If you’ve never heard of “Life Hacks” before, allow me to enlighten you. The dictionary reference reads as follows: “A strategy or technique adopted to manage one’s time and daily activities more efficiently.”
Put more simply, it is the use of everyday objects usually to clean, repair or salvage something that is broken, stained or apparently worn out. They also allow you to use these objects to create something ridiculously useful that would otherwise cost you an arm and a leg.
You can find these all over the Web. One of the best places to find them is on Pinterest – a brilliant site primarily designed to share ideas and interesting tidbits of information using images, videos and GIFs. Just to give you an example, here are a couple of short clips from this site.
The first one shows you to how to clean a red-wine stain off the carpet, repair a broken kitchen tile, mending vertical blinds, tackling a drawer that sticks, helping to move a heavy sofa and hanging your pictures if you don’t have a hook!
Hammered!
The second clip is all about hammers! You find out how to hammer a nail without catching your thumb, how to magnetise the head so nails will stay attached to it, an ingenious method of keeping your nails close to your hammer and how to avoid breaking fragile surfaces when using one. There are also some useful tips for using a drill in the home.
Of course something as intriguing as this will have a website named after it and life hacks are no exception. Go to lifehack.org and spend hours going through their suggestions! There are a hundreds of them! Learn how to waterproof your shoes, create a makeshift stand for your mobile phone and many more!
One of the most-famous life hacks is the oh-so-easy way to fold a T-shirt. You’ll never struggle to do it again – it’s so obvious! Try this one for a more- detailed walkthrough or this one for the speedy version!
Do you know what a pool noodle is? No, I didn’t either, but it turns out they’re versatile enough to have 50 hacks created just for them. Take a look here to see how they can enrich YOUR life.
We’ll close with three from familyhandyman.com just because they’re so good, you’ll wonder why on earth you never thought of them first!
If you’re fed up of burning your fingers trying to light a candle that has burnt to below the level of the glass holder it’s in, just light a piece of spaghetti and use that as an impromptu taper!
Prevent mirrors from fogging up after a hot shower – apply a small amount of car wax, let it dry, then buff with a soft, dry cloth.
Throw a few ice cubes or a wet washcloth in a spin dryer to remove the wrinkles from your lighter- weight clothers. As the ice melts and the water turns to steam, it will remove the creases. Ten minutes should be enough.
We’ll bring you more amazing hacks in future issues and don’t forget to let us know if you have any of your own!
