Useless Inventions

2 CommentsWednesday • March 2, 2011 • by Imei

My ability to live on a variety of budgets (slim, moderate, spacious, and ridiculous) comes from a belief that one does not need most of what one possesses. After running in a few beauty pageants and walking away with awards, I also had a closet full of gowns, shoes, and accessories. I’m not very good at collecting, and I’m sometimes worse at giving away things, but I go through cycles of giving away what I haven’t used, finding them good homes, or donating them. Useless inventions, called Chindogu in Japanese, fascinate me because they inspire me to clean my closets (just in time for Spring!) and make sure I don’t have excess things laying around.

At first glance, Chindogu seem like good solutions to particular problems. After a split second, the observer realizes the ridiculousness of owning something so specific in function, it is otherwise useless. I could take that to an extreme by saying that much of what I see in kitchen gadget stores has that same veneer, but the usefulness of the gadget saves it from being Chindogu material. Editor’s note: as a person of Chinese descent, I have wondered why a kitchen needs much more than a butcher knife, long chopsticks, a Wok, bamboo steamer, rice cooker, and a couple of implements for stirring. Martha Stewart would be broke with my mentality, except that we keep having babies who grow up and need more of these essentials.

Seattle has plenty of rain for me to wish I had an effective umbrella. How about the Nubrella?

Not enough coverage from the rain? Here’s a full-body umbrella that might just do you right:

Here’s a collection of un-useless Chindogu on Youtube:

My favorites: the pillow with the arm (though I hope to upgrade mine for a furry arm sometime soon!), the face flower (catches liberated noodle liquid), and the cat duster socks.

What does this have to do with creativity, artful living, and small businesses? Um, well, Chindogu is all in good fun. They remind us of what we really need, and what we can really do without. I suppose you could apply that principle to just about anything: art, relationships, business, budgets, and your home.

Happy Spring cleaning!