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This is so interesting! I'm mostly left-handed and after reading this I went to our his/her closets and I saw my husband's clothes facing to the right and mine facing to the left! I never realized that I hung clothes differently! I didn't know it was a left-handed thing. And yes, I do have a table to the left of where I sit. Our house is a popular model and I've seen others with the reverse plans and if I had seen them first, I don't think that I would have been enamored with this design. They just feel awkward and unbalanced in some indescribable way. I never considered left-handedness when buying this house or decorating, but now I'm going to pay more attention to see if it affects my decisions.
I don't think it's a left handed thing necessarily. I am right handed but I've always hung my clothes up with the front facing the left.
Also, just went house shopping with my parents. They want smaller, new construction with four bedrooms so we were looking in a lot of zero lot line neighborhoods and happened to see the same basic floor plan about ten times - apparently it's a very popular plan, and for good reason. Anyway, we saw it flipped both ways. Both ways felt "normal" after walking through them and getting acclimated. It just seems weird at first to see it one way and then walk into the mirror image. Neither way "felt" more or less comfortable though.
I'm not sure about the left handed thing either. I write left handed, I use my left hand for chopping and stirring in the kitchen but I use my right hand when using a screw driver, hammer or other tools. I drink with my right hand and eat right handed, this is more noticeable because I use a knife and a fork while I am eating at all times, I have tried the American way of chopping up food with a knife then swapping over but just can't do it.
As for side tables I have them on both sides depending on the placement of the chair. And my toilet roll is on the right side of my toilet.
Guess I'm just used to living in a right hand world.
My son is cross-dominant. It's different from ambidextrous. He does some things with his right hand and other things with his left hand. He does not favor one hand over the other overall. His tasks are about equally split using different hands. He has the further complication of his dominant eye being the opposite of his dominant hand for some tasks. As a result, we had to have hunting rifles custom designed for him.
That's exactly the way I am. I'm left-handed, but right-sided. Sometimes I have side confusion.
I'm a lefty. My under construction home is a side by side duplex, and my side is on the left. Just random that it worked out that way, but I do think it feels a bit more comfortable to me - not that I wouldn't have adapted to the mirror side unit, but I like this one better.
For furniture and bed placement, I've always gone where it fits best in the room and if that means walking around it to get to the bathroom, that's what I do and it's never seemed like a big deal. I do have a preference for the dishwasher on the right side although it's possible that is as much about upper cabinet placement too, and putting the dishes away as I take them out.
I mouse with my left hand but don't switch the buttons - that seems to be the combination that most confuses computer techs at work if they have to do something on my computer. There are enough lefties that they are used to the mouse on the other side, but I guess I am more unusual in keeping the left/right click part the same as a rightie!
I'm a lefty. My under construction home is a side by side duplex, and my side is on the left. Just random that it worked out that way, but I do think it feels a bit more comfortable to me - not that I wouldn't have adapted to the mirror side unit, but I like this one better.
For furniture and bed placement, I've always gone where it fits best in the room and if that means walking around it to get to the bathroom, that's what I do and it's never seemed like a big deal. I do have a preference for the dishwasher on the right side although it's possible that is as much about upper cabinet placement too, and putting the dishes away as I take them out.
I mouse with my left hand but don't switch the buttons - that seems to be the combination that most confuses computer techs at work if they have to do something on my computer. There are enough lefties that they are used to the mouse on the other side, but I guess I am more unusual in keeping the left/right click part the same as a rightie!
I generally use the mouse on the right hand side of my keyboard, however sometimes I have switched to the left side (if my right hand/wrist gets tired) - but I've never switched button inputs. That is putting too much effort into something, considering that I adaprt quickly.
I'm a lefty in that I write left handed, and generally hold knives left handed. My right side is stronger than my left though - I bowl right handed and can bat (well, I bat poorly - but its equally poorly) switch hitter. When I used to play pool it was hard to decide how to hold the cue (either way feels comfortable) and when I took tennis lessons as a kid the teacher had a hard time teaching me "backhand" - because I would just naturally switch the racket from right hand to left hand and therefore hit everything "forehand".
That says - my house is organized for furniture flow, not around my left-handednes (or ambidextrousness).
I have a table on either side of my chair. Remote is usually on the left (between husband and I), drink is on the right.
I sleep on the left, because the bathroom is on that side and I don't like having to walk around. If the bathroom were on the right, I would either sleep on the right, or flip my bed to the other wall. (I can sleep on either side of the bed - as long as my spouse doesn't mind).
Basically I don't think my left-handedness plays much into my furniture preferences, nor that much other than interacting with tools/equipment. Yes- I go to the left in stores/theatres - but actually my husband came up with that because its usually the least crowded way. (Its an old tip for amusement parks -- go left!). Has nothing to do with it feeling "natural" to me, just the most pragmatic use of our time.
But its an interesting subject and I suppose if some social scientists wanted to study it, it might make for some interesting data.
I am beginning to think there are degrees of hard wired left or right handedness (is that a word?) with maybe the majority of people in the middle - able to adapt with ease in any given situation. And then there are some of us on either side of the bell curve.
My son is cross-dominant. It's different from ambidextrous. He does some things with his right hand and other things with his left hand. He does not favor one hand over the other overall. His tasks are about equally split using different hands. He has the further complication of his dominant eye being the opposite of his dominant hand for some tasks. As a result, we had to have hunting rifles custom designed for him.
One of our sons has this eye dominant thing also. He is retired military and always had specially customized guns.
Although I am left handed, I do some things right handed also. I play golf and tennis left, but I bat right. My theory is that the first time you learn anything, it is equally awkward, so I must have had the bat placed in my hands in the school yard and didn't realize I was holding it backwards.
It comes in handy when I am cutting in trim with a paintbrush because I can hold the brush in either hand, depending upon which side of the trim I'm painting.
This is an interesting topic. I am totally right handed, but I do page a magazine from the back, often as not. I also hang my clothes facing left. My lefty DH does the same. I prefer an occasional table to be placed to my right, because I often drink coffee when I read, and it is easier to lay the mug down on a table on my right side.
I hadn't considered this at all, but I sleep on the right hand side of the bed, and of course DH sleeps on the left. But I often sleep on my left side.
My oddity is that I am thoroughly left eyed dominant.
On the bed thing, Feng shui dictates that the bed face the bedroom door. Has to do with energy or something. I don't practice Feng shui, but I do like how a bedroom looks with the bed arranged that way. But I think the arrangement of the room has more to do with where to put the bed. In my present case, light switches are wired to turn on bedside lamps on either side of the wall where the bed goes in my bedroom. The bed obviously goes between the light switches. In the bedroom I used to have, the furniture fit better if was arranged a certain way. In that case the bed faced a large window that had a great view of woods. It was the best choice for the room, IMO.
left handed here-the light next to my chair is on the right so when I do my cross stitch, there's no shadow.
Mouse is to the left of the keyboard but the buttons are the way they came. Got that at work, I guess. I was the only lefty there. I'd switch the mouse to the left but didn't dare change the rt click/left click thing. Had a few complaints about moving the mouse (mice?) but I assumed my Capricorn gumption and that ended that.
Nobody's mentioned dish washing by hand. Dirty dishes in the right sink; dish drainer in the left sink. Is that a lefty thing?
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