Poorly designed things that make using them difficult?

[Whatisthisfuckery]

Spice jars, who in hell has designed the dimensions of spice jars? What measurement of spices does one usually find in a recipe? Teaspoons. What can you not quite fit in a spice jar? A fucking teaspoon. Whose bloody bright idea was it to design a jar that makes it hard to dispense the most common measurement of the ingredient contained within?

Ahh, that’s better, I needed that rant.

Go on, rant away. What poorly designed thing makes you angry inside?

I don’t understand why some cereal comes in bags with no box e.g. Alpen muesli. If you don’t have a special cereal container for it, it’s so much harder to pour into your bowl and you have to keep a peg or clip on the opening to stop it drying out.

That thing about decanting spices into jamjars - why have I never thought of this before?

After all, I put my lentils/ soup mix/ chick peas etc into jars - but it has never occurred to me to do it with spices, and instead I wrestle with those stupid little jars . . .

@Fivemoreminutes1

I don’t understand why some cereal comes in bags with no box e.g. Alpen muesli. If you don’t have a special cereal container for it, it’s so much harder to pour into your bowl and you have to keep a peg or clip on the opening to stop it drying out.

Just how many millions of boxes will get thrown away. Waste.

I'm all for Alpen or Tesco muesli in the strong bags and no box. All I do is cut a small diagonal slit at the top which acts as a spout then carefully roll the top and use an elastic band around the body which holds it all in place.

Oven and microwave clocks which are so damn complicated to reset that nobody's oven clock including mine ever tells the right time. I can't be bothered to dig out the manual and work out which buttons to press.

A solution could be for future ovens to be wifi internet enabled and then there's never a need to reset it after a power cut or adjusting for the hour's different, it gets the time from the internet/satellite

@LadyEloise

Sausages. I wish they were flatter - rectangular or square but definitely not tubular / circular. So difficult to cook evenly under the grill or in a George Foreman grill.

Do you not put your sausages down the grooves in your George Foreman?

I mean, there is nobody in the world who can actually peel that film back is there? The film is literally NOT peeling anywhere without first being cut with a sodding knife.

I'm not in the UK so maybe our microwave meals are different, but I find them really easy to peel.

Another vote for the Mitchum stick. My current one is okay, so far, but I've lost count of how many I have screamed and sworn at!!

Also another vote for the hard to read plastic grade marks - it takes me longer to find out if I can actually recycle the containers than it does to wash them and take them outside to the bin!!!!

Printers. They jam and also need re-supplying with ink so often, and sometimes stop working or connecting to WiFi, that it means it's cheaper to go to the library and get copies done, or Snappy Snaps, or somewhere, and get beautiful laser prints and customised effects.

@IndecentCakes

Like sandwich toasters. You can never remove the melted cheese from the hinge :(

Surely you just turn it on and once everything hit wipe it all off!

Sometimes I stick fairly liquid straight onto still- hot oven trays and works like a charm

LadyEloise

Sausages.
I wish they were flatter - rectangular or square but definitely not tubular / circular.

Come to Scotland, we have square sausage.

Also, I get herbs and spices from a refill shop, they're cheap as anything when you're not buying the jar, so the best bit of it all is that when you buy a badly designed jar, you pay more for the jar than the contents. Whenever I have a jar the size and shape I like I wash it out and keep it for spices and herbs.

@CannotOperateOnThisFailure

My stupid car key fob. Because it was in an RFID thing for a while over lockdown it decided it would no longer actually open the car. Now, it's a keyless entry/use car so not having a working key is a bit crap but you can take the fob apart and create a old style key to open the doors. But - opening the doors triggers the car alarm (which you can't turn off because the key fob doesn't actually work) However the dashboard now says "put key in special place to deactivate the alarm" which would be fine if 'special place' was mentioned in the index of the handbook (it's not) or indeed under alarm, key, dashboard, error code or anything vaguely related - its not. It's not mentioned in the handbook at all. To find out where the 'special place' is you need to cover your ears (remember the alarm is still going) and Google the fucking thing and find out that in on some car owners forum in 2008 Bob, 34 from Kent also had this problem and found out where the Special Place was. Bob didn't know how to stop it from happening again though. I am still making my key and then throwing it into the Special Place like I'm defusing a bomb. And, given the last time my other car needed a new key programmed it cost £200 it shall ever be thus.

Qashqai? Where’s the special place (asking for a friend)

Tin openers - haven’t found a decent one yet

(Sorry if already mentioned, not read whole thread)

Damn I wish this thread wasn't so long. I am really enjoying it! For me, it is McDonalds yogurt tubes that request you to 'tear here' and then bloody don't.

Firstly, hooks which are not at all hook like... little stubs, or the hugely irritating coat rack in my old office which had huge half globes on the end of the hook meaning you couldn't hang it with the little tab at the back of your coat, and everything fell off.

Secondly, milk jugs that don't pour, and just spill all over the place, usually found in b and bs ( probably because that's the only place I use milk jugs!).

Thirdly, toilet roll holders that have only a single point to connect to the wall, as they always end up squint and wobbly. Why is it so difficult to find one which attaches to the wall at both ends?
So irritating!

Garden hoses that kink.

I so wish I had time to read the whole thread!

Has anyone mentioned Boden plastic bags and resealing them?
Individually packed tablets in straps- so hard to.pop out if they are tiny and you (my mother) have arthritis.
Helman's mayo in the plastic bottle - only about 2/3 of it squeeze out nicely
Powder blusher - it always crumbles as soon as it's half used - such a waste and such a mess.
Barbecues - loved by men but cleaned by women - self cleaning ones are an essential invention
Cordless vacuums - the charge needs quadrupling.

Bottles of foundation without an integral pump dispenser. I'm looking at you Estee Lauder.

Petrol pump handles. They are designed for people with giant hands. I hate them.

@RosesAndHellebores

I so wish I had time to read the whole thread!

Has anyone mentioned Boden plastic bags and resealing them?
Individually packed tablets in straps- so hard to.pop out if they are tiny and you (my mother) have arthritis.
Helman's mayo in the plastic bottle - only about 2/3 of it squeeze out nicely
Powder blusher - it always crumbles as soon as it's half used - such a waste and such a mess.
Barbecues - loved by men but cleaned by women - self cleaning ones are an essential invention
Cordless vacuums - the charge needs quadrupling.

You can get devices to pop out the tablets www.amazon.co.uk/Pivotell-Pill-Popper-Tablets-Quickly/dp/B07GJQTYMC?tag=mumsnetforu03-21 Or her pharmacy should do it for her if asked.

Any plastic film covering on any ready made food I've ever bought.

Dear Zara website,
Thank you for saving me from myself. I would probably most definitely give you all the money I have in the world, and more, with the slightest, teeniest encouragement. Thoughtfully you have made it almost nigh on impossible to find your products, browse your products, or buy your products without losing the will to live. And so brave to stand your ground in the face of a billion moans and (no doubt) expensive website analytics telling you your wanton pretension is commercial suicide. Bravo.

@gracelessladyhottramp

Yes!!! Film lid on big yogurt tubs which have the use by date on so you can't just throw it away and be done with it ... instead there's just this residuey flappy bit you've got to contend with every time you use the yogurt!!

Use a sharpie-type pen and write the UBD on the top lid. I haven't RTFT so this may have already been suggested

@Whatisthisfuckery

The person who designed my slow cooker has obviously never tried to use it, especially on a gas hob. The light as a feather pot has no handles, it won’t stay still, and on a gas hob it just tips over. You have to hold it still to stir using oven gloves, which is not exactly safe. As a design it’s shite and I’d rather just use another pan. Complete waste of time.

You can buy pot grippers, I have cheap ones in my camping gear but I am sure you can get nicer ones.

They should be included with the cooker though

Washing machine traps so close to the floor you can't get a baking tray underneath so end up flooding the kitchen floor no matter how slowly you try and open them.

Bum wipes and Dettol wipes in almost identical packaging 😐

Vokera heating thermostats

I DO have great aim into a sample bottle though.

Urine sample pots! Tell me, have you ever managed to use one without peeing on your hands, even if it's just a drip?

I went to the doctor in the US a few years ago and they gave me a nice wide one.

Shower cubicles. I want a shin-level little platform for my foot to rest when I am shaving my legs....

I am quite sure shower cubicles must have been designed by men for men,,,, it feels so obvious to me.

Or is it only me that wants this?