Which heavily advertised things have you said, "I could have thought of that!"

[Smee]

Do you ever see stuff on tv and think, "Duh!" or, "Who would pay for that? It's just a repurposed _whatever simple household product already in existence_."

I remember the first time I saw a Swiffer commercial. I thought it would never take off because, after all, as far as I was concerned, it was just a paper towel on a stick. I still hold out that that's all the early Swiffers were.

Snuggie. Really? It's a giant fleece blanket with sleeves. Whyyyy would anyone need such a thing? You can't wear it like a robe. It pretty much just serves one purpose. A blanket. With sleeves. I've spent the last couple of years considering them sort of a prank gift. If you got one, you've been Snuggied by a prankster. Then I got Snuggied. So help me, I like the thing. Shut up. I still would have never paid for one. Well, except for the person I ended up Snuggying. Shut up.

Oh! Oh! I used to see these special towels for wrapping around wet hair. It looked like any ordinary bath towel. What made them so special was that there was apparently a little rubber band for securing the end. Creative, yes, but I could not imagine why anyone wouldn't have just said, "Hey, neat idea, but I already have towels I can put rubber bands on." Unless maybe you were the inventor's offspring.

Those door and window insulator strips? I can't think of the name of them, but they are basically pieces of foam slid into super simple to make fabric sleeves, and you put them under doors and windows to keep out drafts. It's one of those, "Duh, I can do that!" and yet someone somewhere had the sense to know that people would think it's brilliant and pay for it.

We have some smart and frugal folks here. We should pool our resources and invent stuff that pretty much already exists. I guess we'd just be inventing new uses for them.

What things do you see that you never thought people would actually pay for (outside any coupon cheapskate context) or that you thought of or wish you'd thought of first? I totally acknowledge resentment that I wasn't the one to come up with and pitch some of these ideas!

[supershopper1980]

That brownie pan that gives you "edges" on every piece. I've been doing that for years by baking my brownies in mini muffin tins. lol.

[abond0017]

That brownie pan that gives you "edges" on every piece. I've been doing that for years by baking my brownies in mini muffin tins. lol.

I thought that too!

The only other thing for me I can think of right now is fashion tape. First time I saw it I thought "it's just double sided tape."

[rrpate]

can't at this time think of any thing else..but all of the above i have said pretty much the same thing.... the snuggie... well you have to be sitting down to keep the back side warm! or else woo hoo cold back side against the so! heheheheh better than the old cold feet!

[faeryedark]

can't at this time think of any thing else..but all of the above i have said pretty much the same thing.... the snuggie... well you have to be sitting down to keep the back side warm! or else woo hoo cold back side against the so! heheheheh better than the old cold feet!

I keep thinking, I can turn my robe around for the same effect.

[3timesoccermom]

All I think of when I see those brownie pans is what a pain in the neck they must be to wash.

I wish I'd thought of toothbrush sanitizers.

[jenrose]

Pillow pets! Its just a pillow with a head and a piece of velcro!

[CW&M Mom]

I heart our door insulator thingy. We actually don't use it all for the purpose of keeping air in or out. We use it in our family room. That has wooden floors and a gap under the door. My son's oxygen tubing constantly was getting stuck under the door...driving us c r a z y.

Viola...now his tube can't get stuck. Made my life a 324342432 times easier.


I still keep telling DH that we need to invent a button on the VCR/DVD player that makes the remote beep. We would make MILLIONS!