Ideas around spotting and eliminating stress points, and prolonging the lifespan of our belongings
By: Thamayi Maodza
Tags: Thoughts, Tips, Ideas, Improvement, Technical

Ideas around spotting and eliminating stress points, and prolonging the lifespan of our belongings Thamayi Maodza Aug 23·6 min read

Photo by Luca Laurence on Unsplash

I’ve had the idea for a fair while, that handling our belongings, our material possessions, the same way that I imagine a structural engineer approaches their work, can make our belongings last longer.

When a structural engineer designs and constructs a building or other structure, I imagine that one of the things they do is pay attention to the parts of the structure where excessive stress might occur, which may lead to breakage and/or collapse, which may ultimately lead to loss of life, and they work to eliminate these critical stress points by distributing weight evenly throughout the structure.

If when handling or using our belongings — devices, tools, utensils, furniture, and various objects that we own — we were to think in terms of eliminating points of excessive stress through even weight distribution, we would, I imagine, prolong the life of our possessions. Let’s look at some examples.

Satchels

Image originated by author

When you carry items with a fair or heavy amount of weight, in a satchel or backpack, and sling only one strap of the satchel around your shoulder, instead of both, you create an excessive amount of stress where the one strap connects to the top of the satchel, because the weight of the contents isn’t distributed evenly between the two straps.

I understand that some people feel that slinging only one strap around their shoulder, makes them look ‘cool’. I get it. But that’s okay, if you carry only light items in your satchel, all the time. If the contents tend to be heavy, then using only one strap because it looks cool or feels good, doesn’t work. In no time, the stitching where the straps join to the top of the satchel, starts to unravel, and eventually comes apart… no more satchel.

I would recommend using both straps at all times, whether the contents are light or heavy. There’s nothing nerdy or dorky about it; it’s just practical, and your satchel lasts longer.

USBs

Caveat: Any coital innuendo in this section, is purely unintended.

Image originated by author

Oftentimes I’ve seen people move the male USB connector from side to side, when unplugging it from the female connector (e.g. when disconnecting a flash drive or external hard disk drive from a laptop or desktop computer), instead of pulling it out in a steady straight line, or as straight a line as one can manage. (Side note: It drives me nuts when someone does the side-to-side thing to any of my devices.)

When this is done over a long period of time, the stress created by the side-to-side motion, forces the tight opening of the USB socket to widen in a manner that it wasn’t meant to, creating a loose connection between the male and female. This leads to ‘dropped connections’ as the widened socket causes misalignment of the connectors. In such a case, one is forced to fiddle with the male connector in order to find a stable, continuous connection between devices.

This can be avoided by simply pulling out the male connector from the female connector, in a steady straight line, with minimal or no sideways movement, each time. I usually hold the male connector between thumb and forefinger, with the tips of both fingers pressed firmly against the side of the laptop (phone, external HD, or whatever device it may be), and pull with both fingers, disconnecting the male.

Taps and Buckets

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I once had a housemate who would hang a bucket off the ‘neck’ of the bathtub tap, while filling the bucket with water. As far as I know, bathtub taps (or taps in general) aren’t meant to be used that way; they aren’t meant to be used like load-bearing wall-mounted hooks.

As the bucket, hung on the neck of the tap, fills with water, its weight increases, placing acute stress on the point where the tap plugs into the wall. Over time, I imagine that the mounting loosens and the tap eventually snaps off the wall, leading to huge plumbing-related problems (perhaps my imagination needs reigning in).

However, I understand why she hung the bucket off the tap, as impractical as it was. Because of the curved inside of the bathtub, and the short taps not extending far into the bathtub, you had to hold the bucket under the tap, while filling it. The bucket couldn’t be left unattended. To avoid such inconvenience, she hung the bucket off the tap.

I, on the other hand, chose to hold the bucket under the tap, while filling it, to avoid what I saw as ‘destructive improvisation’. I’d rather suffer the inconvenience of holding the bucket under the tap, or find other means to fill the bucket, in such a situation.

I would have suggested that she avoid hanging the bucket off the tap, for the problems I perceived it would cause, had I not been afraid of being judged as an uppity tenant ‘grown too big for his boots’.

Laptops

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One time, my teenage nephew was watching a movie (or playing a game) on his grandmother’s laptop, in the dining room. The laptop was on the table, connected to AC current via a charging cable connected to an electrical outlet in a wall.

Problem one:

The charging cable was stretched because the laptop was too far from the electrical outlet. Instead of it running loosely between the computer and outlet, the cable was suspended in mid-air like a jungle rope bridge in ‘Indiana Jones’ or a similar movie.

The bulky ‘adaptor block’ (that converts AC current to DC current, which laptops use) hung precariously from the middle of the stretched charging cable, making a sort of skewed ‘v’ shape. Because of the heavy adaptor weighing down the cable, there were four points of acute physical stress/tension created.

One, in the charging socket of the laptop; a second, at the point where one half of the cable joined to the adaptor; a third, in the three-pin adaptor socket that the other half of the cable plugged into; and a fourth, in the socket of the electrical outlet in the wall, that the cable’s plugtop was plugged into.

Problem two:

The cable ran across a foot traffic area; someone could have tripped on it.

Solution:

I highlighted the danger to my nephew, and if memory serves, asked him to move the laptop closer to the electrical outlet, to slacken the charging cable, while I placed a dining room chair under the adaptor block, eliminating the aforementioned stress points, and tripping hazard (no one would fail to see a whole chair in their path).

To use the laptop cable stretched between laptop and electrical outlet, over a long time, I imagine would wear out and loosen, prematurely, the charging socket in the laptop, the adaptor block socket, the wall outlet socket, and cause breakage where the charging cable joins to the adaptor block.

I would recommend laying a laptop charging cable flat on the ground, if only partially; or making sure it’s not dangerously suspended in mid-air like a rope bridge.

At the end of the day, the solution wasn’t perfect, but I think that it made the situation far less hazardous for everyone.

Conclusion

By now you get the idea, I’m sure. Lookout for stress points and eliminate them, or as many of them as you can, the same way a structural engineer would. Your belongings may just last longer; you might even bequeath them to posterity.