And 14 more wonderful secrets that keep our apartments.
Home Sweet Home. We know every nook and cranny in it, every crack on the ceiling and speck on the wallpaper. Not really. Each apartment contains many surprises related to the things we use every day. For example, did you know that the layout of your home can affect your weight? And we didn’t know, and indeed it is! Wday.ru has collected 20 surprising facts about the secrets of everyday things.
1. Bubble wrap is a wallpaper
Yes, this is not just an anti-stress packaging material. The creators of the film, engineer Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Mar Chavannes, assumed that it would be a kind of textured wallpaper. It all started by gluing two layers of film together to create a bubble shower curtain. The idea did not find demand, so we decided to submit the film as an insulating material for greenhouses. They didn’t buy it either. But the packaging material has become just a bomb.
2. The refrigerator is not for food
No and no again. James Harrison, a journalist and creator of the world’s first refrigerator (this miracle of technology appeared in the 1850s), designed it to cool the beer. Well, what else can you expect from a Scottish journalist?
3. You are sick with the IKEA effect
And don’t even argue. This effect was discovered by researchers at Harvard. It consists in the fact that a person is more satisfied with the process of assembling furniture than the very fact of buying it. Lego constructors and the origami folding process have the same effect.
4. Renting an apartment – fortunately
Psychologists one more curious thing. It turns out that people who rent a house are happier than those who buy it. For some mysterious reason, tenants had more balance and harmony and less stress in their lives.
5. Shoes protect from evil spirits
Earlier in Europe, it was customary to hide shoes in chimneys, walls or under the floor. So they protected their homes from demons. And it’s not about the smell of old shoes, no. It was believed that the boots have some kind of magical properties. And now, by the way, there are such amulets made from old shoes.
6. Clutter helps to create
No, we are not promoting the idea that mess is good. But researchers have found that some clutter where you usually do your creative work helps boost your potential. But the chaos must still be controlled.
7. The office chair was invented by Charles Darwin
Yes, the founder of the evolutionary theory was also a good engineer. It was he who came up with the idea of screwing the wheels to the chairs in order to move from table to window, for example, without getting up and wasting no time.
8. The apartment makes you fat
If you live in a studio, we have bad news: you have more chances of getting better than those with a separate kitchen. This is not psychology, but pure statistics. Perhaps this is because in studios and lofts there is no barrier to smells, and your nose leads you to the stove to make you eat the extra fragrant bite.
9. Toilet paper was considered a ridiculous idea
Not only in Russian villages, but also in American cities, newspapers were once used for hygienic purposes. Sounds awful. But when the first toilet paper appeared, society took it with hostility – they considered it too wasteful use of new paper. It became popular only in the 80s of the century before last, when its inventor thought of selling paper in rolls.
10. Record of continuous ironing – 100 hours
How much time can you spend ironing? Surely after two hours your back will fall off, then your legs, and then your arms. The next stage – hatred for all living things will wake up. But there is a person who stroked continuously for 100 hours. Englishman Gareth Sanders ironed 2000 items during this time, and the pause between each was no more than 30 seconds.
11. No one knows how a microwave oven works
Some scientists argue that food particles absorb energy during dielectric heating, whatever that means. Others claim that it is all about changing the nature of the interaction between the particles, which causes the food to heat up. It works anyway, and that’s great.
12. Refrigerators were promoted to make people spend more electricity
In 1911, General Electric bought the rights to the electric refrigerator. But the management of the company hoped to make profit not on the sale of equipment, but on the sale of electricity, which was only just beginning to be promoted to the masses.
13. The sofa bed was invented in the century before last
Yes, back in the XIX. Even then, manufacturers of transforming furniture focused on residents of small apartments. “The sofa is especially convenient in a home where the number of bedrooms is limited, allowing the hostess to turn the dressing room into a bedroom at any time,” read the text of the advertising leaflet.
14. Showers use less water than baths
A quick, powerful shower will save you money. But a hot bath will spend. And much more than a shower, about 30 percent.
15. Parquet can lighten over the years
If you expect your floor to take on an elegant dark shade over time, you might be wrong. If the parquet is made of oak, maple or ash, then over the years it will only get brighter and yellower. This is how they react to solar ultraviolet light. But cherries and walnuts will darken over time.