I have all these ideas that I think are brilliant. The problem is that it’s possible (but unlikely) that they are not actually brilliant at all. Maybe a given idea has been tried before and it does not work. Maybe there’s a non-obvious reason for why something is not done a certain way and this unknown reason totally outweighs the benefits of change.
I think I know why the condiment companies have not standardized on container sizes. Raw materials and transpiration are still relatively cheap, there is no immediate increase in profit and there’s an inability (unwillingness?) to be forward-looking beyond the next 1-3 years.
French’s Mustard aside, I’m going to present some ideas I’ve had and I need you to tell me why they suck. As you can imagine they are mostly bathroom-related however some of them can be transferred to the rest of the house.
For this post I’m going to talk about corners. I hate them. When I’m cleaning my bathroom the hardest areas to clean are where two or three flat surfaces meet and the angle of intersection is 90 degrees or less. So my question is why don’t we simply make bathrooms that are devoid of corners? Here are some of the reasons I was able to come up with:
- cornerless rooms look stupid
- it’s too expensive (increased cost in time, materials, complexity)
- they are harder to repair
- they wear down faster
- it makes the room smaller
- they make the room dangerous (maybe humans are not used to navigating cornerless environments)
- it makes it impossible to place items against the wall
- bathrooms are designed and built by people who never have to clean them so they don’t actually think about how make an easily-cleanable bathroom
- we’ve always made them with corners
- cornerless rooms exist they are just not popular (but this begs the question “why are they not popular?”)
Which reasons am I missing here?
I’m in the process of planning to build a cornerless bathroom and I have the feeling I’m about to embark on something that is either groundbreakingly awesome or incredibly stupid.
But if my list is accurate then I am 100% going to move forward with this project. I don’t think any of the items on that list are reason enough to not build a cornerless bathroom.
And visitors to my house will be invited to clean my bathroom and they will see how easy it is. And then they will want cornerless rooms of their own.
Here is my cornerless bathroom design.
The Vim is under the sink.
Die Hard Three 
I think you’ve covered all the reasons I can think of to explain why cornerless rooms aren’t more common. I’d say the space issue as well as modularity are the biggest factors. Especially in limited space environments, people want to get the most out of what is possible so shaving off square feet to ease on cleanup is not usually the way people go. And like you say, it’s harder to work with, hang things on and place fixtures on a rounded surface.
All that being said, if you wanted to decrease the angles and increase the number of angles, that would likely suit your purposes. An octagonal room would have wider open angles to work with and make cleaning easier. And flat surfaces would allow for what we need flat surfaces for. Cutting off all the corners of a square or rectangular room and creating for each corner two wider angled corners doesn’t remove very much usable space and satisfies your need to scrub with ease.
Steve Jobs would approve.
A round bathroom already exists; it’s called the Oval Office….
…Oh and I forgot to add, it gets cleaned only every four years, at best….
every four years if we’re lucky š
Clean the corners with your old toothbrush.
Also, you’ll just go mad.
Something about being told to go into a round room and $$$ in the corner.