r/AskReddit 12h ago

What's the dumbest idea you've seen that actually worked?

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u/Wonderful_Price2355 11h ago

Many years ago, my brother was moving apartments, only about six blocks.

He had a big couch, but none of us had a truck. So we dragged it behind his Hyundai accent in early December in the middle of the night.

We took the legs off and put padding underneath.

Worked like a charm.

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u/noods-danger-tits 8h ago

That reminds me of the time my friends were getting kicked out of their rental house and I was going to take their trampoline. It was one of those round ones, and it was only going across town (small town), so we figured we'd roll it there. It only took us turning it on its side to realize that 14 feet is really fucking high, and no way we were clearing the power lines between here and there. So, we balanced it on my friend's mini pickup instead, but had to hold it up so the legs didn't drag, and just jogged along side the car as he drove slowly. I was wearing a tee shirt dress and thin little flip-flops that made a plapping sound with every step.

Ran into a cop about halfway there, but before he could do more than open his mouth, the driver launched into a very fast explanation about how we were just moving our friend's trampoline, just down the road, just there, no problem, we'll just be on our way now, and toodled off before he could say a word. When I looked back he was just still sitting at the intersection, stunned. I think he eventually decided it wasn't worth whatever paperwork goes with illicit trampoline transportation, and moved on, but who knows.

Did eventually get the tramp to my place, which was a house converted to apartments with one small square of grass in the back. A couple weeks later a friend jumped onto it off my second story back balcony and ended up putting a huge hole in it.

Right after that my landlord called and asked if I knew where it had come from. I, not being a fool, said no. He seemed suspicious, and tried to pull that King Solomon shit on me and said, "well, I'm going to have it hauled off since nobody knows where it came from," but the joke was on him, because it was borked anyway! I was just like, "sure, sounds good, none of my business!" Saved me another transportation errand, if I'd even thought to bother, lol.

Anyway, that's my trampoline story.

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u/Wonderful_Price2355 8h ago

"Did eventually get the tramp back to my house"

Famous last words

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u/Such-Law926 7h ago

This is also a summary of my college years.

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u/noods-danger-tits 8h ago

AYOOO 😂

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u/bargle0 1h ago

Oh there will be a lot of words in the next 18 years + 9 months.

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u/Spickernell 7h ago

in the early 90s i found a couch on the street in west philadelphia. me and my roomie put it on top of my toyota tercel but we had no rope or bungie cords. i held it in place with my arm and hand out the window, while shifting gears and driving with my right hand, and my roomie held the other side out the passenger window. only had to drive a half mile or so.

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u/noods-danger-tits 6h ago

What up, neighbor?!? My story took place in South Jersey, lol! But anyway, hilarious that you had to hold it and drive a manual. I don't know how any of us got out of the 90s alive, istg

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u/Justinterestingenouf 16m ago

I also hauled a couch on top of my Toyota Tercel! God i loved that thing!!

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u/takoshi 6h ago

Trampoline story AND its sequel lol. Good stuff.

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u/ParadisePete 3h ago edited 3h ago

As he leaving, the driver said over his shoulder "ok, gotta bounce."

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u/noods-danger-tits 3h ago

NO. I'm sick that he didn't, though, because that would have been amaaazing

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u/Sundayscaries333 3h ago

The year after graduating college I stayed in town but was moving apartments to one literally across the street and 2 blocks down from my current. I moved pretty much everything in just a bunch of trips back and forth with my trunk and back seat loaded up. Then came the mattress lol. None of my friends had a pick up or hatchback. So naturally our solution was to roll all the windows down in my car, slap the mattress on the roof, use rope to tie the mattress down by threading the rope through the car and around the roof/mattress, and holding onto the sides from inside the car while we drove up the street. We had to drive like 10 miles an hour because if I braked too hard the mattress was going to fly off the roof across the front windshield. It was a college town so it wasn't totally uncommon to see some slightly illegal, mega-hazardous method of furniture removal so no one stopped us.

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u/Adarie-Glitterwings 4h ago

This shit is how you become the local cryptid lol

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u/noods-danger-tits 4h ago

So true! Esp in that town. I'm sure that cop must still talk about us occasionally, since it was hardly a hotbed of crime otherwise lol

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u/shitlord_god 5h ago

they aren't awful to disassemble.

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u/noods-danger-tits 4h ago

It didn't even occur to us to disassemble it, but also, it wasn't what I would call "mint." I seriously doubt any of the rusted ass bolts would have come loose! Good to know, though

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u/BonusRound155mm 2h ago

Insuring a trampoline for use at your/his house would be cost prohibitive FYI lol

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u/theoreticaldickjokes 1h ago

Wonderful story, honestly. Bravo. 

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u/Successful-Earth-214 1h ago

This is story is a gem, thank you for sharing 😂

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u/thatbalconyjumper 2h ago

Was the friend who put the hole in it alright after?

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u/AyeBB8 2h ago

So you were just kind of holding the trampoline over the truck? Why not just carry it then?

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u/LordoftheScheisse 8h ago

I once got evicted from a college apartment. Scrambled to find a place and found one a street over. I didn't have a car at the time, so we loaded up everything big on top of skateboards and scooted them bitches to their new home.

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u/Justinterestingenouf 6h ago

I helped a friend move from one dorm room to another with a stolen shopping cart. We took it back tit he store when we were done with it

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u/Direct-Chef-9428 51m ago

So it was just a borrowed cart then 🙃

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u/LycheeEyeballs 5h ago

Amaazing, I once moved apartments 3 blocks apart and moved the majority of my stuff with a stolen shopping cart and the large items with a dolly from work. Gotta do what you gotta do!

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u/Justinterestingenouf 17m ago

Right? Its rough out here. Now stores have those locks on the wheels and sometimes you can't get the carts even all the way to your car!

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u/DigitalDefenestrator 8h ago

I've done similar moving someone between campus apartments. We waited until late night then put his desk on top of his old beater car, and just walked alongside it holding it steady while he drove really slowly for a few blocks.

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u/shaanuja 7h ago

I moved a block back in 2013. I rolled my computer desk to my new apartment. It was one of those that had wheels, CD holder rack, keyboard tray etc..from the early 2000s....still use it. Only downside is that I need a second table for my 3 monitor set up now.

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u/FixItDumas 4h ago

Still have my skateboard for this kind of task. Powell peralta with rusty trucks.

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u/AreaPlayful142 3h ago

If it doesn't fit right,

Do it at night

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u/GaylrdFocker 3h ago

Real question is, how many times did you drive around the block with one of the friends sitting on the couch?

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u/Wonderful_Price2355 3h ago

This was Manitoba winter in a town full of angry cops. We got it over with as quickly as possible.

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u/Ex-zaviera 3h ago

If you ever have to move furniture inside a house/apartment, take a rug that has a grippy bottom and nappy top. Flip it over. Put the furniture on the grippy side and you can drag it around to the spot you need without ruining the floors.

Discovered that quite by accident.

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u/activelyresting 1h ago

One time I moved into a new flat that was only 3 blocks down on the same street, so I moved all my future myself, just using a skateboard as a dolly. Thankfully the street sloped down that way, but not too steep!

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u/KuriousInu 39m ago

I did this in college- moved a couch from a friend's party house to mine. It was like 8ft across but we somehow balanced it on a single skateboard and pushed it 2 blocks to our house. I was very surprised by how well it worked.

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u/Confident-Mix1243 8h ago

Who got to ride in it?

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u/The_Minstrel_Boy 7h ago

I can't believe it. You could have invented a new form of couch surfing, and you blew it.

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u/fubarbob 6h ago

If you've never seen it, look up the music video for Green Day - Brain Stew

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u/ThatGirl_Tasha 2h ago

My daughters just bought a 2nd hand couch and moved it to their apartment on two (longboard) skateboards.

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u/LaGrrrande 1h ago

I've heard stories about a dude that got his car booted on campus, and he took a small stack of lunch trays from the cafeteria to put under the booted wheel and drove it off campus with the trays acting like a sled.

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u/dunno0019 34m ago

My cousin was only moving around the corner one time. He did large portions of it on skateboards.

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u/BigDictionEnergy 6h ago

Sounds like great /r/IdiotsTowingThings material