40 Times Designers Forgot Things Need To Be Cleaned When Creating Them, As Shared On This Facebook Group (New Pics)
The last time we wrote about the Facebook group 'Things designed by people who don't have to clean them', it had 40,000 members. But since then, this online community has more than doubled and is approaching the 100,000 mark, so it's about time we release an update on them.
"The design and maintenance of our spaces are deeply political," the group writes in its 'About' section. "The entire point of 'Things designed by people who don't have to clean them' is that those who design and those who maintain are not the same. Because we spend most of our time in designed spaces this disconnect has a huge impact, especially on those who traditionally don't have power in society."
So they're here, shaking things up, trying to remind everyone about the hidden tax attached to Swarovski-encrusted toilets and rock-covered sinks, and that is the amount of headache and time people will spend cleaning them.
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Just Stay In The 70s. Thanks
My Goodness
For our earlier article, we got in touch with the founder of the group, Will Feetham. He described the content you see on 'Things designed by people who don't have to clean them' as design-focused critical analysis.
Even though it has grown tremendously, the group remains private and you have to answer a few political questions to get in. Feetham has had pushback from the applicants about this as the group seems anything but political, however, he believes that the design and maintenance of our spaces are deeply political. "The entire point of 'Things designed by people who don't have to clean them' is that those who design and those who maintain are not the same," he told Bored Panda. "Because we spend most of our time in spaces [designed by others], this disconnect has a huge impact, especially on those who traditionally don't have power in society."
This Was Never A Good Idea!
This Belongs Here
I Found A Hair On Your T-Shirt. Who Is She?
"Looking at bad design helps highlight the importance of good design, and thinking about who will clean what we design makes us focus on the importance of inclusion in the design process. As a tag group, we can inject a bit of thought about these issues into a lot of different conversations which makes me so happy."
Feetham got the idea for the group from a picture of a topographical relief sink modeled after a lake, which he has been told is in the California state library. "It's beautiful, and the concept is both insightful and educational. In the execution, though, the designer didn't consider the people who would have to clean the installation. Clearly, a lot of thought went into the concept, but that thoughtfulness doesn't seem to have extended to maintenance. 'Things designed by people who don’t have to clean them' just popped into my head."
This Is My Ceiling Light. It’s New, And I Loved It Til I Joined This Group And Realized I Have No Idea How To Clean It
Now Imagine That It Rains
Rock Bottom
Saw This Sink In A Bathroom Showroom And Thought Of You My Friends. It Has Actual Fish In It
As you could guess, Feetham himself doesn't like cleaning. "As a cisgender man in our patriarchal culture, I have been allowed to do less than my share of household chores at many points in my life," he said. "Equality is deeply important to me, and I have come to understand the many ways, large and small, that the caring and cleaning work that forms the foundation of our daily existence is minimized."
According to him, our society tends to devalue the invisible service class, who are often women and people of color. So they are left to pick up the pieces, literally, and tend to the performative aesthetics of our consumer culture.
Bride Decided This Was The Best Way To Display Her Dress After The Wedding
I Finally Have A Contribution!! Reminds Me Of The Fuzzy Skeleton Someone Shared The Other Day…maybe This One Could Be Thrown In The Washer?
Omfg, This Is Giving Me The Shivers
How odd, I never watch Only Fools and Horses but I switched on the TV not a couple of days ago and that exact episode was on.
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To be fair, there are environments where that could look good, like a massive hotel lobby.
Or a lavish theatre concert hall. The one in my city has 3 large chandeliers like that.
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Lots of chandeliers can be automatically lowered for cleaning. In fact, it's the only way to do it.
Load More Replies... Wow! Gaudy and over the top, yet somehow weirdly impressive at the same time!
If you've got the money for something so monumentally tasteless, you've got the money to hire a full-time prism cleaner.
Well, it’s obvious this is in the house—-sorry, mansion—-of someone who can afford to have someone else, a professional, clean the chandelier. This is probably not their only one, so they could negotiate a bulk rate…
I would be afraid of it falling and crushing me every time I walked by it.
If you can afford this, you can afford cleaning it to be someone else's problem
Anybody else hear the organ music of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera"? (When the chandelier comes crashing down.)
No problems. If you can afford that and a house where that fits, you can afford staff who cleans.
Isn’t it a bit low? I imagine people running up the stairs bent double
Chandeliers that big can often be lowered to be cleaned. That's a remnant from the days where you still had to lower them to light the candles.
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Just don’t have cats ,children ,tall people and an accident prones that it will fall on top off
Is it lowered at the time of the photo? Would have to be or everybody will bump their heads. Just doesn't look like it goes up and down easily.
Why did someone think this was a good idea ? More money than sense !!
I think all chandeliers should have a cord (or something) that lets you lower them for cleaning. My hall light is right above the stairs and it terrifies me to clean it.
Designed for a time when you just left the cleaning to the Servants, I imagine.
Part of the cost of buying this should be a dedicated year round cleaning specialist
What would be worse: Cleaning that light Or Paying the electric bill after it has been on for an hour
Maybe it's one of those things that looks gorgeous once the lights come on (hopefully).
That's kind of the point with things like this, not just being rich enough to afford it, but being rich enough to maintain it. Huge sprawling lawns and gardens are impressive if you have the groundskeepers to maintain them, real silverware is impressive if you have maids to polish them, and intricate chandeliers are impressive if you have cleaning staff to dust them. Nobody "forgot" it needs to be cleaned. They can just afford not to care.
looks like it belongs on a high ceiling in a big room where it would look smaller
There are people whose job is solely to clean light fixtures. Their bread and butter is crystal chandelier cleaning.
Can it really be that low? I'm short but I'm sure my hair would get caught in it!
They have a motorized lift mechanism so that they can be lowered to the height pictured for maintenance. Google "chandelier lift"
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Los cristales de esas lámparas se limpian con un spray específico. Se coloca una toalla o papel absorbente debajo de ellas, en el suelo, y se echa el spray. La lámpara gotea líquido sucio al principio y cuando sale limpio ya está. Hay que mantenerla apagada durante todo el proceso y hasta que está completamente seca.
If you can afford that light, you can afford to pay a company to come clean it.
They just call in the worker who does the leaf blowing every now and then.
I cant stop looking at the upward facing shades on the top. Those would have to be completely removed to clean them, as all the airborne dust would settle down at the very bottom of the shade.
This is a preemie compared to the chandelier at the Cosmopolitan in Vegas. Look it up, it's mind-blowing!
This is a preemie compared to the chandelier at the Cosmopolitan in Vegas. Look it up. It's mind-blowing.
The Phantom of the Opera would have a field day over this!
Spray crystal wash. Turn off electricity. Put a waterproof tarp underneath. Spray has a lot of ammonia and evaporates quickly, but the dirt drips off.
Tell me you have too much time and money on your hands without telling me you have too much time and money… 🤦🏽♀️
This Entire Room
I Present To You My Desk Chair
I hate it. It was here when I got here. The bumps are hard plastic and extremely uncomfortable also the back has no give whatsoever. I work in the office part of a warehouse and everything gets super dirty here. Not looking forward to cleaning it which I can imagine will be done with a toothbrush.
This Was A Sink In A Public Bathroom That I Used Yesterday
(it does have a drain, it’s just hard to see under the bubbles) it’s flat, theres ridges in it that go about an inch deep into the sink to resemble rock or something. It’s obviously covered in grime and soap residue. Might have been cool in someone’s house, but not in a public bathroom like this
My Toes And Shins Hurt Just Looking At This. Hope You Like Cobwebs
Indoor Beach. Oof
Seletti: Monkey Chandelier By Marcantonio
I wish I had it but DAMN.
(also, it cost too much for me.)
(BUT ANYWAY DAMN!!!)
Found In The Wild. My Mom, Who Has No Knowledge Of Facebook Or This Group, Her First Words Were "Try Cleaning That."
Ummm
Just.... Why?! Even If The Bowl Is Smooth, The Outside Is Just...
Yeah, It's An Art Installation. Very Ugly Art
I'd Like To Personally Say F**k You To Whoever Invented This Damn Kitchen Gadget. You Don't Know How Many Nights It Would Be My Turn To Do The Dishes And This F**ker Always, Always, Ended Up Being Used. I Hate It So Much
It's Cute Tho
Is this a mug for cat haters? Every time you have tea of coffee, you get to drown the kitty.
Behold
Peak Impracticality
20 Stories Of Metal Loovers
The Pieces That Are Overlapped Would Be A Nuisance To Polish! And As Someone Easily Distracted I Wouldn't Know What Piece Of Mirror To Look In When Using It But That's Just Me
Just... Why
The idea is fun, but cleaning not so much. Also these thing break so easily I would constantly think I'm drinking glass shards.
This Chest...the Cuts Are Like 5cm Deep In Some Spots...
Feast Your Eyes On This Monstrosity
This Mirror I Saw At A Bar In Charleston
“Giant Corn Stool” - There’s A Joke In There Somewhere
These Ceiling Mics In The Choir Room At My School
You can’t reach them without a ladder and I don’t think they have ever been cleaned.
(I’m not good at descriptions but I tried)
Description: A small black ceiling microphone with a large cobweb wrapped around it.
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Things Designed By People Who Don't Have To Clean Them And Bought By The People Who Don't Care About Cleaning Them
I Want This. But I Don't Want The Drama Associated With Cleaning It
I Thought This Would Fit Here
Copper ball bearings to clean the insides of glassware and decanters without scratching.
I Found One In The Wild!! About Eight Feet Long, Hanging From A Door Frame. Various Beautiful Sea Shells Tied To A Central Cord. The Angles, Textures, And How Tight They're Strung Together Would Never Allow A Duster Through Properly. The Central Cord Is Hemp So Can't Get It Wet! And The Small Crevasses Are Impossible To Reach, Especially In The Spiral And Hollow Shells. Beautiful Idea, But The Dust Magnet This Is Makes Me Want To Burn It With Fire
Artificial Grass In The Bathroom. I Wonder How Long Before It Ends Up In Yup, That's A Piss Corner Mushroom
Note: this post originally had 81 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
I'm surprised that the most irritating thing to clean isn't on here. The ceiling fan.
Those are irritating. I have two in my classroom. I have to stand on a desk and use a yardstick with a wipe rubber banded to the tip. I think I should invest in one of those long-handled feather duster thingies
Load More Replies... Some of those things were actual poorly designed and hard to clean, but for the rest, you are just lazy.
See, a lot of these things really don’t need to be cleaned. I mean, sure, if you’re going to eat out of it or it might spread bacteria or fungi or something, yes, but otherwise not everything has to be clean all the time. So what if you can’t dust your chandelier? The only places people would see dust is on larger surfaces of it, which you can clean.
Wow! There's some hideous and scary designs in this. I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning it cause I'd never put it in my home but it wouldn't be impossible to clean most of these. Maybe time consuming but it is doable.
I'm surprised that the most irritating thing to clean isn't on here. The ceiling fan.
Those are irritating. I have two in my classroom. I have to stand on a desk and use a yardstick with a wipe rubber banded to the tip. I think I should invest in one of those long-handled feather duster thingies
Load More Replies... Some of those things were actual poorly designed and hard to clean, but for the rest, you are just lazy.
See, a lot of these things really don’t need to be cleaned. I mean, sure, if you’re going to eat out of it or it might spread bacteria or fungi or something, yes, but otherwise not everything has to be clean all the time. So what if you can’t dust your chandelier? The only places people would see dust is on larger surfaces of it, which you can clean.
Wow! There's some hideous and scary designs in this. I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning it cause I'd never put it in my home but it wouldn't be impossible to clean most of these. Maybe time consuming but it is doable.
