This is an idea I’ve had for a while that I want to have a little fun with. While it will venture outside of things strictly old house I hope you will enjoy it. My concept is to note items in everyday use that just don’t function well or are frustrating. Please share your suggestions with me. Here are a few nascent ideas I have:
- Electric toothbrushes that will not lay flat on the counter but roll off
- Tall, skinny travel mugs that will fall over from the slightest jostling of the table
- clothes washers without an easily accessible lint trap or screen (or none)
- Electrical devices that block the other half of a duplex outlet no matter how you try to plug them in.
- Smoke or CO detectors that have no obvious way to pause them when there is a false alarm, thus causing people to disconnect them or take out the batteries defeating the purpose of such devices
- Thermostats that don’t clearly differentiate what the actual temperature is from the requested temperature. And Thermostats that claim to be energy saving but are so difficult to program that most people can’t intuitively program them so they end up wasting energy.
- Any technology that is overly complex and requires too many steps to do something formerly straightforward. For example a phone that requires several steps before you can make a call.
- Knob locks with buttons on the inside that can lock when they bump into a wall, then be closed in the locked position accidentally locking you out
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