Almost everyone has a pair of bathroom scales somewhere, because they want to check their weight from time to time. Most people have them hidden away in the back of some dusty cupboard, though, feeling that the news the scales would bring if they were used could only ever be bad, and that by keeping them out of sight they don’t have to think about their weight. Sometimes, though, it’s essential to do so, as you can’t put off confronting your problems forever.

Bathroom scales come in two varieties: normal scales that work with a mechanical hand moving to tell you your weight, and digital scales that display your weight in digits. Digital scales are generally much more accurate, but they are also more expensive – traditional scales are now very, very cheap, while digital scales are still something to think twice about buying. If you’re going for luxury digital scales, you can even go up a step further and get some with a nice design, like see-through scales that are made of glass.

Before you use your scales, you should make sure that you have zeroed them by adjusting them until they show zero when nothing is on top, otherwise the weight they give you won’t be accurate. It’s all too easy to forget to do this and be fooled into thinking your weight is completely different to what it actually is, so do remember to always check – even if they’ve always been accurate before, it isn’t difficult for unused scales to suddenly move a long way away from zero.

Units of measurement can be a problem with scales in countries that haven’t yet gone over to the metric system. Luckily, most scales will either show you your weight in both the imperial and metric systems at once, or at least have a switch somewhere that you can use to make them switch to imperial and back again.

One last tip: remember that while bathroom scales are very nice, if you get them as a present for someone, it might be taken the wrong way. Especially if it’s your wife.