What is the most under-rated tool? I give you the lowley clothespin.

[telleutelleme]

With this simple device you can reach into tiny spaces and pick up lost objects. You can remove toast from a toaster and not get burned. The sheer number of uses for this magical creation is endless. If for some reason you lose one, there is always another nearby. The parts are interchangeable.

I think maybe the clothespin might give duct tape a run for the money. Am I wrong?

Doesn't matter, right now it is holding my wife's little teacup side together while the superglue dries after I dropped it. Looks like new and she will never notice. Thank you clothespin.

 

[dented]

I have my Mom's clothes line bag. It has a nice hook to hang on the line and heavy cloth bag. It is loaded with old clothes pins. Best yet it has a paint print on front of a Rosie the Riveter looking gal hanging clothes. I believe it was purchased in the 1950s. I love clothes pins.

 

[Peegoo]

The lowly paper clip would give the clothes peg a run for its money.

 

[radiocaster]

Those clothespins are good, but the old ones without the spring are not so useful.

 

[Reedo]

Yes, very underrated.

 

[Chester P Squier]

The lowly paper clip would give the clothes peg a run for its money.

I was gonna say paper clip, but Peegoo beat me to it. You don't have the permanence of staples.

 

[brookdalebill]

Indeed!

 

[uriah1]

Tweezers...good for splinters and ticks

 

[toomuchfun]

I think ones middle finger is a extremely useful tool in 2021.

 

[StratDal]

I think ones middle finger is a extremely useful tool in 2021.

 

[magicfingers99]

With this simple device you can reach into tiny spaces and pick up lost objects. You can remove toast from a toaster and not get burned. The sheer number of uses for this magical creation is endless. If for some reason you lose one, there is always another nearby. The parts are interchangeable.

I think maybe the clothespin might give duct tape a run for the money. Am I wrong?

Doesn't matter, right now it is holding my wife's little teacup side together while the superglue dries after I dropped it. Looks like new and she will never notice. Thank you clothespin.

View attachment 865338

paper clips and binder clips are pretty handy for everything from gluing small parts, to soldering to wire wrapping things in place.

binder clip

 

[televillian]

pointed stick

 

[magicfingers99]

pointed stick

the root source of the fork, 4 pointed sticks on a handle.

 

[yegbert]

A clothesline outside was our only clothes dryer growing up. We used the kind of clothespins like those made of two pieces of wood with the metal spring in between.

Then one day out of who knows where, there was by itself (not even with the other clothespins) a single purple one piece peg-like clothespin with no spring. I was amazed at this unknown object. There was also a song on the radio at that time about a “purple people eater” and that was a phrase I had never heard and didn’t understand what it was, and in fact I surmised that “people eater” was a single word, and that it was what this unknown object was.

The mysterious “purple peopleeater” it was, in my imagination!



We now keep the type with the metal spring, as a general purpose tool. Mostly for holding closed the bags of potato chips in our pantry. And they often fall apart on me and I have to put them back together. I reckon I should get some of the other single piece type to use instead. In purple of course in honor of my childhood imagination!

Or if I do that, will the purple peopleeater come get me?!

 

[El Tele Lobo]

I have my Mom's clothes line bag. It has a nice hook to hang on the line and heavy cloth bag. It is loaded with old clothes pins. Best yet it has a paint print on front of a Rosie the Riveter looking gal hanging clothes. I believe it was purchased in the 1950s. I love clothes pins.

Pics or it didn’t happen!

 

[schmee]

Yes the clothespin. I found a new bag of them last year cleaning up in the garage. They are now in the house and work very well as "bag clips" (those plastic things you keep your chip bags etc closed with.) The plastic ones break all the time. The wooden clothespins keep working and working and working and working and working and working.,....

 

[paulblackford]

I've never had clothespins, having always had a dryer. I have a tossup between my two most underrated tools:

 

[Toto'sDad]

I clothespin, therefore I am.

 

[magicfingers99]

A clothesline outside was our only clothes dryer growing up. We used the kind of clothespins like those made of two pieces of wood with the metal spring in between.

Then one day out of who knows where, there was by itself (not even with the other clothespins) a single purple one piece peg-like clothespin with no spring. I was amazed at this unknown object. There was also a song on the radio at that time about a “purple people eater” and that was a phrase I had never heard and didn’t understand what it was, and in fact I surmised that “people eater” was a single word, and that it was what this unknown object was.

The mysterious “purple peopleeater” it was, in my imagination!



We now keep the type with the metal spring, as a general purpose tool. Mostly for holding closed the bags of potato chips in our pantry. And they often fall apart on me and I have to put them back together. I reckon I should get some of the other single piece type to use instead. In purple of course in honor of my childhood imagination!

Or if I do that, will the purple peopleeater come get me?!

try binder clips, they're very cheap if you steal them from the office....

works great on chips, also great for hanging plastic baggies with parts in them on peg boards etc. Great for holding printed pdf manuals for all that gear you bought on ebay that didn't come with the manual.

p.s we aren't allowed to have chips in the house since 2012. don't really miss them.
switched to mixed nuts, pecans, cashews etc.

 

[Rattfink]

A toothbrush. I have one in just about every toolbox. Once retired from teeth duty they are useful for all sorts of cleaning or prep work.