I'm finishing up a six-month respite living in Mexico, and going to return to Thailand later this month. (Reason for the respite is not relevant to this thread.)

I bought a gallon* of paint at Home Depot in Mérida yesterday to do some touch up painting, and was both amused and concerned (for the environment) when the paint guy put it in four plastic shopping bags. When I returned home, I realized why: The can had no handle!

That's NOT a Good Thing, IMHO. Makes it trickier to paint when on a ladder: Have to carry it up and down with two hands. No way to hang it anyplace. Even painting at floor level is more of a pain. No way to carry the can in one hand and a brush in the other.

(It wasn't a cheap brand, either. The gallon cost ~THB800.)

Is this a "local thing" or can these infernal handle-less gallon paint cans be found in Thailand and other parts of the world now, and I've just been oblivious and still living in the last millennium?

(*1 US gallon = 3.78541178 liters)

By comparison you dont see handles on the 5 litre tins of woodstain and its probably only the gallon size paint can that has a handle.

The Thais here paint from the small galvanised paint buckets with handles or pour it into a tray and use a long roller brush.

I dont think you need to worry

Never really thought about that, but I guess mainly paint cans would need handles, but they DO need handles. Not often would you be using a gallon can of wood stain from a ladder, or at least not as often as you would a can of paint, I would guess.

I'm hoping this is a just local thing where I am now. In the next year or two I'll probably be doing a bit of painting in a house I own in the USA, preparing it for sale. And, in Thailand, it seems I am often repairing and painting the walls in my condo. I actually *like* painting, it's kind of a mindless therapy for me, so I don't shy away from it.

Looking at web pages for Lowe's and Home Depot in the USA, it looks like their one- and five-gallon cans/buckets still have handles. I hope the status quo continues. Next time I go to Home Depot here in Mexico, I'll see if it's only this one brand that is sans handle and/or if even the five gallon buckets have no handles.