is just patently unsafe. And, for $15 and another $5 in shipping and handling, you only get 2 mugs. To use these at a dinner party, you would want more than 2, and end up spending a good chunk of change to be able to offer a mug to each of your guests.

… and now I want fondue and to find a way to work, “can you dig it,” into a conversation … I shake my fist at you, unitasker fondue mugs!

Need help getting organized? Buy the DRM-free audiobook version of Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week today for only $8.99.