this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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I don't mean what you use to chop down your feces, but an object that you realized only your family has and people would raise their eyebrows at. Best if said object has a sole purpose.

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[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 169 points 1 year ago (5 children)

We've got a frog tong. Every time a frog gets in the house catch it with a tong and toss it in the garden.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 88 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The fact that this is a common enough occurrence to warrant a special tool for the occasion makes me so jealous of your life

[–] JIMMERZ@lemm.ee 57 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This is a common occurrence at my home as well. When there’s heavy rain frogs get caught in our window wells, some make it inside, some get caught between the windows and screen. I just put on a pair of gloves, fish em out and set them free on higher ground.

Once my cat frantically came yowling up the stairs with a frog in her mouth. Set it down gently, unharmed and stared at me loudly meowing as if to say “look what I found, WTF is this? Do something about it.”

[–] Heratiki@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 year ago

You have one badass cat.

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[–] elouboub@kbin.social 125 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Bucket in the shower to collect run-off water for flushing? Thought it was standard until I learned people don't even bother turning the faucet off when brushing their teeth.

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago (21 children)

What I love so much about the whole “turning the water off when you brush your teeth” debate is how everyone is basically telling on themselves.

The ADA recommends brushing your teeth for two minutes. Do you think anybody sits there and lets the water wash down the drain for two whole minutes? Or more likely does everyone have terrible dental hygiene?

[–] elouboub@kbin.social 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I lived with people who would have full political debates with a tooth brush in their mouth and the tap on.

Why does it matter how much I use? Agriculture uses 20 times more than I do!

Said after a tossing half their food away...

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[–] DocCrankenstein@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Bro unfortunately I do belive people would be careless enough to do that.

Had roommates that when they did dishes would keep the water running instead of filling up the sink. Didn't matter if it was even a few days worth of dishes.

I even mentioned to them about it, they said they just didn't want to put their hands in a sink full of dirty dish water.

People really do be that senseless.

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[–] raubarno@lemmy.ml 102 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Well, if it counts, we have a homemade potato grating machine from the Soviet times my grandfather has made because he was a genius and partly because of Soviet Union. It draws a lot of energy, emits a lot of noise (seriously). To turn on, it has two buttons, one for capacitor or something, another for the motor itself and, nowadays, I have no clue which one I should turn on first, left or right... It stands on three legs and weighs around 10 kg (old transformers were heavy). It produces good results, though, despite looking odd.

[–] drlecompte@discuss.tchncs.de 48 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nornally first the capacitor and then the motor. The capacitor is there to absorb the power surge when the motor starts up.

[–] joelfromaus@aussie.zone 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Reminds me of the joke I heard from the TV series Chernobyl. From memory:

Q: What weighs 2 tons, emits lots of smoke and noise and cuts apples into 3 pieces?

A: A Soviet machine designed to cut apples into 4 pieces.

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[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Video please, internet stanger?

[–] raubarno@lemmy.ml 59 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Here you go, internet stranger: https://spectra.video/w/dre1z1tfm3KDupVCfi8MhS

No beer to power it up. It's 8:49 PM in Lithuania and my neighbours will be mad.

[–] raubarno@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Note: the capacitor says:

МБГО ¬2
20мкф ±10%
500в 1077
ОТК

Which means 20 micro-pharads capacity, rated for 500 volts.

EDIT: no markings on the motor.

EDIT2: apparently, these capacitors are still being sold.

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[–] IMongoose@lemmy.world 86 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We have a pvc pipe cutter that is used to cut up frozen small animals, like quail and mice, for our raptors. It works really, really well.

Now this is what i'm talking about lol

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[–] Pea666@feddit.nl 55 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (13 children)

We have a fork specifically for cat food. It’s different from all our other forks (we bought it separately) and it’s used exclusively for ‘mashing’ and dividing wet cat food.

We love our cats and we love to give them the food they like but wet cat food is disgusting and we’d rather not risk ‘cross contamination’.

EDIT: I know contamination isn’t t actually a thing but keeping a separate cat fork is a victimless crime ok?

We got an egg folk, bowl and sponge. Mum hated things that touched eggs to touch anything else.

I'm learning that my household had a shit tonne of weird things

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[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 55 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The toaster bottle opener.

A metal combination bottle opener/can tapper which is kept by the toaster oven and used to pull the hot rack out to get your food.

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[–] SHamblingSHapes@lemmy.one 53 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My family has rules and positions we vote on. We're all adults out of the parents' house. We collaborate on a lot of projects and travel together in different combinations; the rules, or guidelines really, make us more efficient.

I am often travel coordinator for joint trips. Someone else handles food coordination specifically. The youngest calls meetings, usually on a quarterly to yearly cadence, and publishes the meeting notes to a shared cloud drive. Another is in charge of coordinating a Christmas gift exchange. We've rotated being financial and medical backup/adviser to the parents and those roles also comes with responsibility to update the other siblings on major changes.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is there a political drama on your family, would love to watch it

[–] SHamblingSHapes@lemmy.one 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

One brother doesn't share or give up decision making well. The roles are intended to be project manager rather than dictator; the person is still expected to solicit opinions and delegate tasks to others. He gets frustrated really quickly when he doesn't get his way entirely and will get to a point where he doesn't hear other people's perfectly reasonable views.

But it's been this way forever, it's his personality. He knows it. A few of us are pretty good at calling attention to his behavior in a way that he doesn't feel attacked by and he'll chill out. One just goes toe to toe more aggressively with him and that tactic works sometimes too.

[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How much shit does your family go through that you need bylaws and a treasurer?

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[–] DanglingFury@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting. Our family does the exact opposite of this

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[–] gon@lemm.ee 41 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I'm so confused by the poop knife. What in the hell is a poop knife?! WHY?!

My family is NORMAL and we have NORMAL things in the house!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS A POOP KNIFE OR THE FUCKING FROG TONGS YOU PEOPLE ARE INSANE

[–] EccTM@lemmy.ml 60 points 1 year ago (3 children)

In case you are unaware, "poop knife" was a reddit r/confession post from a few years back that went viral, where someone admitted their family has a knife kept in the house specifically for when big 'movements' wouldn't flush, and he had just discovered that wasn't a normal thing everyone just has at home when he needed flush assistance at a friends house.

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[–] oiez@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

You ever drive down a rural road, and out the window you suddenly come across an old shuttered up house? The kind of house with five cars parked on the front lawn in various states of disrepair? With overgrown bushes pushing into the peeling paint of the wooden siding alongside a giant novelty bigfoot that seems to stare at you as you zip by down the road? The one with the chain link fence that's torn in five places and yellowed trailer up on blocks? The one with a dog tied to a post, barking it's head off outside, so you know someone actually lives there?

I imagine these threads are like a window into the lives of the people in those houses. It's like they're living in a whole different society, with their weird quirks and vaguely unsettling rituals.

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[–] Harpsist@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yoga swing.

Anytime an adult asks what it is and I explain. They always - always always - assume its a sex swing.

Which, admittedly it could very well be if the wife wasn't so damn unwilling.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then why do you have a full body gimp suit next to it?

[–] HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh that? No no, that a errrr... a yoga suit

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[–] rynzcycle@kbin.social 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Wife and I have since established the crotch blanket (tm). It's really just a flat sheet, but we each have our own and take them even when we travel. Keeps your legs and bits from sticking in the heat, and crumpled correctly it supports your knees while you sleep.

Not that weird as an idea, but wish we would have settled on something better than "crotch blanket".

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

A pillow should be used here as I do

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[–] Sabata11792@kbin.social 35 points 1 year ago (10 children)

No where near the poop knife, but people are weirded out that I use a power drill for dishes. I don't have a washer and the drill dose things a rag could never conceive of.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 24 points 1 year ago

They use a special bit for dishes. The dish bit destroys the dishes so you never have to clean them again!

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[–] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 33 points 1 year ago

We have a pair of tongs for fishing out stones that our youngest son (2) throws down an outside drain.

[–] quinkin@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

I have an internet pencil.

Getting reliable internet through the house while renting crappy houses means I end up using ethernet over power bricks.

Every couple of months they will fail and need to be power cycled but the switches on the power point are occluded by the EoP brick without enough room for my fat fingers.

I would just grab any pen or pencil to use as my switch flicking tool but they are constantly purloined by my children so I keep a special internet pencil on my desk.

[–] joelfromaus@aussie.zone 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My grandfather used to run a fauna park with kookaburras. We had a meat grinder, like what’s used to make filling for pies and pasties, which was used to grind up baby chickens and mice into a paste for the kookaburras.

They also had a meat grind to use for pies and pasties so I hope they never mixed the two.

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[–] wintermute@feddit.de 29 points 1 year ago (5 children)

back then, we all thought they were our normal breakfast spoons until we accidentally found photos of our roommates abusing them as sex toys

First i'm hearing of spoons that are specific to breakfast

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[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 27 points 1 year ago (13 children)

The frog tongs reminded me of my spider box. Because I think spiders are good and reduce insect population I don't kill them. Instead I have a shoebox with a piece of paper in it. Get spider on paper, they usually crawl right onto it if you hold it near them. Then throw paper into shoebox and close the box. Shoebox should seal and not have holes, btw. Most shoeboxes do not seal. Then take the box outside and open. +1 spider population in your yard.

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[–] beirdobaggins@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I have a tongue scraper that I keep in the shower. It is used exclusively for scraping dead skin from my heels.

It looks like this one.

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[–] oxideseven@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm just finding out now that we had a poop knife...

A snake poop knife, for the stuck snake poop in the snake box.

I have nothing else to say about it.

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[–] Sequentialsilence@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (12 children)

We have a suite of kitchen tools because sometimes walking downstairs to the garage is to far when all you want to do is measure something real quick or quickly tighten or loosen a screw.

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