How to be middle class: concealing your plug sockets
Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 9:43AM 
We MCs don’t like to admit to the function of common items in the home. These are usually things that we all use and can’t live without, yet many of us feel the need to hide them. Why else would you hide your kitchen appliances behind those Italian-designed doors? Why else hide your TV in that unattractive cabinet?
A colleague introduced me to a whole new level of this shame the other day. She was lamenting the fact that, despite spending two weekends trawling John Lewis, House of Fraser and the Conran Shop website, she had been unable to find the perfect vase for her arrangement of fancy twigs. “What size do you need?” I asked. “Well, big enough to cover the socket,” she replied.
She explained that she likes to place either a piece of furniture or a decorative item in front of every electrical socket in her home. She told me that she finds them ugly and doesn’t like the fact that you can see that things are plugged in.
Surely, in a world where we rely more and more on electrical gadgets, it’s okay to admit that we need sockets? Perhaps she could check in John Lewis for a giant cover for her entire house so that she can deny any basic human needs at all.
Reader Comments (2)
When my first child was born, I bought a job lot of those socket safety things that probably have an actual name – white round bits of plastic that you push into empty sockets so that your child doesn't stick their fingers in. Although my children are now old enough to know better, I still keep the plastic things in the sockets as it does look so much neater.
On another note, I've just bought a new kettle (Bodum, since you ask) and am v pleased to find that the flex is the same colour as the kettle – It had never occurred to me before, but there is something a bit scruffy and depressing about a white flex.
Surely most plug-sockets are concealed behind large items of furniture, such as sofas and bookcases?