The minds behind the shopping carts we use in grocery stores today don’t get enough credit for their creation. More than just a place for our milk while we wander around the frozen foods aisle, shopping carts also offer a safe place for more delicate items. The intricate loops, which can be found on either side of the cart or in front, are designed to hold lighter grocery bags.
While plastic bags may be on their way out, the concept still works with reusable tote bags. As you are bagging your items at the checkout counter, place anything you don’t want to be squished in a separate bag. Think cartons of eggs and loaves of bread. These bags can be hung on the loops so that they rest on the outside of the cart, ensuring they make it to your car safely. Getting them home safely, however, is entirely up to you.
Box Cutters
We all have a box cutter lying around the house somewhere. Few people know, however, that this handy tool doesn’t need to be replaced each time the blade becomes too dull. In fact, each box cutter comes with about a dozen fresh blades, ready to use at a moment’s notice. Knowing how to access them, however, isn’t exactly common knowledge.
Ever wonder what the notches along a box cutter’s blade are for? These notches are actually perforated lines that allow you to break the top blade off when it becomes too dull to use. After you snap it off along the line, you’ll have a fresh blade at your disposal. Unless you use your box cutter regularly or tend to lose things, you’ll likely never need to replace it!
Ridges On Coins
Have you ever noticed that the sides of some coins have ridges while others are smooth? Specifically, quarters and dimes are made with textured sides. This design method began back in the day when coins held a true value. For example, a silver dollar was molded from one ounce of silver.
People began to take advantage of this by shaving off the edges of their money and eventually collecting enough silver or gold to melt into a new, full coin. They also spent the shaved coins at the intended value, even though they weren’t worth the full amount anymore. To discourage people from doing this, coins started to be molded with small ridges on the side. This made it easy to tell if it had been shaven.
Child-Proof Medicine Bottles
Child-proof medicine bottles are a pain to open at any age. If you don’t have small children around, it makes these finicky lids even more frustrating to deal with, and the more you try, the more it gets difficult to work this one out. What most people don’t know is that you don’t have to!
Many prescription pill bottles with child-proof lids are threaded on both sides, making them reversible. While one of these sides is designed to lock into place, the other is able to secure the bottle without enabling this safety feature, allowing you to open it like any ordinary container. Who knew?
Notebook Margins
Remember back in grade school when using paper with properly sized margins was a huge deal? Well, as it turns out, margins weren’t created to give students extra room for their notes. The reason they were first used is actually quite disturbing. Back during a time when rats were a common guest in most homes, they would often snack on pieces of paper.
The margins were put in place to keep all written content away from the edges of the paper, safeguarding it from any rats with the munchies. Additionally, it would help to ensure any wear and tear that naturally occurs over time to the paper edges wouldn’t damage what was written down. Basically, whatever they were writing back when margins were created must have been incredibly important.