Ever thought of something you really wanted, but couldn’t find it in shops? Chances are, if the product is quirky enough, an Australian has already invented it.

Jo Lapidge and her family decided to buy a cat. However, she was soon regretting the decision after discovering how often she needed to clean the kitty litter. Watching the movie “Meet the parents” Lapidge found her solution when the cat went to the toilet on an actual toilet! With a few disks and a cheap toilet seat, Lapidge trained her own cat to use a normal toilet rather than the kitty litter.

“I only ever intended it for us, but then my husband, Terry, and I started wondering about commercial possibilities,” Lapidge said. Now the “Litter Kwitter” is sold in countries all over the globe, including the US and Britain.

Lapidge isn’t our only quirky inventor. Gilbert Huynh created a brand of underwear called 4SKINS. What makes this underwear special is that they have odour-neutralising fabric. In other words, you can pass gas and not have to worry about someone smelling it. Surprisingly, more women are buying this product than men, however, not for themselves.

“I’m amazed at the number of women who are buying them for their boyfriends or husbands,” Huynh said.

Quirky inventions like these are worth around $12 billion a year to the Australian economy, which is an excellent return for the simplest of ideas.

So, if you find yourself placing an unusual item on your Christmas wish list, it might profit you to think about creating it yourself.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!