No one knows where the name lazy Susan originates. You will often find lazy Susans in corner cupboards, as the turntable shelves make it easy to access everything hidden deep inside those corners. It’s anchored by mounts or posts that hold it in a fixed position while it turns, and this unique rotation mechanism allows you to access anything from inside the cupboard. The rotation mechanism uses bearings that make the shelf rotate, usually 360 degrees, similar to a turntable. The spinning shelves system works inside a cabinet, on a table, or on a countertop. The lazy Susan concept entails racks or shelves on a rotating base. Whether you have a new home or are looking to redo your storage spaces, here’s why lazy Susans are the perfect option for you. And that's why you should consider adding lazy Susan cabinets to your home fittings. Not only will it make your space more organized, but it will also make your life easier. (Krajewski believes the term is as old as ancient Rome-it also denotes the statues and sculptures acting as ‘waiters' at the time.) Was ‘lazy Susan' an attempt to make the name sound more feminine, specific and cathartic? Especially when the spinning server was of significant convenience to the ladies (including the German frau), who, for obvious reasons, preferred maidservants over butlers? Just the questions to bond over at a fancy revolving dim sum or afternoon tea.It's essential to have the right storage fittings in your home. The ‘dumb waiter' was a canopy term for inanimate (not to mention, speechless) contraptions that could easily replace a talking flesh-and-blood housekeeper-more specifically, revolving tables, food elevators, and of course, revolving trays.
The woody continent knew it as the ‘dumb waiter' long before the furniture shed this offensive name for an equally offensive tag. So far, we may conclude that the lazy Susan has European-rather, British-roots. Photo Credits: Annick Vanderschelden Photography/Getty Images Answers in Waiting “Usually, with small devices like that, nobody claims to be their inventor,” says Krajewski.Įarlier forms of the lazy Susan comprised rotating tops on pedestal tables, apt for wine and tea. Apparently, earlier forms of the lazy Susan comprised rotating tops on pedestal tables, apt for wine and tea savouring. The inception most likely happened between the 1720s and 1730s. Christie's sold a mahogany server from 1780 in a headline-grabbing 2010 auction, while The Boston Journal carried the term ‘lazy Susan' in a 1903 write-up. Georgian GenesisĪdditional evidence pegs the lazy Susan as an 18th-century arrival. The term (‘lazy Susan') combines two strands-the substitution of human servants with technological ones, and the common names of servants,” adds Krajewski.
“During this transformation, this unnoticeable wooden tray was offered, and in order to raise attention, a new name for this tray was invented. The paucity of migrant labour resulting from the possibility of war-and, hence, the expensiveness of employing domestic help-led to the “transformation of human servants to technological household devices” such as refrigerators and washing machines. Logically, the term ‘lazy Susan' must have originated sometime within the first two decades of the 20th century, just before WWI. Photo Credits: Annick Vanderschelden Photography/ Getty Images War and Piece It's surprising but nobody knows how the name 'Lazy Susan' came about. “Laziness was a common complaint against servants (at the time), so ‘lazy Susan' must have been a usual term since the 18th century,” says Markus Krajewski, professor of Media History at University of Basel, Switzerland, and author of The Server: A Media History from the Present to the Baroque. In all probability, Susan was a generic name rich homeowner addressed their maidservants with through the 18th century. Though George Hall of San Francisco is credited for its independent invention in the 1950s-nearly four decades after it went out of fashion post-WWI-the lazy Susan was surely born and branded much earlier. Yes, it's true-nobody knows who first crafted the lazy Susan or christened it so. Coupled with their inability to carve a place in history as their creation's parent. The sheer simplicity of the mechanics could paint its inventor as the indolent (yet ingenious) one. Two round pieces of wood and a small socket-like part-that's roughly all that a basic lazy Susan needs.