Aside from some elevated moments, there is a lot of routine in our lives: doing the laundry, ironing, cooking, and other not very pleasant things. There is no way to avoid doing them unless you are a Queen, but there is a way to make them simpler.
We at Smalljoys have found several ideas on the internet that will help you do everyday tasks faster. They were tested by ordinary people which means they work perfectly!
16. You can fix the scratches on an old CD/DVD with a banana!
15. Soda pop tabs can be used to hang pictures and frames.
14. If you want to soften butter quickly but don’t want to melt it, put boiling hot water in a glass to heat the glass. Dump the water out and flip it over your stick of butter. In a few minutes, it will be soft enough to use!
13. Grilling meat on a skewer? Use 2 skewers so the pieces of meat don’t turn back around once you flip them.
12. How to pack “leak-proof” bottles for a trip:
11. Use tin foil if your batteries are too short.
10. No fridge in your hotel? Use the A/C!
9. Use tape to help remove small glass shards.
8. Serve condiments in a muffin tin.
7. Fruit fly infestation? Pour vinegar and a tiny bit of dish soap in a shallow dish/bowl and leave it out.
6. Easy cleanup for shaving your face
5. When packing ground beef to freeze, make it thin… It thaws in minutes.
4. “Spotted a pro parent in the airport with a car seat attached to their suitcase.”
3. Put some tape on your luggage so you can easily identify it at baggage claim.
2. Make a small slit on the seal with a knife instead of opening it up all the way. This prevents pouring too much on your rice.
1. Freeze leftover chili or soup in a muffin pan and bag them after. They make perfect portions for defrosting later.
Bonus.
How much juice is left in the battery?
Use “Favorites” on your phone to flag photos for mass deletion.
Use a blown-up plastic bag to act as a light diffuser while taking photographs, or use colored plastic bags as color filters.
A good way to carry a jug back from the store
Want to count active calories and keep your Apple Watch clean while painting? Use a sweatband as a cover!
Use different colored ink for different subjects when you’re allowed to use one-sided cheat sheets.
Freeze coffee in an ice tray so you don’t have to choose between drinking scalding hot coffee, or chilled, watered down coffee. Use milk or creamer if you don’t like black coffee. This works great with any freezable liquid that you don’t want to water down with ice.
Your fly won’t stay up? Attach a keyring to the zipper and hang it over the button.
Life hack for a wet mop
Super cool DIY clothing
“You can use old cassette cases as phone stands (used the cassette here as the photo was being taken by the phone).”
“Happiness knows no bounds when your roommate does this.”
No corkscrew? We gotcha, comrades!
When in a crowded area, turn off LTE and you will get better data speed.
Grilling meat on a skewer? Use 2 skewers so they don’t turn back once you flip them.
How to use the bathroom while wearing a big wedding dress:
Getting rid of stains on leather
Just apply a mixture of water and vinegar and gently rub it over the stain.
Keeping jewelry clean
This applies only to the non-precious metal parts of your jewelry. Cover the inside part of a ring with clear nail polish. You’ll never have to worry about getting marks on your fingers again.
Getting rid of oily stains on your clothes
Use baby powder to get rid of the stain.
Rescuing a shrunken t-shirt
Put your shrunken item of clothing into water with some kids’ shampoo (one liter of water for every spoon of shampoo). Leave it to soak for half an hour. Squeeze out the water and place the t-shirt between two towels for ten minutes. Then stretch the item out to its original size, putting something heavy on the edges to keep it stretched, and leave it to dry.
Use a razor to get rid of fluff from your clothes
Stopping jeans from fading
Add half a glass of vinegar to the washing machine to stop dark jeans losing their color when being washed.
To quickly iron a collar
Hair straighteners can help you to quickly iron the fabric around buttons and folds on shirts and skirts.
Removing scuff marks from suede shoes
Use an ordinary eraser to clean your suede shoes.
Cleaning the white part of your sneakers
Mix some cleaning solution with baking soda in a bowl, take an old tooth brush and use the solution to thoroughly clean the white rubber parts of your shoes.
How to fit the bottom of your jeans into your boots:
Removing sweat stains from your clothes
These stains can be cleaned using a mixture of lemon juice and baking soda.
Putting a cord through the hood of your hoodie
Use a straw to push the cords through the narrow holes.
Breaking in new shoes
Pour some water into sealable plastic packets, place them inside your shoes and put the shoes in the freezer. When the water freezes, it expands. Take the shoes out of the freezer, wait for the ice to melt a little and take the bags of water out. N.B: this method doesn’t work for patent leather shoes.
Getting rid of the static on your pants
To get rid of static, place a safety pin on the inside seam of each trouser leg.
To stop the zipper on your jeans from coming undone
Attach the ring from a key ring on the zipper and hook it over the button of your pants.