How to Survive with These Modern Day Real Life Hacks!
If only I knew one of these real life hacks back when I was in college I could have helped my teammate out! I’ll never forget it. It was near the end of the season and several of us got called on a Sunday night and told to show up at the field house at 6 am the next morning. Yup, we had been ‘randomly’ selected for drug testing by the NCAA. I was in and out and back in bed before I knew it. My buddy? Not so much. More about his story a little later…
Before We Go Any Further…
Some of you may not be familiar with the term ‘life hack’ as in real life hacks. So, let’s start by consulting my good friend Merriam-Webster who defines a hack as “a usually simple and clever tip or technique for accomplishing some familiar task more easily and efficiently.”1
Today, we are going to cover 23 pretty cool real life hacks that you can use to make things easier in your life.
(1) Ice cube in dryer
This is one I have used successfully to get wrinkles out of a shirt or some slacks. You take a couple ice cubes, throw them in the dryer with your piece of clothing for about 10 minutes and boom! The only caveat is that I haven’t found it to work on heavier pieces of clothing, only light pieces of clothing. Another trick some friends have used is to put your clothes on a hanger when you are taking a hot shower and the steam helps get wrinkles out. For me, the problem is, I only take cold showers…Oh well, maybe it will work for you!
(2) Make your razor blades last longer
Razors and razor blades can get quite expensive. To make mine last WAY longer, I strop my blades to bend back the blades after they seem blunt. All you need to do is get an old pair of jeans or denim and push them in the opposite direction to which you shave for 10-20 strokes. This helps straighten the blades which makes them last longer!
(3) Clean your blender
Whenever I make protein shakes in my blender, I always seem to have some kind of gunk on the side after I use it. No problem! I just throw some hot water in and a bit of soap and turn it on and the gunk is gone. Then I just rinse it out and I am done. Of course, remember to put the lid on!
(4) Have a hard time locating your bag on the carousel at the airport?
Easy, just tie a ribbon on it the handle or use a colored luggage tag that makes it easier to spot from the rest. I have had friends that put a fragile sticker on theirs as well, so the baggage handlers don’t toss it around too haphazardly.
(5) At a bar and don’t want to lose your drink or chair?
Putting a coaster on top of your glass is the universal sign for ‘I’ll be back, so please don’t take my drink or seat.”
(6) Want to clean the keys on your keyboard?
Take the sticky edge of a post-it note and run it between the keys to pick up the crumbs and whatever else is lurking between the keys.
(7) Want to make your workout sets seem faster?
When I work out, I count down when I do my reps. Psychologically, it works as you are getting closer and closer to zero.
(8) Using Google.com while in another country – Google.com/ncr
This is one I use when I go home to Canada. When you are in a different country, Google automatically knows where you are and directs you to the Google site in that country. So, when I am in Canada it takes me to Google.ca. But let’s say for whatever reason I want to use Google.com – simply type in google.com/ncr and it will bypass the redirect and take you to google.com.
(9) Damn, I forgot to put the gift card in my Mom’s Christmas card!
And I already sealed it. No problem, put it in the freezer for an hour to unseal it!
(10) Wanna divide something evenly between your kids?
A trick my Mom used to use was to tell one of us they got to divide and the other one gets to pick.
(11) Need to remove those annoying furniture indentations left by furniture?
Another ice cube trick! Just place ice cubes on your carpet and watch the carpet come back to life.
(12) Lose something that is hard to find such as earrings?
Put a stocking or pantyhose on the end of a vacuum cleaner hose and then go over the area where you may have dropped it and check to see if it picked it up.
(13) Don’t forget things when you leave the house…
By putting your keys on top of whatever you don’t want to forget, i.e. your lunch.
(14) Send better emails!
By adding the recipient’s name to the email AFTER you finish typing the body of the email and adding whatever attachments. This will save you from hitting send too early as well as from not adding the attachments.
(15) Sending your address to a friend who is coming to your house?
Snap a pic of your house and include that too! It will make your house easier to find, rather than having them try to locate house numbers.
(16) Want people to leave you alone?
Wear headphones and usually, they won’t bother you!
(17) Did someone important give you a business card?
Take a quick picture of it before you lose it. (after they leave!)
(18) Want to navigate to another webpage using only your keyboard?
Hit control + L on a PC or cmd + L on a Mac. This will put the cursor into the address bar and highlight what is currently in it, then you just need to type the new address.
(19) Want to keep your drink cool?
Just make ice cubes out of whatever you are drinking to prevent the drink from being watered down. For example, making iced coffee? Make some ice cubes out of iced coffee! I suppose you could use a mug that you keep in the freezer as well…
(20) Always forget where you leave your vehicle as I do?
No worries, just take a picture of the floor, row number etc. where you parked and never waste another minute searching for your vehicle!
(21) Want to dry your clothes faster?
Place a dry towel in with your wet clothes! One caveat is that you need to take the towel out after 15-20 minutes.
(22) Lose or misplace your repair manual?
Ifixit.com is a pretty great resource to download repair manuals for almost anything!
Back to my buddy…
He had a hard time ‘going’ in front of the NCAA pee collector and ended up drinking glass after glass of water and finally by 1 in the afternoon he went! If only he knew one of the most interesting of our real life hacks that says multiplying random numbers in your head can help get rid of stage fright. Apparently, the same part of the brain that controls pee shyness controls multiplying random numbers which helps you get started.
On that note, I’ve had too much water and need to go to the bathroom!
Until next time, keep using those real life hacks and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
When to Use It – Real Life Hacks
Use these real life hacks whenever the need arises in your life.
What Do You Think?
Have you used any of these real life hacks? Do you have any others that you use? Please share in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to us if you shared it with people you care about via any of the social media platforms below!
Popular Previous Posts:
Managers Versus Leaders: My Opinion on the Difference!
21 Philosopher Quotes that Will Make You Think Deeply
How to Use the 10 10 10 Rule to Make Better Decisions
The 12 Days of Bad Habits to Break Right Now!
References
1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/life%20hack
Easy to check out, easy to read…heck I had developed to leave a
commment!
I love these useful tips. Thanks Rick
Thanks for reading Eileen!
Some excellent ideas, and I have used many of them with varying degrees of success.
(6) Silly putty also can clean a keyboard. Also works on getting dirt out of hard to reach small places in your car.
(12) Works on a rug. For linoleum or a wood floor – lay down on the floor with your head on its side and then get one eyeball right down on the floor. Whatever dropped will be seen as raised up. You will also see colonies of dust bunnies, crumbs, and other effluvia.
(13) I cannot forget my keys, since I then cannot start up the truck in the garage. But to prevent forgetting other things, the night before place them on the hood, or inside on the passenger seat.
Readers Digest published a similar list of car hacks, which is where I got the silly putty trick. Acetone will remove decals and bumper stickers, use toothpaste to clean the plastic headlight covers, if you live in a cold climate – slide old socks over each windshield wiper in the evening and the wipers won’t be frozen to the glass from frost the next morning. Door lock frozen? Use a cigarette lighter and heat up the key. My Dad taught me that one.