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?

@0blio

Yes, duvet covers. Why can't they all open on 3 sides?

My car. It's impossible to turn the radio off - why?

Rice. As soon as I open the packet it splits and I have to decant it, despite it having a 'reseal' tab.

Is your car a VW/Audi/Skoda/SEAT by any chance?

Apparently you can turn it off by holding the power button down for several seconds. But that also turns off the bluetooth phone function (if you have one).

Plastic bottles with the childproof squeeze type lock. Great that they are childproof but in my case they are also adult proof. I'm constantly having to ask DH to open things for me.

Completely agree about the spices op.

Baking powder, bicarb etc that comes in these tubs with the smallest of lids which is too thin to be able to grip. I imagine it would be very tricky for an elderly person to open.

Also cartons of kids juice with a straw (particularly Innocent smoothies) I put the straw in and mine accidentally squeeze them as they grab them and juice squirts out, without fail 🙄.

@LifesLittleDeciders

Fucking garlic crushers.

Mushes the clove into the bottom of the ‘mincer’ and I’d find more garlic in a vampire’s arsehole than what comes out of them. Pisses me right off.

I was coming to say garlic crushers but I'm so glad you beat me to it because 'I'd find more garlic in a vampire's arsehole' will make me laugh whenever I'm scraping garlic out now!

Re the childproof washing capsule tubs: I can’t get into them but my DS can.

As a Pakistani man the seasoning pots sold in British supermarkets are an abomination, I’m not paying £1 for one serving. My boyfriend did the shopping recently and I asked for turmeric, rather than ordering a bag of turmeric he ordered a teeny tiny pot that is essentially a single serving and costs almost as much as a whole bag. I have just about recovered from the 500g bag of rice rather than a 20kg bag.

The shape of a marmite jar, why make me fight for my marmite?????

My small saucepan, the handle is heavier than the pan so it tips over all the time.

Shampoo/conditioner/lotion bottles that have thick plastic, you can’t get everything out without cutting the bottle in half.

The slighted rounded shopping baskets in the co-op, nothing square/rectangle fits in them.

Plastic tubs of fresh soup, where you have to break off a tab - ouch, ouch - and then prise the lid off. I simply cannot do this now, there's no purchase on it and I haven't got the strength.
And yes yes to pp who mentioned packs of meat and fish with a thick layer of plastic film encasing the product, I have to cut my way into it with scissors and it makes such a mess.

Garlic crusher victims. Have you tried frozen crushed garlic? Game changer!

Re urine sample test tube things (Sorry if this has been answered but I have so far only read up to that) - I have a special funnel that I keep in the bathroom (so it doesn’t inadvertently get used in cooking - yuk) so when I need to provide a sample I stick the end in the bottle, the funnel on me (iyswim) and its plainer sailing

Tresemme shampoo and conditioner bottles. Too fat to hold, too stiff the squeeze and an absolute fucking bastard if you drop one on your toe.

@toria658

Mobile phones. I use my phone as erm a phone, with text messaging ( should I need to email, browse the internet etc I have a laptop, iPad designed for that explicit use!) I have small hands, ginormous cell phones make it hard for me to use, carry and takes up too much space in my bag. I loved my iphone5, fitted in my hand etc... can we have phones that are not mini iPads oh no, they have to be ginormous and bulky. Samsung aren’t much better either ....

You will love the iPhone 12 mini then. It's back to a sensible phone size like the 5 and 6.

All microwaves have their door hinged on the left hand side - I need mine on the right hand side as it’s sits in a right hand corner, but oooohhh noooo they don’t make them.
This means I have to Periscope over the door 😠

SimonJT
The shape of a marmite jar, why make me fight for my marmite?????

They trieed changing that once, and sales halved when people realised that the same thing in own-brand jars was cheaper. apparently the jar was the reason they bought it! Go figure.

I get mine in 600g plastic tubs from Bookers/Makro. You have to get hold of a company address and join up, but it's free and you save a lot of money with their big sizes of things.

Boxes for Lego which just rip open along the end and aren't suitable for storing the Lego in afterwards - they should have a separate lid like a jigsaw box.

YY to cosmetics in identical bottles/jars with tiny writing.

Mobile phones which are just a little polished slice of glass/plastic with no identifying marks, bump protection or grip. Oh, all of them then. You'd think they were made to be easily lost/breakable.

@CounsellorTroi

And pump dispensers that stop working once the contents fall below a certain level, even though there is still quite a lot left.

This. I regularly get another fortnight out of my cleanser, by taking the top off and fiddling about. I would mind marginally less if:

a) it wasn't a 'zero-waste' product as although I don't waste that last bit I bet some people do and it seems 'not in the spirit' as MN would say

and

b) the bottle was see-through so I could see how much was left to fiddle about with. Although the metal bottle is then returned to the company for reuse/recycling (see a) so I suppose it can't be plastic and I don't want glass in the shower.

Does anybody use Smol dishwasher tablets/laundry pods? My DB was at university when they made the cardboard boxes childproof. He lived with three engineers and it still took them a whole morning to work out how to open them!

And whoever said about the Tesco Finest cold meat packets, yes, they're stupid.

Shampoo/conditioner/lotion bottles that have thick plastic, you can’t get everything out without cutting the bottle in half.

These, and Fairy liquid bottles, I prop upside down to let the product slide to the bottom and then squeeze into the gap left in the new bottle which they never fill to the top

I used to get to "enjoy" two of these at the same time:

1. The Mooncup, which is a marvellous object except for the fact that they've gone and got the name of the product fucking well embossed on the INSIDE of it, so you have to scrub blood out of all the tiny bastard little letters several times a day

2. Those square edged bathroom sinks (are they called butler sinks or something?) which instead of draining soap - and, say, tiny little bits of blood that you've rinsed off a letter "M" - nicely down the plughole, just propel them to the edges of the sink and leave them there. Even when you try really hard to rinse the bloody(!) thing out, it's like the sink is playing a game with you where it just propels mess to another corner instead of down the big hole in the middle.

I had one of these in a houseshare and I used to start the day with the nauseating sight of the various coloured toothbrushing spit of 3 other people collaged across the sink.

My bugbear is cans the aren't designed so they stack ( Heinz baked beans I'm looking at you!!!!!)

@mommybunny

Re:spices - ones I use regularly are often cheaper in the bulk “ethnic” section of my local Sainsbury’s so I buy them there and decant into washed out jam jars.

I hate bacon packaging. I make bacon once-twice per week and never use up a whole pack in one go, but the packs don’t reseal and the bacon dries out and sticks together between uses.

Come on surely you've heard of cling film?

@Beetlewing

I'm left handed. Practically everything

I've just bought a left-handed ruler and can honestly say it has CHANGED MY LIFE

Mayonnaise in a squeezy bottle. You have to waste about 20% of it as all it does when you squeeze is fuck about laughing at you from the inside around the lid area.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Taps in public toilets/washrooms where you have to permanently hold down the tap with one hand whilst washing the other one underneath the flow of water. No possibility to actually rub your hands together or wash them properly. It's the equivalent of designing a bicycle with only one pedal. If I were any kind of environmental health/safety/hygiene officer, I would instantly rule as unfit for human use anywhere that has taps like that and order the places shut down, with the providers heavily fined!

On the other hand, the ones that give you 20 seconds of water with one push are genius - avoid waste and fully functional.

This! It's particularly galling since the arrival of Covid and the signs in public loos urging and instructing us to wash our hands for two minutes, - right next to said crap tap.

@toria658

Mobile phones. I use my phone as erm a phone, with text messaging ( should I need to email, browse the internet etc I have a laptop, iPad designed for that explicit use!) I have small hands, ginormous cell phones make it hard for me to use, carry and takes up too much space in my bag. I loved my iphone5, fitted in my hand etc... can we have phones that are not mini iPads oh no, they have to be ginormous and bulky. Samsung aren’t much better either ....

I loved my iPhone 5 too. It was the perfect size. Only upgraded because it wouldn’t take the NHS app in Wales.

The fact that every washing basket I've ever owned does not fit under the washing machine door. It is too high by just a few centimetres. I wish washing machine designers and washing basket designers could team up and make all baskets sit comfortably under all washing machine doors so you can pop tyr basket down and load/unload the washing machine with ease.
Also, food packaging/multipacks that takes no consideration of how one can reseal the packaging to keep the rest of it fresh.