#761 – Toggle

Why do some light switches decide to live in inconvenient places? Bathroom lights at a friend or relatives house seem to be the worst offenders. I guess most of the time the guest bathroom was an addition to the original house and it would have cost extra to run wires to a logical place. “Why don’t we put the switch down next to the bowl where the toilet paper should be? Nobody would accidentally stick their hand in the water… that’s just silly.”

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48 thoughts on “#761 – Toggle”

  1. MadDavid says:

    Badly sized objects week. And yes, it’s really annoying when you’re trying to change the cat box in someone else’s house and you can’t find the light-switch to the room with the cat box.

  2. Jon Bovi says:

    What possessed you to change the cat box in someone else’s house?

    Also, that would deliver a terrible static shock on a dry day. Though the novelty of a giant light switch could never wear off.

  3. GURREN LAGAAAAANN says:

    Hyuck hyuck hyuck, how awesome.

  4. Ashes says:

    I have a light switch in the middle of the wall. That wall is also the only logical place to put a couch. And instead of the kitchen light being in the kitchen, the kitchen light is on that wall. Therefore you have to crawl over the couch to turn on the light in the kitchen. Very poor design.

  5. speearr says:

    The standard position of light switches also varies from country to country. Some have it at eye level, others at elbow level.

  6. Chris says:

    What I find more frustrating is that some bathrooms have what must be a dozen switches. Switches for various lights, fans, electrical outlets and misc. other things. When I run into this situation I simply mash them all until something happens that allows me to use the facilities.

  7. Chris says:

    @Chris – Yeah sometime it looks like the control panel to a nuclear reactor. I just want to see!

  8. soulofaqua says:

    Our bathroom light switch is outside of the bathroom. My brothers most enjoy switching it off when passing the bathroom.

  9. EccoBlackfin says:

    A friend of mine has his light switch behind the bathroom door. You literally have to walk in, close the door, reach way to the back of the door, and flip the switch.
    I don’t think it was the people who built the house though, his dad remodeled the whole place a few years back….

  10. McGehee says:

    Behind the bathroom door — yeah, I see that too, but only ever in tire stores and it seems like it’s ALL of them, regardless of the chain. WTF is up with that?

  11. Reaper says:

    Outrageous sizes week?

  12. Taresu says:

    The lightswitch for my bathrooom is also on the outside, but turning it off when people are in the bathroom has lost its novelty.

  13. billy says:

    The light switch in my downstairs bathroom is also on the outside. It’s always funny when a friend goes in, shuts the door and gropes around. You usually hear a frustrated yelping noise until someone takes pity on them and tells them where the switch is. Then you get to see them crack the door open and a single hand flail around outside until they manage to power on.

  14. Micah says:

    I thought he shrunk himself when I first saw this.

  15. Eltharrion says:

    speearr: We got them around chest-high around here (okay, I’m 181cm, so to some it might be on eye level…)

    It’s funny to buy just-made houses. The builders/previous owners must have loved light swiches, as there are 3-6 in allmost every room, as well as places for around 6-12 lamps in every room. I mean, who needs 10 lamps in the closet?!

  16. Rasheed says:

    What I hate is when a room has switches at different entry points, and the toggles don’t match up. If they’re both up or both down, the light should be off! CONFORMITY!!!

  17. MaskedMan says:

    @ Chris and Chris;
    I’ve got one of those bathroom control centers. As a former reactor operator, I still find it rather intimidating. One of these days, I’ll work up the courage to rip it out and replace it with something more simple, like a Cray.

  18. Radical Edward says:

    Light switchs that go nowhere are the worst. I hate the fact that there are switchs that don’t do anything.

  19. ZackDark says:

    @RadEd: actually they usually turn on/off the TV of your next door neighbor. 😛 (who got that?)

  20. baughbe says:

    Having lived in serveral cities and a great variety of places from the custom built house of my childhood to slum-lord specials on the edge of crack neighborhoods I have seen: Light switch in not the next room, but the room after that, multiple switch control light that worked only if switch A was up, then any combination of B and C could turn on/off, but it A was down, lights off period. And here is my favorite though it isn’t a light, your telephone line plugged directly into the electrical socket (actual adaptor – phone line to electric plug)

  21. Amy says:

    Our bathroom’s lightswitch is outside as well, but we also have a light in the shower, with a switch that can be reached from the toilet. Bwa ha ha! …wait, why did we need a light IN the shower again?

  22. Rasheed says:

    @baughbe
    When I was in college, the dorm room was arranged so you had the phone and ethernet jack on one wall, but electrical outlets on the OPPOSITE wall! I had stuff running under a rug plus I taped cables across the ceiling. Good thing I was an engineering student at the time.

  23. crackers says:

    our kitchen switch is behind the fridge.
    what is scarier; reaching back there and confronting all the things that have made homes there, or trying to chop vegetables in the dark?

  24. dartigen says:

    We have two switches for the loungeroom light. Therefore, one is always in the wrong position.

    I’ve thought of it as a kind of extra-hard puzzle at times.

  25. Fishy says:

    In my dormitory room, the light switch is located behind the book closet. Very weird.
    And at my home, the switch of my room and the bathroom are both located on the outside. I’m completely used to it, but my girlfriend always asks me where the light switch is when she uses the bathroom 😛

  26. thefop says:

    I have a lightswitch located conveniently by the door in my living room. My living room, however has no overhead light. We’ve been trying to figure out what that switch was for since we moved in.

  27. nikie says:

    when i first lookd at this, i thought Biff was trying to squeeze a giant margarine stick in through the door…

  28. no name says:

    haha, nice. and Badly Sized Common Objects week.

  29. ZackDark says:

    nobody got it… 🙁

  30. Chris says:

    @nikie – Hahaha!

  31. Speakerblast says:

    I have a switch that conviniently turns on the bathroom fan. If only it were on the right floor of the house

    @crackers- MOVE THE FRIDGE lol

  32. William Syler says:

    I hate the sideways switches too. Those bastards always get me mixed up because they’re usually in weird places too! I didn’t need this much confusion!!!!

  33. MadDavid says:

    @ Jon Bovi: Said other person was my brother, and he was out of town.

    @Eltharrion: Someday the lamp in your closet is going to burn out, and while you’re trying to change the bulb in the dark, you’re going to think, “I wish I had another lamp in here.”

    @crackers: Behind the fridge is deffinitely scarrier. For chopping the vegetables, in a worst-case scenario, the hospital can re-attach your fingers.

  34. Colin says:

    hmm rated at 400A?

  35. reynard61 says:

    ZackDark: “@RadEd: actually they usually turn on/off the TV of your next door neighbor. (who got that?)”

    I did. There was also the ad (same company) where a guy’s light-switch controlled another house’s garage door and he unknowingly destroys it’s owner’s car by flipping it on and off (up and down) while she’s trying to park it.

  36. Gadora says:

    @thefop: It could control a power outlet. There is a switch like that in my house. If the switch is turned on, the lamp plugged in there operates as a normal lamp; if off, there is no way to turn on the lamp.

  37. Space Butler says:

    how strong would Biff have to be to flip that switch?

  38. C4Pottery says:

    My bedroom has only one switch, which controls one outlet. This outlet is simultaneously the most convenient place for a light and the only convenient place for an alarm clock. My alarm clock is therefore on the floor across the room, and when I wake up, I stay awake.

  39. @Reynard, insurance company ad if I remember right…

    “In my house there’s this light switch that doesn’t do anything. Every so often I would flick it on and off just to check. Yesterday, I got a call from a woman in Madagascar. She said, “Cut it out.” ”
    — Steven Wright

  40. Niha says:

    I see that outside switchs for bathrooms are quite frequent. I just can’t get it.
    @C4Pottery So, that outlet happens to be very well placed.

  41. Nokore says:

    Tried to flick a switch at a friend’s house to turn the light on.

    Accidentally grabbed a spider.

    Continuous cries of ‘OMG I’M SORRY!’ woke up friend and friend’s parents.

    And that’s the short version..

  42. Crimson1regret says:

    I have a lightswitch that controlls the sockets for my lamp, PSP charger, and phone charger.

    I sometimes forget to turn the physical lamp off and accidentally throw the switch off.

    Makes me upset to wake up to a dead phone and PSP

  43. I… guess I”m the only one with semi-logical placements for his light switches then o.o

  44. I agree. I hate using public pay toilets. I stick my coin in and close the door behind me without locating a light switch first. And if I open the door again I have to pay a second time. So, instead, I’m stuck grasping at every wet surface until I find it, or peeing by brail (which is probably how everything got wet in the first place).

    It all depends on whether or not I’m wearing a belt.

  45. @ZackDark

    Friends reference?

  46. K says:

    See, with the people who get the lights turned off on them due to the switch being outside – this is one of the times when I’m glad for how freakishly sensitive my eyes are. Unless there’s no other light source – like a light in the room down the hall reflecting by – I can still see just fine with the light off.

    That said, the main power switch for my entire room is located behind the door. It didn’t used to be, but the door was reversed after the middle wall between two rooms was torn out to enlarge the space.

  47. Steve says:

    A friend of mine lives in a retirement community. Most of the electrical outlets there are at eye level for a 6′ male…. don’t know why, but imagine how a 77 yr old granny who stands 4′ tall reaches to plug anything in!

  48. Valerie says:

    My favorite place for a light switch is outside the room. That way, when your friend is using the bathroom, you can flip the switch on and off just to scare them.

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