Why strange habits commonly adopted in our homes are a real mystery

In many countries, it is common practice to remove shoes as you enter a home. This not only keeps floors clean but prolongs the life of carpets and other floor coverings.

Why do we regularly sharpen cooks’ knives but rarely sharpen the knives we eat with? There’s nothing worse than tackling a steak and having to hack it into mouth sized bites with a blunt knife. It’s even worse in restaurants but it’s so annoying at home.

Blades become blunt through normal use but there are all sorts of sharpening gadgets ranging from the traditional steel to whetstones, “pull through” devices or even, at a pinch, the unglazed underside of a ceramic plate.

Why don’t all new houses have a porch? In these days of energy conservation, a porch is an air chamber between the cold outside and the warm indoors. A porch also provides a useful place to hang soaking wet coats and umbrellas, to keep muddy boots and prams and even bicycles (if it’s big enough). It isn’t a building regulation requirement but it should be.

Why do kitchen designers rarely include a suitable place for a rubbish bin? After all, the bin is one of the most used kitchen items but all too often it remains an irrelevant afterthought. Sometimes they are fitted inside cupboard doors but tend to be quite small and become so overloaded that they cause the door to drop or fall off its hinges. Bins need to be easily accessible with enough space around them to avoid splashes onto walls or neighbouring furnishings.

Almost half of Britain’s garages do not house cars. They tend to be filled with washing machines and freezers or become an indoor store for garden furniture and tools, bikes and empty boxes, kept just in case one day they are needed, along with Christmas decorations, sledges and fitness equipment.

There are many ways to create convenient storage space in a garage and still be able to use it to park a car. High level shelves and racks, which are very common in countries that need snow tyres or wheel chains, small pallets on which items can be piled high or even simple hooks are the answer.

Fortunately cars have a fuel or battery level gauge to help us avoid running out of petrol or electric charge. We’re also pretty adept at knowing when we are about to run out of basic foods like bread or milk, by simply looking at how much we have left. However, when it comes to staples, the first time we find out the stapler is empty is when we want to use it.

This used to be an office problem but with more people are working at home so it has also become a domestic issue. All too often we don’t check to see how many staples are left or if we do, we ignore what we see.

There are many more mysteries in our homes, some small, some serious. Let us know of any that bug you the most by emailing [email protected]. Knives pictured from Glazebrook.com