[QUOTE=Ogre]
I have an old coffee can (with a lid) in the freezer for meat scraps (fat, bone, gristle, shrimp shells, etc.) Keep 'em in there until trash day, and they don’t stink up the garbage. Happy neighbors!
[/QUOTE]
I freeze my daily banana peels and stuff until trash day.
[QUOTE=Koxinga]
I sometimes work as an editor, and occasionally I want to check two printouts of a document to see if they’re exactly the same version. Fast way to do this: I put two versions of the same page side by side, cross my eyes so that one page seems to go “on top” of the other, and look at a “combined” page as if it were a 3D Viewmaster. If there is a difference of even one word between the two, my binocular vision makes the errant word leap out at me.
[/QUOTE]
Oh my god, that is the most ingenius thing I’ve ever heard of.
My contributions:
[ul]
[li]I use a keychain LED flashlight as a bike light at night. (I’m…pretty sure that’s safe. One time I did an experiment in which one of my friends was able to see me blinking the light on and off from over a mile away.)[/li][li]I carry my backpack with me so I don’t have to use (as many) grocery bags when I go shopping.[/li][li]I have my computer set up to pop up FileMon every time it starts, which lists every file that gets accessed by any program, so I can actually tell when it’s finished booting up instead of listening for mysterious clicks in the hard drive to stop. [/li][/ul]
[QUOTE=KJ]
Oh my god, that is the most ingenius thing I’ve ever heard of.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks! I guess I don’t have three noses after all.
Sounds like you might be another editor?
[QUOTE=elbows]
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.
[/QUOTE]
But don’t do this if you have vinyl siding. You’ll melt your house! For that reason, ours sits across the patio - less than 10 feet from the back door.
Every year I buy a cheap calendar and mark my and the wife’s pay days in it for the year with a black pen and estimated dollar amount.
Then I fill in with a red pen any reoccuring monthly payments on their due dates with dollar amount throughout the year (mortgage, car payment).
And anytime I get a bill in the mail I immediately open it and write it’s dollar amount on it’s due date in red on the calendar.
Then when I sit down to pay bills I just open the calendar and can instantly see what’s coming due and when we get paid next and cross of bills as we pay them.
When I close the calendar on the current month it holds all my bills, my checkbook, and stamps.
[QUOTE=Hampshire]
Every year I buy a cheap calendar…
[/QUOTE]
I think I love you Hampshire.
I will be doing this also, starting in November (I’m all done with my bills for October).
I can eat with either my left or right hand. I can only cut with my right. So, when eating something I have to cut, I always just eat with my left hand. Everyone else in my family eats AND cuts with only their dominant hand. Theyr’e always cutting, then putting the knife down and swapping hands. What surprises me is that my mom is a righty cutter and eater, yet she’s ambidextrous in every other way. They all think I’m weird but I think they’re all weird.
I work as a packer in a factory. I always tape the top flaps of the box down, then I swish the bag through the air to fill it, then I push the filled bag into the box. Then, I fold the top of the bag over the folded flaps of the box. Then, I pick up the box and swish THAT through the air. The end result is that the flaps don’t pop up and pull the bag out of place while I’m trying to stack bottles. And, the bag is held to the sides of the box and doesn’t fall down on the stuff I’m stacking. Every other packer I work with just folds down the flaps (not taping them) and then they place the bag in the box and start packing. They’re constantly adjusting the bag and refolding the flaps down. Their bags always end up full of holes and their stacks are always falling down. The strange thing is that at least once per shift, they will ALL tell me that my way wastes time and I should do it the way they do.
I have to be wearing my glasses if I want to hear whomever I’m talking to. I am not deaf or even slightly hard of hearing. But, for some reason, I rely very much on, not reading lips, but watching lips, while I’m listening to someone. I’ve gotten some very strange looks when I tell someone, “hang on, I can’t hear you. I have to put my glasses on.” My mom does this too so I know I’m not totally insane. Just slightly.
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle]
Here’s how I unload my groceries at the checkout. ccc = my cart, M = me, < is the conveyor, C = the checker.
ccc
<<<<<<M
C
I stand at the end of the conveyor with the cart in the lane on my right. I pick up something with my right hand, then transfer it to my left hand. My left hand places it on the conveyor. Years ago I saw someone else use this method and I adopted it immediately. It works so much better than standing at either end of the cart that I just can’t understand why everyone doesn’t do the same. I see someone else use this method only a handful of times a year.
[/QUOTE]
I am usually loading as someone else’s order is still waiting and the belt isn’t moving. If I stand behind the belt, I’d have to reach waaay far out front to fit everything. That’s if there’s no impulse buy/maagzine rack in the way.
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle]
Here’s how I unload my groceries at the checkout. ccc = my cart, M = me, < is the conveyor, C = the checker.
ccc
<<<<<<M
C
[/QUOTE]
When I read this yesterday, I thought that was a lot of effort for little reward. Then I went to the store and tried it. By gum, you’re right! And what’s even better, the toddler can stand (on the floor) at the end of the cart, trapped between my cart and the behind of the person in front of us, where I can keep an eye on her, and she can “help” me put light things on the belt. Then I just back the cart up six inches to give her room to get back out, and we proceed as normal to the check out. But yeah, with your way (now my way), there’s no tiptoes and stretching to get to one end of the cart or another! Brilliant!
I have learned the push the buttons on my phone with my right ring finger while holding a pen in the right hand in the standard way between the index and middle fingers ready to be used.
[QUOTE=congodwarf]
I have to be wearing my glasses if I want to hear whomever I’m talking to. I am not deaf or even slightly hard of hearing. But, for some reason, I rely very much on, not reading lips, but watching lips, while I’m listening to someone. I’ve gotten some very strange looks when I tell someone, “hang on, I can’t hear you. I have to put my glasses on.” My mom does this too so I know I’m not totally insane. Just slightly.
[/QUOTE]
Me too! And several people I’ve known. It’s just all the perfectly-sighted people don’t understand!
Here’s my big “people would think I’m nuts” one: looks around warily I still sleep with a blankie. I don’t use it for security anymore, honest! But I sleep on my side and I’m very fussy about getting comfortable, and a small blanket you can bunch, fold, and wedge around your shoulder/neck/head ensures the perfect positioning.
In our powder room, which my four year old and her friends use, I put the hand towel on the rack, then put a binder clip around both halves (on the side where you can’t see it much), to keep the towel on the rack, instead of getting pulled off by careless little hands. I had used a diaper pin to pin it, but it’s more of a pain to do, and wound up ripping one of the towels when someone yanked especially hard.
I also keep a pump of hand sanitizer as well as soap in there, and when I change the towel, I pump a little sanitizer on the tap handle and wipe it with the old towel - keeps it from getting too germy and/or fingerprinty between proper cleanings.
We have seven laundry baskets throughout the house, so we don’t have to sort: towels, reds, darks, lights, delicates, kitchen, and kid stuff.
And a few kitchen ones:
I keep onions in a lingerie washing bag nailed to the wall of my pantry - the air circulates and they don’t rot.
I keep meat in one of the crisper drawers in the fridge, thereby complying with the sensible guideline not to keep raw meat above any other foods. I also tend to put the meat in the bin still in the plastic grocery bag, further preventing cross contamination and sparing myself trying to scrub out and sanitize the fridge interior due to leaks.
I also recently put some plastic bins on the shelves, to keep items from getting shoved to the back, forgotten, and turning into science experiments. I can now just pull the bin out and see everything, including the hindmost items.
[QUOTE=congodwarf]
I have to be wearing my glasses if I want to hear whomever I’m talking to. I am not deaf or even slightly hard of hearing. But, for some reason, I rely very much on, not reading lips, but watching lips, while I’m listening to someone. I’ve gotten some very strange looks when I tell someone, “hang on, I can’t hear you. I have to put my glasses on.” My mom does this too so I know I’m not totally insane. Just slightly.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t wear glasses, but I do have to look at people when they’re speaking sometimes. It is actually part of my dyslexia thing. My brain simply doesn’t process speech sometimes unless I also have the visual cue of the lips moving. My daughter does it too – that is why/how I first started to suspect that she might be dyslexic as well. For my bit of genius regarding this, if someone says something to me that I don’t get (because it really isn’t a hearing issue), I make sure that I turn and look at them before asking them to repeat it.
[QUOTE=Unauthorized Cinnamon]
We have seven laundry baskets throughout the house, so we don’t have to sort: towels, reds, darks, lights, delicates, kitchen, and kid stuff.
[/QUOTE]
We went just the opposite way - we have one laundry basket for the whole family (the kids are still kids). Everything goes in there and when it’s holding as much as our washer will fit, the basket gets dumped into the washer - colors, delicates, everything (we’re simple folk 
). I’m of the opinion that if it requires special handling, it’s not worth owning or wearing (the exception is dry-clean-only dress clothes, but that’s a once-a-year thing). We wash warm/cold and dry on low. We fold and sort at the same time, so everybody gets their clothes back at the end.
I roll my toothpaste tube tightly from the end (as opposed to squeezing it from the middle). This was fine when my brand came in one of those metallic-material tubes that stayed in place, but they recently switched to a soft plastic tube that unrolls. So I put a binder clip on the end of the tube to hold it in place. So now I squeeze from the middle for a little while, and then unclip, roll up tight, and reclip.
Also, similar to the “attach your keys to something” trick, when I leave work, I remove my security badge from my belt loop and clip it to the carrying strap on my laptop case. I work from home two days a week, and this method ensures that when I go into the office, if I remember one or the other between my computer or my badge, I have both of them. Of course, if I forget both, then I have neither, and I have to return home to get them. But that hasn’t happened in… a couple of months, at least. 
[QUOTE=Liberal]
When my butt itches, I scratch it.
[/QUOTE]
Same here. When Liberal’s butt itches, I scratch it.