General Chat

I have spent about 10 minutes trying to open a battery pack, scissors, sharp knife and I got there, sooooo what happened to keeping things like away from children and telling older children not open them anyway.

It's like those child-proof medication containers.

I have long had problems opening them, much worse now with arthritis having set in.

But my daughter could open such bottles for me from the age of 5! :-0

I have trouble with those tabs to open packs of corned beef etc

I think those tins of tuna etc that have a pull tab to peel back the top of the tin have changed in the last couple of years either the tab breaks off or the tin 'lid' just refuses to peel back and I resort to a tin opener.

It's almost impossible to get the glass lids off jars of Douwe Egberts coffee, as they fit so tightly.
When the lid does come off, it always jolts the jar, which means the coffee granules spill all over the place.

I have to take aspirin, they have gone from a tub of loose tabs to blister packs of 25. I simply cannot get them out of the foil.

Luckily Beloved is a dab-hand and get it done in a few minutes and into a spare tub.

I struggle with lids on jars of sauces etc so I hit the side of the lid a few times with my rolling pin and then find it open more easily. A few times, I have actually caused myself chest pain trying to open a lid!

I always turn the corned beef tins upside down and use a can opener because I find those ring-pulls too hard to start most of the time.

To open those jars (jams, chutney etc) that seem to be clammed tightly shut, I run hot water around the spot where lids meet glass - and it works. Another method I have used is to jam the lids in the hinged part of the door, keeping the door as tightly open as possible to get a firm grip on the lid, then twisting the jar but I am always wary in case the glass smashes.

I agree, battery packs are dire to open sometimes.

I have a lever type tool which breaks the air seal on jars - very handy, but p,ease don’t ask me where I got it as I’ve had it for ages. Think I bought it knowing that one day I would need it.

Recently I got my tiny pills in a blister pack, the blister was so big that I couldn’t pop it to get the tiny pill out.

found a tool on amazon

www.amazon.co.uk/Jarkey-Food-Vacuum-Releaser-Opener
£5.45.

Probably Lakeland sell something similar

Well done - that’s the one. Well worth the money. OH now has arthritic hands and it is a god send as I don’t have to fight with all his lids, just my own ;-)
It also saves on the spoons which I used to use to do the same job.

I have read that people use cherry stone poppers on their pill packs. Don’t have one so don’t know if they work bit worried that the pill might go flying and I’d never find it.

I find the the openers that take the lids off crown lidded bottles good for breaking the seals on jars so you can actually open the jar easily.

paracetamol blister packs - when did the foil get so tough? :-|
Zip locks on cheese packets :-|

My nephew opened a tin of sardines at 18 months! :-0

I think all that type of packaging started because some people were contaminating the food stuff with chemicals that made people ill.

For most plastic packaging, I always use scissors now and dont struggle trying to open say a packet of biscuits or a block of cheese.

As for tins of sardines, they invariably end up anywhere except on me plate as the lid springs back and spits orange sauce everywhere!

I have arthritis in fingers and thumb joints
Big difficulty in opening cans even the pull type

Vacuum sealed jars are a pain as haven’t got the power to turn them
In the past I would stab the lid with a knife to release the vacuum and then it would open

But time moving on I did find a tool on Amazon that would prise the side of a lid and release vacuum

It’s invaluable

Wish I could post a picture :-(

This type
MAEXUS 6 in 1 Multi Opener Jar Opener, 5 in 1 Bottle Can Opener Set, Seal Soda Lid Twist Grips with Instructions, Jar Opener for Chef Kids Kitchen Holiday Party Fath

I thnk I've got that, or someting very similar, tucked away in a drawer. Didn't find it very useful, I couldn't use it to open plastic bottle tops ( drinks bottles) I can't remember how the other bits work. Must go and dig it out and try it again.

I used a metal nutcracker once to open a bottle lid

I don't have a lot of strength in my grip and I have a tremor that comes and goes so some of the lever type tools just don't work for me. I can't get a firm enough hold on them.

Over 50 years ago OH brought back from Sweden a device that sits underneath a kitchen wall cupboard or something similar. It was wonderful but when we moved 9 years ago we left it behind. Because it was under a wall cupboard it wasn't visible and we forgot it. A few months ago he found something similar on Amazon. It's a plastic square with a toothed, V-shaped notch in it. You slide your bottle/jar into the notch, the size of the lid determining how far into the V it goes. It's held quite firmly and you just have to give the jar a twist. I don't think it is quite as good as my original Swedish one but it works well enough.

When I am swearing because I can't get a tablet out of a blister pack or I can't open something I find myself saying "How on earth is an old person supposed to manage?". Then I remember that I AM an old person ;-)