well, I do use scissors to cut pizza because a knife or even a pizza cutter don't "cut" it.

I agree that these products are outrageous I have to confess that we have a banana guard and my husband uses it every day. He rides a road bike to work and has a bag that is very flat so it sits tight to his body but his banana would always get squished. The guard actually totally protects it. I know, I feel crazy even defending it but it really has been useful for us. Hopefully the bicycle commute and the eating organic bananas will offset our use of such a silly product.

We have the baby wipe warmer, and we LOOVE it. You can purchase larger bags of wipes (so less packaging and more money saved), and the wipe warmer makes a very convenient place to store them so they don't dry out. Even better, if you want to be really green you can keep reuseable cloth wipes in it, and they won't get dried out either. And come-one, is it really that bad to want to use a soothing warm washcloth to clean your baby's bottom, rather than a cold alcohol soaked disposable wipe?

My wife urged me to try an unwarmed baby wipe on myself and it convinced me to get one.

We only use it during the colder months and it's great.

I love the pet porthole for it's shear ridiculousness. Next time Fido and I go on a submarine ride or out in space I'm totally buying him one. Honestly.

And I also use my kitchen shears to cut pizza, but there is no way I'd buy scissors specifically for that purpose.

My local zoo has mega Pet's Observation Porthole, and it is super cool, the put them under the exhibits, and it allows kids to get a really close look with out the animal attacks.
I would never spend the money to get one but in my house, but if it was there, I know my cat would be lovin it.

also the bear's on the seatbelt ... LMAO. I couldn't keep a straight face when looking at that picture.

also, if the rock lokos more real, I would be all for it. I have this stupid little power box on my property, and It would be nige to cover it

looked*** I don't understand how i made that typo in the first place

Oh wow...it's like the SkyMall catalog. I love (laughing) at that thing....then I get sad.

We have an avocado slicer at my apartment. I'll be honest - I've never used it, since my avocado cookery is relegated to squishing it in the skin for guacamole, I can see the merit of this product. I don't need an apple corer, either, because I have a knife, but it's handy for even-sized pieces.

I know when I'm driving my Jeep down the road I find myself wondering... you know what's missing here?

A fuzzy teddy bear nestled in my cleavage.

I'm not entirely sure why you're hating on the parking mat. If you've ever tried to clean oil drips off of a garage floor, it's damn near impossible. Sure, it'd be nice if cars didn't leak random fluids, but it happens, especially when your car is almost 20 years old.

yeah, i would give thumbs up to a garage mat. i had to pay $200 for my former landlord to steam clean the garage because the oil pressure gauge on my car had broken and spilled nasty, black oil everywhere. i tried using as many natural products to clean it as i could, but it was still stained.

or instead of a pricey mat for the garage...you can just put down some cardboard like my dad does?

If it's stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid.

@Kaisha, I don't understand why you feel silly defending a product you have a legitmate use for. It provides a solution to a problem you have. Don't get caught up in the snobbery.

The rock cover isn't trying to emulate a rock, it's trying to mimic the looks of a rock while providing the function of a cover.

Cardboard works great as a garage mat, but it has to be replaced regularly.

Most of this stuff is junk, but do you really need to dedicate a whole article to looking down your nose at it all?

The step and shave could be useful if your shower doesn't have a lip.

The step and shave would have been so useful in my last house. I don't need the light, but I didn't have a ledge anywhere in the shower to use. The banana guard would be perfect for biking or hiking in somewhere that otherwise it would get squished. The rock covers are all over the south so that wells and sewer access don't stick out in the yard. It doesn't look too bad when it's surrounded by other rocks and trees. The garage mat is great for rentals and you can take it with you from place to place.

I have the faux rock to cover my well pipe in the middle of my yard. Keeps me from mowing over it and my kids from running into it. Sure it doesn't look fantastic, but it is better then a pipe sticking out of the ground.

awesome that people dont want to think beyond a short term gain from those gadgets...there would be better alternatives right? and oh come on banana protector?...never thgt id get so cynical but ...if a consumer is convinced, there is always an excuse for the product..way togo!!!

The real problem with auto fluids on a concrete floor is that they eat into the concrete and destabilize it. If cardboard isn't changed regularly and you have a regular drip, you could end up having to replace the entire garage floor after a few years. The vinyl would do a far better job protecting the floor than cardboard, tho many people may find that they have a regular supply of cardboard that would do the job credibly.

And, honestly, there is nothing more disgusting than a heavily bruised/squished banana that has been sitting in a lunch bag for a few hours. Yuck! A banana guard is a very useful tool if you like to bring bananas to work/school.

I like the pet bubble viewing thing, too. That would be good for dogs who are always trying to get a look out the back or front gate. Better that than having them damage the bottoms of the gates, fences or gardens to get access to a view.

Oh, and I could totally use a step and shave!

Trying to wedge my foot up on the shower stall and keep it up there while shaving my calves is a huge pita! Bending over in a shower stall is a huge pita!

I was driving in the suburbs of Chicago and noticed some faux rocks in the median, they do look a bit unnatural, but if they are covering something that is even less aesthetically appealing, go for it.

The one thing I would change about them would be to taper the rock at the bottom a bit to appear like a stone resting on rather than jutting out of the property.

I think it's just a lighthearted post, you guys.

I wasn't going to get one for my upcoming babe, but I have heard numerous people swear by the wipes warmer - not for keeping the wipes warm but for keeping them WET. Because you're not necessarily going to be running to the sink with an arm full of poopy baby. I hope to make do with a spray bottle or pump thermos and dry washcloths, but we'll see.

The aquarium at Pier 39 in SF has those bubbles under some exhibits and they're a lot of fun to climb under and take pictures. Poor little matchpuppy, nose pressed up against the glass.

The banana guard IS useful. If you bring a banana in your lunch, it does tend to get mushed.

it's just like the George Carlin routine: My sh#% is stuff, and your stuff is sh$%. Really, you just never know what odd thing is going to make someone's life easier. As for a lighted shaving shelf, well just wait till you hit 40 and need the extra light to prevent inadvertent leg Mohawks!

For people with better taste in watches than a cell phone or a timex, a watch winder is crucial. It's not just a matter of winding the watch, do you want to set the date/time once/twice a week? More if have a few watches that you rotate around the week.

We've got a banana guard, it's useful: no more squished banana all over work/school bags. It's one of those smells & stains that never really goes, and the guard means you get to lunchtime without having to eat a gross, icky bruise of a banana.

I scoffed at the baby wipe warmers initially when my sister gave me one. Having had a winter baby, the wipes did help tremendously when I had to change diapers during baby's sleep time. And when you have a messy blow out and wiggly baby, you just don't have the extra time to warm the wipe in your hands.

Banana guard seems pretty useful. Think I will get one. No more squashed banana in diaper bag!

what happened to washing baby bottoms with a washcloth and water? Surprise, surprise, it works, and babies actually don't mind.

@laurainalameda: leg mohawks! *dies laughing*

alot of that stuff IS silly, but apparently people find them useful ... i think there's something to be said, though, for finding a solution that's already on hand rather than buying a special one-use thing, i think that's the poster's point. like, if banana squishage is a regular problem for you, slice the banana into a tupperware you already own rather than buy a new banana cozy. (not that i'm picking on you banana people, just an example.)

or, dog feeling down because s/he can't enjoy a good faceoff with pedestrians? cut a hole in the fence and staple on a square of screen or chicken wire, you probably have some in the garage anyway.

that said, i'm sure i own something silly that only does one thing. everyone does. let's just laugh at ourselves. :)

We use a wipes warmer to keep our cloth wipes wet, which is what I think they were originally intended to be used for. So it's not really wasteful- it makes using cloth wipes enormously convenient, because let's face it, there's no way to wet a wipe when you have a baby with a poopy diaper squirming everywhere.

Wipe warmers intrigue me. We never even considered getting one for our little guy, and he doesn't seem to mind one bit.

And letting the water run long enough to get the wipes all warm and wet isn't so green either.
Plus, if you wet 4 and only use 3 then you've wasted that water anyway.

Just go buy some kitchen scissors to cut the pizza. I use them for cutting everything.

Hey, I had my son durring the first day of a really bad snow storm and our heating system is unreliable. and I kept trying to warm the wipes with my cold hands and hold the baby and it wasn't working and he'd scream like crazy whenever i'd touch the wipe to him, and then I remembered a friend had given me one of those wipe warmers and as silly as it sounds it saved my life those first three months. If you live in a cold place and don't have substantial heating I'd recomend it. (Although I do keep it unpluged when it's not nessacary)

I have a spray bottle full of water and washcloths right next to my changing station. Even with the most squirming baby (believe me, I know what I'm talking about!), it's really doable.
Maybe if your heating is unreliable it is a good idea, but I wouldn't know. When winter brings you sub-zero temperatures daily, heating and insulation are the first things you take care of :)

I don't have a tiddy bear comfort strap, but after a surgery to the area I got a sheepskin cover for my seat belt strap. If anything is tender in that area a strap will hurt if you drive very far.

However, a folded up hand towel will do just as well, plus if you need a towel in your car it can do double duty.

I read Re-Nest every day, but not anymore after this post. "13 Products That Are Unnecessary and Wasteful?" Get over yourselves.

That's pretty funny. The website that routinely applauds hipsters who discard their old kitchens for new ones is now lecturing us on "unnecessary and wasteful" banana covers.

A baby wipe warms up in your hand.

I don't have one of the banana guards, but I think this is one product that actually prevents waste by preventing the lunch banana from being squished and thrown out with an "ewww".

Yeah, that Step N Shave isn't such a bad idea. I don't know that I would need it to light up, that part seems completely superfluous, but I can't count the number of times I've sliced my leg shaving because I lost my balance while standing on one leg with the other kicked halfway up the shower wall. The number of bandaids saved would have easily made up for the environmental impact of the Step N Shave. ;-)

I have a suspicion that the aversion to the banana guard was mostly due to its resemblence to another household unitasker.

I love the banana holder. totally ridiculous at first glance but really useful to throw in a backpack or purse. i use it everyday, my baby's favorite food is banana. i feed it to him when we're out on the go.

Wipes warmer wasn't necessary for him last winter, I used wet cloths. No newborn likes getting their diaper changed and a few seconds of minor discomfort is not the end of the world...i guess a bruised banana isn't either....

if I didn't already have the banana holder I might not buy it after reading this. We all should really think about all the useless stuff we buy.

will you folks please stop this series? you're usually so positive about things, but when you blog about objects you deem unnecessary it feels petty and pithy.

"when you blog about objects you deem unnecessary it feels petty and pithy."

I honestly can't understand the dislike for posts like this. Isn't it important to make conscious choices about the things you buy? And isn't part of that making-a-conscious-choice reminding yourselves about things like, "why pay someone to send you a seatbelt cushion that looks like a teddy bear when you could just take a towel and have the same thing for free?"

The watch winder isn't as dumb as it sounds. They are for mechanical or "automatic" watches that wind themselves with movement. The internals on some of these watches are really finicky and you don't want the springs to wind all the way out, so for people with more than one watch, a winder is a good way to keep the springs wound without having to shake the watch for an hour a day. Now, for a $50 watch it might be overkill, but how about for a $1,500+ one? I have a winder at home that will accept 4 watches at a time and it's great.

I think the point of this post was to point out some "uni-taskers" that other multi-tasker items could easily be used for... like the strawberry huller and pizza scissors with built in spatula...

I think a lot of people missed the point of this article - which was clearly stated at the outset. It is not that these products don't provide a useful service, but rather to stop and think if perhaps you already own something that can do the same thing. Or if you can devise a creative solution to the task without having to go out and buy new things that serve a single purpose.

I moved to Brazil 5 years ago. My American consumer habits were quickly brought into question by the high cost (and low quality) of consumer products. I had to learn to substitute and come up with a new scale of necessity when it came to buying for just because it was for convenience sake. And you know what, 5 years later, it's just normal and it isn't so bad! Banana guard, cool and helpful yes, but I'm sure I have a piece of tupperware that a banana fits into - even if it means cutting it in two - or maybe I would fold a piece of durable cardboard into the shape of a banana and tuck it inside. Wipe warmer? I don't know... a bowl of warm water maybe? A heating pad? Microwave?

What's wrong with kitchen scissors for cutting up a pizza? These people are trying to reinvent the wheel.

I bought a watch winder at a Job Lot store as a joke for my Father. $3.00 and a small self welding job later it worked! It turns out that because he has Dementia now it actually is a very helpful device. Watches that use the swing action to wind themselves up don't get wound up on the arms of men who don't get normal exercise. It winds up his watch at night while he sleeps. Otherwise it's a totally useless invention.
The Baby Wipe Warmers are NOT necessity. And even as a luxury I've seen relatives get them as Shower gifts only to relegate them to the back of the closet. At 2 in the morning who really wants to fiddle with more stuff than you need to?
I liked this article. It should have a companion article for useful articles that are not seen anymore. Like the old Awesome fluid that really got rid of stains in clothing. "The Buttonier" a device that looked like an armed pen that secured buttons that fell off clothing. I'm sure if I spent more time I could think of more...

I have a 2-year old and I have and would NEVER consider a wipes warmer...for one, they are a fire and electrical shock hazard (ummm, wetness and electricity, not a good combo), for another, a warm moist environment increases bacteria growth and thirdly, TONS of wipes warmers have been recalled (mostly for reason number 1 that I mentioned). Come on people...want to be green, safe, have a comfy baby AND avoid the use of an unceccesary gadget? Warm the wipe between your hands for 30 seconds!!

My boyfriend acquired a quesadilla maker at a family christmas gift exchange. It takes up so much room in the cupboard and I think he has only used it once. I have always thought to myself that it is a useless appliance- what is the point of having such a device that has once purpose? How many times does one eat quesadillas that you need a appliance that makes it? If there is going to be such a device why not at least make it have interchangeable plates for grilled cheese, waffles, etc?

We are a spoiled, spoiled nation if we have to have a gadget to turn our iced cream cone for us! Good Grief!

I'm a little bummed the hot dog toaster didn't make this list.

I actually like the fake rock-- so much more attractive than the traditional solution, which dates back to before my grandparents: a coffee can. :)

I agree about wipes warmers-- my sister-in-law swore by it, and then my nephew was in for quite a surprise the first time she had to change his diaper away from home. Plus, they tend to be on recalls lists often, due to fire hazard.

I think you should add a microwave oven to this list. Why do you need a microwave when you have a stove top and oven?

My parents have that fake rock. They don't just use it to cover unsightly things, it keeps my mom from mowing off the sprinkler

Actually those pizza scissors could be useful. The pizza cutter is always such a pain to use. This not only cuts, put holds the pizza so you can serve it.

I also think the step n shave thing is great as long as you can remove it without damage to the tile. I wish I'd had that in college. We had community showers that had absolutely nothing to put your foot up on when shaving. It's also really difficult to shave in those tiny garden showers with no ledge and no space without water running down on you.

I wouldn't get that porthole, but I could see my dog loving it. He's so nosy.

What I don't get is the apple holder thing. Why would you want to keep the core?

The ice cream cone thing is just lazy.

My parents live in a mountainous area so everyone has wells and everyone uses those rocks to cover their artesian wells. Otherwise it's just an open crock of water that anyone could step in or it get debris in it. This is what they were originally made for, not just as some strange plastic yard decoration.

I just hate when my banana gets squished...
(He doesn't like it much either)
...but there's no way in heck I'm gonna get a big brightly-colored plastic dildo for my lunchbag - I can just see HR coming to my office now.

Re: Pizza--
I dont' have one of those pizza wheels or a pizza knife or even use a pair of scissors on it.
A long chef's knife works just fine.

Avocado cutter - A paring knife and a spoon work great.

@kitchengoddess - Yes! My grandmother, the original recycler/repurposer, only used scissors for pizza. And this use reflects the article's intended point - that you don't really need to buy a snazzy new scissors/spatula combo; you already have kitchen shears and a spatula.

BUT....had I ever seen it, I might have been tempted by the shaver step. My 1959 master bath shower is a small tiled stall. When we moved in, I was 7 months pregnant, and could not for the life of me double over to shave. In fact, I'm not sure I could double over in it now - you can only bend about 20 degrees before your head meets wall. So glad I figured out I can shave legs propped on the toilet (duh moment for me). And, in fact, don't have to stay under running water this way! Instead, I use a washcloth to wipe my razor. No need to take up precious real estate in my solitary-confinement shower with a shave step! :)

i'd take that shaving thing. i've slipped a few times and either kneed my jaw up into my tongue or nearly knocked myself out on the back of the tub. they should redesign tubs with a little dip for a lady to prop her foot without overbalancing on her wet foot.

oh no, don't take my garment dryer!

What? No one is gonna defend the apple bowl?

I love that it's called a BANANA GUARD. It sounds so important!

I think the fake rock is kind of useful, and I'm also a little on board with the pet peephole.

I get the practicality of the banana guard--but I would not want that thing falling out of my bag at the office--if you know what I mean. Looks like it could be used for something else! ;)

I have to say that if I had a shower stall and not a tub shower I'd own a step & shave, otherwise it's nearly impossible to shave!

The pet peephole is actually pretty hilarious (if I had a dog and if I had a fenced yard)... but I would imagine you'd have to clean that like every other day otherwise poor fido won't be able to see out it anymore!

Fake rocks, while they leave a bit to be desired it beats looking at ugly pipes, right?

And I'm with @bahbala on the banana guard. I stopped bringing bananas to work because they get all bruised, but no way I'm bringing that thing!!

I was shocked when I saw finger food forks (!) in the store the other day.

I'm a little surprised by all the commenters who use scissors to cut their pizzas! That's something I never would have considered unless my slicer and all my knives were in the midst of a rinse cycle in the dishwasher.

A few of these products are useless--definitely the ice cream turner and the apple bowl, but the fake rock, garage mat, wipes warmer, and banana cover I can understand. I have no use for them myself, but I don't think they are wasteful unless the person who buys them doesn't use them.

Interesting premise... one could go so far as to say that while a mattress may be necessary, a bed isn't. Certainly salad plates that match one's dinner plates aren't any more necessary that a dessert spoon or salad fork. Art on the walls? hardly necessary.

Yep, there's a lot of junk out there. I think a more mindful approach to this topic is better handled by a regualar series in Real Simple. They call it the "ah-ha! use" in print and "new uses for old things" on their website.

http://browse.realsimple.com/home-organizing/new-uses-for-old-things/index.html

I wish AT editors would put a little more mindfulness into their posts. But hey, it's free! And I'm still reading, aren't I? :-)

PS hoosthatgirl@.... right on! I have never owned a microwave and never will. I'll use those available at work because they're a practical way to heat a meal in a no-cook environment (thanks to the kitchn for the microwave poached egg, btw)..... but if you stop to think about how millions of people get by with less than a tenth of what many of us think of as "necessary," it really has the power to change your purchasing decisions.

Well said, @username26. But I think most of us realize that a Web site with paid staff is going to need ad sponsors or some way of generating revenue to pay that staff, and those sponsors would dry up if the lesson were always "your most thoughtful choice is to buy nothing." While true, some people have a crafty bug and like to decorate or change our environment as an exercise of self expression, not because it's ever necessary. And sometimes our life circumstances change (e.g. we have a baby or a pet) and we need to accommodate that. Hopefully all of us use this site for ideas and guidance only when we're already going to create or buy something ANYWAY - but it's true that we should be on guard against externally suggested "needs," whether from this site or SkyMall.

I would defend the baby wipe warmer 1,000 times over. Our Brooklyn apartment is not too warm in the winters, and before we got it, my daughter would pee all over the changing table the second that cold wipe touched her. She never did it again once the wipes were warm.

I have a fake rock to cover up the prominent well cover in the middle of a landscape bed. I planted some shrubs around it, so it blends in nicely now.

I gave my brother-in-law a fake rock for Christmas to address the same problem. He said it was the best gift he ever got and still talks about it when we come over. He lives in an upscale subdivision where all of his neighbors have ugly white pipes mixed in with their professional landscaping.

To those defending the watch winder device:
-You say it's useful for people with multiple, expensive wind up watches.
-I say if you spend that much on watches and you don't have the time (or energy) to wind them yourself and/or reset the time, your lifestyle is already so fundamentally flawed that you might as well not worry about it.

I think the real point of this article is to sell more banana guards and baby wipes warmers! I don't even have a baby and I think I'd like the feel of a warm wet one on my backside! Hmmm...perhaps I've said too much!

The pet porthole may not be necessary (my parents just cut a couple of holes in their fence and covered them with chicken wire), but some dogs are super curious and absolutely LOVE being able to look out past the fence.

I wonder how hard it was for those people to look that excited about having a teddy bear seat belt protector. That's some serious acting there. If I had walked into that audition I would have walked right back out. LOL

I would re-title this post 13 objects that are unnecessary but could sometimes be useful or fun - like the banana case (awesome! I want one!), or the baby wipe warmer (I'd rather use it than hear my baby scream in anger at a cold wipe), or the dog porthole (also totally awesome!), or the shower step thing (rather have that than slice my leg to ribbons). The great thing about stupid america is the enormous variety of stuff we have. It's such a luxury to be able to pick and choose this way. So, it's also good to pick and and choose mindfully - but still, this is the best dumbass country in the world!

This shrink hates baby-wipe warmers. They take away a perfectly good opportunity for the kid to learn that, hey, sometimes stuff sucks, and you deal with it.

I really fear for this generation of kids who are so catered to and never required to do anything that might make them a little uncomfortable.

Are those banana things flexible at all? What if your banana doesn't conform to the shape of the case?

haha.. the ice cream scoop that rotates.. how lazy are you!

hey guys, I bought a strawberry huller about 15 years ago. Think it cost about 79 cents. So amortized it's been a good deal. And just for the record it works great.

Even though these are are all pointless, number eight is ridiculously adorable!!

This post is hilarious! It points out how lazy we have gotten too. But #8 cracked me up! Tlingit, we can buy Awesome here in California, they even have a laundry detergent too, it smells great. I hated the Awesome toxicity but it does work well.

I have an inflatable banana-carrier. Seriously. Much more flexible. And with a smiley face on it.

http://www.fruityfaces.com/index.php

Does it help that it was sold by a charity?

These all look like future garage sale items.

PhoebeArt just to be clear- Automatic watches come in varying price points ie. Swatch makes some under $200, Bulova's start at about $400. It's not a matter of shaking the watch for 2 minutes to get it going in the morning. It's entirely reasonable that someone has been gifted one or two automatic watches and would like to keep them running (and working sans battery) forever.
Automatic watches are a beautiful mechanical object. They may not be your preferred indulgence, but in no way is it appallingly consumeristic to have more than one.

I like the avocado cutters. They are helpful. We get our avo's from one of the numerous farms around our city for a couple bucks a half kilo bag. So of course that means we eat a lot of them and it's nice to have a tool that makes it super easy. I mean people have specialised ham slicing knives don't they. Leave my avo cutter alone! Lol.

And the dog window is really cute!

My parents live on a farm and have a well system. They put that fake rock cover over the sewer pipe. For the longest time I thought it was a hunk of snow that hadn't melted yet.

PhoebeArt, you're still totally clueless with your comment:

"To those defending the watch winder device:
-You say it's useful for people with multiple, expensive wind up watches.
-I say if you spend that much on watches and you don't have the time (or energy) to wind them yourself and/or reset the time, your lifestyle is already so fundamentally flawed that you might as well not worry about it."

It's not like the device winds the crown of the watch, it moves the watch in such a way as to make a counterweight inside the watch rotate, which winds the spring. Again, you don't need one if you only have one mechanical watch and you wear it everyday, but if you have more than one, unless you like sitting there and shaking your watches 1,000 times per day to keep them running, they are a necessity. It probably helps to, um, actually KNOW SOMETHING about a product before you blindly criticize it, doncha think?

Seems like this whole entire post should be removed. These products are niche products for very specific purposes. I'm certain that there are many people who don't use makeup but that doesn't mean that it's wasteful.

What a horrible post.

I suppose everybody can find one that's useful and agree that one is a waste. I could've used that shower step on my last apartment, and I think my cat would disagree that the observation window is useless.

Twenty years ago, I would have scoffed at the turning ice cream cone, however, as I age and become less and less dexterious, it's lookin' better and better. If an item is not useful, it will not find a market and will not continue to be manufactured. I don't think we need anyone to tell us what is or isn't necessary.

I'm gonna repeat a comment I saw above which I totally agree with... if you use it, nothing is wasteful. What's wasteful is something sitting in your drawer never to be seen until it gets thrown out.

And btw, I would TOTALLY die for that step n' shave - my bathroom is a tiled floor to ceiling 4'x6' box.... given the tiny corner that is my shower you can't believe the contortions I've found myself in!

One person's waste is another's treasure!