Lighting-Gallery.net
General => Off-Topic => Topic started by: HPS_250 on November 28, 2020, 10:36:32 AM
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There was some discussion about this yesterday, so I decided to start a topic for it. So far, I haven’t found any switches in weird places in my house, but there are two switches in my bedroom that are not connected to power and do not control anything. I did find an outlet facing downward on the roof over my garage door, but it just gave me an idea to put Christmas lights there!
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Oh this is an easy one... at my apartment, there is a plug outlet right underneath the kitchen counter at random. And then upstairs
in my living room loft, there is literally six plug outlets. In such a small space, that is a lot of outlets. I have
no idea why so many.
There is also another plug outlet in a strange section of the wall in my kitchen.
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Well I installed a outlet on the outer side of the deck railing. It's for stuff like Christmas lights, small streetlights that I install on the deck railing but I'm sure a lot of people would be perplexed my it. I also have a seemingly random NEMA 14-50 outlet in the basement. I guess for a second range that never got installed.
If anything I've always felt there are too few outlets. There's a small section of wall that doesn't have a single outlet and parts of the countertop in the kitchen that dosen't have a outlet.
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I found an outlet on my roof! Well, not on my roof, but on a wall only accessible from the roof. It's not even in a box, just floating in the wall, which I will fix. Also, I found a 3 way switch in my parents' bedroom controlling our outdoor floodlight in conjunction with another 3 way in the kitchen right next to the switch that controls some 1980s Atlite recessed cans. Also, I found a single pole switch that doesn't do anything in my parents' closet. Finally, I found an outlet that was attached by a 1 foot piece of romex to my attic light. It wasn't even screwed to the stud, just sitting on the light's box until I noticed it. I ended up putting a plate on it and screwing its box to a joist.
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Well I installed a outlet on the outer side of the deck railing. It's for stuff like Christmas lights, small streetlights that I install on the deck railing but I'm sure a lot of people would be perplexed my it. I also have a seemingly random NEMA 14-50 outlet in the basement. I guess for a second range that never got installed.
If anything I've always felt there are too few outlets. There's a small section of wall that doesn't have a single outlet and parts of the countertop in the kitchen that dosen't have a outlet.
Yeah, the outlet on the ledge over my garage is most likely also for Christmas lights. That’s what I use it for, anyway. That’s odd to have a random 14-50 outlet, but I guess it could have originally been planned to put a range in the basement. In the smaller bedrooms at my house, there are honestly way too many outlets. There are at least 2 on every wall there, but in some of the larger rooms there is only a single outlet!
I found an outlet on my roof! Well, not on my roof, but on a wall only accessible from the roof. It's not even in a box, just floating in the wall, which I will fix. Also, I found a 3 way switch in my parents' bedroom controlling our outdoor floodlight in conjunction with another 3 way in the kitchen right next to the switch that controls some 1980s Atlite recessed cans. Also, I found a single pole switch that doesn't do anything in my parents' closet. Finally, I found an outlet that was attached by a 1 foot piece of romex to my attic light. It wasn't even screwed to the stud, just sitting on the light's box until I noticed it. I ended up putting a plate on it and screwing its box to a joist.
That’s weird, I saw your picture of that! That’s also odd that it was simply floating inside the wall, so it’s good that you fixed it. There’s lots of 3-way switches in my house for some reason too, maybe it was popular in the 70s? All of the switches in the bedrooms at my house are disconnected from power and useless. I have no idea what they originally were for, maybe some light fixtures or outlets that were removed.
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That’s weird, I saw your picture of that! That’s also odd that it was simply floating inside the wall, so it’s good that you fixed it. There’s lots of 3-way switches in my house for some reason too, maybe it was popular in the 70s? All of the switches in the bedrooms at my house are disconnected from power and useless. I have no idea what they originally were for, maybe some light fixtures or outlets that were removed.
I didn't fix it yet. It will be fixed soon though and I will save the original 1984 Leviton 5320.
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I didn't fix it yet. It will be fixed soon though and I will save the original 1984 Leviton 5320.
Hopefully it goes well. Cool that you can save that receptacle!
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Oh this is an easy one... at my apartment, there is a plug outlet right underneath the kitchen counter at random. And then upstairs
in my living room loft, there is literally six plug outlets. In such a small space, that is a lot of outlets. I have
no idea why so many.
There is also another plug outlet in a strange section of the wall in my kitchen.
Never heard about "too many outlets installed" story, ever.
But being hit by "too few outlets" or "more outlets needed" constantly. Without any interruption... All the time...
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Never heard about "too many outlets installed" story, ever.
But being hit by "too few outlets" or "more outlets needed" constantly. Without any interruption... All the time...
I haven’t really heard people saying they have “too many” outlets before either. Better to have excessive outlets than not enough!
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Once when I was about 15 I was helping my dad run some Romex cable through the attic, which was more like a crawlspace, I noticed a switch installed in a metal box attached to one of the rafters deep within the attic.
It was the first time I'd ever been up there.
I flipped it a couple of times but no light went on or off, actually I couldn't find a light anywhere around the switch.
So I followed one of the conduits from the box and it lead to the attic fan on the roof.
Turns out it was a disconnect if the fan ever needed to be replaced.
While I was up there I found a Westinghouse 3way eye saving bulb in a porcelain lamp holder.
It has that distinctive T-shape.
I still have the bulb today and it still works, well at least the 70w filament.
The 30w filament doesn't.
Based on what I've learned here on LG the bulb dates from the 60s, which is strange because my parents bought the house brand new from the builder,DCA, in 1978.
My parents figured that the builder put it up there.
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In my new house the foyer has two alcoves on either side with outlets and a switch in the coat closet. These are supposed to be there for accent lights. There is also a random higher then normal switch in my laundry room that operates the lights to the attic above since the access is there. There are also dead swtiches in the bedrooms without ceiling fans and fan boxes so i could hang one up if i wanted to.
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Nothing too unusual. But in the hall closet, there's an outlet about 4 feet above the floor. On the other side of the wall from it, there's also an outlet in the pantry at same height, but that has the freezer plugged into it.
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My parents' house has a good few weird switches and outlets thrown about, a few notable ones are...
6 outlets on the ceiling of the living room.
7 light switches on the front wall of a coat closet (6 of which are believed to have controlled the ceiling outlets).
A light switch in the living room that is placed 6 feet off the ground (it controls a hidden outlet that is used for track lighting).
2 light switches and an outlet 7 feet off the ground in a hallway (one switch is a furnace disconnect, the other is unknown).
And a 3-way light switch in my bedroom that controlled some outdoor lighting (this one was removed recently after the lighting circuit it controlled was routed to a new switch in a location that made sense).
That's most of them, I might be able to think of a few more later.
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My parents' house has a good few weird switches and outlets thrown about, a few notable ones are...
6 outlets on the ceiling of the living room.
7 light switches on the front wall of a coat closet (6 of which are believed to have controlled the ceiling outlets).
A light switch in the living room that is placed 6 feet off the ground (it controls a hidden outlet that is used for track lighting).
2 light switches and an outlet 7 feet off the ground in a hallway (one switch is a furnace disconnect, the other is unknown).
And a 3-way light switch in my bedroom that controlled some outdoor lighting (this one was removed recently after the lighting circuit it controlled was routed to a new switch in a location that made sense).
That's most of them, I might be able to think of a few more later.
If there is anything I'd like to learn on LG it has got to be why is there 6 outlets on the living room ceiling??
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I do not know why, as the outlets have been there for as long as I've been alive and for as long as my parents lived in the place. And because they did not install them, they don't know why they exist either.
Now that I think about it more, it might make sense if they were used for decorative lighting, as they are located directly above 6 beams that hold the ceiling up.
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I do not know why, as the outlets have been there for as long as I've been alive and for as long as my parents lived in the place. And because they did not install them, they don't know why they exist either.
Now that I think about it more, it might make sense if they were used for decorative lighting, as they are located directly above 6 beams that hold the ceiling up.
Decorative lighting on the 6 beams has got to be the only explanation.
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I forgot to mention, there was a 3 way switch at the back door, controlling a ceiling light, but was not on a 3 way switched circuit. I guess they just happened to have a 3 way switch so installed it.
Also not an outlet, but on the living room wall, about 9 feet off the floor, there are two low voltage wires, one at each end of the wall that we have never been able to identify the purpose of. Speakers, maybe??
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@Medved, @HPS_250, not that there is anything wrong with having that many outlets... there isn't. But I've never seen that many
outlets in such a small space before, at least not until moving here. As of now, I have not utilized having those outlets just yet,
but best bet, I plan on changing that.
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When I moved into my house , I found 2 switches mounted in the FLOOR on the front bedroom closet ! :o Wanting to know what they were for I flipped one to off. WELL , everything went dark, the WHOLE upstairs ! OK, turn that back on . Then I tried the other switch , same thing , the whole upstairs went dark !! SO... NOW I'm curious , I removed the plate and found that 1 switch was wired to the hot and the other wired to the neutral !!! :poof: What in the.... ! WELL , I later discovered that my house was originally a tiny single story house and the 2nd story was added sometime in the 80's with the entire upstairs on 1 breaker !! The switches are on the wire coming from the panel to the upstairs. Why this was done , I have NO IDEA !! And , regarding excess outlets, The entire upstairs has pairs of duplex receptacles spaced 6' apart . Both bedrooms have no less than SIXTEEN INDIVIDUAL OUTLETS !!! The "big room upstairs actually has FORTY TWO individual outlets !! All of this , PLUS the lighting circuits are all run from ONE 20a breaker ! :poof: :poof:
CAN YOU SAY FIRE HAZARD !!!!????
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When I moved into my house , I found 2 switches mounted in the FLOOR on the front bedroom closet ! :o Wanting to know what they were for I flipped one to off. WELL , everything went dark, the WHOLE upstairs ! OK, turn that back on . Then I tried the other switch , same thing , the whole upstairs went dark !! SO... NOW I'm curious , I removed the plate and found that 1 switch was wired to the hot and the other wired to the neutral !!! :poof: What in the.... ! WELL , I later discovered that my house was originally a tiny single story house and the 2nd story was added sometime in the 80's with the entire upstairs on 1 breaker !! The switches are on the wire coming from the panel to the upstairs. Why this was done , I have NO IDEA !! And , regarding excess outlets, The entire upstairs has pairs of duplex receptacles spaced 6' apart . Both bedrooms have no less than SIXTEEN INDIVIDUAL OUTLETS !!! The "big room upstairs actually has FORTY TWO individual outlets !! All of this , PLUS the lighting circuits are all run from ONE 20a breaker ! :poof: :poof:
CAN YOU SAY FIRE HAZARD !!!!????
Outlets on the floor? That’s certainly new to me, especially in a house. :o Sounds like you had some real idiot “licensed electricians” wiring your house and those two switches specifically. Talk you about a fire hazard! That’s so weird that they put the wire from the breaker panel on a switch. 42 outlets on one breaker is just crazy enough, but add lights and it’s just a recipe for instant overload. In my house, there are 100 amps that are spread out weirdly. The weirdest thing is that my house has 30 amps dedicated to the ATTIC, which has nothing electrical except a single light fixture.
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Only the switches were in the floor, All of the outlets are mounted about 4" from the floor in the wall . And actually, between the 2 bedrooms and the big room , there are a not so grand total of SEVENTY FOUR individual outlets upstairs PLUS the lighting all on one 20a breaker !! :poof: And by the way , when I say 2 duplex receptacles every 6' I mean this : https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-170461
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Only the switches were in the floor, All of the outlets are mounted about 4" from the floor in the wall . And actually, between the 2 bedrooms and the big room , there are a not so grand total of SEVENTY FOUR individual outlets upstairs PLUS the lighting all on one 20a breaker !! :poof: And by the way , when I say 2 duplex receptacles every 6' I mean this : https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-170461
Switches in the floor are even weirder. Your house just sounds like an electrical disaster! Hopefully you can get all of it fixed.
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My house doesn't sound like an electrical disaster it IS an electrical disaster! And a structural disaster, and a plumbing disaster and a HVAC disaster ! (As he runs off screaming and waving his arms wildly !! ) ::) :sadbulb:
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My house doesn't sound like an electrical disaster it IS an electrical disaster! And a structural disaster, and a plumbing disaster and a HVAC disaster ! (As he runs off screaming and waving his arms wildly !! ) ::) :sadbulb:
A structural and plumbing disaster too! Sounds like a huge problem. :o
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BUY a house they said , it'll be FUN they said !!! ::) >:( :curse:
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My house doesn't sound like an electrical disaster it IS an electrical disaster! And a structural disaster, and a plumbing disaster and a HVAC disaster ! (As he runs off screaming and waving his arms wildly !! ) ::) :sadbulb:
Tim, just remove anything you care about, Fill the house up with leds and then burn the whole lot down and start again! >:D :lol: I'm sure you could do much better then 74 outlets on one breaker. ::)
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Tim, just remove anything you care about, Fill the house up with leds and then burn the whole lot down and start again! I'm sure you could do much better then 74 outlets on one breaker.
:lol: :lol:
But make sure to save all of those cobraheads!
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:lol: :lol:
But make sure to save all of those cobraheads!
Well yeah i said things he cared about, not silly leds! :lol:
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Well yeah i said things he cared about, not silly leds! :lol:
I’m sure cities have plenty of Leotek E-Cobras waiting to be disposed of! ;D
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So far , everything I tear into gets gutted and totally redone... CORRECTLY !! All of the upstairs electrical is going in the scrap bin !!
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So far , everything I tear into gets gutted and totally redone... CORRECTLY !! All of the upstairs electrical is going in the scrap bin !!
I’m sure you’ll do a much better job than those “drunken idiots” as you called them in your gallery!
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Stevie Wonder could wire my house better than they did ! :lol: :lol:
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@Wide-Lite 1000, :wndr: ;D :'-) 8) I honestly believe he probably could lol
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The only weird outlet I have is at the ceiling of my room, all other is weird wiring. In a hall of my house there are two pieces of exposed metal that are used to distribute the wiring, also there's no ground.
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My house doesn't sound like an electrical disaster it IS an electrical disaster! And a structural disaster, and a plumbing disaster and a HVAC disaster ! (As he runs off screaming and waving his arms wildly !! ) ::) :sadbulb:
Wouldn't it be easier, and probably cheaper, to knock the whole thing down and start again from scratch.?? :lol:
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BUY a house they said , it'll be FUN they said !!! ::) >:( :curse:
Why do you think we rent our place..? :mrg:
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Wouldn't it be easier, and probably cheaper, to knock the whole thing down and start again from scratch.?? :lol:
Hey I was the one who suggested to take out anything of value to him and then fill the place up with leds and then burn the whole lot down. Think that would work well. :lol: :lol: :lol: ::) :mrg:
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Why do you think we rent our place..? :mrg:
The last time I was in a rented house the landlord would get angry about every single thing that happened! One time, we had a defective smoke alarm (without removable batteries) that randomly started going off and didn’t stop for nearly 8 hours. We had to put it outside because we couldn’t shut it off, which probably annoyed some neighbors. :lol: It literally just kept going off until the battery finally ran out. The landlord called on the phone a few times to ask what happened, and when we told her, she basically was angry for a long time (almost a month) because the replacement smoke alarm that we got wasn’t the same brand as the old one. Same thing happened when we needed to fix an oven gas line. She refused to help, so we got it fixed ourselves and then she got angry. At least from my experience, renting is NOT fun. :lol:
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Depends on who you rent from. We're council tenants and we have what's known as an assured tenancy, which means that unless we do something that breaks the tenancy agreement, such as committing a criminal offence from the property like selling drugs or whatever, or anti-social behaviour like playing very loud music all day and all night, we can't be evicted.
I certainly wouldn't want to rent privately though, landlords can be very nasty sometimes, evicting people for very little reason. They've always been very good with us here; the rent is very reasonable and if anything goes wrong, such as recently when our downstairs neighbour complained about water leaking into his flat from ours (it was a leak from the bath overflow) then the council are responsible for fixing it at no cost to us.
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Wouldn't it be easier, and probably cheaper, to knock the whole thing down and start again from scratch.?? :lol:
It would be . HOWEVER , I can't afford to knock it down and start over . (Besides , then I wont have anywhere to live!) So I'll just keep working at it one piece at a time !
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While looking at a house that was up for sale back in the neighborhood where I grew up I found an outlet right in the middle of the dining room floor!?!?
It's anyone's guess how it got there and why????
Since the foundation of the house is a 4" thick concrete slab the box had to have been installed before the slab was poured.
Even stranger the 120v outlet is a single not a duplex.
It's brown with a brass cover plate.
I'd sure love to hear some theories about this one.
Actually this house has a lot of interesting electrical installations.
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I've worked in plenty of offices with floor outlets for computers etc. but not come across any in residential use. The only reason I can think of is someone once had a table there and wanted a table or desk lamp on it but didn't want to run wires to the nearest wall outlet in case someone tripped over them ???
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I've worked in plenty of offices with floor outlets for computers etc. but not come across any in residential use. The only reason I can think of is someone once had a table there and wanted a table or desk lamp on it but didn't want to run wires to the nearest wall outlet in case someone tripped over them ???
That's got to be the ONLY possibility. I've seen decorative electric candelabras on a table before. But considering the other strange things about this house anything is possible.
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That's got to be the ONLY possibility. I've seen decorative electric candelabras on a table before. But considering the other strange thing about this house anything is possible.
It also has the modern perk of not tripping over your laptop charger while working! :lol:
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Actually a floor outlet under the dinner table would also be perfect for things like a fondue pot or hot pot where you need to plug in some sort of appliance at the table. In more recent times it's also a good place to plug in things like your phone or laptop charger.
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I've seen houses that have floor outlets in the living room for plugging in lamps on end tables of a couch for example.
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My grandparents have a floor outlet that they use to plug in a lamp on a nearby table.
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Anyone have any idea as to why someone would install a typical 120v 15a duplex outlet in the back of the base cabinet under the kitchen counter??
No it isn't for the dishwasher or disposal they have their own outlets.
It was installed during the mid 70s when the house was originally built as I have the blueprints for it. That was before the time of the mini tankless water heaters so why would you need an outlet inside a base cabinet?? If it was a wall cabinet I would think for a light or a microwave but this was in 1974.
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This happens a lot over here, judging by some of the Youtube videos by UK electricians. Why they're there is anyone's guess, but sockets can be found in the most unlikely of places, I remember one almost at ceiling level just above a kitchen cabinet. It turned out it was to supply an extractor fan that had long since been removed. Why it was fed from a plug and socket instead of a fused spur nobody knows ::)
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Anyone have any idea as to why someone would install a typical 120v 15a duplex outlet in the back of the base cabinet under the kitchen counter??
No it isn't for the dishwasher or disposal they have their own outlets.
It was installed during the mid 70s when the house was originally built as I have the blueprints for it. That was before the time of the mini tankless water heaters so why would you need an outlet inside a base cabinet?? If it was a wall cabinet I would think for a light or a microwave but this was in 1974.
Microwaves have been around for a lot longer than you might think. :wndr: Here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven) is a Wiki article about them, apparently they've been about in one form or another since 1946.! :poof:
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My family bought a brand new house in Indiana back in 1975 that had a microwave in it which was installed by the builder .
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Ok I can understand a microwave back in the 70s but still why would there be an outlet inside a kitchen cabinet under the counter??
I do know that a laminate table was extended off of this counter. Maybe cords for a small TV or a radio were routed down to this outlet, so the cords could be hidden?
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Another possibility is what my mom called an "Appliance garage" it was a cabinet with a duplex outlet for storing things like the toaster , can opener and other small appliances out of the way until needed. When needed , simply open the cabinet , pull out what you need . When you're done ,just put it back and close the door. No more countertops cluttered with small appliances.
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Another possibility is what my mom called an "Appliance garage" it was a cabinet with a duplex outlet for storing things like the toaster , can opener and other small appliances out of the way until needed. When needed , simply open the cabinet , pull out what you need . When you're done ,just put it back and close the door. No more countertops cluttered with small appliances.
Now that truly makes sense! Best idea I've heard of in awhile! I bet that's what this outlet is for. I'm going to have to try that in my kitchen.
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Another possibility is what my mom called an "Appliance garage" it was a cabinet with a duplex outlet for storing things like the toaster , can opener and other small appliances out of the way until needed. When needed , simply open the cabinet , pull out what you need . When you're done ,just put it back and close the door. No more countertops cluttered with small appliances.
My grandparents have one I their kitchen, and that's the exact name I call theirs! :lol:
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Another possibility is what my mom called an "Appliance garage" it was a cabinet with a duplex outlet for storing things like the toaster , can opener and other small appliances out of the way until needed. When needed , simply open the cabinet , pull out what you need . When you're done ,just put it back and close the door. No more countertops cluttered with small appliances.
Mummy used to have an automatic can opener, it was called daddy, I don't think he would have taken kindly to being kept in a cupboard... :mrg:
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Mummy used to have an automatic can opener, it was called daddy, I don't think he would have taken kindly to being kept in a cupboard... :mrg:
GROAN...
Don't tell me I have to start with the :slap: again..? :mrg: