Posted on 17th Nov 2011 @ 4:57 AM

The horror movies were right: Everything in your home is trying to kill you. Or at least trying to ruin your joints and suffuse your body with a thousand tiny (and not-so-tiny) aches and pains.

The fact is, most everyday items are ergonomic nightmares. And unlike the office, where we have ergonomic chairs, keyboard trays, and a host of other carefully designed implements to help us, our homes are full of repetitive stress injuries waiting to happen. Here are a few of the worst offenders.

1. Remote Controls

Your channel changer is un-ergonomic in several ways, but probably its worst offense is the fact that it isn't standardized. As this post points out, there's absolutely no standardization between remote controls, which means that getting used to one won't help you with another. Also, the buttons are generally way too small, especially for people with arthritis or other joint disorders.

2. Can Openers

We have never used a can opener that didn't make us think it would be easier to open the can by crushing it against a rock. This is because we are frugal, and only buy can openers at gas stations when we move and lose our old ones.

Until recently, we had no idea that there were any other options. But because we live in the future, there is now such a thing as a smooth edge can opener, which, as its name suggests, pops open lids without creating that raw edge. Also, the handle is designed for human hands instead of robot claws, which are clearly the appendages for which the classic can opener was designed.

3. Door Handles

This guide to designing door handles suggests that the proper way to do so, from an ergonomic perspective, is to "to determine the average hand width. You may need [it says] to measure the hands of teenagers, old age pensioners or business people, depending on your potential customers."

This is excellent advice that was taken by no one who has ever designed a door handle in our homes. Really, your best bet is the old fashioned knob. At least those generally fit in the palm of your hand. Fancy, modern handles and sliding door pulls and the like often seem to have been created with aesthetics in mind, rather than comfort.

4. Just About Everything in the Kitchen

Dishwashers are too low to the floor for people with bad backs. Sinks are too deep for shorter users. And faucets are hard to turn on or off, and often set in the sink in a way that creates splash-back. The kitchen is a breeding ground for bad ergonomics.

5. The Sofa

What kind of a world do we live in, where even the sofa can turn against us? Most sofas encourage poor posture habits. For example, your spine is supposed to have an S-shaped curve. When you're slumped in front of the tube watching Dancing With the Stars, it's probably more like the letter C. Not great for folks with repetitive stress injuries -- or anyone who wants to look more like an after photo of one of those dancing celebs. 

6. The Toilet

Oh, toilet. Without you, we wouldn't be a civilized society. Also, maybe we wouldn't have hemorrhoids, constipation, hernias, and varicose veins. Turns out, people aren't supposed to sit on a little stool when they do their business. Squatting is actually better for you. Don't believe us? Just look at the saddest man in the world up there in the picture, using a modern toilet. No one has ever felt worse about using a modern appliance.