The Hidden Meanings of 12 Everyday Objects, Revealed!
Updated: Apr. 08, 2019
The little pocket on your jeans. The little hole in your pen cap. They're not just there for show.
The colour of the tag on your store-bought bread …
… tells grocers what day of the week the bread was shipped. Bread is usually delivered fresh to stores five days a week—Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday—and each day has its own coloured tag or twist tie. Though some companies use their own system, this common code is easy to remember: Just as the days of the week proceed in order from Monday to Saturday, their corresponding colors proceed in alphabetical order—blue, green, red, white, yellow.
Find out how to put bread tags to work in this roundup of brilliant home organizing hacks.
That tiny pocket on your blue jeans …
… is for your pocket watch. Well, maybe not yours, but the cowboys who made blue jeans famous in the 1800s were plumb grateful for it. Typically, watches were carried on chains and worn in waistcoats, but hard field labour made that a lot less practical. Outdoors, the “watch pocket” on any pair of jeans did just the trick—even after watches moved to the wrist. “This extra pouch has served many functions, evident in its many titles,” the Levi Strauss website reminds us: “frontier pocket, coin pocket, match pocket, and ticket pocket, to name a few.” Check out nine more mind-blowing clothing secrets.
The arrow next to the gas symbol on your dashboard …
… is a perpetual reminder of which side your gas cap is on. If the arrow points right, your gas tank is on the right side of your car, and vice versa. Nearly every car sold in North America now comes equipped with this handy guide so you’ll never be stumped at the pump again. Here are 12 more weird car features you’ve probably never heard of.
The hole in your pen cap …
… is there to prevent choking. BIC first added the tiny punctures in the top of their pen caps in 1991 both to equalize pressure inside the pen, and to give cap swallowers a last-ditch lifeline; if a cap gets lodged in someone’s throat, they will still be able to breathe through the hole. This may sound like an irrational fear, but according to Business Insider, more than 10,000 people have swallowed parts of pens and pencils. Lego mini-figures have holes in their heads for the same reason.
These 19 mysterious old home features aren’t useful anymore.
That little strawberry attached to your pincushion …
… is an emery board for your needles. Filled with tough emery sand—a combination of aluminum and iron oxides—the strawberry is historically a tool for polishing, sharpening, and removing rust from your pins and needles.
Ever wonder why wedding dresses are white? Find out the answer—along with 10 more fun facts about colour!
The perforations on the sides of your aluminum wrap container …
… are called end locks and, when pushed in, are meant to keep your roll secure inside the box. Many similar kitchen products, such as plastic wrap, come equipped with the same feature so you’ll never rip the whole roll out of the box when you want just a single piece. Here are 45 genius uses for aluminum foil all around the house.
The tiny hole outside an elevator …
… is not a secret spyglass (sorry, kids)—it is a keyhole so authorized personnel can open the doors for maintenance, whether the elevator is behind them or not.
Psst—this is the real reason the dollar sign is an S.
The tiny hole on airplane windows …
… helps stabilize the air pressure when you’re flying high above the clouds. If you look carefully, airplane windows have three layers. The outside window feels the effects from the drop in air pressure, the middle layer with the hole balances it, and the inside window layer (the one closet to you) protects the middle window, ultimately protecting you as you jet set. Here are more hidden airplane features that you probably never noticed before.
Kleenex tissues were invented for …
… for gas masks. During World War I, there was a cotton shortage and the thin tissue was created to place inside gas mask as a filter. Find out more everyday things that were actually invented for World War I.
The dot on the back of your iPhone next to the camera …
… is actually the microphone for your back camera. When you’re on a phone call with someone and your voice sounds muffled, you should check to make sure that rear microphone isn’t covered or dirty. Check out 30 more things you probably never thought about—until just now.
The indent on the bottom of wine bottles …
… is called a punt. The punt makes the wine bottles stronger when the pressure is put in by the cork, reducing the risk of it exploding. (Speaking of which, here are 10 things in your home that could explode without warning.) It’s also a handy way for servers to hold onto the bottle while they pour the wine into your glass.
Is cork-sealed wine really better than screw-cap? Our wine experts weigh in!
The ridges on the F and J letters of the keyboard …
… help people remember where to align their index fingers while typing on “QWERTY” keyboards. Knowing where to place your index fingers will give you a natural place for your other fingers and help you type faster, and the ridges make it easier for you to feel your way around the keyboard without constantly looking down. Next, learn the truth about these fun facts you’ve always believed that are actually false.
