Embrace your inner monkey.
Dirty crumpled socks, dropped Doritos, rogue pen caps: We see you there. Yes, we see you right in the crosshairs of our toes and we’re about to scoop you up with a good old fashioned foot scrunch.
Bending over is overrated.
Picking things up with your feet is
AWESOME!
Photo from: here
62 Comments
July 28, 2010 at 12:04 am
One of my favorite things to do! My friends are always in awe when they see that my feet are almost as dexterous as my hands!
July 28, 2010 at 12:15 am
I did this just now, in honor of this post.
July 28, 2010 at 12:21 am
I do this all the time. Why pick things up with your hands when you can do it with your feet? It’s way more AWESOME!
July 28, 2010 at 12:47 am
Closely rivaled by: turning off the TV/pressing the buttons on the remote control with your feet.
July 28, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I can push the power button on the tv with my toes, but the buttons on the remote?! I gotta try that.
July 28, 2010 at 1:25 am
Hahaha! this is the awesomest post of yours I have ever read! how simple things sound awesome in your writings, and this is unbelievable you noticed really simple things.
I do pick up things with my feet, even if it fails sometimes.I feel motivated to pick things with my feet! strange!
July 28, 2010 at 1:37 am
The thought of retrieving a fallen Dorito with toes made me laugh my gum bubble outta my mouth and onto my keyboard. I briefly debated trying to pick it up with my feet, but I realized that would probably end up being not so awesome.
August 2, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Once, I was over at an old girlfriend’s house in college, and I spit out my gum (laughing) on her bedroom floor. I immediately picked it up and put it back into my mouth.
The problem?
The floor was carpet and she had two cats..
This was one of the more unpleasant things I have ever put in my mouth.. ugh..
Needless to say, I spit it out again pretty quickly.
July 28, 2010 at 2:30 am
There’s just some superior feeling you get from being able to do this, and knowing that most other beings on Earth can’t. Take that!
July 28, 2010 at 6:13 am
Ha! I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now, but this one really made me laugh. After I had ankle surgery I spent months in physical therapy. What was my major exercise? Picking up little rocks with my toes to help get my ankle’s flexibility back!
July 28, 2010 at 6:20 am
Ahahahahah, love dis. :D It’s like you’re a superhero. Well a small one (as impossible as it is to be a small superhero pfffft), but nevertheless.
July 28, 2010 at 6:45 am
Also awesome: Pinching with your toes! (In a playful, friendly way, of course! ;) )
July 28, 2010 at 6:54 am
Yeah, this technique is great for when I’m just too lazy to bend over…….which is often.
July 28, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Exactly! Picking up things with your toes is a great exercise in laziness :)
July 28, 2010 at 7:50 am
I use my toes all the time. I love watching my one year old son use his feet for stuff too. For a long time he would fall on his back and use his feet and hands to “read” a book. He also uses his feet to help him get things to him and up when he is sitting (he just manipulated a box of Cheerios this way). Just yesterday he was in his C@zy C@upe and used his feet to pick something up that fell below the car.
It is so cool to watch this primal instinct at work.
July 28, 2010 at 8:22 am
I have enormously long toes, and I pick things up all the time! Awesome indeed.
July 28, 2010 at 8:58 am
My brother once took out a CD and put a new one in in the car entirely with his feet. =]
July 28, 2010 at 9:42 am
I love picking stuff up with my feet. Awsome. I think a close second would be shutting the door with your foot. Almost as awsome but not quite. :)
July 28, 2010 at 10:08 am
What a great post! My daughter and I both do this, and today is her 18th birthday. Happy Birthday, Amanda! I got her The Book of Awesome for graduation this year, and she and her friends all love it. Thanks for the daily inspiration.
July 28, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hey! First time to come here! Awesome place!
I am from China, and I know ur blog because my favorite magazine introduces you and ur story. It’s a magazine for English learners.
Anyway, nice to meet u and ur blog.^^
July 28, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hey Neil,
I’ve been wondering this since wayyy back when I started reading your blog, but where exactly do you find the pictures that accompany your posts? They’re very well photographed and correspond quite well with whatever your post is about that day.
July 28, 2010 at 12:20 pm
At the end of each post he puts “Photos from Here.” You can click on the blue “here” and it will take you to the page where he got the picture.
July 28, 2010 at 10:59 am
You have GOT to keep on top of those rogue pen caps, they’re trouble!
I fully agree that bending over is over-rated. Once I didn’t feel like bending over to unload my front-loading washing machine, so I unloaded it with my feet. Mmmm… cold wet laundry on the feet… It was kind of a fun challenge. I feel like I embraced my inner monkey that day.
July 28, 2010 at 3:24 pm
That’s talent right there!
July 28, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Thank you!
August 2, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Next you’ve got to try the same thing with a top-loading washing machine! Now THAT would be a monkey-day.
July 28, 2010 at 11:12 am
I hope you didn’t listen to that person a few days back, about not posting people’s comments/emails at the bottom of each new post. I love reading those, and am often inspired and touched by the especially heartfelt notes. Please put them back. I thought they were awesome.
July 28, 2010 at 11:21 am
I also turn on/off light switches with my feet. :)
July 28, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I prefer to do that with my head.
I have, however, mastered the art of opening certain types of doors with my feet when my hands are full (usually when I am taking the tuba home from school).
July 28, 2010 at 11:32 am
I have ridiculous feet. When I was younger my mom had received a tip from someone regarding my flat feet. They said that one way to help in correcting this issue was to practice pcking things up with your toes. I’m still a little skeptical but I will always remember how my mom made me spend 30 minutes EVERY night transferring pencils from one tray into another using only my toes. My feet are still very flat but I definitely have skills in the foot dexterity department, which makes it all worth it :)
July 28, 2010 at 12:02 pm
I have fairly flexible toes also, and will opt to use them instead of bending over. Us middle-agers will use every excuse possible not to bend if we don’t have to.
I also have the habit of crossing my feet, then inter-twinning my toes. Looks weird, but I find it comfortable. I was hanging from an inner tube in the pool just yesterday and noticed that I had unconsciously folded my toes like that. Weird, but Awesome!
July 28, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Hunni can’t do this and thinks that it is such a talent that I can use my toes like fingers to pick stuff up.
It came in really handy when I had herniated discs and then right after surgery. I was not to keen on the grabby thing they gave me at the hospital.
July 28, 2010 at 1:43 pm
This IS totally awesome! And so is this blog
July 28, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Hahaha totally and completely AWESOME! My other favorite thing to do when my hands are full is opening doors with my feet! People always stare at me like I’m crazy but it works! And just for the fun of it I like to attempt to open really heavy doors with my feet/toes. I need to do some more strength training for those doors though :)
July 28, 2010 at 2:10 pm
I used to do this a whole lot! When I was a baby, my mom said that I could write a novel with my feet. ;P
July 28, 2010 at 3:47 pm
My husband does this all the time…something I didn’t know people did until we got married. I always smile when he does this! I’m glad someone out there finds this an awesome thing too!
July 28, 2010 at 6:07 pm
My 11 year old son and I have an on going game of copy cat.
Just yesterday he added waving goodbye with the toes. He picks up his left leg to hip level, so his foot is high. Then waves by curling and uncurling his toes.
He get a big kick out of seeing this nutty adult copying him.
July 28, 2010 at 6:27 pm
I lovingly call my talented toes Crab toes!! Not only can I open a door with them, pick something up, and pinch the crap out of someone! Plus, my father and i have identical feet (for better or for worse) so it’s always a big family joke.
July 28, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Ok, world: You need to know about the awesomest thing of all. Set your Facebook language to English (Pirate). How did I not know about this earlier!
July 28, 2010 at 10:12 pm
I get the emails every day and I read the one where the commenter said they didn’t like the reader stories at the end, but I think they’re great! It personalises the email and I like the idea that other people are enjoying the book and blog so much they want to take photos and tell you about it! Bring them back!
July 28, 2010 at 10:15 pm
AWESOME! You have to put this up there with closing the fridge door with your hip!
July 28, 2010 at 10:18 pm
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=592066666808
July 28, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I do this all the time! my friend would always freak out and call me “monkey toes”. def awesome!!
July 28, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Oh lemme tell ya. I can pick up the strangest things with my toes. Beer bottles, remotes, dogs toys. I can strech my big toes waaay out from my second toes…almost 2 inches.
July 29, 2010 at 2:01 am
My best friend cracks her toes with her toes from the other foot…it’s crazy, she uses them just like they are hands. weird…but totally AWESOME!
July 29, 2010 at 2:17 pm
laziness at it’s best! wow.. what a feeling.. But I hate the look on my mum’s face when I do that..lol..
July 30, 2010 at 11:16 am
I have a friend who actually calls toes “nifties” when they’re being used to pick up something. Makes me laugh every time.
July 30, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I perfected the art of picking things up with my toes when I was pregnant with twins. Still do it all the time, thirteen years later.
July 30, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Picking up the dropped razor in the shower with your foot when you don’t want to get your hair wet…awesome.
August 2, 2010 at 8:40 am
Folding paper airplanes with my toes is my specialty!
August 2, 2010 at 11:42 am
my wife calls me “extendy toes”
August 2, 2010 at 12:53 pm
I LOVE doing this! It definitely makes my day when I can pick something up this way!
August 2, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Last week, my fiance and I went swimming at the river when his sunglasses fell off his head. Oh noes!! It’s ok — monkey toes to the rescue. I walked in a grid pattern until I found them. Success!
August 3, 2010 at 2:54 am
lmao that’s fantastic!
August 2, 2010 at 4:51 pm
I’m glad I’m not the only one. My husband calls me monkey toes all the time… but I know it’s because he’s jealous. He can’t pick up anything with his.
August 3, 2010 at 2:52 am
On a lazy summers day my cousins and I played an entire game of Monopoly with our feet.
Banker counted out money due, transferred to her toes, then passed to another foot.
Epic lazy! :)
August 6, 2010 at 1:46 am
Reminds me of something I saw at the “freak show” at the amusement park when I was a kid. Along with the usual bearded lady and tattooed man, there was a woman with no arms who would do stuff with her feet, including autographing pictures with a pen between her toes, and she had elaborate beautiful penmanship!
August 10, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Probably the best proof that we evolved from primates haha.
Hey check out http://justsomepetpeeves.wordpress.com !!!
August 11, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Hahaha! Learned it from my mom; makes me feel AWESOME!