Have you learned any useful tricks that you think most people are not aware of ?
I’ll start off with two.
Emptying partially consumed bottles of wine while cleaning up after a wedding
-Invert the uncorked bottle over the sink and shake, not up and down but in a circular motion creating a vortex. This eliminates the glug glug and allowes the wine to flow out much faster.
** Pouring out of a 5 gallon pail**
Instead of having the spout situated at the low end of the pail, place the spout so it is situated at the top when pouring. This eliminates the glug glug and allows for much faster pouring. (The alternative solution is punching a hole at the opposite side of the circular rim, but then you can no longer seal the contents from the atmosphere)
The latter trick I just learned yesterday after dispensing from 100s of 5 gallon pails over the years. :smack:
I don’t know how useful the tip about dumping out wine will be to me :), but I did have a :smack: moment a couple years ago when no matter how big a ladle I used*, anything I was pouring from it seemed to spill. Then I tried, you know, not using the entire ladle, and dipping it only halfway in*. Then my soup poured out without a spill! :smack:
I close one eye when going to the bathroom at night. It allows me to walk to the bathroom - turn on the light - and then when finished turn the light off. Then I open both eyes - and can go back to bed - with my night vision intact (only works/useful if you have enought ambient light to walk around - which can be very, very, little if you still have your night vision.)
I thought I was original for thinking of this - then mythbusters did and episode on pirates speculating retaining night vision was one of the reasons for the eye patch.
You don’t need an eye patch - I’ve been doing this so long it is second nature.
People in this sort of thread are often shocked and awed that there are little tabs at each end of the aluminum foil box and you’re supposed to poke them in to keep the roll of foil (or plastic wrap or whatever) from coming out of the box when you pull on it.
This works with many containers. Pint and quart solvent cans (say, paint thinner) always used to have the opening near one corner for this reason. Then some know nothing started redesigning them with the opening in the middle. These usually have an adult proof mechanism on the cap, just to make sure they have NO redeeming qualities.
I usually dispose of half consumed wine by drinking it.
So I learned how to go directly to the Task Manager from Actual Advice Mallard. Press Ctrl Shift Esc, et voila. Skip the Ctrl Alt Del step. Maybe this is common knowledge, but I sure didn’t know until recently.
I started a linen revolution on this board when I mentioned that I store each set of sheets in its own pillowcase for easy storing on a shelf and grabbing; full sets in an inside out pillowcase and queen sets in a right-side out pillowcase, so I don’t have to remember which is which. I’ve since seen the tip oodles of times on the internet, though, so it’s probably pretty well known by now.
I mentioned this in the duct tape thread (indeed, it was the inspiration for it): Use duct tape to remove sliding covers that do not allow enough friction to remove with the fingers and/or are stuck. Rather than pushing slippery plastic, apply duct tape to the cover and pull the cover off.
oil quarts are like that. though people pour spout down because it looks like it should be like that to them. pouring spout up does make a better stream but you have to have better aim. putting spout in the middle gives both actions to a middle amount.
i did see a device (i haven’t tried) that threads onto an oil bottle top, has a valve that you open when the spout is in the oil fill hole.
If you accidentally use permanent marker on a dry erase board, color over the lines with a regular dry erase marker and then erase. The permanent marker should also come off.
Find a hard vertical surface like a brick wall or a tree. (Stay with me here…) Remove one of your shoes… Sneakers are best but any shoe with some cushion will work. Fit the base of the bottle into the shoe and begin banging them together against the tree/wall. The shoe serves to cushion the glass bottle. The rebounding of the wine inside the bottle will gradually begin to force out the cork until you can remove by hand. Or with your teeth if you’re feeling particularly jaunty.
My mom was doing that fifty years ago. Another bedding tip. If you have a child who falls out of bed a pool noodle can be used as a barrier. Slip it between the fitted sheet and the mattress.
If your cellphone gets wet, there is a powerful centrifuge in most homes. Your clothes washer. If you’re careful about choosing the cycle you can place your wet phone in the washer tub (on a towel is best) and let the spin cycle quickly centrifuge all the water out. Warning: some models periodically spray during the spin cycle so you may need to test this with a dry cloth first (to make sure it’s still dry at the end).
