People Share Product Purposes That Aren't What They Were Designed For And Here's 26 Of The Best Ones

The royal dansk danish cookie container, used by many for storing sewing/ knitting supplies

Amputee here. VR systems have been shown to reduce phantom pain. The proprioceptive illusion of a VR system is similar to mirror therapy but more effective.

Sugar free gummy bears would be better marketed as gummy laxatives

Shaving cream, the super foamy cheap kind, cleans glass shower doors better than any cleaner!

Congested? Vicks Vapor Rub. Cough? Vicks Vapor Rub. Headache? Vicks Vapor Rub. Squeaky door hinge? Vicks Vapor Rub. Dry skin? Vicks Vapor Rub. Anything stuck? Vicks Vapor Rub.

I was prescribed a diabetes medication called Metformin, despite not having diabetes, which helped me to fall pregnant after almost 1.5 years of unexplained infertility so that’s pretty cool.

There's a prostate drug that my wife's doctor prescribed her for passing kidney stones. It relaxes the ureter, which let her pass the stones, which made surgery or other options unnecessary. I thought that was pretty neat.

Also, doc gave her another drug to lower her blood pressure (beta blocker), which reduced her anxiety almost immediately. All the time I've known her, she's been a nervous wreck over the most mundane things. Now she lives normally. She became a different person instantly. I could always see the shell she lived in and now it's broken away and gone. She's the person I saw behind the shell. Amazing.

Lebatolol (the BB) and flomax for the kidney stones.

Botox. Originally used to control crossed eyes, then to control spasming facial muscles, when it was noticed it alleviated wrinkles. Now also used as a migraine treatment. Who would have thought injecting a toxin that temporarily paralyzes muscles would find such widespread usage?

Ketchup cleans up brass and gold better than most toxic chemicals sold as cleaners.

I used to clean cars at a rental company. We obviously didn't have enough time to deeply clean every car, and sometimes people would bring their dogs. We had a rubber brush for removing dog hair, but it hardly worked. Wearing a rubber glove and rubbing the hair off the seats and carpet worked wonders.

Binder clips.

I use them for everything except holding documents- closing chip bags, holding parking stubs or packets of headache powder on my visor in my truck, keeping cables bundled, keeping the trash bag from slipping down into the trashcan, holding up my mini Spider-Man bobblehead so it looks like he's clinging upside-down on the bottom of a shelf, keeping rubberbands contained so they can't take over my junk drawer...

sticky notes were invented on accident when the adhesive used in them was rejected as a glue because it wasn’t strong. The inventor had a musician friend who loved how easy it made pinning his sheet music up, and now we have post-its

Thalidomide.

Originally developed as treatment for morning sickness, Thalidomide infamously caused serious birth defects in thousands of children. However, a cancer research lab in the 90s found out that Thalidomide cut off blood vessels shortly after the same lab discovered that solid tumors need new blood vessels to grow. Thalidomide has turned out to be a good potential treatment for multiple myeloma.

If you’re in an Asian household, dishwashers serve as excellent drying racks, as do empty ovens.

Talcum powder is great for getting excess sand off your feet when you get off the beach and want to put your shoes on without getting sandy socks and shoes for the rest of the day

Q-tips are meant for cleaning my ears and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise

A disposable razor will get all the loose bobbles from your clothes.

Hairspray takes toddler ink pen doodles off my couch. While it makes my hair look just awful sometimes.

Play doh was wallpaper cleaner before it was a kid toy

Pipe cleaners. As a teacher and a pipe smoker, I can safely say I use them for arts and crafts about 1000x more often than I use them to clean out my pipe.