If you’re fed up with all of your gadgets and tips that never seem to work properly, you’re not alone. In fact, there are plenty of things we use everyday that lie to us all the time.
Convenience is a part of each and every one of our lives, and it’s hard to imagine what the world would be like without it. We’re all drawn to things that are meant to make life easier for us—pre-packaged foods, furniture with minimal assembly required, apps that tell us when our bus will arrive—just to save ourselves a little stress.
Can anyone explain, though, why these items designed for ease sometimes end up causing us more stress than anything else? Here are some of the most common things we use every day that are constantly lying to us.
Toasters
First of all, we’ll start by clarifying that the numbers on your toaster are not meant to indicate the degree to which your bread will be toasted—they’re actually minutes. If you feel like a large portion of your life is now a lie, we’re right there with you.
After years and years of using a toaster, however, you’d probably think that you’d have your perfect number figured out by now based on how you like your toast. You probably would, too, if toasters didn’t magically decide to change their minds in the middle of the night and start toasting your bread more or less, even though they’re still set to the same number.
Not to mention when one side of the toaster can’t seem to keep up with the other, giving you one piece of bread that’s perfectly toasted and another that’s either barely warm or completely blackened.
Ripened Fruit
There are so many rules and tricks when it comes to making sure your fruit ripens perfectly—putting it in a paper bag, keeping it out of the fridge, setting it on the windowsill. It can be hard to keep up with the demands of a green banana on the verge of turning yellow, but it can be worth it to make sure you’re eating your produce at its peak.
What’s even more obnoxious, though, is when fruit goes from being hard as a rock to the texture of soft-serve ice cream in what seems like a matter of hours.
Avocados are the most common culprits, often turning into a watery mess on the one day you forget to check on them, and berries are no better. Thankfully, an overripe banana ends up being perfect for banana bread, so we can all count that one as a victory.
Easy-Assembly Furniture
For anyone who can’t afford to pay for the service that has workers deliver and assemble your new furniture, easy-assembly furniture seems like a dream. After all, what could be better than following a few simple instructions and taking just a mere hour of your day to put together a new table or dresser that you can really take ownership of?
As it turns out, most things are better than that, because that’s rarely how it ends up playing out.
First of all, unboxing all of the pieces you’ll need often ends up taking just as long as putting the piece of furniture together in the first place. No matter how “easy” the instructions claim to be, it’s also pretty much guaranteed you’ll need someone around to help you unless what you’re building is fairly small.
Oh, and if your box ends up having a crucial piece missing? You might as well just walk away before your destroy your entire house out of rage.
Wifi and Cell Reception
Even kids in elementary school seem to have cell phones these days, so wireless technology plays an astronomical role in all of our lives. When it comes to something so important to us, can anyone explain why it always ends up being so incredibly flaky?
We get that wifi sometimes goes down, and we’re not talking about that—we mean when your cell phone or computer is showing that you have a full signal yet all of your apps are running about as quickly as a turtle.
Or how about when your cell phone shows that you have really great reception but you’re somehow unable to make a phone call.
Oh, and let’s not forget about being able to make a call but then losing your reception when you move two feet to the right or left. We’ll be grateful when our wireless technology wants to cooperate once and for all.
“Quick-Dry” Anything
Whether it’s painting your walls or painting your nails, some paint or polish that is said to dry quicker than normal can make all the difference. Well, if it actually worked that way.
Sure, maybe these items claiming to dry quickly do dry quicker than their regular counterparts, but the difference often ends up being minimal. Take quick-dry nail polish—sure, the first coat might dry faster than the normal stuff, but once you start layering it on, it’s almost guaranteed to take longer.
The same thing goes for paint—don’t count on painting your walls three hours before you’re having a dinner party and everything being alright.
Food Serving Sizes
So, the serving sizes on food packages can’t exactly lie to us—they are what they are, right? What we’re really outraged about is how any company thinks their serving sizes are actually adequate. Think about it—when was the last time you actually ate just a half-cup of cereal? That’s like five bites!
It gets even worse when it comes to things like baking mixes that say you’ll get a certain amount of food by following the instructions. Even if you follow the company’s directions exactly, it seems like you always end up with way less than they say the mix will make. Hopefully you didn’t need exactly 12 muffins for that company meeting, because we can almost guarantee that’s not how many you’re getting.
Oh, and don’t even get us started on anything “fun-sized.” There’s nothing fun about a quarter of a candy bar! On the bright side, though, who’s to stop you from just eating four and calling it a day?
Smart TVs
For something with the word “smart” in its name, you’d think setting up a smart TV would be a breeze to figure out. In reality, though, it’ll make you feel anything but smart because it’ll take you a day to even get it programmed properly.
We can’t figure out why they’re not yet able to set themselves up when you factor in how much money you pay for them.
Easy-Open Packaging
We appreciate the effort to make bags of chips and shredded cheese easier to use, but are there any manufacturers out there who can let us know when their “easy-open” features will actually work?
The idea behind it is there—a slit cut in the side of the packaging allows you to open the bag without reaching for a pair of scissors. What usually ends up happening, however, is that slit is so far above the actual bag opening that it does nothing and you have to use scissors anyway.
Resealable packaging always seems to have its downfalls, too. Depending on what you have, the seal usually ends up breaking after a few uses, or it’s actually just a normal package that comes with a sticker. We’ll stick with a good old chip clip, thanks.
Public Transportation Trackers
If you take the bus or subway often, you probably try to keep track of your ride in some way or another so you know when to show up. However, what you’ve probably realized by now is that public transportation isn’t always on time, either coming in way early or way late.
Not only is it a pain when you’re unable to get to where you need to be on time, but it’s equally annoying when you’re ready to go and have to wait.
