What Is A Lazy Susan?

The term “Lazy Susan” commonly refers to the revolving table top on the dining table that makes communal dining convenient. With the Lazy Susan, diners can pass around anything that is on the table. It is actually a self-service convenience.

Today, however, there are so many variations of this practical invention. There are revolving servers, revolving trays and revolving cabinets found in the kitchen and dining area. They come either in single or multi-levels. The multi-level Lazy Susan cabinet may be sizeable enough to fit in the whole pantry. Or it can be just a singe-level table top tray used to store a few items. Lazy Susan’s are made with various types of materials from marble to wood, glass, plastic, or steel, among others.

The Lazy Susan revolving kitchen cabinets are very efficient designs. The usual hard to reach corners and back ends of a cabinet becomes very accessible when the cabinet base is swiveled. This has become a very welcome addition to kitchen innovation.

Lazy Susan cabinets also come in different shapes. Aside from the round style, there are also those that are pie-shaped, kidney-shaped, and half moon-shaped. A corner, right-angle revolving cabinet not only makes hard to reach-items accessible, it also makes use of the usually unused corner spaces between cabinets.

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Manufacturers are further marketing the Lazy Susan for other uses. This turntable can also be very useful in the garage, storeroom, bathroom, laundry, dressing room and any other place, where convenient access to stored items is useful. Even the swivel tray of a television set is also another adaptation of the Lazy Susan.

It is said that the Lazy Susan originated in the 1700s. But at that time, it was called a “dumbwaiter”, since it did away with the need for a waiter’s services. There are two people who are credited for this invention. One is Thomas Edison, who invented the turntable on his phonograph, and also had a daughter named Susan. The other is US President Thomas Jefferson, whose daughter, Susan, was believed to have once complained that she never got full when dining, because she was always served last.

It was only in the 1900s when the term Lazy Susan came about. It was printed in an ad in the Vanity Fair magazine in 1917.

But whether these stories are true or not, one thing that cannot be denied is that a Lazy Susan has made our lives much easier through the years.