Am I getting weaker....

[Workingman]

... or are things harder to open?

Recently I have sometimes had difficulty opening things like bottles of milk or pop because the tops are screwed on so tightly.

I have always found *easy open* packs of bacon and cooked meat a pain so I just stab them with a knife and zip them open, but now it's bottles. I have a multi-opener thing for jars and cans but even it fails with some of the bottle tops.

Maybe I should join a gym..... or hire a maid with a strong grip.

[Diflower]

Not just you Wm, I'm sure they're getting worse, as you say it's even milk bottles!
I couldn't have tuna the other day because I just could not get the tin open. It started ok (ring pull) then would not go any further
We have a very old ratchet type thing for bottles and jars which is fab

[TheOstrich]

so I just stab them with a knife ...

Same here. You could spend the rest of your life trying to prise the plastic off otherwise.

Mrs O's bugbear is those child-proof tops on things like Domestos. In my case, it's those fancy flip-caps on sport-size bottles of water. I just take the whole darn things off!

[saundra]

The little foil tops on actimel do my head it I just stab jam jars even dairy spread are difficult it's an age thing

[AliasAggers]

I have the same problem sometimes, Frank.

What I have found a great help, with the screw-tops on bottled water and the like, is to use a
small rubber mesh disc which grips the bottle stopper and makes it surprisingly easy to unscrew.
I think we got ours from Morrisons. If you can't get one, Mrs A suggests you could use an elastic
band instead - it does make a surprising difference.

[JoM]

I've got some of those discs too Aggers, they're very good. I got mine from Home Bargains, haven't seen them in there since though and they were incredibly cheap and I didn't expect much of them but they do the trick with jars.

Glad it's not just me who thought she was getting weaker! I have trouble with the foil which sits under the lids on 2l milk cartons and yes Di, the ring pulls on cans are tricky. I can pull them two-thirds of the way but then they won't budge!

[meriad]

I have trouble with the foil which sits under the lids on 2l milk cartons

I usually use my teeth to open those Jo

But agree with you all, there definitely are some rather challenging jars, bottles and cans about