Hey YouTube, Jim here and welcome to Top10Archive!
Have you ever stuck a fork in a light socket when you were a kid?
The loud popping, the sparks - oh the beautiful sparks!
"Okay, so maybe that's not what they’re made for, but it’s far from the first time
a common household item was used incorrectly!
In fact, that’s the topic of discussion for this Archive, the "Top 10 Things People
Never Use Correctly." 10.
Bobby Pins They’re such a simple hairstyling tool that
you’re probably wondering how anyone could be using them incorrectly, but chances are
you’re among them!
There are two sides to a bobby pin – a flat side and a ridged side – and wouldn’t
you know that’s not just for show?
While people tend to just slide them in place all willy-nilly, it’s actually the grooved
side that should be facing the scalp.
The small grooves are meant to help keep hair in place and keep the pin from sliding all
over the place.
9.
Aluminum Foil / Saran Wrap End Locks There are few things worse than trying to
unroll plastic wrap or aluminum foil only to have the spool protest and fly all over
the place.
If this has happened to you, then you obviously don’t know about the somewhat hidden secret
to these boxes.
The next time you’re near it, take a look at the face of both ends of your aluminum
foil and saran wrap box.
You’ll notice two punch-out tabs which, when pushed in, keep the spool from not cooperating
and being pulled right out of the box as you measure out how much you need.
8.
Earbuds Don’t you hate how much pressure you feel
when you wear your ear buds?
Well, there’s actually a way to use them so you don’t have that painful burden on
your inner ear – the right way.
The next time you’re listening to some tunes, don’t just place the bud in your ear.
Instead, take the wire and, from behind your ear, wrap it over the top to the front, so
the bud is dangling by your ear canal.
Then just slip in the bud.
You should immediately feel the difference in comfort level and, even more beneficial
than that, you’re less likely to accidentally yank them off your head.
7.
Plastic Drink Lids Though some may claim they’re meant to make
stacking easier, there seems to be a rather practical reason for those three little grooves
found on most soft drink lids.
Instead of just providing cover for your beverage, the lid can also double as a coaster!
The three rounded grooves, which are located in the canal surrounding the straw opening,
latch onto the accompanying soft drink cup.
Seeing as how easily beverages can sweat through the cup itself, this simple and hidden application
is a great way to keep your counters from getting wet.
6.
Plunger Ah, Uncle Bert is visiting again and you know
what that means: you’ll need to unclog your toilet at least once before the weekend is
through.
Did you know, though, that you may be making the task crappier than it needs to be?
You may have missed that there are two different types of plungers: one that’s typically
reddish in color with a flat bottom, or a cup plunger, and a black one with an extended
flange.
If you’re using the red one to clear out good ‘ole Bert’s fine work, you’re making
your life difficult.
The flange of the black plunger, also incidentally known as a “toilet plunger,” fits into
the bowl, allowing for a complete seal for maximum suction.
That silly, red Looney Toons plunger is designed for sinks.. and to load the ACME Plunger Gun.
5.
Punctuation Grammar Nazi’s unite!
If you’ve spent any time in YouTube’s comment sections, you’ve seen what little
regard people have for proper punctuation, or for each other for that matter.
Whether it’s laziness or an actual lack of understanding, apostrophes, semicolons,
colons, ellipses, hyphens, exclamation points, question marks, quotation marks – they all
tend to get mistreated.
The biggest offenders tend to forget that semicolons are used to join two independent
clauses without a pause, apostrophes are used to indicate possession, colons precede a list
of items, and ellipses to show an omission. 4.
Chinese Takeout Containers We’ve all had one of those nights: You’re
in no mood to cook so you make a call to your favorite Chinese food delivery.
After it arrives, you realize you haven’t done the dishes in a week so you’re all
out of plates and proceed to just eat everything out of the box.
Strange to think you could be using something wrong in this scenario, but guess what – you
are!
The typical Chinese takeout containers can actually be unfolded and turned into a rudimentary
version of a plate.
No longer do you have to fish to the bottom of the container for the last of the chow
mein, and should you have any leftovers, the container can be reassembled for easy storage
without having to move the contents.
3.
Escalators Escalators are one of the greater contributions
of the late-19th century, providing us with a means of going upstairs without standing
in a cramped elevator or having to use our legs on stationary stairs.
What many people don’t realize, though, is that using an escalator comes with a certain
responsibility.
It may be an unspoken rule, but it’s certainly not a secret one that the width of the escalator
is designed to accommodate two different types of people – those in a hurry and those who
can’t be bothered to move their legs.
If you’ve ever stood side-by-side with someone or stood on the left side of an escalator,
you’re using it incorrectly.
Etiquette states that the left side of the escalator is meant for people in a hurry while
the right side is for passengers looking to stand in place and enjoy the lazy ride.
2.
Cotton Swabs Here’s one you should probably pay close
attention to considering it may save your ears!
At some point during their existence, cotton swabs, or Q-tips, came to be used by many
to clean a person’s ear canal.
Medical professionals, however, profusely disagree with this implementation, claiming
that by cleaning the ear canal with a cotton swab, a person is risking compacted ear wax
ans severe damage to eardrums.
Back in 1923, Leo Gerstenzang watched his wife as she put wads of cotton on the end
of toothpicks.
He mimicked her ingenious idea and produced “Baby Gays,” a name later changed to Q-tips.
Cotton swabs serve a range of uses, from make-up application to microbiological research, which
makes one wonder why we started shoving them into our ears.
1.
Car Seats Typically, before you leave the hospital with
a newborn baby, you’re instructed on how to properly set up a car seat.
It’s pretty common knowledge that baby seats should not go in the front seat at all and
that they should face the rear seat, but even that’s not everything new parents should
know.
Studies published in the U.S National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
show that children ages one to three-years-old seated in the center of the rear seat are
at 43% less of a risk of injury than children seated on either side.
While some cars may not be able to accommodate the safer position, chances are most parents
revert to placing their baby in the rear passenger side for convenience.
In fact, the study continued to state that 41% of the parents involved chose the right
outboard, possibly to be able to sneak a peak in the rear view mirror while driving.