ladyofastolat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladyofastolat) wrote2020-02-12 09:54 am
ladyofastolat) wrote2020-02-12 09:54 am
For want of a hinge
We've been in this house for over 18 years - which is scary enough in itself, since in the first 18 years of my life, I lived in 5 different houses and in each of those houses, it felt as if I'd lived in them for years and years and years - and for that entire time, our fridge has been hinged The Wrong Way. It has been quite unambiguously The Wrong Way, since the fridge is right next to the door, and when open, the open door faces out into the hall rather than into the room like any sensible fridge would do.
If we ever consciously noticed this, we just shrugged and put it down as One Of Those Things - a minor irritant, but what could you do? But my Dad, when visiting, seemed to find it quite outrageous - an offence against nature, almost - and asked why on earth we hadn't dropped everything the minute we moved in and changed the hinge to the other side, and what sort of human were we that we could tolerate this - were we man or animal? We didn't quite dare admit that we hadn't actually realised that changing the hinge direction was possible - although, really, the fact that the fridge door has handle-inserts on both sides should have been the clue. "Um, we're used to it now, and it would be confusing to change," was all we managed.
And so it went on. Years passed. The Wrong Hinge issue became something one just accepted, like gnats.
But then our CD players started to die.
We had a nice 5-disc CD player in the living room, and single disc ones in the kitchen and dining room. We'd come into the 21st century enough to make mp3 copies of many of them, but still preferred to play music in the form of entire CDs, played through in order. But the 5-disc one started failing one disc at a time, and a few months ago, went entirely. The kitchen one also failed a few months ago. When asked if we could buy a new system that allowed us to play multiple CDs OR mp3s, the chap in the shop acted as if we were asking where we could buy flint arrowheads to shoot mammoths for our neolithic brunch.
So, well, to cut short a long story of dithering and apathy, we now have some Sonos speakers, and a storage device to copy the rest of our music onto. Shop Chap was pretty horrified by the latter, too, since apparently anyone with any pretentions to be part of the 21st century does it all through streaming; wanting to actually own your own music collection went out with steam trains and stove pipe hats. But, anyway, this we have.
So we had to change the fridge hinge around. Obviously.
You see, small as it was, the kitchen CD player (plus speakers) took up considerably more space than the new speaker. It used to sit on the fridge. "Hmm," I thought, after I removed the CD player, "I wonder if the microwave..." (which sat on the end of the working surface right next to the fridge) "...could move onto the fridge."
I asked the internet if Doom would happen if a microwave sat on a fridge. "Never put a microwave on a fridge," it shouted, "because All Fridges are around 6 feet tall, and if you try to lift hot food down from above your head, it will fall on you and YOU WILL DIE!" It took quite a bit of searching before I found anyone on the internet who was prepared to accept that non-American-style fridges actually existed, but when I did, they admitted that there was no reason at all why I shouldn't put a microwave on one.
So I did. And its door opens the opposite way from the fridge door. Which, suddenly, made the whole Wrong Way thing about the fridge door - the Wrong Way thing we had tolerated for 18 years - suddenly seem completely impossible to tolerate for even a millisecond more.
So we changed it round. It involved some thumping, some bracing, some grimacing at the dust revealed, some soothing words muttered to a panicked spider, but it was soon done.
And it is indeed very confusing, but so much better. The old handle has been covered up with a post-it note shouting "NO!" so any attempt to reach for it results in a blaring alarm. (Well, the quiet rustle of a fingertip brushing against a Post-It note, but hey.)
And, better still, the fact that the door now opens towards the room means that you can stand at the kettle, pour your tea, and grab the milk without moving more than half a step. So that, coupled with the extra space on that side of the kitchen created by moving the microwave, have caused me to move the toaster, bread, Weetabix and jam over from the opposite side of the kitchen, near the oven, to the kettle/fridge/plate storage side of the kitchen, so everything needed for breakfast is in the same place, and it makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE and WHY ON EARTH DIDN'T WE DO THIS YEARS AGO, LIKE, MAYBE, EVEN 18 YEARS AGO WHEN WE FIRST MOVED IN which is itself quite annoying as well as pleasing because ALL THOSE WASTED YEARS! WHY OH WHY OH WHY?
If we ever consciously noticed this, we just shrugged and put it down as One Of Those Things - a minor irritant, but what could you do? But my Dad, when visiting, seemed to find it quite outrageous - an offence against nature, almost - and asked why on earth we hadn't dropped everything the minute we moved in and changed the hinge to the other side, and what sort of human were we that we could tolerate this - were we man or animal? We didn't quite dare admit that we hadn't actually realised that changing the hinge direction was possible - although, really, the fact that the fridge door has handle-inserts on both sides should have been the clue. "Um, we're used to it now, and it would be confusing to change," was all we managed.
And so it went on. Years passed. The Wrong Hinge issue became something one just accepted, like gnats.
But then our CD players started to die.
We had a nice 5-disc CD player in the living room, and single disc ones in the kitchen and dining room. We'd come into the 21st century enough to make mp3 copies of many of them, but still preferred to play music in the form of entire CDs, played through in order. But the 5-disc one started failing one disc at a time, and a few months ago, went entirely. The kitchen one also failed a few months ago. When asked if we could buy a new system that allowed us to play multiple CDs OR mp3s, the chap in the shop acted as if we were asking where we could buy flint arrowheads to shoot mammoths for our neolithic brunch.
So, well, to cut short a long story of dithering and apathy, we now have some Sonos speakers, and a storage device to copy the rest of our music onto. Shop Chap was pretty horrified by the latter, too, since apparently anyone with any pretentions to be part of the 21st century does it all through streaming; wanting to actually own your own music collection went out with steam trains and stove pipe hats. But, anyway, this we have.
So we had to change the fridge hinge around. Obviously.
You see, small as it was, the kitchen CD player (plus speakers) took up considerably more space than the new speaker. It used to sit on the fridge. "Hmm," I thought, after I removed the CD player, "I wonder if the microwave..." (which sat on the end of the working surface right next to the fridge) "...could move onto the fridge."
I asked the internet if Doom would happen if a microwave sat on a fridge. "Never put a microwave on a fridge," it shouted, "because All Fridges are around 6 feet tall, and if you try to lift hot food down from above your head, it will fall on you and YOU WILL DIE!" It took quite a bit of searching before I found anyone on the internet who was prepared to accept that non-American-style fridges actually existed, but when I did, they admitted that there was no reason at all why I shouldn't put a microwave on one.
So I did. And its door opens the opposite way from the fridge door. Which, suddenly, made the whole Wrong Way thing about the fridge door - the Wrong Way thing we had tolerated for 18 years - suddenly seem completely impossible to tolerate for even a millisecond more.
So we changed it round. It involved some thumping, some bracing, some grimacing at the dust revealed, some soothing words muttered to a panicked spider, but it was soon done.
And it is indeed very confusing, but so much better. The old handle has been covered up with a post-it note shouting "NO!" so any attempt to reach for it results in a blaring alarm. (Well, the quiet rustle of a fingertip brushing against a Post-It note, but hey.)
And, better still, the fact that the door now opens towards the room means that you can stand at the kettle, pour your tea, and grab the milk without moving more than half a step. So that, coupled with the extra space on that side of the kitchen created by moving the microwave, have caused me to move the toaster, bread, Weetabix and jam over from the opposite side of the kitchen, near the oven, to the kettle/fridge/plate storage side of the kitchen, so everything needed for breakfast is in the same place, and it makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE and WHY ON EARTH DIDN'T WE DO THIS YEARS AGO, LIKE, MAYBE, EVEN 18 YEARS AGO WHEN WE FIRST MOVED IN which is itself quite annoying as well as pleasing because ALL THOSE WASTED YEARS! WHY OH WHY OH WHY?
no subject
We always change the hinges to hinge on the left and so open for the person in the room on installation of the fridge. Interestingly, we regularly see people confused because the fridge is not hinged on the right, some of whom actually challenge us for going against their expectations.
no subject
Thanks for the entertaining write-up though :)