I’m getting more and more frustrated every time I try to open things! Shrink-wrapped seems to have evolved into rigid-plastic-that-can’t-be-cut-wrapped. Tamper-proof packaging for over the counter pharmaceuticals and many juice drinks now involves an outer plastic seal plus a perforated screw top plus an inner seal. And the market for devices to help us deal with these monstrosities has lagged far behind the so-called advances in packaging.
Those rigid plastic encasements defy my usual scissors, or ruin their edges. I often have to ask my husband to open them with a pocket knife. There’s got to be a better way to protect items while still allowing purchasers to free them from their bonds.
As for the triple tops protecting pharmaceuticals and juices – ARGH! First, there’s the thin outer plastic seal. Some are kind enough to provide a perforated strip, but many are far less thoughtful. They adhere so tightly to the container that it’s almost impossible to get anything underneath them – and if you do manage that feat, it’s challenging to tear them off using only the leverage of the tip of a fingernail. Then you get to the perforated screw top. Since it’s usually fairly thick plastic, even the perforations don’t give up without a fight. And once you manage to conquer both of those barriers, you get to the inner seal. These days, it’s usually a sort of light cardboard interwoven with plastic thread, firmly glued to the top of the container and topped with a very thin plastic semi-circle that, in theory, gives you the leverage to pull the top off. Except that in my experience, you’re just as likely to pull that semi-circle off, leaving the cardboard still firmly glued to the container.
These various packaging devices may not be too difficult to the twenty-somethings out there but believe me when I tell you that this sixty-something is starting to wonder how I’m going to be able to open them at all in a few more years!
Also zip ties. I bought some funnels at Target, that came three in a pack, tied together with a plastic zip tie. I tried to cut them apart this morning, so I could, you know, actually use them. I managed to carve a divot out of my left index knuckle while trying to cut that damn zip tie. I hate those things with the fire of 6.02 * 10[sup]23[/sup] suns.
That’s what I was going to say. Its not just the super-tough outer layer of plastic that requires a sawz-all to cut through, its those damn wire ties on every single fucking thing within the package. They take forever to remove to get the toy and its accessories out.
And the whole time the kid is dancing in front of you because they just want to play with their new toy.
I am officially the favorite aunty to my friends kids now because I learned a new trick a couple years ago (possibly even from here)
When giving gifts to kids I completely open and dismantle all the packaging and repack the toy in either the original box but without all the tape and twist ties or in some other container but either way, easy access. Parents love me
There’s a trick to it, that I only figured out a couple of months ago.
[ol]
[li]Grab the bottle in your left hand so that the flap is sticking up and the glued on half is to the right.[/li][li]Grab the flap in your right hand.[/li][li]Pull **towards **you, so that the pulling action works to separate the cover from the top to the bottom of the opening (instead of pulling to the right, which is what I’d been doing and having the same result you are).[/li][/ol]
I’ve opened about 10 or more of these blasted things since I figured that out, and it works perfectly each time.
I noticed that too. But I actually ordered one of those and it’s the much simpler packaging style of a cardboard backing stapled to a plastic front. It pops right out.
I’m not sure it’s thieves. The zip tie to which I made a blood sacrifice this morning, for example, wouldn’t do anything to deter a thief from making off with the funnels. They just held them together in a more aesthetically pleasing pattern than a looser and easer-to-cut tie would have done. I’ve heard that kids’ toy packaging is so excessive so that the toy and all its accessories look nicer in the box. I’d rather have sloppier looking stuff on the store shelves that’s easier to get ready to actually use once you’ve brought it home.
I can deal with those. Cursing and swearing as it takes me a month of Sundays to get them out but I can deal with them. The ones that drive me batty are the ones that are screwed onto the hard plastic display base, not just screwed on but with screws in deep holes that are not average standard screwdriver size that the not so handy woman might have around. No, one year I had to tell me poor sobbing child on Christmas morning that I could not get it apart! That he would have to wait until I could go buy a new screwdriver just do he could play with his toy!
Thankfully we later went over to family for supper and they had the right tool, but damnit you shouldn’t be required to spend more money just to open a toy!
For the zip ties, a decent pair of toenail clippers can remove them with no fuss or muss. For the plastic outer seals on bottles, I find that simply opening the bottle with the seal still in place will cause the seal to break and make for easy removal.
But I actually ordered one of those and it’s the much simpler packaging style of a cardboard backing stapled to a plastic front. It pops right out.
