Social Question

chyna's avatar

Do you have any household warnings you would like to share?

Asked by chyna (51598points) May 15th, 2012

I’ll start:
Do not shoot yourself in the eye with your waterpik. It hurts like hell and damn near put my eye out.

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

77 Answers

Blackberry's avatar

Don’t ever mix bleach and ammonia.

blueiiznh's avatar

Do not cook a raw egg in the microwave

ragingloli's avatar

Do not EVER let this guy in!

Imadethisupwithnoforethought's avatar

Don’t cook anything greasy naked.

blueiiznh's avatar

Use only Extra Virgin Olive Oil when playing Twister

chyna's avatar

^Love that answer.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

Don’t iron while naked.

Resist the urge to lather & scrub the tub/shower floor while showering yourself.

If you really want to pull up old contact paper in big swaths instead of little tugs at a time then check for head clearance in case the shite snaps off in your hands and knocks your arse backwards.

WATCH FOR SCREEN DOORS THAT SNAP SHUT BEHIND YOU, BITING YOUR FEET/ANKLES. It’s probably better to disarm those spring and shock absorber thingies. from the door and deal with the safer motion of pulling the door closed behind you.

Put on a paper germ mask before removing a suspiciously old air filter.

Don’t hold nails between your teeth while using a hammer. Any surprise or mistake will likely have you reacting by clenching down quick and hard enough to chip your teeth.

YARNLADY's avatar

Don’t wash glasses by sticking you hand in them.

ucme's avatar

Never attempt to cook sausages when you’re drunk & naked, those buggers spit everywhere.

augustlan's avatar

If you have children, never leave your upstairs windows open wider than a few inches. Kids fall through window screens all the time.

Don’t put sharp knives in your dishwasher’s silverware caddy point-up. Ouch!

lillycoyote's avatar

Don’t rub your eyes after you have been chopping jalapeños. It hurts in a burning hot peppers in your eye sort of way and hurts for quite a while.

But on a more serious note: your dryer can be dangerous! Not kidding.
15,000 or more fires each year, and as many as 15 deaths and 400 injuries occur each year.in the U.S. Those statistics are from the following link which lists … the warning signs that your dryer, vents and ducts may need attention

This article, from the same site, tells you how to prevent dryer fires

And some information from FEMA

I get my dryer vents/ducts cleaned every year by the chimney people because my house is kind of old and my dry vents up the far kitchen wall, all the way across and underneath the kitchen ceiling to the outside and I don’t feel comfortable doing the job myself.

rooeytoo's avatar

Don’t use power tools while wearing loose hanging clothing!

Great question and some great answers, thank you!

SuperMouse's avatar

Contrary to popular belief, the bathroom is not the most bacteria filled room in the house, that award goes to the kitchen. A regular wash down with bleach will keep the bacteria at bay. Also, the television remote harbors lots and lots of germs, wipe that puppy down regularly. Finally, do not under any circumstances blow dry your hair while you are in the shower or bathtub.

Argonon's avatar

Don’t do cartwheels off the couch..I seriously messed up my arm..

Oh and don’t eat mysterious pea pods you find in the backyard.

Keep_on_running's avatar

@lillycoyote Also, do not look up close to the chopping board when you’re handling jalapenos. I picked one off my plant to use in cooking and while cutting it up a freakin’ squirt of its juice went into my eye, damnit! It was like someone was stabbing my eye continuously. Never felt pain like that before; it was scary.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

What @YARNLADY wrote about putting your hand into a glass to better wash it- it’s so tempting. Yes, I’ve done it and gotten my hand wedged inside a lipped jar glass :(

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

Be careful boiling water in a microwave, especially in a new cup. You can superheat the water. Then when you put your spoon in it it explodes in your face.

Dr_Lawrence's avatar

If you have dogs and you give them bones to chew on or play with, do not walk around in the dark without footwear!

ucme's avatar

If you have a sensitive wife & she’s cooking dinner, never, ever laugh at her feeble attempts.
Look, here’s my reaction immediately after I found out the hard way :¬(

Dr_Lawrence's avatar

If your significant other is doing something at home, do not offer advice or try to help unless either there is an immediate danger to life and limb or unless your advice or help have been requested.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I second @YARNLADY…do NOT stick your hand in a glass to wash it. Especially not a glass made of thin glass. Took seven stitches for me to learn that!

Don’t let your dog run the chainsaw.

SuperMouse's avatar

@Dutchess_III and @YARNLADY do you use a brush to wash your glasses? Do you shove a washcloth or sponge in and swish it around by shaking the glass?

augustlan's avatar

@SuperMouse I’ve broken a glass with my hand before, too. I use one of these, now.

Dutchess_III's avatar

After I cut my hand I started using other methods, @SuperMouse. I wouldn’t just swish a wash cloth around because it wouldn’t get dried stuff off. If I didn’t have a brush I’d use some other tool, like a butter knife, to work a wash cloth around the glass and get to specific places.

Dr_Lawrence's avatar

Keep your carving knives, paring and steak knives well sharpened and that means very sharp. There are more injuries resulting from cutting with dull knives because you have to use so much more force to cut with a dull knife.

When cutting a bagel, never cut towards the palm of your hand . Hold the bagel on a suitable cutting surface and slice the bagel towards that surface with your fingers clear of the blade.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Don’t use a chainsaw to cut your bagels.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@Dutchess_III We cut up a pizza with a chain saw one night at a party.

rooeytoo's avatar

@Adirondackwannabe – lucky you didn’t go straight through the table as well! Good work.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@rooeytoo We weren’t that smart. One guy held the box in his hands and the other guy cut up the pizza.

rooeytoo's avatar

@Adirondackwannabe – omg the mental image!!! you should have filmed that, could have made the 1million hit club on youtube!

lillycoyote's avatar

This something my father told me I should always do: not only turn the engine off, off course, but always disconnect the spark plug on your lawn mower if you need to clean grass out from underneath. I also use one of those wooden paint stirrers to clean it, but I do always disconnect the spark plug. Manual cranking of the blades can start the mower when the engines off. It’s very unlikely that that could actually happen but it’s possible so better safe than dismembered. It did happen to my next door neighbor once, so it really is possible.

And @Adirondackwannabe I hope you were using an electric chain saw because using anything with a gas powered engine indoors is a pretty bad idea. Though I think you might run out of gas in the chainsaw before it generated enough CO in your house to do anyone any harm. Just don’t use the chainsaw for long periods of time indoors, in a small room, like a bathroom or closet.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@lillycoyote It was electric.
@rooeytoo Picture a guy holding a pizza box in front of him while another guy is cutting within inches of his chest when he finishes the cut. I don’t have a clue what we were thinking. Or not thinking.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@chyna I bet you never expected don’t use a chainsaw for a long time in the bathroom to show up on the list.

chyna's avatar

Ha I was just thinking that a few more inches and there would’ve been blood all over a perfectly good pizza.

rooeytoo's avatar

@lillycoyote and @Adirondackwannabe – I will undoubtedly heed those words of warning for the rest of my life.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@chyna There were pepperoni pieces on the ceiling.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Grabbing a live spark plug does not kill chiggers on your body. Just so you know.

You guys have made a MESS. I TOLD you not to use the chainsaw!

SuperMouse's avatar

@Dutchess_III the chigger killing advice reminded me of my husband’s story about the time he had some ticks after a camping trip. His parents took him to a gas station and opened up the hose over his head. Four gallons of gas later he was sick as a dog, the ticks were still there, and he was riding home in the back seat of the car while his parents smoked their cigarettes up front.

Mouse’s Household Tip # 4: Gasoline is not a proper treatment for ticks.

chyna's avatar

@SuperMouse OMG parents were so stupid back then!

blueiiznh's avatar

While in an attic with no subfloor, step carefully on the joists unless you are planning to put in a wholehouse ceiling fan in the exact place your foot breaks through the ceiling below.

.

lillycoyote's avatar

@rooeytoo and @Adirondackwannabe… I would also recommend that if you are ever using a chainsaw in your bathroom, that it should not only not be gas-powered but should probably be one with rechargeable battery rather than an AC electric one… on the off chance that you were to trip and the chainsaw landed in the toilet with you still holding on to it. Safety first!

lillycoyote's avatar

@blueiiznh LOL. Did that happen to you? My father did that when I was growing up and he was re-insulating the attic. It scared the hell out my brother when my father fell through the ceiling into my brother’s bedroom… then my just brother started laughing because my father was just hanging there, from about the waist down, cursing a blue streak,with his legs dangling down from the bedroom ceiling.

blueiiznh's avatar

@lillycoyote p.s. Let’s just say I love my wholehouse ceiling fan. It is also in the most perfect place.

chyna's avatar

@blueiiznh I think I saw Chevy Chase do that on one of his movies. Hilarious if it involves someone else.

lillycoyote's avatar

@blueiiznh O.K. What happens in your attic, stays in your attic. ;-) Good safety tip though.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@chyna Christmas Vacation. A classic.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Wait! I have to call Rick in here!!!

Dutchess_III's avatar

From Rick: “If you happen to have a dog house that’s big enough to camp in over night, stuffing a rag in the spout of a 2 gallon gas can (full of gas) and lighting it does NOT make it a candle.” I’m choking so hard right now!!!

Dutchess_III's avatar

From Rick: “So, if microwaves have just come out, and your folks don’t have one yet, putting an M80 in the oven doesn’t do the same thing as what you heard a “microwave oven” will do.”
WHY did I marry this lunatic!!

Dutchess_III's avatar

From Rick: “Injured skunks don’t really appreciate it when you try to help them.”

lillycoyote's avatar

@Dutchess_III Though if you stick a rag in a glass bottle full of gasoline, say a wine bottle, it does make a Molotov Cocktail, which under some circumstances is much more useful than a candle. Just light it and throw it against something hard enough to break it, and you’ve got yourself a nice little fire bomb, made from things you have lying around the house.

Did he burn the doghouse down?

And why did you marry him? Birds of a feather…

augustlan's avatar

Pro tip: An old wicker hamper will not support your weight, so don’t step on it trying to attach molding to your ceiling.

YARNLADY's avatar

@augustlan Very good point. Neither will one of those folding tables from Sam’s Club.

jazmina88's avatar

dont put a gas powereed generator in your home. Keep it outside.

wundayatta's avatar

If you’re going to something stupid, do a lot of them. That way you’ll never be able to remember what you did that was stupid.

Like me.

SuperMouse's avatar

So this morning I was washing dishes. I picked up a Spongebob coffee mug, grabbed a washcloth, stuck it in and began to swish it around. Bam! The cup broke in my had and cut the heck out of my finger! True story.

chyna's avatar

@SuperMouse I hope your finger is okay and didn’t need stitches. The worse part of your story is that it was a treasured coffee cup, Spongebob!~

SuperMouse's avatar

@chyna thanks! It won’t need stitches, but I got rid of the broken cup ASAP. I will have one angry economy size if he sees the fragments in the trash!

Neizvestnaya's avatar

People don’t want to believe it or accept it but Spongebob is evil.

chyna's avatar

@Neizvestnaya I think it has something to do with bacteria growing in all that sponge that makes him evil.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

@chyna: EXACTLY! Smelly, dank, slimy bacteria and probably mold spores too in the nooks and crannies. blech.

chyna's avatar

KNOW what poison ivy looks like before weeding. ::scratch, scratch::

rooeytoo's avatar

I always wash cups and glasses by putting the sponge cloth into the glass with my hand. I don’t understand why that is dangerous?

chyna's avatar

@rooeytoo Look at @SuperMouses answer ^seven responses up. Hers broke by doing that same thing and cut her finger.

Dutchess_III's avatar

In my case @rooeytoo, the glass was made of thinner glass, not really heavy glass. I stuck my hand in the glass and started cleaning, and the glass broke as I was running my hand around the inside. It happened so fast I didn’t have a chance to stop the circular movement, and the jagged part that was left sliced into my hand. (Are you shuddering yet??!! :) In my case, too, the glass was a bit of a tight fight. I wouldn’t think you’d have the same problem with, say, a roomy and heavier coffee cup or something. Except for @SuperMouse. She is just a klutz!!

YARNLADY's avatar

@rooeytoo It’s one of those rare, but easily preventable injuries. You can stick your hand in dozens and dozens of cups and glasses your whole life, and suddenly one breaks and you get a really nasty cut, or you are the lucky one and it never happens to you.

Why take chances?

Blackberry's avatar

It depends on the glass. I don’t do that with thin, wine glasses, but I will with a sturdy tumbler.

SuperMouse's avatar

@rooeytoo I was totally with you… until this morning! I was reading through this thread last night thinking that anyone who was wimpy enough not to put their hand and a washrag inside a cup to wash it was really just being paranoid. Then this morning I washed the Spongebob mug! I huge chunk literally cracked off and as it did it sliced the heck out of my finger! It took like five minutes for me to stop the bleeding and still stings like the dickens! It was also an amazing coincidence, I had never cut my any body part washing a glass until after I read this thread. Cue Twilight Zone music.

@Blackberry a word of warning, don’t let the sturdy tumblers fool you!

rooeytoo's avatar

Wow, who would have ever thought the hazards that lurk in the simple act of dishwashing! I think I will give it up completely and not take any chances of injury!!! :-)

SuperMouse's avatar

@rooeytoo that is probably the best course of action.

ragingloli's avatar

I have recently cut myself with my recently sharpened knife.
My tip: do not cut yourself.

Dutchess_III's avatar

@SuperMouse GTW—that IS KARMA, isn’t it!
My daughter taught me a trick on how to see knives and stuff in soapy dish washer. She figured this out all on her own when she was about 8. She’d take a clear glass and stick it through the bubbles and then she move it around, like an upside down periscope and see what was lurking in the water below. I thought it was pretty slick!

lillycoyote's avatar

Another one:

If, one night, a cat manages to get into your fenced in back yard, and your dog starts chasing it and the cat, in a panic, can’t seem to find a way out of the fenced in yard, and you panic and think you can help the cat by chasing after your dog, in the dark, as she chases the cat … if you happen to have raised garden beds that are approximately 7’ X 3.25’, or any size really, framed with 2×6s … even amid the dark, the panic, noise and commotion, remember that those raised beds are there. That’s my advice. They are a serious tripping hazard that will bring you down pretty much instantly and leave you bruised and hurting for at least a week.

And, while I said that the size of the raised bed doesn’t really matter, the approximately 3’ wide scenario is pretty bad because you get taken out by the 2X6 on one side of the bed, and when you fall, some part of your body will land pretty solidly on the 2X6 on the other side the bed, at 3’ wide. That’s what causes the worst of the hurt and the bruising, in my experience, landing on that other 2X6, rather than simply tripping and falling over the first one.

rooeytoo's avatar

This question has given rise to so many amazing and wondeful mental images!!! Thank you all.

augustlan's avatar

See, @SuperMouse? It pays to listen to us! Hope your poor finger feels better.

Dutchess_III's avatar

HAHAHAHAHHHAAAAAHAHAHAHA @lillycoyote!! Puts a whole new meaning on “putting it to bed!” Sorry..I’m just cracking up on the mental image! :)

Well, my word of advice on night-time forays is that cracking a cat on the head with a flashlight, and screaming at the cat won’t make it let go of a screaming baby rabbit. It just starts a wild commotion that causes the neighbors to stick their heads out of the window saying “What the hell are they up to NOW??”

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