Products that need a rehaul of their packaging, to make them easier to use?

[JMSA]

Metanium. A thick yellow cream for baby's bum. I have been using a little for menopausal itches. But the packaging is a disaster! A flimsy metallic tube that splits at the sides, so that you have cream coming out everywhere. I don't want to waste the cream, so have put the tube in a little plastic bag. It's still incredibly messy to use though. When this finishes, I'll go back to a sturdy tub of Sudocrem, which is frankly the superior product anyway.

Superglue (any brand of) - the glue dribbles out and the lid ends up being stuck on. Again, messy and wasteful to use. And because I'm dyspraxic, I've stuck my fingers together more than once

Is it just me?

Morrisons experimented with unwrapped cucumbers, a while back. Sad shrivelled rubbery things, they were.

Mine is the bacofoil with the teeth on the flap of the box which shred your knuckles. I've kept some old boxes to transfer the roll into but I'm on my last one, so when that's disintegrated beyond repair, I'll have to rip the cutting edge off and use scissors, just like with my cheaper foil.

Shampoo and conditioner: once you get in the shower and haven't got glasses on it's not easy to distinguish !

I buy blue shampoo and red conditioner bottles. Then it's easy.

Anything with a sponge applicator

Childrens toys in flimsy boxes is probably deliberate.

The manufacturers know full well that sets in decent condition with the box hold resale value well. The second hand market reduces their ability to get you to buy brand new.

Sauces in a squeeze bottle...nightmare when at end

I was just coming to say toothbrush packaging!

And a flashlight!

We stopped buying Hellmans and buy heinz now because i couldnt bloody squeeze the hellmans bottle. They are a nightmare!!

I can see why they are doing it. However, I feel like this is a poor alternative to setting up the world so we could actually use refillable bottles everywhere we go by being able to buy drinks without bottles and focuses on minutiae that aren't the main issue (that most people don't recycle single-use bottles at all because most public places such as motorway service stations, shopping centres, cafes and so on don't have recycling bins and a drain for emptying containers next to every rubbish bin).

Those machines they have at Five Guys can produce pretty much any kind of drink imaginable with the right syrups. If shops had those next to the Costa machines instead of fridges of drinks, they could do a much better job for the environment. It would also massively reduce the weight of products being transported if they were transporting syrup that was mixed with mains water by a machine at the point of sale. And the drinks seem to taste nicer when they aren't in plastic containers. But companies don't seem to want to make the effort to enact meaningful change, they wait for laws to push them into it. I wouldn't have thought the electricity to run a drinks machine would be more than the electricity for the massive fridges used in the current system.

Mind you, maybe we just need to ban carbonated drinks entirely, IDK how much carbon gets into the environment from them.

There is at least a good reason for childproof caps and sealed blades, and the connected caps on drinks bottles make sense to me too.

It's totally unnecessarily bad packaging design that annoys me.

OP. This is GREAT. I've never felt so much of an affiliation to a topic, ever!😁

It's not really a complaint about the existing packaging, but I don't understand why more things can't come with those little taps that boxes of wine have. Milk, squash, olive oil, passata...

Those cellophane bags that are often used for chocolate/sweets e.g. Hotel Chocolat, where they vacuum seal them together halfway down the bag. I can't open then neatly and end up with the bag splitting apart everywhere.

Even more plastic! No thanks.

This is super niche, but I take a slow release OxyCodone every day. They are individually packaged, so like in a blister pack, but you have to tear one off the pack each time. Then, you can't pop it through the paper backing; you have to peel the foil/paper combo backing off. It's a nightmare, as the edges are all stuck down, and you can't even bite your way into it.
I mean, I know it's a controlled drug, and there's a safety issue, but for the love of Christ, I need to get into the fuckers.
(And breathe)

This!! I've turned into my Dad, who used to get us to read the menu in restaurants, to him. It's the combination of small print, mood lighting, and my menopausal eyes.

I can’t believe I’m actually typing this, talk about first world problems, my special indulgence is Chanel No 5. .. They have changed the top of the shower gel to a twisty top thing, now it’s almost impossible to get any out with a thin drizzle. I tried to break it off but no. I’m hoping someone will point out something obvious I’m missing one day. On the plus side at least I’m not wasting it !
Believe me, I am laughing at myself for typing this 🙄

Wild deodorant ends are easily popped off the packaging with a small sharp knife. I then just mash it onto the top of the next one, in the metal case. Sorted.

Yes!!!

Naked Bacon I'm looking at you!!

Corned beef tins
Wonder how many a&e trips there have been

Superglue - false nail glue is exactly the same stuff and if you get the brush on version it's much easier!

Oh God drugs are a whole extra thing.

Why does my Elvanse come in a bottle you can fit two bottles' worth of capsules in, and which (the exact opposite of your controlled drug) is very hard to tip just one capsule out of? It's first thing in the morning so my hands are floppy and uncoordinated, I've just had to fight with the child-safe lid using brute force and ignorance, and now you expect me to delicately shuggle out a single feather-light capsule without releasing a tidal wave of amphetamine all over the bedside cabinet, bed, floor, etc.?

Why did my Depakote (I think?) used to come in ENORMOUS double-thick-foil-layer wibblywobbly sheets with quadruple-spaced extra-big tablet compartments that were like trying to rip through sheet metal to open, and which therefore came in boxes that took up at least six times as much drawer space as normally-packaged similarly-sized tablets?

Why does my Qvar inhaler have a mouthpiece shaped like a massive round tube that makes me feel ridiculous when I put my mouth round it and which also de-virginises stretches out the inhaler hole on my spacer rendering it useless for normal inhalers like ventolin?

Of course ! Didn't think of that thank you !!

Cling film. I've tried expensive and cheap but can still never tear off more than a tiny bit, then I'm trying to find the end ( like sellotape).
Drives me nuts!

What annoys me slightly irrationally is that one type of Concerta (ADHD meds) is blue tablets with a yellow stripe on the bottle, and the other is yellow tablets with a blue stripe on the bottle. It would be surely much easier to match the packaging with the contents.