We used to do that until one sprang a leak. Real mess, that was.
Speaking of reloading garbage bags, I do the usual air scoop trick to open them up, but once I have it fully deployed, I pinch the bottom on the garbage bag and sweep it trough the air like a streamer. Once it’s following my hand movement like some sort of ballet, I dive it right into the can. Perfect. Now I just open the mouth up with my hands and new bag is loaded.
Reading in bed: I use a booklight so my wife can get some solid sleep while I’m in the middle of a page-turner. Rather than clipping the booklight to the book, I position it on my shoulder, pointed toward the book. The light is much more diffuse and even (read: eye pleasing), and is not clipped to only one side of the book. It also keeps any possible glare out of my eyes. It’s just better.
Eating: Being right-handed, I use the fork in my right hand, and knife in my left. No switching or dropping utensils while I eat.
Talking on the phone: I talk lefty. As said, I’m right handed, so talking lefty allows me to keep my right hand open for writing or working on the computer.
Maybe that stuff is commonplace, but both my wife and my dad think I’m nuts.
Another thing similar. To crush large plastic containers (like gallon milk jugs and 2 liter soda bottles) and keep them crushed simply remove the screw-on cap, crush container and replace cap while container is being squeezed. This way the container will not re-inflate and take up less room on the garbage or recycle bin. No-one else I know does this.
Ditto, I learnt this from the janitors at work here.
I’m pretty hard to wake up. Once I get used to the sound of an alarm clock, I can sleep right through it, without even bothering to turn it off. As you can imagine, this was not a good thing in college, especially during final exams. So, I invented my own alarm clock out of two things I had around the house: an appliance timer (you know, one of those devices you can use to turn something on at a set time every day, like a lamp while you’re on vacation or something), and my vacuum cleaner. Plug the vacuum into the timer, set it for 6 AM, and WOW, that’s an alarm that’ll wake up anybody.
I am not tall, and cannot remember to clean those spots that are out of my line of vision. Like the top of the fridge and the stacked washer dryer. It usually occurs to me after someone tall has come into my house, and I have a sinking feeling when I realize how dusty and dirty it must be in those spots.
My cure is to cover those two spots, right after wiping and cleaning, with clear saran. It’s not visible from down where I am, and if people are coming over I just pop into the area and whip it off with the dirt and dust and know it’s clean up there. Then I just remember to replace fresh Saran after they leave. Can’t remember who taught me this but it’s brilliant in my opinion.
Secondly, I spent an hour or two creating custom protective sleeve covers for all my kitchen small appliances. It only requires some clear plastic bags, scissors, tape and a little patience. I am so glad I took the time. The appliances, especially the ones I don’t use all that often, stay sparkling clean and ready to use, no dusting or wiping required. I found that I wasn’t using some of my appliances as I knew they would be dusty and need a good cleaning first. I have a walk in pantry so that helps, but it would work as well with appliances stored in cupboards. This one thing has saved me hours of work and I use my small appliances much more.
I also consider myself especially clever for insisting that the BBQ be immediately outside the kitchen door. Raised up to the level of the stoop (by a purpose built mini deck), under the protection of the porch roof, in a well lit area. In my opinion it’s the only reasonable place to put the BBQ, right outside the door of the kitchen, it makes a lot of sense to me and I use it all winter long as a result.
Being left-handed, I never understood why right-handers did this in the first place.
Laundry has been much faster since I learned how to fold a shirt.
After using chopsticks, I wash them in the dishwasher by running them through two squares of the silverware basket grid at an angle. If I put chopsticks in the silverware basket without taking this step, they fall out of the basket.
This was actually my mom’s idea, but its brilliant.
My parents buy me groceries often. So I don’t forget them, I put my car keys in the fridge (or freezer) with the groceries.
I’ve also done it at work, if I buy something at lunch. Or leftovers when I’m visiting some place.
It does make the remote entry fob-thingy not work immediately (and it’s probably not good for it anyway).
Covering the Pool
I don’t mess around with covers that I need to clean every year that get holes in them after two years. I don’t waste time with water bags or boxes that always spring a leak.
I buy a roll of 20’-wide thick black plastic and twenty bags of mulch from Home Depot.
The plastic goes on the pool, with the bags of mulch distributed around the perimeter.
In the spring, the plastic gets tossed and I use the mulch around the trees and bushes, as intended.
Running
I slip the cord of my headphones down my shirt to my Shuffle attached to my shorts. This keeps the cord out of my way. I do this for yard work as well – the cord stays away from the hedge trimmer.
Not my own idea, but I tie my shoes using Ian’s Secure Shoelace Knot when running. It works perfectly!
Trash Bags
(another tip from the land of professional trash-bag changers)
Many people still try to tie a bag by twisting the whole top into a snake and tying that in a single overhand knot, or use the twist-ties provided in the box. Sadly, this wastes 1/4 of the volume of the bag.
The best way is to grab two handfuls of plastic on opposite sides of the mouth, like bunny ears, and tie them together with a double knot. You can tie up even the most overfilled bulging bag this way. Guess how people in restaurants tie the bags in the kitchen.
I don’t because I was told to remove the caps for recycling. (I never knew why and didn’t care enough to ask.)
Why?
I do that as well. I maintain that it was my first truly adult moment- when I threw out all of my old multibrand socks and replaced the entire collection with the same type and color Hanes socks.
(of course, I still have a few dress socks, and specialty socks- but 90% of my sock drawer is the same type of sock)
Funny enough, whenever someone claims they have lost something (usually keys) I suggest looking in the freezer – it’s such a ridiculous place to think of finding one’s keys that it usually jogs the person’s memory of where they did leave their keys – guess it would be the perfect suggestion for you? Try putting the keys in a ziplock bag – it will keep the moisture out and help your remote entry fob-thingy stay alive longer.
Which reminds me, I always take ziplocks with me to amusement parks. Shove my cell phone, wallet and whetever I don’t want to get ruined in them when going on the water rides, zip them up and voila! I usually carry a few extra for the idiots who start freaking out as soon as they realise that their cell phone is about to get wet. I know all you military dopers know this trick.
Flander – I am mostly right-handed, but I am also right-ear dominant (meaning, I actually hear better out of my right ear – noticably so) I almost exclusively use my right ear for phonecalls because of this. Luckily, I am ambidextrous and can write left-handed when I need to, so it doesn’t affect me when on a phone call. I don’t know that this is why others do it, but it answers your curiousity as far as I go 
Just out of curiosity, why don’t you just place the page of one document on top of the page of the other, then hold both to the light? Or is your way just more fun? 
Or you could even use the edit/show changes function in Word for this.
Keeps the martini ice cold as long as possible. Since a cold martini is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy, yet pay for it later… there is no other reason needed.
I’m sure others do these too:
-Put a small piece of white bread in with brown sugar. Sugar stays soft, bread gets hard. Replace bread next time you use brown sugar. (The teeny slivery heel pieces are best for this.)
-When replacing my antique sewing box with something less rickety for everyday use, I bought a tackle box. Lots of little compartments for different little things and a large bottom for big stuff. Perfect.
-A trick from my dad - When painting a large room, and needing to take more than one day to do it, remove rollers from frames and wrap in saran wrap. Do the same for any brushes. Place in refrigerator (preferably in a tray in case of slight leakage). Next day, the stuff is just as you left it and ready to go again. (I know this works for latex paint - YMMV for any other type of paint.)
Okay, sorry about my ignorance on martinis – I loathe gin, vermouth, vodka and green olives.
I’ve been patting myself for being so brilliant lately. I just started using a Reach flosser, which is like a toothbrush with some floss at the end. After each tooth, I rinse it briefly and then dip it in mouthwash. The germ-killing Listerine goes right down where the yuck lives, and I’ve sanitized the floss for the next tooth!
Also in the bathroom: my husband and I put all our toiletries in small boxes, sort of like the shower buckets we used in our dorm days. We don’t have medicine cabinets in our bathroom, just a big closet. So every morning, we just take out our respective boxes – his with shaving stuff, etc, and mine with hair products, lotions, etc. Also toothbrushes, which go down inside little plastic cups, so they don’t fall all over the place. I also keep my makeup in a little basket, which is stored in a drawer in the vanity. Cleaning up after the morning routine is easy too – throw the boxes back where they belong and you’re DONE.
I don’t have the patience required to pin socks together. Instead, we roll ours together and throw in the laundry basket. Sure, I have to separate them when it comes time to throw them in the wash, but I’m already checking a billion pockets for pens, change, notes, money (I have three kids and a husband); pulling socks apart takes only a nanosecond. This step seems to keep them reasonably together.
Bookshelves for shoes. I’ve outed myself before on what a shoe whore I am; I store a good many of them on bookshelves, in the closet. My husband also put a shelf above the door in the closet (in otherwise wasted space) for purses.
Chair mail at the office – I’ve converted to Keyboard Mail. Everyone races back to their computer; throw whatever you want them to see on their keyboard.
I have a few for infant care:
- store wipe boxes upside down so that the top ones aren’t dry and you’ve got a puddle of liquid in the bottom.
- put infant laundry into a mesh bag and wash all together. No lost socks and you don’t drop teeny clothes all over the place
- As with the trash bags, put a clean crib sheet under the current sheet (way below where the baby sleeps). If you have a wet leak at 3 am, you won’t have to scrounge around for a new sheet. Also: buy at least two mattress pads.