This makes me think of Mitch Hedberg's joke "They don't advertise cheese grater's under their more negative name... Sponge Ruiner"
Ha Ha!
I've just looked at my graters. I have one of the flat types with a handle. It doesn't work properly, as it has ridges on both sides, so you can't grate anything that's wider than it, and when I tried to grate a carrot with it, it only grates slowly and one way, rather than both ways like I've seen in advertisements. I also have a plastic one that they used to sell with Bamix. I originally had two, one for rosti, but the rosti one started shreding itself the last time I used it, so it got hoiked. The plastic one is double sided, and has some extremely small holes for the grated stuff to pass through in the middle, so a lot gets left behind.
I don't like the box graters because they are difficult to store, and scratch when you are searching for something else in the drawer. I also found that I usually needed more grated than the box allowed, and had to search for something else to put the grated stuff into.
So, I think I need to get a proper handled flat grater that grates both ways. Thanks for all the feedback!