Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Items that are just shit design

250 replies

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 18/09/2022 19:22

Lever arch files. I’ve never known one last longer than 3 months before all the prongs misalign and the clip things due.

Why are they so shit and yet keep selling and selling?

OP posts:
NeckFanInSoftPlay · 18/09/2022 21:31

AgnestaVipers · 18/09/2022 19:43

These should be banned.

It's a vegetable peeler? I've been using these without issue since I was a young child??? What's the problem?!

lostinanovel · 18/09/2022 21:31

Square toilets, husband chose them throughout our house when we built it, there's 5 of the fuckers and we didn't sit on them until it was too late. They're so, so uncomfortable. We've lived here nearly two years now and I'm still not used to them and hate them. Husband doesn't mind as much now. I want to rip them all out. There's a reason round toilets are the norm!

PeloFondo · 18/09/2022 21:32

sjxoxo · 18/09/2022 21:06

honestly I would say cars.
I would really really love to talk to someone who is high up in the motor industry to explain to me the purchasing experience and the design process of cars. I’m really interested in design and consumer products, and I just do not get it. The following facts absolutely bewilder me on a v regular basis:

  • most peoples car is the second most expensive purchase in their lifetimes behind their house. You could buy a pair of shoes at Chanel for a fraction of the price of a new car, and receive a level of service that is astronomically better.
  • who designs car sales garages and please why are they the way they are? Shit coffee, cheap seating, crap access, stink of rubber, no decent parking for customers coming to view. No intimacy, no comfort.. more thought is put into an M&S store layout and the average item price is nothing compared to a car.
  • Horrible design of cars - the shapes, the colours. The only car that’s been a roaring success in recent years is the Fiat 500. Light interior, cute styling. Why are all other cars seemingly made for ‘men’???
  • You buy this mega price item, and then 15 years later a major part fails. Mechanics tell you it’s common in this type of car. Will the manufacturer replace for you? Absolutely not. IKEA have a better returns & service policy.

Honestly if anyone reading this has any experience of the motor industry please explain the logic to me 😁 ..rant over!

Dont get me started on fridges. What do you buy if you have a classic kitchen?? My fridge looks like a mini morgue in a shaker kitchen.

I can say (I work in a dealership) we have good coffee from an actual machine! Also comfortable seating, desks, plenty of parking and private offices to work from. And free WiFi
The downside is it's a prestige brand but.. Grin
No smell except new car scent and the odd coffee smell

rosyroses · 18/09/2022 21:32

Spice jars!
So either they have holes and they shake everywhere when you are trying to measure it into a spoon
Or
If it just opens you can'tget the spoon into the jar to measure out what you want!
Drives me nuts 🥜

NancyDrooo · 18/09/2022 21:35

greenhousegal · 18/09/2022 21:21

Am with you @NancyDrooo As much as I want to save the planet I also want to save my sanity. I used to get the heebie jeebies waiting for the three eco hours to tick by. Then the sun would go in and the rain would pelt down immediately the cycle had finished.

I got a new one. 10, 14, 30 minute cycles available, hallelujah! There are longer hot washes too for those who think my sheets and towels are minging, but that is used no more than once a week.

Eco?

Very jealous you have a new one! I’ve put a hex on mine and will never buy eco again. It really is a pathetic excuse of a machine.

Zoom101 · 18/09/2022 21:35

Briandouglas · 18/09/2022 19:33

I recently ordered a set of school exercise books because normal notebooks with the ring binder thingy hurt my hand (I’m left handed) and so I’m currently hating on the fact I can’t use my nice flowery notebook and have to stick with this plain blue one.

on a similar note I went to a postgrad open day talk to discover all the chairs with small desks where on the right hand side and seriously contemplated how I would write notes if I attended… I have yet to find a solution to this aside from a possible clipboard lol

(I realise these issues are both only problems for left handed people but still!)

@Briandouglas Apologies if this has already been suggested as I have only just come in to this thread but could you turn the notebooks upside down. You wouldn’t have a margin but could you manage without it?

Foldingchair · 18/09/2022 21:36

sjxoxo · 18/09/2022 21:19

Can I add one more thing & then ill piss off - shock absorber sports bras, or any sports bra with that extra plastic clasp high up at the back. If you live alone, how on earth do you put this garment on?? I honestly don’t think you’d be able to wear one

Now these I can do. I just have to kind of breathe in and jump a bit.

fucap · 18/09/2022 21:36

Agree with the cat sachets. Work of the devil.
Also the bags of litter I buy are ridiculous. They have that weird string fastening thing you are supposed to pull and it opens, except it never does. The bag is too strong to tear open so you end up faffing around trying to get into it with scissors and not cut your finger off at the same time.

The washing tablet box - I'm in another country so maybe you don't have it in the UK. You have to push down two sections of cardboard at the same time and slide them to the side but they are so hard to push down and it hurts.

There's lots of food packaging which doesn't work for me and so many things I find difficult to get into. I'm 45 and no disabilities of any description but I already wonder how the fuck I will open things when I'm older or if I get arthritis or something.

Rapidtango · 18/09/2022 21:40

AgnestaVipers, they're the only spud peelers I like, can't use the other kinds....

Many IKEA items - we had an IKEA bed that shattered your shins any time you went anywhere near it!

Agree with pp that many things designed to pour are miserable failures - milk jugs, tea pots, coffee pots - entire raison d'etre is to pour stuff and they can't do it without spilling all over the table.

Pasta machines - a 39p packet of fusilli is going to taste as good and be 1% of the hassle of home made pasta.

Sauce in plastic bottles - wastes huge amounts.

Potatosaladfiend · 18/09/2022 21:40

@Briandouglas In our uni those desks could be pulled out and slotted into the left hand side- might be the same!

Rapidtango · 18/09/2022 21:42

Rosyroses, Sainsburys jars are sensible - you can get a TSP in them.

greenacrylicpaint · 18/09/2022 21:42

sjxoxo · 18/09/2022 21:19

Can I add one more thing & then ill piss off - shock absorber sports bras, or any sports bra with that extra plastic clasp high up at the back. If you live alone, how on earth do you put this garment on?? I honestly don’t think you’d be able to wear one

I have one where the elastic sort of rolls up and ends up in the bermuda triangle at the back below your neck where I can't reach.

catfunk · 18/09/2022 21:44

Heck chicken sausage packaging. It's absolutely infuriating.

KaroH · 18/09/2022 21:44

@rosyroses @Rapidtango I was just about to post the same thing. Nice little stout pots and now I just fill up the most used ones from a big bag too so much cheaper.

I also have these spoons for measuring

amzn.eu/d/h8lXxl9

CherrySocks · 18/09/2022 21:46

Bus seats that only fit people with very short thighs

Wallawallakoala · 18/09/2022 21:48

You beat me to it @ArseInTheCoOpWindow those small metal teapots wtaf

jewishmum · 18/09/2022 21:49

Winter coats that don't have cuffs around the sleeves to block out the wind.

Hoods that don't stay up on your head in the breeze.

Wallawallakoala · 18/09/2022 21:50

I might be opening up a con of worms here but hot and cold taps...like not mixer taps...

Crikeyalmighty · 18/09/2022 21:50

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow Known in our house as a 'spillmaster'

Whatshouldbemyusername · 18/09/2022 21:51

Briandouglas · 18/09/2022 19:33

I recently ordered a set of school exercise books because normal notebooks with the ring binder thingy hurt my hand (I’m left handed) and so I’m currently hating on the fact I can’t use my nice flowery notebook and have to stick with this plain blue one.

on a similar note I went to a postgrad open day talk to discover all the chairs with small desks where on the right hand side and seriously contemplated how I would write notes if I attended… I have yet to find a solution to this aside from a possible clipboard lol

(I realise these issues are both only problems for left handed people but still!)

I feel this soo much as a lefty! 😩

jewishmum · 18/09/2022 21:51

Bottle lids that aren't leak proof

GettingOrganisedNow · 18/09/2022 21:53

Briandouglas · 18/09/2022 19:33

I recently ordered a set of school exercise books because normal notebooks with the ring binder thingy hurt my hand (I’m left handed) and so I’m currently hating on the fact I can’t use my nice flowery notebook and have to stick with this plain blue one.

on a similar note I went to a postgrad open day talk to discover all the chairs with small desks where on the right hand side and seriously contemplated how I would write notes if I attended… I have yet to find a solution to this aside from a possible clipboard lol

(I realise these issues are both only problems for left handed people but still!)

Can you not just write on the left hand page only?

jewishmum · 18/09/2022 21:54

Young baby tops that have a button on the back so when baby lays it's uncomfortable for them.

00100001 · 18/09/2022 21:54

Izzabellasasperella · 18/09/2022 20:18

I don't know why corned beef tins are made like that. Either the key breaks halfway round or your left with a razor sharp edge tin and a ribbon of the same dangerous metal. Not to mention having to prise out the meat with a knife.😀

Show quote history

Use a tin opener to put a hole in the small end to break the air seal, meat will come out.

00100001 · 18/09/2022 21:55

jewishmum · 18/09/2022 21:54

Young baby tops that have a button on the back so when baby lays it's uncomfortable for them.

See also bows and ruffles on the back/bottom of baby girls clothes

Swipe left for the next trending thread