Danger lurks all around the home. Common household items aren't as safe as you'd think... like dull knives, ladders, and gummy vitamins.
FalconHoof88 asked: What everyday household items are actually way more dangerous than we give them credit for?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
Watch out for the corners...
Throw Rugs in Senior Citizen's houses. Literal death traps. They trip on that tiny little edge of carpet or it slides on the floor and now you have an old person with a broken hip and a death sentence.
Edit: Just for clarification- I meant their personal houses or homes or any senior living place. Not Nursing Homes. But really it's a problem with any potential tripping hazard. That tiny little threshold ledge between rooms? Yep that too. Do your Elders a solid and try to trip proof their living spaces.
Having worked in geriatrics for a few years now this comment is literally too true. Hip fractures have a very high mortality rate associated with them. Protect your elders!
When frozen food just won't. Come. Apart.
Zippers actually cause a lot of injuries. So does frozen food - the injuries occur when people try to separate frozen items.
Nothing more uncomfortable than watching someone trying to separate frozen burger patties with a 8"+ chefs knife.
My SIL broke her foot by dropping a frozen ham on it. The ER didn't believe her and called the police on my brother because he made some joke about "well what do you think happened, I pushed her down the stairs?" He then had to spend several hours trying to prove they didn't even have stairs :(
I shudder at the thought.
A mandoline slicer! Those things slice over 9000 fingers every year... yikes!
The mandolin slicer is a demon who will serve the kitchen faithfully, but it demands a blood sacrifice.
There's a reason I'm not allowed to use the mandoline at work.
The irony.
Irons.
Did I unplug it? Do I turn my car around and head back home to check?
You know, I once heard an interesting story about a woman who suffered from crippling OCD. She had to quit her job because she was always terribly paranoid about the iron being on. She suffered for about 10 years before she went to a therapist who suggested that she simply take the iron with her when she goes out. It totally worked and she was able to get a stable job after that.
Uggggh.
Clamshell packaging. That shit is designed to butcher and maim.
Can openers make short work of clamshell packaging.
But my can opener is still stuck in it's clamshell packaging!
Just get your scissors. But first, go borrow some other scissors to cut your scissors out of their clamshell packaging.
Plus they aren't cheap to run.
Space heaters. It's good to be warm and on the whole they're super effective.. but they can sure go wrong.
My grandmother is paranoid af about even using them due to her mother dying in a house fire caused by an unattended space heater.
Space heaters made in the last 15 years are actually really safe with redundant safety features that cannot fail. What makes them unsafe are people using cheap extension cords or power strips that aren't rated to take that kind of power load. The resistance is too high causing the cords or the internal to over heat and cause a fire. You should only be plugging them directly into the wall outlet or be using a heavy duty extension cord intended to be used in a workshop.
My nemesis.
Apparently ladders are surprisingly dangerous.
You'd think it would be easy to avoid falling off one, but i've heard of it happening more than I expected. You also really don't need that high of a fall to badly hurt yourself.
I'm not afraid of heights but ladders. Ladders are scary.
Heights aren't dangerous when they're up there alone, but with a ladder they can come down and get you!
Frustrating, too.
Dull knives.
Wish this were more well known. A sharp knife cuts where you intent, and requires less force. A dull knife requires more force, and makes mishaps far worse.
It'd probably make sense to distinguish potential harm and likely harm.
A sharp knife has the potential to do a lot more harm, but since it's easier to control, you're less likely to have an accident. A dull knife has less potential, but you're more likely to mess up with it.
Eating too many is painful af, but they're so tasty.
Gummy Vitamins...
I'm an adult and have trouble limiting myself to less than 20.
When I was about 4 years old I snuck down to the kitchen in the middle of the night and ate an entire bottle of gummy vitamins. My mom came in, realized what I had done, and immediately called poison control. They told her I'd be okay, she just needed to give me some Tums. She dug through the cabinet to find the tums only to discover the empty wrapper, because I had already eaten all of those, too.
Or dry tile, plus socks.
Wet tile floors. Lots of people die.
Yep. Hotel I work at had a man slip in the bathroom and pass a few years ago. They called his wife, who they thought was staying with him, only to find out he was having an affair.
Edit: just want to clarify, the misstress had gone out for whatever reason, so he was alone when he slipped.
I want that bathtub with the built-in door.
Water and bathroom floors.
More people are killed or injured in accidents in bathrooms than most people realize.
Or even just tub showers without non-slip mats to stand on, or elderly people slipping getting out of a tub... Grippy mats and securely mounted hand-holds are important, people! Our bathrooms are trying to maim us!
Some people are worried about the great robot uprising. I'm more worried about robots partnering with bathrooms. We'd all be dead inside a week.
I, for one, welcome our sophisticated Japanese automatic toilet overlords.
Clean out your lint traps for kindling.
Stairs. People fall up them or down them a lot. Also Lint catchers for your Dryer. Causes household fires a lot.
If you camp a lot, save the dryer lint. Makes a great fire starter for your campfire.
If you are in the medical field and work with ekg's the paper has a high acetate level greal for fires also try hand sanitizer on a toilet paper roll.
I use Vaseline on cotton balls. Burns long and hot enough get the kindling going even when things are a bit damp.
*Shudders.*
Cheese Grater. You ever accidentally have your hand slide down the grade? It just shreds your skin.
Never called by it's negative name, "sponge ruiner."
Keep a cheap toothbrush by your kitchen sink for tools with small crevices. Peelers, garlic crushers, slicers, graters
Adding, because I'm really passionate about this. Guys, clean your can openers with a toothbrush. I promise it's disgusting right now if you really look closely. Especially if you have roommates. Please, do it for me.
Corners are dangerous. Live in a sphere.
Any corner. The corner of a table or the corner of a cabinet door. Never leave those doors open. It takes one wrong step to lose an eye. Or one bad fall. That's why I live in a corner free house.
Do you live in an igloo?
No, he lives in his Oval Office.
Hmm, that would allow him to cut corners.
What a verb.
Garage doors, let the professionals fix it if it breaks. The springs carry a lot of weight, its perfectly capable of sending you to the hospital if you are doing DIY repairs.
My dad was totally degloved (think that's the right word) and his thumb was only attached by a shred of....something trying to fix a garage door. It happened when I was really young so I'm not 100% with the details. After that he stopped working construction and went to college so he never had to fix one again.
degloved
This word still gives me shivers every time I read it.
Right, can we just delete it from existence?
