In the busy and chaotic world we live in, who doesn’t want to make life easier? So, if you want to know how to make your own utensils, fix that broken zipper, or cure a lousy hangover, here are some simple life hacks everyone should know!
Folding Hacks
A little organization goes a long way, especially when it comes to your wardrobe. It’s incredibly stressful going through all your drawers and messing your clothes up trying to find the one special top you wanted to wear for that concert. So, instead of stacking clothes horizontally, it makes much more sense to stack them vertically. This way, when you’re going through your drawers, all your folded t-shirts, shorts and pajamas will be perfectly neat and instantly available to you.
And if you need more space in your closets, folding your sweaters like in the clip below might make things easier. Fold it in half, place the hanger in the armpit, then fold the arm and the bottom of the sweater over it, now you don’t have to bother trying to fit the hangers inside the arms.
And there’s more where that came from. If you relate to my hate of packing and tend to overdo it, then this one’s for you. To utilize the space in your suitcase, place some items in the middle of a t-shirt, then fold each of the sleeves in. Then, lay socks on the sleeves and roll up the shirt, like this. Now, tuck everything into the socks and you’ve made yourself a little t-shirt burrito! Finally, you can fit those extra shoes in your baggage!
DIY Running Tap
Here's how to create your own running tap, which is incredibly useful if you’re thinking of going camping. You’re going to need a big bottle, like one of those giant 5 gallon ones. You’re also gonna need to be handy with a soldering iron. First, use it to make a small hole at the base.
Cover it with your finger whilst filling it up, screw the cap back on, and when you remove your finger, the water won't come out of the hole. The water can only flow if air is released at the top of the bottle by untwisting the cap, otherwise it sustains enough air pressure inside to hold strong, even with the hole.
And be sure to keep a bowl lying underneath to catch the water in the first place! Voila! A running tap with only seconds of work needed.
Creating Cutlery From Plastic
As we’ve just discovered, there’s so much more you can do with your plastic bottles before throwing them away. When you’re in desperate need of some cutlery or cups, this hack might be an easy money saver.
Create your own from a plastic bottle by drawing a T sort of design, then cut along the lines, leaving the base and a strip of plastic at the top. All you need to do next is fold it over, fit it over the base and you’ve got a makeshift mug!
Now let's make a spoon! If you draw the shape below at the very bottom of a bottle, where those hard, bumpy ridges are, you’ve got a spoon ready to go.
It’s best to use a lighter to heat up the edges of your plastic creations after though, especially if they’re going anywhere near your mouth. Folding the handle of the spoon and smoothing those edges gives you the perfect plastic tea set! Again, you never know when you’re gonna need them; maybe you’re still out camping, or people keep bringing more friends to your dinner party.
Here's another cool trick you’ve got to try, this time with a milk carton. That tough plastic is perfect for making a gardening trowel, or a candy scooper, whichever way you look at it. Start by cutting the base off at an angle, and you’ll end up with a shape like this.
Then draw a trowel shape from the handle, and start cutting. Lift it away, and you’ve got a pretty sturdy tool! Next time you’ve got a spare bottle on your hands, consider upcycling before recycling!
Makeshift Phone Holder
It’s so annoying when you want to charge your phone but you’ve got nowhere to put the damn thing! Sometimes the cable won’t even reach the floor. Well, it’s time to fix that.
You can easily create a phone stand with an old plastic bottle and some trusty scissors. First, use the scissors, or a knife if you prefer, to cut a hole in the top, leaving you with just the base. Mark where you cut next, you want to keep the base intact, attached to a long, rectangular piece. Then, draw a smaller rectangle at the top, cut out the entire shape, and voila, you have your own charger cradle.
If it’s a no-hand phone stand you need, look no further. Draw and cut out some lines on a bottle cap, so that one gap is vertical and the other is at a slanted angle, like this. Next, glue it onto another cap, and fill a bottle with water so it won’t fall down. Then, just screw the caps onto the bottle and watch away!
Get this: not only can a bottle hold a phone, it can also hold a fully-fledged camera! This next method will ensure your stand is more secure for holding heavier items. Use a soldering iron to create a small hole in the middle of a bottle cap. Then, insert a screw through the hole. As long as you’ve used the right screw, you can fasten it directly to your camera. Put the cap back on the bottle and you’ve made yourself a top notch tripod! Plastic bottles aren’t so worthless now, right?
Lipstick Wallet
I’m extremely good at losing my spare change. An expert, in fact, I can never trust myself to leave my notes in my pockets, or even my wallet! That’s why I roll that Franklin up and place it inside an empty chapstick tube! It’s the best hiding place for your bucks!
Fix A Falling Zipper With A Rubber Band
Ever had a pair of pants with a dodgy zip? Well, if you’re struggling, all you need is an elastic band! If the problem is the zip won’t stay up, simply tie an elastic band around the hole in it, then tie the other end around the button. When you do it up, the band holds everything in place!
If it’s your button causing all the trouble, don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Squeezing into your favorite pair of pants from five years ago can be painful. Instead of jumping around the place trying to make them fit, just thread the rubber band through the hole and wrap it round the button! You won’t lose your pants or your patience!
Fix Wood Scratches With Walnuts
It seems like every time I lay the table, there’s another cut in the wood from a rogue knife or an annoying child. I wish people would stop coming near my stuff and ruining it! What am I to do? Get some nuts.
Walnuts are a great natural fixer of scratches and scuffs. This is due to their natural oils; when you scrape a walnut over a mark, the oils seep into the wood, concealing the blemish. To really finish it off in style, you can apply varnish afterwards. It'll look like the scuffs were never there in the first place!
And if you’re thinking of giving your house a fresh coat of paint while you’re at it but don’t want to accidentally splatter your nice, new carpet, I’ve got another ingenious solution for you. Just take a rubber band and place it over the paint can, then use your brush to soak off the excess. That way, you won’t leave any horrible splodges on the floor.
Fragrance Fix
It’s vitally important, before going anywhere, that you don’t smell bad. No one wants you rocking up to your date smelling like you’ve just run a 10k. Thankfully, there’s some quick and easy tips to help you regain your sense of scent.
First of all, you’ll need to check your breath. You can do this by simply licking the inside of your wrist. This transfers some of your saliva, if you now sniff it, you should have a pretty good idea of how bad your breath is.
Besides your mouth, one of the worst places for gross smells to linger are your feet. If you feel like fighting off the cheese, all you need is a tea bag. Place one inside each of your stinky shoes and leave them in a dry area for around 24 hours. Since tea bags absorb moisture really well, you’ll find your sneakers will be less damp and smell much nicer.
For some real refreshing scents, try fruit or herbal tea bags. Herbs and spices won’t just repel smells either, they can repel insects too! Sick of all those spiders finding their way inside? Try peppermint oil and water in a bowl and place it around windows and doors. Peppermint contains chemicals called menthol and menthone, which create strong aromas that overload spiders’ sensory receptors, making it the perfect repellent.
This also works with mosquitos. These irritating insects particularly hate the smell of clove and cinnamon. That’s because they contain vast amounts of chemical compounds called terpenes, which are responsible for making plants smell. Spices and herbs with more terpenes will give off stronger odors. So, a clove a day will keep the mozzies away!
Plastic Patch-Up
If there’s one thing I seem to always have endless amounts of, it’s spare clothes hangers. Wouldn’t it be great if some of these could be repurposed? Well, if you’ve got any hangers with clips on them, these can be cut off and used quite ingeniously as chip clips. No longer will you have to submit to the roll and fold method!
To seal something completely though, I’ve got another method that also utilizes something we usually see as trash, it’s our old friend the plastic bottle. Carefully cut the neck off from a bottle and unscrew the cap. Then, tightly twist the packaging where the hole is, and thread the bottle neck through. Spread the plastic over the top like this, then take the cap and screw it back on. And there you have it, no frills, no spills, and your bag is airtight and resealable in no time!
Keep Bananas Fresh For Longer With Foil
It’s the same old story over and over again; I buy a bunch of ripe bananas, they go in the fruit bowl, a couple of days go by, and they’re already black and brown. How do you make them stay fresh for longer? Well, you might not expect the answer, it’s actually aluminum foil. If you wrap the stem with foil, they’ll keep for longer.
Keep Bananas Fresh Much Longer by Hacks and Snacks As bananas ripen, they release ethene gas. This breaks down cell walls in fruit, converting the starches into sugars and magicking the acids away. This process is responsible for banana’s maturing, aka, getting real gross. What foil does is slow down this reaction by preventing some of the gas from escaping. This keeps them fresh for as long as possible, and freshness is even more important in foods that can cause serious illness when they go bad, like eggs.
Egg Float Test
It’s hard to know sometimes if an egg has gone off or not, but this next helpful hack will soon suspend your doubt. Merely place them in some water. If an egg is fresh it will lay on its side and sink, but if it’s rotten, it will float.
This is because eggshells are porous. As eggs age, they continually absorb more air, which if left long enough eventually creates air bubbles inside the shell. More exposure to air leads to more bacteria, and as the air pocket becomes larger, it makes the egg buoyant.
Battery Bounce Test
These tips for testing age don’t just stop at food, though. Here’s a telltale sign your battery is running out of juice. Drop it on a hard surface, if it’s full it will stay standing, but if it falls, it’s dead. When alkaline batteries get older, a compound called zinc oxide builds up inside which makes them bouncier and more likely to fall. These are age old tricks you’ll always remember.
Fix Stuck Zipper Using Pencil
When I’m rushing to get out of the house and suddenly realize the zipper isn’t working on my jacket, it feels like the world has ended. So, if you have the same trouble, let me enlighten you. Unsticking a zip is deceptively simple. Just rub a pencil over it!
The graphite in pencil is a natural dry lubricant, which reduces friction against surfaces that slide together, like a zipper. This lubrication can help free the stuck zipper teeth. If your zipper has broken off altogether, it’ll take more than a pencil to fix it, but don’t worry, I’ve got another hack that’s incredibly easy to do! Take the end of a paperclip and push it through the hole in your zip. Then, twist it round so it’s fully attached. To finish it off, take a pencil sleeve and cover the paperclip, before gently heating it over a flame to secure it in place. Now I’ve got a working zip, and the world is set to rights once again.
Rubber Band Hacks
It’s actually surprising how useful rubber bands are. Get ready for a whole load of super smart hacks. First, you can use them to grip and hold stuff, like your phone.
You can tie one twice around your charging plug with the wires wrapped neatly on top, so it all stays together and eliminates the risk of any trip hazards. If you then place your phone on top of the wires, plug the cable in, and wrap another band around the bottom to secure it, when you plug the charger into the socket it will keep your phone nice and secure. It might even help when your charger is a bit faulty and only works at a certain angle!
Additionally, you can create better grip on your chopping board by wrapping two bands on either side to stop it from slipping.
The same goes for your utensils. I hate it when I’m cooking and go to rest the mixing spoon on the side of the bowl or pot and it just slides right in. To prevent this, wrap an elastic band repeatedly until it’s tight around the handle, it’ll rest against the edges now without sliding down!
Need a quick spare pair of tongs too? You can’t go wrong with tying a band around two forks and making the best of it! We are truly unlocking the elastic band’s secret potential here.
Did you know they can also prove useful in medical emergencies too? If you’ve injured your fingers, tie a band around a stick to create a makeshift splint. This will hold your finger in one stable position and prevent swelling. Obviously, if it’s a serious injury you’re still gonna need to go to hospital, but it’ll make do in the meantime. Rubber bands make perfect alternatives for things you might not have at home, another example is door stops. Let’s say you’re moving house, and you need to transport your heavy boxes from outside to inside. To prevent having to put the boxes down and use the handle every time, all you got to do is tie a rubber band around the handle on one side, then stretch it round to the other. Make sure it’s secure by wrapping it repeatedly until it’s no longer loose. This trick keeps the bolt in the middle flat, so it won’t click into place when the door shuts and you can just nudge it open with your foot!
One more tip to share. Everyone uses soap to wash their hands, right? But squeezy soap always seems to run out too fast! Well, you don’t actually need a full squirt for the soap to be effective. By wrapping a band around the base like this, when you press down, it’ll prevent the mechanism from giving a full squirt and save you precious extra washes! With these hacks, rubber bands aren’t just stretching their limits, they’re really holding it all together!
Cleaning Hacks
Showers are essential. But it just doesn’t make sense taking one when the shower itself isn’t clean. So, if you notice a little limescale or rust on your showerhead, you’re going to want to read this.
Get a Ziploc bag and fill it with vinegar. It should be white vinegar, not the kind you put on your fries. Then, take a elastic band, and secure the bag to the showerhead by tying it up at the back. Once your showerhead is submerged, let it soak for a few hours or overnight.
EASIEST Way To Clean Your Shower Head💥(UNBELIEVABLE RESULT)!! by Clean With Confidence Vinegar is a natural disinfectant, making it a cheap and cheerful cleaning tool, and doing this once a month will ensure your showerhead never gets gunky again!
Moving from the bathroom to the closet, here’s a clever cleaning trick that will transform your beat up sneakers to brand new! What do you think it might be? Some type of wipe or tissue? A special brush? Maybe another vinegar concoction? No, it’s actually toothpaste! Grab your tube and start scrubbing away the scuff marks and mud patches. Leave the paste on for around ten minutes, and then wipe it off with a damp towel. This trick works especially well for your old, grey trainers that were white when you first bought them, but will work on just about any color or style. The mild abrasiveness of the toothpaste means it cleans without the risk of scratching! Just make sure not to use the same brush you brush your teeth with.
CLEAN & WHITEN SHOES with Toothpaste?? by Clean Freak & Germaphobe Unsubscribe From Spam Mail
We all know the frustration of getting piles of unwelcome emails delivered to your inbox. It takes me hours to sort through them sometimes! Well, never fear, the solution is right here at your fingertips.
Go into the search bar and write the word ‘unsubscribe.’ This will bring up all email results with the word, and trust me, as much as they try to hide it, the unsubscribe button will always be there! Now you can cancel all your unwanted subscriptions easily in one place. It’s such a simple solution, but I’d never have thought of it on my own!
How To Correctly Peel Post-It Notes
Where best to put all your wild ideas and grocery lists but on post it notes? Don’t worry, that’s not the hack. When taking one from the pad, it feels natural to peel from the bottom, right? But when you do, you curl the note upwards! Instead, peel it from the side; this will keep it nice and flat, and you’ll be able to read what you’ve written better, too!
Heal Hangover With Asparagus And Ginger
There’s nothing quite like being in the grip of a nasty hangover. If you’re of drinking age and need a pre-game hangover hack, I’ve got you. The trick is what you eat. Before you plan a big night out, eat some asparagus.
You’re probably thinking this is crazy, but trust me. If you eat this before drinking, chances are you’ll end up with a less intense hangover in the morning. It may even prevent it altogether! This is due to the amino acids and minerals it contains, which speed up how quickly your cells can break down alcohol. Of course, there’s no guarantees, the best way to stop a hangover is simply to monitor how much you drink. But if you haven’t heeded the asparagus advice and need an instant after-cure, ginger is your best friend.
Eating this will help prevent nausea because it contains gingerol, a compound which helps to speed up how fast food exits your stomach. The faster your digestion system is, the less you’ll feel sick. By speeding up the process, ginger is helping you cast off those dizzy spells for good. And to help it last longer, place it in the freezer, not the spice rack. Ginger thrives in colder temperatures, so it won’t dry out as easily this way. When frozen, it will keep for up to five months! Now, you’ve got supplies to last you from one night out to the next, and the next, and the next!
Clean Phone With A Toothpick
As we use our phones so much, it’s inevitable that dust and debris will be found round the buttons and holes. But if you’ve ever heard of putting a paperclip inside the charging port to clean it out, unhear what you’ve heard and listen to this instead. Use a toothpick!
They’re much simpler to use because they’re thinner and easier to maneuver inside. Plus, metal paperclips can scratch, move or break sensitive parts, whereas a toothpick, especially one of the soft brush types, is far less likely to disturb the peace.
Making Your Mark
Tired of people using your stuff? Want to mark your possessions rightfully as your own? Well, here’s a hack that could help. Though this hack comes with a major safety warning! Electrician professionals only!
Brand your personal items with your name by using just a few household items, a pencil, a lightbulb, a wire, an extension cord, and a clamp. This works on metal objects, and you’ll need to be down with using electricity and exposed wires, too, but if you know a professional sparkie, its pretty darn cool!
First, you want to remove the metal cap from the end of the pencil and file it down with a knife until the graphite is exposed. Graphite is used because it’s a great conductor of heat and electricity, if a current is passed through it can generate enough heat to brand metal! Then, wrap your piece of wire around the graphite. Following this, pop a rubber pencil sleeve over the wire and lightly heat it with a lighter so it sticks to the graphite, securing them both in place. Cut off the end of your extension cord, being careful while you do so, no playing around allowed! Now, connect the exposed wires from the cord to the wire attached to the pencil and run it through the lightbulb. This is essential, as the lightbulb will convert some of the current into heat and limit the amount of electricity that passes through to the graphite, after all, you don’t want any of these components to overheat.
Then, use the remaining wire to connect the bulb to the clamp, which allows the current to make contact with the metal. Because metal is a conductor of electricity itself, it can absorb the heat generated by the graphite, producing a mark.
So, get your object in hand and secure the clamp to it. Finally, plug in the extension cord and get to writing! Just be sure you know what you’re doing when trying this at home, folks. It’s all at your own risk!
Sock And Vacuum Hack To Find Lost Things
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve hunted the house high and low for something I’ve lost or dropped. It’s times like these I wish I had super vision to locate my lost left earbud, or that precious diamond earring. Well, if you can’t find ‘em, hoover ‘em!
Place some nylon, like pantyhose or socks, over the end of a vacuum tube. Then, tie it down with an elastic band, switch the power on, and you’ll find your item in no time!
Suction from the vacuum will successfully attract what you’re looking for, and you’ll waste no more time scrambling around the house.
Potato Peeling Hack
To make the perfect mashed potatoes, you’ve obviously got to peel loads of them, but I don’t always have the time to hang around undressing spuds all day. However, this quick trick has saved me so much time meal prepping, it’s only fair I share it with you.
First, make a light incision around the potatoes before boiling them. After they’ve boiled, place them immediately in a bowl of ice water. You only need to keep them there for 10 seconds to a minute before they’re ready to peel. The incision you made earlier makes the skins practically slide off when you touch them!
No longer will you have to sit there for ages hacking away with a peeler. The temperature change from hot to cold shocks the skins, softening them just enough to fall apart in your hands. No need to thank me, now you can spend your evening being a couch potato instead of peeling them all night.
Regrow Green Onions
Anyone here like gardening? I know some people find it enjoyable, but I just can’t deal with all the mud and mess that goes with it! But turns out, you don’t need a five acre plot to grow vegetables. In fact, you don’t even need a garden! This infinity glitch will give you free green onion for years to come, and all you need is a window ledge to put them on!
The next time you buy some, keep the ends and place them in a bowl of water. They’ll sprout again within two weeks! This is because they’re sold with their roots still attached, making them incredibly easy to regrow. Now you’ll always have a steady supply no matter what.
Stop Onion Tears With This Hack
When it comes to other types of onion, this next life hack might be one of the most useful tips of all. How would you like to stop all those tears from falling when you’re cutting onions?
Well, these vindictive veggies make us cry because when we cut into them, they release an enzyme called alliinase, along with compounds known as cysteine sulfoxides, which together create a chemical reaction. The product of this reaction is a gas, propanethial S-oxide, which spreads through the air. It’s this gas that irritates the eyes and turns the waterworks on. To reduce the tears, put them in the fridge first for about 30 minutes. The cold temperatures will slow down the chemical reaction, delaying the onions’ gas producing process significantly, it’s dry eyes from now on!
If you can successfully get through the chopping stage, you can also use an onion as a crafty kitchen appliance. If you’ve strived to make that perfectly round McMuffin egg but don’t have a ramakin to hand, look no further. Slice your onion in half, then cut a slice about half an inch wide and remove the outermost ring. Crack your egg into it and voila, it’ll fry up nice, round, and thick!
And at the end, quickly chop the ring up, douse it in more oil, and you’ve got yourself yummy fried onions on top of it all! It’s a win-win!
Clean Your Sinkhole With Baking Soda And Vinegar
To set the record straight, cleaning out your sinkhole with baking soda and vinegar won’t always work. Granted, using this solution may shift things around in the pipes, but it’s not going to fully unclog or clean them out. This is because baking soda is a base, meaning a chemical compound that can neutralize acids. Because white vinegar is an acid, when they combine they cancel each other out.
So, your solution is now a neutralized substance, essentially, it’s not strong enough to disinfect and remove dirt and grime from your drains. Instead, you should keep the baking soda but take out the vinegar and replace it with boiling water.
These don’t counteract each other and will successfully break down the dirt, flush it out, and expunge any nasty smells! And that’s all there is to it, sometimes the simplest answer is the best, after all!
Wine Opening Hack
Many a time I’ve made an absolute fool of myself trying to open a bottle of wine. I try to be all elegant and sophisticated about it, but sometimes the damn cork won’t budge! If I try to pull it out anymore, it might splinter and fall into the wine. What am I going to do in front of all my guests?
Well, I’m going straight to the toolbox to retrieve a nail and some pliers. You just tap the nail into the cork and use the pliers to slowly pry it out, easy peasy. And now, a toast to simple life hacks, without which I wouldn’t have been able to open this wine in the first place!
I hope you were amazed at these simple life hacks! Thanks for reading.
