Ouch!!!

I love my nutcrackers there great for opening small bottle tops even screw top wine bottles and also a wooden spoon to open ring pull cans once I've levered it up first with a knife!

I sympathise with you chicken I have the same problem. Tins of tuna are the worst, and they make such a smelly mess if you do succeed in opening the can.
I usually ask husband to open the difficult ones.

I have a battery opener which I bought on mail order. It is supposed to clip on to the lid, circle the lid whilst cutting it, and then lift the lid off with a magnet. The video on the website looks wonderful, but mine is utterly useless.

chicken, I buy ready to eat prunes in a packet and seal it with a clippit. You can also get them in a screw top plastic jar. Doesn't help with other cans though....

I can get the plastic off the milk carton ok; it's the seal inside that I struggle with. I had a friend years ago who surprised me by owning an electric can opener [she was very anti gadget] but now my hands are really bad I understand. Once I've pulled the metal thing back on a can, pulling the rest of it off is a nightmare, and I'm always scared of cutting myself badly. Feeding my ex's cats at the moment and have to do battle with the cat food tins every day .

Dear Cat's food is in ring-pull cans. I put the handle of a sturdy wooden spoon through the ring and use this as a lever. Works for me.

Under the heading of 'Ouch!', I attempted to sit beside my dog but sat down firmly on the corner of the coffee table. It's been over a week and my poor tailbone is still very uncomfortable. A couple of days ago, I nipped outside with the dogs and didn't bother with shoes. I stubbed my toe on a paving slab and lifted a flap of skin right off. It catches on everything, especially bedclothes and inside shoes. ?

If you tap around the edges of jam jars etc with a wooden spoon, it breaks the seal and opens easily.

I agree ! hate ring pulls ...especially those that snap off half way through ! Sometimes try the wooden handle pull up ..that seems to work ok ! Also hate the aluminium seal inside milk bottle tops ...once I have opened the top with a nut cracker, that is ! With arthritic fingers pulling up that little tab on those inside lids is virtually impossible ...do sometimes restor to using a sharp knife to open them, but then you still have to pull off the rest ! and sardine tins ...when the little key goes off centre and you try to get it back on track ! As for the plastic packed 6 bottle of water ....don't go there ! I attack them with a stanley knife, but sometimes manage to stanley knife the bottle as well !

Modern life is not for me .......bring back the horse n cart with milk being served from the churn ! (no, I lie ...I'm not QUITE that old yet ....almost but not quite !) ..although I can remember in the Suffolk place I grew up, the Co op veggie and milk man as well as baker, delivering with his horse n cart !

The mobility store usually has lots of gadgets for opening things??

I'm lucky enough to live in an area where I get milk delivered, in a bottle and with a foil cap that just needs a thumb pushed down to open it

I often use the 'wooden spoon handle' idea to pull back the ring pull on cans but my problem is lifting them in the first place without breaking a fingernail. I usually resort to hooking a fork tine through it then reversing the fork to use the handle as a lever

lizzypopbottle...you made my eyes water reading about your mishaps
ouch indeed!

I have managed with my homemade jam by gently pushing a teaspoon handle or a narrow screwdriver blade under the lid just far enough to break the vacuum of the jar.
Do not try using a knife blade they can just break off. This can also occur when breaking apart frozen items. As some of my small knives show.

Foxyferret I do that with the back of the blade of a bone-handled knife.
Why it has to be a bone-handled knife I do not know (someone told me that years ago).
It seems to release the seal and the jar can be opened. I have a couple of rubber grippers from Lakeland which also make it easier to open a jar.
www.amazon.co.uk/Lakeland-Grippers-Perfect-Opening-Pickle/dp/B00IRB2F0M
other makes are available!

Yes, I second the rubber glove solution for tight tops. I find the tops on mouthwash bottles absolute buggers to get off!
For jars (like beetroot) I often have to stab a small hole in the lid with a very sharp knife, then it opens easily. I stick a bit of sellotape over the little hole.

If I have trouble with the ringpull, and the tin allows it, i thurn the tin upside down and use a regular tin opener - but some tins now have no seal at the bottom, just moulded bits...

turn...

Anyone know a good way to open those Douw Egberts coffee jars with the 'keiller' lids? Blessed if I can do it so have had to revert to jars with screw tops. Unfortunately not Douw Egberts....

Kilner, not keiller....

Blinko - Douw Egberts - I thought it was because I have very small hands. I tend to buy whatever coffee is on offer and like the look of their jars! However while trying to open them I'm always worried I'll drop the jar and spill the coffee!
The milk with small seal under the screw top usually gets attacked with a knife, teaspoon handle or small screwdriver. I find some loo cleaners very difficult to open, every time! Sardine cans with pull tabs usually get part opened with great effort then have the contents scraped out with a teaspoon!

What about corned beef tins? Absolutely nightmare! Soooo dangerous! I do find the easiest wy is to forget about the key and open both ends, with difficulty, with a conventional tin opener and then push the small lid down. But still jagged edges to worry about!

I fell down a step a few weeks ago and apart from lots of massive bruises, I sprained my ankle and thumb. The ankle is much improved and I can drive again, but the thumb....! I just can't open or twist anything without excruciating pain. Never knew that thumbs were so essential to daily life or that they could cause such sickening pain!

I have been buying Douwe Egberts because I like the jars but they are difficult to open, so perhaps my thoughts of using them afterwards for storing nuts, seeds etc might not be such a good idea.

Nelliemoser - breaking apart frozen items.
Our freezer is in a room with a concrete floor so I just throw the whole lot down on the floor and they break apart.
Keep well back because it hurts if some of it hits you.

I do that in the utility room TriciaF
Unfortunately, it has a ceramic tiled floor and there are now one or two little chips.
Dropping from a height does work though