15 Objects Whose Purpose So Mysterious, the Internet Needed to Step In and Help

Once in a blue moon, people find certain items through their houses that seem weird and are really mysterious. There’s even a case of a person who had an object in their house and researched it for 20 years to try and find out its purpose, with no luck. That is, until they gave up and asked a popular subreddit’s advice. Here, with the help of a few experts, they found the purpose of the item in less than 14 minutes — now that must be some kind of record.

Bright Side gathered some really strange objects that people wanted to figure out and we invite you to take a look — maybe you can even guess a few before seeing the answers!

1. “A friend found this at Goodwill. Toolbelt of some kind.”

Answer: It’s a fishing pole holder. Here is a similar one.

2. “What are these wooden kitchen implements I was given as a gift?”

Answer: It’s an adjustable trivet. Stacked together they fit neatly into a drawer. Placed near each other you can put a hot pot on them without scorching the surface of your table.

3. “What are these strands/threads coming out of my crackers?”

Answer: I work in food manufacturing. This is 100% the frayed edges of the conveyors that take the crackers through the sheeting process before being transferred to the oven band. Contact the manufacturer with the codes and date on the box. It will help them in their investigation, and you will most likely get some free stuff.

4. “Found in our new house on the top landing banister rail. Seems like it’s meant to hold something, but not sure what it is?”

Answer: It appears to be a hair dryer holder.

5. “Real-life-looking eyeball, maybe glass? With 3 holes on the metal piece. Found at a flea market.”

Answer: I have one of those! It’s a promotional keyring for a company that makes glass eyes for taxidermy.

6. “2 flat metal round disks with long stems attached by hinges. No markings. Found in a new kitchen.”

Answer: It’s a flame snuffer, used to extinguish the gel fuel can on a tabletop fireplace.

7. “A smooth, 500-gram, oval-shaped, chrome-plated weight?”

Answer: It’s a manual scale calibration called a calibration weight. It’s so you know the exact weight of an object when you compare it to another object, want to tare the scale, etc.

8. “What are these things behind my curtains?”

Answer: Mud dauber nests — those black wasp-looking things. They build these and lay their eggs in them. These have openings so they are old. If they don’t have holes that means the larva is in there along with about 20 spiders that the mom left the larva to eat before they come out of the nest.

9. “Banana sized and shaped old tool(?) found in an old barn in Sweden. Wooden handle with rusty metal tip.”

Answer: A seed dibber. It makes a hole in the dirt for planting a seed.

10. “Found inside a musical instrument, it is the size of a big grape but there aren’t any holes big enough for it to have fallen inside.”

Answer: It’s a dust ball, a build-up of the dust common in violins. Sometimes known as a mouse.

11. “Stepped on this while cleaning out a room today. Hefty deer-shaped weight featuring 2 spiked prongs in the center.”

Answer: Kinetic sculpture. It should sit on a pillar on the middle spike so it rocks back and forth.

12. “Chicken-heart wire object with a handle”

Answer: Modern decoration made in the style of an old rug beater.

13. “We have a few of these in our house and we don’t know what they are. Maybe a rubber band that had advertising on the back of the white thing?”

Answer: They’re cheap elastic bands for books. Keeps them from opening in backpacks. Here is a different one, but it works just the same.

14. “It’s my grandmother’s, it has 2 clips and it spins. What is this?”

Answer: It’s known as a “fringe twister,” in this case, a double since it can do 2 strands at once. Here’s one, though not as nice, but it does the same thing. If you want to see it in action, watch this video.

15. “Modular curved wooden pieces with 2 holes in each segment. Only one hole in each segment goes completely through the wood.”

Answer: I found that this candleholder which, while obviously not identical to yours, has strong similarities. I’m thinking yours might have been made by a kid in a woodworking class as the cuts seem a little uneven.

Do you have a strange object in your house that you’d like to figure out? How many of the items above were you already familiar with?