Let’s talk about something completely foolish and unreasonable that has been bothering me: the plastic stool hole. There was a small circle in the center of the hard plastic stools. You’re familiar with the one. For years, it has been quietly and strangely there, as if it is aware of something we are not.

I’ve sat on stools in various places, including my parents’ house, little tea shops, outdoor weddings, and bermside food booths, and they all have a strange hole. Why? What is the secret? Is there a design flaw? Is there a manufacturing issue that has gone viral? Is it genuinely useful?

Spoiler alert: it’s not completely worthless. It’s a sneaky little brilliance, in fact.

What is the function of the hole in the plastic stool?

Let’s get right to it. There’s a reason for the hole in the middle of the ubiquitous plastic stool; it’s not only for decoration or to screw with your mind. It has a few practical applications:

Easy to handle and stack.

Have you ever tried to disassemble those small plastic stools? You pull one, and the entire tower collapses on you like a plastic Jenga game. What about that hole? When you put stools on top of each other, the vacuum seal breaks.