Optimize your life
Discover the best life hacks, tips, and tricks.
Browse through curated categories such as Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Home & Garden, and many more.
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Home & Garden
Gate latch from seat belt buckle
Looking for any ideas for an unusual custom gate latch?
If you have an old seat belt buckle around, you can use it as a simple gate latch.
Home & Garden
Homemade outlet covers
Remove the adhesive top from the baby wipes package. Then place over outlets.
Clothing & Accessories
Armpit stains? Use dishwashing detergent
Deodorant and sweat combined tends to leave awful armpit stains on t-shirts.
Use dishwashing detergent on a toothbrush, and brush the armpit areas for about a minute each before washing them. It tends to break up all the nastiness from sweat + deodorant.
Home & Garden
Dish soap dispenser
Put dish soap in an olive oil dispenser. It allows you to dilute the soap, save money, and it makes washing dishes easier. It also looks quite fancy.
Food & Drink
Cheese board on the go
Want to take cheese with you on a walk? Store your cheese in a container with a lid. To use as a cheese board, simply flip the container and use the lid as the board. No extra cheese board required!
Food & Drink
Save space in your freezer
Cut the cooking instructions from the box and attach it to the contents of the box to save freezer space.
Home & Garden
Don't throw away boxes
Reuse cardboard boxes as containers for extra organizers.
Health & Beauty
Trouble swallowing pills
If you have trouble swallowing pills, use a carbonated beverage like sparkling water.
It stimulates the entire palate and reduces gag.
Food & Drink
Boiling potatoes on high
To prevent your potatoes from boiling over, put a wooden spoon (or similar implement) between the pot and lid. You can then boil then on high the entire time.
Clothing & Accessories
Face mask holders
Sew buttons on your hat to hold your mask.
Outdoor
Phone lattern
Need more light when you’re camping? Put a water bottle on top of your phone flashlight for a lantern effect.
Home & Garden
Stubbing your toe much?
Stubbing your toes on a metal bed frame? Add a section of pool noodle for a low profile toe saver.
Social
Front porch halloween treat dispenser
Use a PVC pipe or similar to create a social distancing treat dispenser for Trick-or-treating kids.
Simply feed the treats down the pipe towards awaiting buckets.
Food & Drink
Keep snack bags closed
Don’t have a chip clip? Use a bobby pin instead to keep an opened snack packet closed when not needed.
Career & Work
Equipment cable management for your workspace
Create a simple harness attached to your desk out of tape. This will prevent you from constantly bending down to pick up cords or from your cords being hard to get especially when you are constantly swapping in and out cords.
Technology
Earphone storage
A Kinder egg capsule is a great solutions for storing headphones/Earphones.
Home & Garden
Keeping track of multiple cable cord ends
Add some colored tape on the appliance, and end of the cord.
You'll then always know which is which.
Home & Garden
Cabinet door storage and organization
Use the inside of your cabinet doors to hold items that are a little more awkward to store. It also frees up actual cabinet space and keeps them more organized.
Food & Drink
Drink coasters
If you can’t afford drink coasters grab some flooring samples from Home Depot (or your equivalent local hardware store).
They are free and come in a variety of colors and finishes!
Technology
Keep your computer active
Need to step away from your PC and keep it active?
Place your mouse over an analog watch to keep it "active".
Home & Garden
Prevent oven handle towels from slipping
Use any stick of velcro or a command strip and apply it to the oven door handle bar. This will add extra friction and keep the kitchen towels in place.
Social
Buying an embarrassing product
If you are in a shop buying an embarrassing product, get a birthday card with it.
Food & Drink
Hair in your food?
If you find a hair in your food, heavily salt the meal before sending it back to the kitchen to make sure you you get a new order.
Outdoor
How to Escape a Rip Current
1) Don't panic. Most rip current deaths occur because swimmers fight the rip current, get exhausted and drown.
2) Swim parallel to the beach. Swimming straight back to shore will put you head-to-head with the rip current's full force.
3) Make your way back ... more
Clothing & Accessories
Lose your keys often?
Get a pet tag with your number or email address as a Key-chain, so if someone finds them they can easily call or text you.
Pet stores have them for cheap and engraving is usually included in the price.
Home & Garden
Avoiding smells in empty closed jars
Attach the lids to the jar with rubber bands to leave the jars open.
Alternatively you could add small piece of tissue paper into the jar with the lid closed to control the moisture.
Food & Drink
Re-use plastic bottle tops to tightly seal food bags
First cut off the wide-mouth plastic bottle top just at the crest. Save the cap.
Next slip the cut off over the bag opening.
Then fold the bag over the bottles mouth.
Finally cap it off with the bottle top.
Outdoor
How to use an analog watch as a compass to find direction
Northern Hemisphere:
You can use a watch to determine general direction by pointing the hour hand at the sun. The midway point between the 12 o'clock position and the hour hand is south.
Remember to account for daylight savings by subtracting an hour if it'... more
Clothing & Accessories
Stacking clothes hanging in your closet
Use soda can tabs to stack the clothes hanging in your closet.
Unexpected benefit: it's super helpful to organize your clothes via grouping.
Home & Garden
Simple, efficient fly trap using a plastic bottle
Cut a plastic bottle in half and flip the top half upside down and insert it into the bottom half to act as a funnel. Poor some wine or vinegar into the bottom half. A fly will be able to easily get in but not out.
Transport
The Complete Guide to What You Should Keep in Your Car
From paper maps, snacks, and first aid kits, to a portable air compressor, shovel, and tire chains. See the complete list below.
Clothing & Accessories
Running armband for your phone
An old sock with the toe cut off and folded on itself makes an effective and stylish running armband!
Home & Garden
Grow trees and plants 3 times faster
Use a buried PVC pipe that directs water to the bottom of the tree or plants roots in the soil. This trains the roots to seek for water downwards.
For a more detailed instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UggqhnihmyY
This method was originally conc... more
Lifestyle
Greek style Yogurt is an excellent sleeping aid
Eating a pot of yogurt before bed is the best sleeping aid there is. The reason behind this is that there are certain nutrients required to do two important things to induce sleep - help relax the central nervous system, and create melatonin.
The nutrients... more
Outdoor
How to carry fire
Fungus fire care: Break a bracket fungi off into a chunk and hold it to an ember until it begins to smolder. Then loosely wrap it in moss to carry.
Ember box: In a ventilated tin can, add moss at the bottom, then add charcoal and an ember. Finally cover it ... more
Social
Improve kids reading skills
If you have kids in elementary school, turn on subtitles when they are watching TV and watch their reading skills improve drastically.
Home & Garden
Lighting hard to reach candles
Light a candle with dry pasta that’s too hard to reach with a normal lighter.
Lifestyle
The knuckle mnemonic
Want to know if a month has 30 or 31 days?
Count your knuckles! Knuckle=31 days and Indentation=30 days
Career & Work
Toolbox rust prevention
Throw a few silica gel packets in your tool box to prevent the tools from rusting. The silica bags will absorb any little moisture in the toolbox prolonging the life of your tools.
Home & Garden
Home-made fly trap
Add apple cider vinegar in a small bottle or jar with a drop of dish soap.
The soap breaks the surface tension so they drown when they land.
Technology
Contain your internet addictions by hitting a wall
An easy way to avoid distractions while working on your device is to logout from email, social media, and any other accounts that often steal your time.
Next time you try to check out one of those sites you'll hit a wall—the login page.
You'll get a secon... more
Lifestyle
Remove the word "Very" from your vocabulary
“Very” is one of those overused words that rarely need to be there, and just ends up making your content writing suffer.
The main issue with using “very” in your writing is that it weakens the sentence and doesn’t provide enough information about the situa... more
Social
Discover who is using an automation tool
Add an emoji at the beginning of your name to see if anyone is using some sort of automation tool to send out connection request on LinkedIn.
When someone is then they will send a message such as "Hi 🍻, ...<rest of message>...."
How it works? Automation t... more
Home & Garden
Freshen a stinky vacuum cleaner
If your vacuum doesn't have a hepa filter, sometimes it smells a bit musty, or like your pets. Suck up powdered cinnamon or nutmeg every time after you empty the canister. It will make it smell quite a bit better since some of the particles are fine enoug... more
Transport
Use a rubber band to hold your phone
Looking at your phone while driving is extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. However, if you need to glance at directions and you don’t have a smartphone mount, you can thread a rubber band through your air conditioning vent.
Insert the r... more
Transport
Keep the pizza warm
If your car has seat warmers, you’ll never arrive home with a cold pizza.
Your go-to winter warmup strategy doubles as a food warmer. Just put your food in the passenger seat (if you don’t have a passenger), and turn on your seat warmer.
Technology
Share YouTube video at current time
Ever been annoyed trying to send someone a video at a certain time and trying to figure the "Start at" time? Well simply right click the video and select "Copy video URL at current time".
Food & Drink
Chopsticks to the rescue!
This idea might sound crazy, but if you want to keep your fingers clean from those grease and seasonings when eating chips, start using chopsticks.
Health & Beauty
Grapes against migraines!
Consume grape juice when you are having a headache. Grape juice can be used to relieve severe migraines.
Home & Garden
How to remove gum from carpet
When gum freezes, it gets brittle and easily breaks apart. Freeze it to remove it quickly and neatly.
Social
Stop vomiting in public!
Are you going to vomit? Start humming. It’s nearly impossible to gag when humming.
Home & Garden
Finding tiny items you dropped on the floor
Finding tiny item when you accidentally drop it on the floor can be troublesome. Not with life hacks!
Cover the end of vacuum cleaner with stocking and start to vacuum.
Home & Garden
How to get rid of water marks on a wooden table
When you got some water marks on your wooden table or chair, use toothpaste to get rid of it.
Finance
Psychological trick to start saving money
If you are planning on buying something but last minute decide against it, still take the money and put it in savings. Even if it’s $5 - $10 - it all adds up.
You were already ready to spend the money anyways so why not save it.
Clothing & Accessories
Doing laundry at a laundromat
Use your pillowcase, or duvet cover, to bring your dirty laundry to the laundry room and throw it in with the wash. This way you have a clean pillowcase/duvet cover to sleep on every time you do laundry, even if you don't get your sheets done that week.
Clothing & Accessories
Remove watch links with the sim card tool
You know those little metal tools that come with new smartphones to open the sim-card slot? You can use those to punch out the pins in watch links to remove them. Just grab a hammer, align the tool with the pin, and smack it through. Easy peasy.
Career & Work
How to Say "NO" to someone who won't take NO for an answer.
Hey first_name,
I love your persistence! The answer is still no. I'm simply not able to fit your request into my schedule right now. Believe me, I am not the only way that you will make the project work/achieve your goal, but my role is going to be the one... more
Social
How to get into a club with a long queue
Want to get into a club that has a long queue? Figure out the name of a few DJs that are playing there, then go into the guestlist queue and say you are on the guestlist from DJ xyz. Sometimes the bouncers will not really double check the list and allow you... more
Clothing & Accessories
Keep your valuables safe while at the beach
Clean out an old lotion bottle for your beach bag and put your phone, money, keys, and any other valuables inside for safer keeping at the beach.
Food & Drink
Reduce food waste
Reduce food waste by having one shelf in your refrigerator devoted to leftovers and other food that will expire soon.
All the other shelves or bins in the fridge you can consider as ingredient storage.
Productivity
No sorting box?
Use empty eggs boxes to keep your materials sorrted. They can also join together to create an even larger sorting box.
Career & Work
Smooth rolling chair on a carpet
Instead of buying those cheap plastic chair mats, Buy a box of laminate flooring planks and put them together. Takes less than 10 minutes, feels sturdy, and looks great. Chair rolls so smooth!
Travel
Dealing with turbulence on a plane
When you hit turbulence during a flight, wiggle the bottom half of your body around and it’ll reduce the effect.
Home & Garden
Use stick-on LED lights to illuminate dark cabinets
If you're dealing with a darker-than-ideal kitchen, you can use some LED lights to brighten things up. Instead of installing pricey under-cabinet lighting, a few stick-on LEDs can help illuminate your countertops and cabinets at virtually no cost.
Home & Garden
Garbage bin bag suction issues solved
Drill holes in the bottom of your garbage can to make putting in and taking out bags much easier -- no suction issues!
Home & Garden
Easy homemade air conditioner
Point your fan at a few frozen water bottles (with 2-3 tbsp of salt in each).
Refreeze at the end of each day.
Travel
Travelling with someone? Book a window and aisle seat
The middle will likely remain empty if the flight is not full because people usually choose either a window or an aisle seat. If someone does pick the middle seat, chances are they'll be willing to switch with one of you.
Travel
How To Parallel Park
Position your car
Slowly steer your car so that it is parallel to the car parked in front of the empty space. Your car should be about less than a meter from the side of the parked car.
Check your mirrors
Check your rear-view mirror, as well as your left a... more
Lifestyle
Unwritten rules of life
🚪If you open something, close it.
🔒If you unlock something, lock it.
🛠️If you break something, fix it.
💚If you use it, take care of it.
🔍If you can't fix it, find someone who can.
🧹If you make a mess, clean it up.
🗄️If you move it, put it back.
👍If ... more
Home & Garden
Fresh smelling carpets
Sprinkle some baking soda on your carpet a little while before vacuuming to keep your rug smelling fresh.
Baking soda, unlike most commercial air fresheners, doesn't mask odors, it absorbs them.
Health & Beauty
Quit a habit using a challenge
Have a horrible habit your are trying to stop such as smoking?
For every cigarette you want to smoke do a challenge such as 15 push-ups.
Only then do you earn that cigarette and also get some exercise in.
Clothing & Accessories
No more lost socks!
Before throwing your dirty socks to the laundry, pin each pair together at the ankle using a safety pin.
Requires some discipline, but it saves a considerable amount of time during sorting and folding, and prevents singular socks from getting lost.
Food & Drink
Microwaved eggs
Don’t cook those little eggies in a pan or on a stove top. Instead, beat your egg, place in a small microwave safe plastic bowl with a loosely covered lid, add desired toppings (don’t add too much!), set your microwave to 55 seconds, and let sit for a few ... more
Pets
Dryer Sheets Pick up Dog Hair Like Crazy
Looking for a simple way to pick up some of that dog hair? Use dryer sheets. They pick up loose dog hair on fabric like magic. Just rub a dryer sheet over your couch or wherever else pet hair collects and watch as it clings right to it.
Food & Drink
Quick cold beverages
Wrap a wet towel around your beverage and put it in the freezer. In about 15 minutes it will be almost completely ice cold!
Home & Garden
Efficient storage of pot lids
Mount towel racks on the inside of a cabinet and store your lids to save precious space.
Home & Garden
Unclog your kitchen sink with a dishwasher tablet
Do you have a kitchen sink that’s prone to clogs? Cut through the blockage with a regular dishwasher tablet. Let it dissolve in your sink with some hot water, then rinse the excess away. It’ll get rid of all the gunk in your drain.
Home & Garden
Use adhesive Velcro to keep your remotes within reach
Remotes go missing constantly, and it’s so annoying to have to take all the couch cushions off to try to find them. Keep them in the same place by using adhesive Velcro attached to your coffee table.
Home & Garden
Use a shoe organizer for cleaning supplies
It’s so annoying to fumble through a closet looking for the right cleaning supplies. Use a shoe organizer over the top of your closet door to keep supplies organized and easy to find.
Home & Garden
Organize your cables with toilet paper rolls
Cables are a part of life, but they’re also major tripping hazards. Keep them out of your way with a few toilet paper rolls.
Lifestyle
Supply a restless toddler with a box and crayons
Toddlers can get stir-crazy if they’re trapped indoors. To keep your kiddo from coloring on the walls, give them a box and crayons and let them go crazy.
Food & Drink
Test egg freshness by floating them in a bowl of water
Eggs are a fridge staple, but it’s easy to lose track of their expiration date. That means you’re not sure if they’re going bad. To test freshness, let them float in a bowl of water. Fresh eggs sink completely.
Home & Garden
Expand your kitchen space with a cutting board in a drawer
If your kitchen space is tight, try this handy hack: just place a cutting board in a drawer and voila, extra counter space.
Food & Drink
Cool wine down with frozen grapes
Want to cool your wine without watering it down? Instead of ice cubes, toss in a couple of frozen grapes.
Food & Drink
Use a cheese grater for cold butter
Have you ever tried to spread cold butter and found that it doesn’t work? A cheese grater is a perfect way to get cold butter spreadable in no time.
Health & Beauty
Save time in the bathroom showering
When taking a shower, brush your teeth while the water gets up to temperature.
Lifestyle
Keep your shoes fresh with tea bags
Prevent smelly shoes and feet by placing a couple dry tea bags inside each shoe to absorb any stench.
Home & Garden
Use a wooden spoon to prevent overflow
Set a wooden spoon across the width of a boiling pot of water to pop air bubbles and prevent the water from overflowing.
Technology
Protect your cables with a pens spring
Adding a pen spring around your cords will keep the ends from fraying. Just what you need to protect all of those phone and laptop cords!
Social
When people owe you money
Put the amount of money someone owes you in their contact name on your phone.
e.g. Chris Owes Me $72.00