Okay, new topic this time. It’s probably one you can all relate to. It’s a little story about a great idea of mine that quite frankly never should have been. Also, when I’m finished here I will have committed one of the worst sins an inventor can commit, I will have talked about my invention.

I’ll up that ante a little and say right now that if anyone out there wants to take this idea I’ll be discussing and use it for their own feel free. The only thing I ask is that you don’t make fun of me on any sort of mass media when you are rich sailing around on your big boat on your way to the French Riviera to meet Paris Hilton from all the money you made off of this idea! If you can agree to that then read on, otherwise STOP RIGHT HERE! I’ll even throw in the prototype at cost plus shipping and handling if you are interested.

Okay, here it goes. I was sitting around one day trying to think up ideas for the first Lifetime Brands LPS when a long overlooked problem came to mind. I spent the next few hours on and off thinking about how to solve it. Then a flash of misguided genius struck me and I was off sketching furiously! I spent 3 days toying around with the idea and perfecting the design before I got to something I liked. I then spent another 2 weeks looking for things I could build a prototype out of. So by this point I’m probably a good 15 or so hours of time in on the project between all the sketching, googling, parts hunting etc… Then I found the parts and purchased them. Fortunately the parts weren’t so expensive. I built the whole thing for a little over $14 add that to the 15 hours spent researching and locating plus oh another 3 hours building the thing at lets say a nice $30 an hour and my idea at this stage cost me around $554 of my time and money.

By now you are probably wondering what the heck I made…what was the idea. I still think the problem is valid, just my solution was to put it nicely, disgusting. I couldn’t see it at the time while I was inventing. I was caught up in the idea and it was all about making it work with very little concern on what I’d have in the end. I forgot to really think it through, if I had I would have realized right off the bat that I was working on “THE INVENTION THAT NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN”. That last bit should be said in a loud deep menacing voice for the drama! Maybe add a little echo to it to for good measure!

I’m going to make you guess at what I could have possibly made. The problem was a kitchen one. It was in fact a kitchen clean up problem. The prototype was built out of a rubber sink stopper, a screw, electrical tape, 2 plastic elongated oval shaped pitchers, black spray paint and a roll of adhesive backed shelf liner that looked like brushed aluminum!

Any guesses as to what I made? Do you know what the problem was I was trying to solve?

I made the worlds first …WAAAIIIT…FORRRR…IT….combination cooking spoon soaker/scraper drying rack and cook book holder! Doesn’t that just sound amazing! I thought so at the time. As I said the problem is still valid, my solution is not. Basically the unit consisted of two elongated oval pieces, a bottom tray and a top tray. The top tray had a compartment to hold your spoons and stuff a v shaped notch when looking at it from the side that could hold pan lids temporarily or cook books and then a smaller front compartment that would hold just the tools you are currently cooking with. The lower tray had a window cut out of the front just wide enough to accept cooking spoons. This window was just below the top tray. On the bottom side of the top tray I used the rubber sink stopper to form a rounded squeegee scraper shape. When in use you’d fill the lower tray with water. After you stir your sauce you’d stick the head of the spoon into the slot so it’s now resting in the water. When you pull it out you lift up and you squeegee the water and whatever else off the spoon and it comes out clean.

It worked great but it only took a few times of doing this to get the most disgusting and nasty water known to man. There is no way anyone would want to put a spoon into that water after using it just a few times. Also because of the window you put the spoon in you could see it from your angle. I tried to paint the unit black which helped, but you could still see the gunk filled water as you scraped the spoons off. What I had spent hours making and thinking was the greatest thing of the planet was in fact a big waste of time and money. I even took time to describe and film it so tack on another hour to the bill.

So before you go out and fly with an idea half cocked, really think it through. I learned my lesson and always think my ideas through now. There is just no way anyone would ever buy this as a product in the real world. No one is going to stick there spoon in and out of dirty food soaked, bacteria laden water and actually eat it. I have no idea why i didn’t think of that up front, but I didn’t. Now I have this lovely prototype just setting around reminding me of how stupid I was. Oh well maybe the next idea will be better.

Don’t forget it’s only $554 plush shipping and handling if you want to take this baby on and buy yourself that big boat, or maybe a plane! Yeah, a plane would be cool!

If you would like to see what you are buying I posted a picture of it on my profile. Now don’t go ripping me off and making your own based on the picture. You need to buy my prototype otherwise you’ll see me in court! At least the moment you sail out of international waters you will. No wait oops I shouldn’t have said that…now you know how to avoid getting sued by me. This is not good…not good at all.