When my kids got old enough to answer the phone, I bought a large dry-erase board and mounted it on the wall by the phone so there would always be somewhere to write down messages. There is a shelf with holders for the markers and other assorted household stuff, and hooks for keys. The board proved even handier than I first thought because it became “message central” for reminders, notes to/from the kids, and just a place to write “I love you” now and then. Everyone in the house checks the board as soon as they walk in.
My parents’ old house (built in the 70’s or so) had carpet in the bathrooms. I didn’t get the idea of bathroom rugs until the next house, which’d been built in the late 80’s or early 90’s, and which had tile. skidskidCRASHwaaaaMUMMY!
Maybe that was the idea – prevent cold tootsies. But for drips, we had bathroom rugs on the carpet. That solved the soggy carpet thing…
IIRC, it’s originally French. Bouillon. (and I used to eat these like hard sweets – stuff in your mouth and suck on the things)
My Dr said 3 IBU 3x a day, but if two works, I’d rather ease up on my stomach lining.
Flat Coca-cola or Pepsi does wonders for an upset stomach.
Might be a good idea to slice them in half (if that’s how you serve them) before you
freeze the bagels.
I tried cutting a frozen bagel with a serrated knife. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Ended up at the ER for a couble of stitches in my thumbtip.
While you’re at it, consider getting bagel guillotine, or some such device. Same advice, though. Lop 'em before freezing.
In a pinch, an iron can be used to toast/heat foodstuffs. To make toast, wrap a piece of bread in foil, keep the iron on low, and, being careful not to squish the bread, iron it on low. NOt perfect, but it works.
Many Phillips-head screws can, indeed, be screwed in with a flat-head screwdriver.
Along those lines, if you tend to have trouble unscrewing things (it’s too hard to turn a manual screwdriver), wrap a whole bunch of duct tape around the handle of the screwdriver. Mechanically, the widening of the handle makes it much easier to turn a screw. Also, then you always have a ready supply of duct tape.
If you’re assembling furniture or something that requires those little pouches of screws, washers, nails, etc, forget trying to dump them all out and keep track of them on the floor. Tear of a strip of duct tape, and line all the screw up on the tape. That keeps them orderly and prevents them from rolling away/getting lost.
“Pickling” them works well, too. Soak your fretting fingers in a small dish of vinegar for about 5-10 minutes a day. More pungent than alcohol but it works slightly faster, I think.
Turn the stack of coffee filters inside out. It makes it easier to pull out just 1 filter.
Do you use your bath towel more than once before you put it in the wash?
You do?
Well, when you come out of the shower, dry your feet with the Tee Shirt you removed just before you got into the shower.
What the hell, it’s only your feet, and now, you never have to wonder which end of the bath towel to dry your face with.
Go ahead, laugh. But when I win the Nobel Prize for this brilliant idea…
:dubious:
Guys who daily scrape a razor-sharp piece of steel across their sensitive faces and throats know that marketers want to sell them all manner of ultra-expensive face-soothing elixirs to use after the carnage. Instead, I discovered that a large bottle of SPF 45 sunscreen with aloe for $4 from Wal-Mart or any other discount store works perfectly well and carries the added benefit of protecting the face, ears and neck from the ravages of UV light.
Additionally, guys, you can ignore the aggravating and inconvenient fly sewn into your briefs or boxers from now on. Unzip, hook the non-dominant thumb over the elastic waistband, and look out below. Much easier to properly arrange the cucumber and kiwis afterward also.
I use baby wipes for everything, especially cleaning my white leather sneakers that I use for casual shoes. They stay looking new with absolutely no damage to the leather. Dirt is far more harmful.
Get more taste out of your condiments like mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, soy sauce, steak sauce, Worcestershire, etc.: don’t bother putting them in the refrigerator. It totally kills the flavor, makes no sense to put cold sauce on hot food, and is utterly unnecessary since they’re full of vinegar and salt–two of the best preservatives known. (Ever notice in restaurants how the bottle of ketchup, steak sauce, etc. is at room temperature? There’s a reason.)
Note: This obviously does not apply to mayonnaise, or to things like salad dressing that are actually better cold.
I give you an A for content, A for style, and I’ve marked SPF 45 and babywipes for future purchases. Es[ecially liked the condiment stuff.
Thanks!
Since we’re approaching mosquito season, at least in this hemisphere:
If you can avoid scratching at all, God bless you.
However if you’ve started into the scratch/itch/scratch routine that easily leads to the drawing of blood :eek: … Get some of that ‘waterless cleanser’ stuff, such as Purex, and slather it all over the itchy area. It’s basically jellied alcohol, so the raw spots will BURN LIKE FURY for a few seconds while the alcohol evaporates.
Somehow having activated the ‘pain’ nerves for a few seconds turns off the ‘itchy’ nerves, for an hour, often longer. As soon as you want to scratch, repeat the Purex.
As a bonus, it’ll keep those raw spots your ripped into your skin from getting infected.
I’ve also used this on prickly heat and the rash from poison ivy, with the same results.
I got tired of lugging my laudry up and down the two flights of my townhouse in a basket or a laundry bag. In addition, I didn’t want to put clean clothes back into a bag that had just held dirty, smelly ones. Now, I sort my laundry before taking it downstairs, and put each color in an old pillowcase. I can carry several at the same time, and each holds a load of clothing. I toss the case in the wash with the clothes, then put the clean clothes back in the case to carry upstairs to fold. I leave the pillow cases in the hamper, and fill them as clothes get dirty.
Why didn’t you simply dump the dirty clothes into the wash and turn the (one) pillowcase inside out for the return trip?
A pillowcase really doesn’t weigh much, I doubt it ever makes a load ‘too big’, so why not go ahead and wash it? Besides, what do you do with the pillowcase while you’re washing and drying your clothes otherwise? If you leave it laying around, someone might think it’s an ‘orphan’ and adopt/swipe it. No, toss it in with the clothes, keep it safe.
I did basically the same thing while I was in college, but with one added refinement due to being your basically always nearly broke student:
I measured out my soap powder for each load onto a washcloth which I then folded up to contain the soap, and tucked the wad carefully into the top of each bagful of laundry.
Once down with the machines, I’d start the water filling, fish out the washcloth and dump it in first. This got the detergent well mixed in and dissolved, preventing nasty results from having a ‘clot’ of detergent stick to something.
The main reason I did this, though, was to save money. No matter when you went into the laundry room, there would always be a couple of people who just happened to have ‘run out of’ their own supplies and needed to ‘borrow a cupful.’ It’s hard to say ‘no’ when you’re there with your big box o’Tide, but on the other hand, after having a full box of detergent turn into an empty one when only doing two loads yourself… And, of course, no one ever actually ‘returns’ what they borrowed.
Much easier (and cheaper) to be able to honestly say ‘sorry, I only have enough soap for my own wash.’
BTW, my roommate used liquid detergent – she would just pour the stuff onto a towel and put that into the water first. Seemed to work well, at least she never complained about any ‘spotting’ on her clothes.
(Obviously you only bring the number of dryer sheets you need to use as well – but they just tuck in your pocket.)
I stand corrected StarvingButStrong.
But now that you’re college-educated, I hope you’re well fed and fit. 
Okay, here’s mine.
When you get water stuck in your ear, pour a capful of rubbing alcohol in the ear, let it sit a few seconds, and let it drain out. The alcohol wipes out the surface tension and general adhesion/cohesion that keeps the water stuck.
For anyone who handles a credit card machine: If the card won’t read when you “swipe” it in the intended direction, swipe it the other way. This frequently works. If it doesn’t, place the card in a thin plastic shopping bag (like a grocery bag), stretch the bag tight so there’s only one layer of plastic over the card, and pull it through quickly. The plastic increases the distance between the read heads and the magnetic strip and will often smooth out the signal enough to make the card readable.
You can now by a neat little unit for just this purpose. It’s in a plastic case with a handle. It trickle-charges through your cigarette lighter in the car, and has built-in clips for when you need to “jump-start” the car. Most auto-supply places sell these.
And remember that other laws change from state to state. When I lived in Colorado, you were required to turn into the closest lane (e.g., you must make left turns into the left lane). We moved to California and I almost had an accident because CA allows turns into any lane. I saw someone coming toward me that was turning left when I was turning right. I turned into the right lane, assuming he was turning into the left lane, and he almost hit me. He was swearing and blowing the horn because I “cut him off,” when I thought he was the one breaking the law.
I’m not trying to be snippy or anything, but if no one knows it’s there, why bother doing it? You might as well say grated zuchinni can be left out of almost any dish and no one will know it’s missing!
Just don’t do this in public places, please. Not everybody loves the smell of coffee grounds. Baking soda does just as well, and doesn’t stink up the room.
Those methods can be used to end poker games earlier, too. 
One jar of spaghetti sauce is usually too much for two of us. I hated throwing out the leftovers, but knew if I left it in the fridge it’d get moldy before I used it. So now I put the leftover amount in a ziplog plastic freezer bag. Each time, I add the leftovers to the same bag until I’ve got enough for a meal.