GusNSpot, thank you for posting this. I will do my best to remember it in the future and not be unnecessarily cruel or cold or blunt.
I didn’t know ceramic yeah cans existed, that’s way beyond my homemaking interests. I used to do that technique and it works but sometimes the air doesn’t come completely out, and there’s also suction when you take the bag out. With holes, I just shake the bag open and put it in. Obviously not a good idea on outdoor trash cans and I never put anything that will leak in the trash, but I do put the holes up high just in case.
You can do a lot with stuff you find around the house. I wanted to get my daughter a play kitchen but the damn things are $120-$180 dollars. Well, a couple large cardboard boxes, contact paper, construction paper and some colored tape cost me about $18 and created a fantastic play stove and refrigerator. $5 worth of plastic fruit and a bunch of empty boxes and containers from our pantry later and my daughter has a fantastic play kitchen that we can break down and throw away once she is past playing with that type of thing.
Tape the manual & receipt to the bottom/top/back of larger household appliances or furniture.
That can be good, but I found buying a decent accordion filer and putting ALL the paperwork for each appliance and major tool in a pocket works better.
Receipts that are just cash register tapes are all printed using thermal printers. Which paper will darken to illegibility under any heat. Any receipt taped to a clothes dryer will be illegible in a day. Various spots on washers, dishwashers and fridges also get warm enough to be a problem, although not after just one day.
Even absent any heat, receipts like that will fade over the course of a year or so. Since warrantee or homeowners insurance claims may need that receipt years later, the smart thing is to take a photocopy or scan while it’s fresh and file that too along with the original.
Or I just have a high cabinet with bins in it that I chuck all that stuff into. I rarely need to find any of it (and frankly most of the time I need a manual I look it up online) but when I do, it’s in there somewhere.
After many years of careful filing, that’s where my system is headed.
I’ve got a couple of accordion files but, like you, I find that I rarely need to dig anything out. I’m starting to realise it would be more efficient to just dump it all in one big pile than to take the time to file it properly (and then never look at it again until it’s time to throw it out).
Besides, most of my properly important stuff comes through on email these days anyway.
Virtually everything I buy has a PDF manual available online, so I’ll download the manual and store it in a folder I have on the computer.
Which is a huge plus, as most gear could use a larger manual than makers are willing to print, and most manuals live the lifespan of the product almost untouched. Allowing a manual to be as many thousands of pages as it might need to be while costing essentially no production or unit sales cost is a great thing.
It’s still useful to keep all the papers that come with any appliance or equipment of non-trivial cost, and my accordion folder of those “throwaway” papers has saved me money and hassle more than once.
Break a lightbulb or a glass that shattered into a zillion shards on your floor?
Sweep up the big pieces with a broom, but then take a slice of bread or two to dab around the area where tiny glass slivers are that can escape the broom.
Back before car keys became “smart”, I always kept a spare key taped to the inside of my driver’s side front hubcap.
Regarding my “2-step” key hiding above (post #40); I do something equivalent with my truck keys.
I have a key that can only open the doors (it cannot start the vehicle), and it’s in a magnetic box inside a frame member. Retrieving it will get me into the cab. Behind the seat is a small wrench that will remove a seat bolt. Removing that bolt allows the carpet to be raised and reveals my spare ignition key.
Complicated I know, but too many steps for a thief to luck into. And since I wander off road a bit, it can get me out of a grim situation should I lose my keys in the boonies.
That reminds me of one trick I use – whenever I have stuff that might be gloppy or stink up the trash can, I stick it in the bottom shelf of my side-by-side freezer and let it harden into a blob of icy nastiness. Then, on trash day, I throw whatever’s there into the bag, so that all the gloopiness happens on the curb and not in my kitchen.
I did something much like that with my '79 Mustang (I know, I know).
I put the spare ignition key in a slot under the spare tire, which took some time to remove, and screwed a hatchback key to the plastic roof of the gas-filler well. You couldn’t see it, and if I had any kind of tool I could unscrew it, but as a last-ditch option I could just tear the screw out of the plastic.
Even then, it would only let a thief open up the car, which is better than driving it away so easily.
These tricks are mostly obsolete in these days of chipped keys and complex start/ignition systems.
ETA: I’ve done the same with house keys - hide a key that opens an electrical panel in which is a key to a garden shed in which is hidden a house key.
Save money on expensive hayfever meds by gluing a bee to your upper lip. The bee will intercept any pollen before you breath it in.
But then everything stingks.
1970s American cars must have had better locks than British ones of the time, then. I never bothered with a spare key for my old '76 Triumph, as you could just unlock it with literally any key you could find. If you didn’t have a key handy you could use a screwdriver. :o
Well, my '68 Mustang had such worn window regulators that I could work my fingertips in to the top seal and push the windows down…
I have a car with a mid-1960s British ignition key, and I’d bet I could turn it with a flat toothpick. The “lock” mechanism appears to be completely cosmetic.
I have found the pop-lock-blow method to be superior for all receptacles.
Also in the reuse of toilet paper my friends like to blow dry them with a blow dryer but I find that to be such a waste of electricity. Instead I go back to nature and simply hang them up out back on the cloths line. After a couple of days they are good as new and the kicker is that they now smell all fresh and flowery from being outdoors.