if your bookmarks are messy, you’ll find that googling is faster than using your bookmarks.
btw, what do you guys do with the bit of soap left that is too small to use as soap?
It gets piggybacked onto the new bar, and glues itself on after being wet and drying.
Zuchinni can be grated into almost any dish, and no one will know it’s there.
A dryer fabric softener sheet under the car seat makes a fine air freshener.
You can handwash delicates in shampoo if you don’t have liquid detergent.
An open container of fresh coffee will really absorb odours.
Garbage bags too prone to ripping/being torn into by creatures? Use Costco trash-compactor bags. They’re a LOT sturdier.
In my experience, roll control is more important than yaw control, if you have to choose.
Yogurt can be substituted for eggs. (In baking.)
When becoming a costumed vigilante/superhero/villain, it’s common practice to attach your face mask with spirit gum, so it can’t slip/get ripped off at an inoportune time. (I haven’t tested this one out myself.)
Need to sterilise a washing up cloth? Get it wet and stick in the microwave for a minute or two.
Neat Lavender essential oil has been recommended for relief and treatment of minor burns and cuts/grazes for a long long time and is reported to be very effective. The use of oil of various descriptions - vitamin E, emu oil, is being used to aid in recovery in serious burns. One of the problems associated with rinsing a new wound with cold water is the leaching of skin oils from the burn site. Lavender oil would probably be as useful as any other emollient.
For instance parents.com say:
Anything more than a 1st degree burn will require medical attention.
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When making a long trip on foot in an urban grid, try to keep the distance yet to be covered “vertically” and “horizontally” roughly equal – that way, you can just go with the lights as long as possible, which means you probably won’t have to stand at any corners until you’re almost at your destination.
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The best cold-remedy in the world: Vicodin and Afrin (availability may vary; Afrin optional).
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After lighting a cigar, blow on the lit end to see if there are any spots on the head that aren’t yet burning. If there are, keep blowing on those spots until the burn covers the entire head – this all but eliminates uneven burns, in my experience, without running the risk of getting your cigar burning too hot.
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When opening an Entenman’s box (or, to a lesser extent, any cardboard box whose opening is glued shut), use a butter knife to separate the glue from the cardboard and to tear along any perforated lines – this way you don’t tear the box, and you don’t feel stupid for not being able to work cardboard.
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When trying to lose weight, keep yourself to the following rule: no food until you’ve had at least a light workout. If you’re hungy and you have to eat, at least you’re earning it – if you’re lazy and you put off exercising, at least you’re not eating.
When rolling up your sleeves, roll them up outside-in rather than inside-out, so that the roll goes next to the skin. They don’t unroll anywhere near as fast that way.
When talking on a phone in a noisy environment and you can’t hear well, put your hand over the mouthpiece. Your brain is perfectly capable of filtering out the noise in the other ear, it’s when the room noise is mixed in with what you want to hear that the brain can’t filter it out.
When making fries, soak the freshly-cut potatoes in water for about 3 minutes and drain (this removes the starch). Then dunk them in flour, knock of the excess and fry to make them extra-crispy !
Similarly - if you’ve got onion or garlic odors on your hands, coffee grounds will eliminate the smell. If you’re like me, there’s probably some good soggy ones still in the filter from the morning pot. Scoop some out, rub 'em over your hands along with a little dish soap, and rinse. (You can use fresh grounds, too.) I make a kitchen hand soap out of melt-and-pour soap base, vitamin E oil and fresh coffee grounds - it works wonderfully.
Y’all are probably tired of hearing this from me, but:
Listening to audio books in the car is the best way I’ve found to cut down on the bickering in the back seat.
if you have a bicycle with a rack on the back for holding stuff…You can slide your U-shaped lock into it.
It fits perfectly in the big area on the sides so you don’t have to carry it with you, in your backpack, on your handlebars or buy a special holder for it. Just slide it into the long holes on either side. If you look at it you’ll figure it out.
Here’s one I found out by accident. Shampoo will remove both rust stains and soap scum without major scrubbing. I spilled some shampoo in the tub and in the process of cleaning it up, found out it had removed scummy dirt that had been there since I moved in that I hadn’t been able to scrub out. I’m going to use it on the shower doors next. I imagine that really inexpensive shampoo would work well, and is much cheaper than the cleaners sold for that purpose. Just make sure you rinse very, very well.
In the past such advice would be called “advice”. However, the trendy thing to do is to call it “Lifehacking”
It seems to be a combination of combinig advice on program and on daily life, with little disticntion between the two.
Cheap creme rinse (for hair) is good shaving cream in the shower- slicker and less drying than soap, and cheaper than shaving products.
Another way to get garlic and onion smells off your hands is to rub them on stainless steel. I don’t know why that works but it does. I have a stainless sink so it’s easy, but you can buy a stainless steel ball made for this purpose in kitchen stores.
I keep baby socks from getting lost in the laundry by putting them in a mesh laundry bag (made for delicates).
I have several laundry baskets for whites, colors and delicates so I separate clothes as they are used. Then when I want to do a load I can just throw it in, no sorting first.
When my daughter started eating more solid foods, the Diaper Genie just stopped working (even with the 2nd stage liners). I discovered that a better solution to dirty diaper smell was a cheap box of store-brand zip-loc bags. Pop the diaper in, seal the bag (getting the air out first) and no more smell. I keep a supply in my diaper bag, too, for diaper changes outside the house…
Drilling a quarter-inch hole in a flatpick makes it much easier to grip.
**The perfect way to remove pet-hair from fabric upholstery: ** Put on a rubber household glove (older, slightly sticky ones work best) and rub th efabric with it, in firm, short strokes. The cat-hair will be plucked out of the fabric en will clump together so it can easily be picked up. Rinse the glove every few strokes in a little bucket of plain lukewarm water. This beats vacuuming and the "sticky tape over hand"method, and it sure beats every special brush I ever bought at the petstore that claimed to remove pethair from the couch.
For those who wear dresses and skirts in summer: Buy a plain nylon underskirt. With the sewingmachine, sew “legs” into it. (An elongated upside down “U” halfway down the skirt, then use scissors to cut inside the U, turn inside-out, ready. Takes 10 minutes at most.
Such undertrousers make a dress fall pretty, but more importantly, they prevent your thighs chafing and it feels very cool and pleasant to wear. They make nice gifts, too.
In a pinch, cut-off nylons can serve the same purpose.
You can buy those too, if you don’t want to make them - they are called “pettipants.” You’re right; they make walking in a skirt much more comfortable.
Why? I’m putting it in a hot skillet, what difference does it make?
Re: soap slivers - I toss one in a cup of hot water, let it dissolve into a slurry for a couple days, then use it to do a load of laundry. (This probably won’t work if you’re a construction worker or something - we have office jobs and just don’t get our clothes super dirty.)
Other cheapness related - Bananas are eaten by the “each” but sold by weight. Always buy the smallest bananas because no-one ever eats a banana and says “Gosh I wish that banana were 2oz bigger!”