Let's face it: we could all be a little more effective in our everyday lives. We deal with many problems that could be solved with easy-to-do hacks, but some of them are so outside the box that we would've never thought of them on our own. But thankfully, there are creative people out there who did. So we assembled their best tips and tricks for dealing with common issues everywhere, from your home and wardrobe to your office and beyond.
Use Your Phone Camera to See Into Hard-To-Reach Places
This guy wowed us all when he came up with the brilliant idea of using the selfie camera on his phone as a periscope. He used it to check what was up with all his cables without having to go through the trouble of turning everything around or squatting into uncomfortable positions just to see them. This is definitely something we could all learn from and apply to our lives.
This also applies to the back camera! You can definitely use your back camera to gain a visual on some hard-to-get-to locations, especially ones in tall places. Give it a shot!
Turn Your Thumb Into a Ruler
Mark an inch on your finger. You'd be surprised just how useful this can be for certain tasks around the house. Sewing, for instance, is made that much easier. Measuring things (obviously) becomes a piece of cake when you have the actual measurements on your hand; there is no need to scramble around for a ruler. This is just one of those straightforward and practical life hacks that'll actually help you out.
Just be careful not to get the measurements wrong, or else you could be looking at a whole lot of trouble. It's important to be as precise as possible when it comes to these things.
Bobby Pins Will Solve Your Knot-Related Troubles
Most of us know what bobby pins are; they're those hair clips that seem to only sell in 100-count packs and somehow end up all over your bathroom. But it turns out they're good for more than hairstyling. The next time you find yourself struggling with a knot, fuming with rage, wondering why on Earth you can't manage to get it untied, try fetching a bobby pin. That should do the trick.
This little life hack is definitely one of those tricks that will save you a lot of unwarranted stress and rage. There's nothing more infuriating than not being able to do something very trivial.
Know What Tools Are in Each Drawer Without Ever Opening One
Instead of tirelessly and endlessly going through thousands of things in these drawers to find the specific tool he needed, this guy decided to glue a little sample of each tool at the front of each drawer. That way, he could easily tell where everything was without opening a single one. If you ask us, whoever had this brilliant idea experienced a serious stroke of genius.
If you're anything like us, then you waste time scouring draws in search of something that probably isn't even there in the first place. Thanks to this person, we'll do that no more.
Keep Cables Organized for Eternity
Look at how organized those cables are! Wow. Don't you wish your cables were this organized? There's only one way to truly keep those cables in place: plastic zip ties! Okay, maybe it's not the only way, but it is one of the cheapest, most cost-effective ways to do so. And when done correctly, it looks super neat. And the good news is that it's pretty difficult to mess up this hack.
On a completely unrelated note, it seems as though the older we get, the more organized our cables should be. For some reason, it just bothers us more.
Take Advantage of the Rain
So we don't know what kind of ancient hunter-gatherer spirit got into the bodies of the people who posted this, but they found a creative way to respect nature while using it to their advantage. They hooked up their gutter to the garden, creating an effective and eco-friendly watering system for their plants. The best thing is that it's easily replicable. Anyone can do this; all it takes is a little bit of time and effort.
Oh, and plants, a gutter, and a little rain. The system utilizes excess rainwater to water the plants, just the way nature intended. And we bet it cut down their water bills, too.
How to Connect Two Ziplock Bags to Make a Larger One
Ziplock bags are one of our favorite modern inventions. They are so practical and useful. But sometimes, you need a really big Ziplock bag, and you just don't have one handy. Do not fear - someone came up with this genius solution. Take two Ziplock bags and turn just one of them inside out. Then, you can connect the two Ziplocka to each other, and, voila, you have a larger ziplock.
Now, you can fit all sorts of gadgets inside these practical bags. For example, if you need to take your work-from-home day to the beach, now you know how to protect that keyboard.
Put Stockings Over Drains to Stop Insects From Coming Out
If there's one thing we hate in this world, it's bugs invading our private space. Seriously, we need to reach some kind of agreement with the bug leadership so that they stay out of our territory. But, until that happens, you may want to stack up on stockings. Wrapping the bathroom drain with a stocking will help keep any curious bugs from going where they shouldn't be.
If bugs ever crawl into your home through the drain, this trick should do it. Drains are an effective infiltration strategy bugs have at their disposal, and this stocking trick counters it.
A Quick Fix for That Professional LinkedIn Shot
If you've ever found yourself in dire need of a professional-looking photo, such as the ones people seem to be uploading to LinkedIn all of the time, then you might be familiar with how difficult it can be to pull off that formal look. You need the right clothes, the right haircut, and so on. Thankfully, this creative solution can make the clothes part easier to improvise. Just look at how well it worked for this guy!
This hack will get you a "blazer" jacket at a moment's notice. Just take a pair of black jeans, wrap them around your shoulders as in the picture, and there you have it.
Put That Wet Phone in Rice Immediately
The thing about modern phones is that they're very sophisticated. Yet, with sophistication comes frailty, and boy, oh boy, are our modern phones both sophisticated and frail. Seriously, these things can go berserk if a tiny drop of water hits them in the wrong place. And that's why we recommend having a container filled with rice stored and ready to go for any phone emergency, just like this grandma does.
If your phone ever gets a little too wet for its own good, just stick it in a bowl of rice (or alternatively: salt). This little trick may just save your phone!
Make Sure Everyone Knows if the Coffee Is Fresh
If there's one thing that every office has, it's coffee politics. There are a lot of things to say and a lot of decisions to be made when it comes to the office's coffee supply. That's why we believe in coffee co-existence, and this person is a proponent of that too. Look at this; he devised a way to let his colleagues know the office brew's freshness so that no one has to suffer through a single sip of old coffee.
And his methods are so simple, too; all he did was take two styrofoam cups of coffee and make a neat, adjustable freshness gauge with them. Now, if only it were automatic.
Save Your Shirts by Transforming Bleach Stains Into Artistic Designs
Anyone who's ever had the displeasure of staining their shirts with bleach knows that there's pretty much nothing that can be done about a bleach-stained shirt. That is until this man pioneered his way out of this well-known deadlock. Yeah, this guy came up with something ingenious - he used the bleach to his benefit. After his shirt got bleach stained, he used more bleach as paint and turned it into a neat design.
This is exactly the way to make the most out of a bad situation; to make lemonade out of the lemons you were given. This life hack isn't just about shirts; it's about doing the best with what you've got.
Keep Your Dog's Drinking Area Permanently Clean
Anybody who has had the displeasure of cleaning up day in and day out after their messy dog knows just how much of a pain it can be. It is not only tireless work but also a thankless job. One that you do and gain nothing from it. That's why this person's inventiveness is so welcome - he surrounded his dog's water bowl with a small little garden. That's plain genius!
The reasoning behind the whole thing is that the plants will suck up all the excess spilled water instead of having it just mess up the floor. This is something that should be normalized.
How to Cancel Any Service Without An Annoying Back-And-Forth
It's an unfortunate fact of modern life that getting rid of a subscription or service of some sort is often much harder than signing up for it. You may find yourself bombarded on a day-to-day basis by a whole bunch of people with different titles and jobs, all trying to persuade you to rethink your unsubscribing. Sometimes, it can get really overwhelming when they just won't let you be.
That's where this neat trick comes into play: next time you find yourself in a sticky situation such as this one, just tell them something so absurd and absolute that they have nothing to do but cancel your subscription. For this person, their go-to line is, "I am going to prison." The customer service representatives quickly agree to cancel his subscriptions each time.
Add a Crane to Your Home's Balcony
Anyone who lives in an apartment or a house with an entrance off of the ground, pay attention. If you have a balcony, you could be a lot lazier than you've been so far by getting things from the ground floor up to your place without carrying them up the stairs. Just attach a little hook to a bit of rope, and secure that to your roof. It's easier than it looks and may save you a lot of effort.
Imagine all the things you could get all the way into your apartment without busting a sweat. Doesn't that sound tempting? If that doesn't, you may just be untemptable.
Your Sweater's Hood Was Actually Made to Hold Cute Puppies
Truth be told, that isn't what hoods were made for. But it might be their destined second purpose, given just how perfectly puppies can fit inside them. That is, at least, when you wear them backward. You should give this little trick a go if you ever need to walk through a non-dog-friendly environment with a pup. Just wear your hoodie the wrong way around, put your little doggie inside the hood, and enjoy life.
Just look at the man in this photo. Doesn't he look happy? Of course he's happy; he's ecstatic! He's holding his adorable little dog in his own hoodie. What's there to be sad about?
Having Trouble Rolling Your Office Chair in a Carpeted Room?
This person had a fiery, almost unsatiable urge to move his chair around his desk but couldn't because of the carpeted floors. "Get one of those plastic mats," his friends said. But his taste in interior decor told him a plastic mat was a big no-no. So, he threw the standard go-to solution out the window and put a small piece of hardwood floor on top of his carpet instead.
Now, he can roll from one side of his desk to another without a problem. And instead of having a random piece of plastic on his floor, he has an island of hardwood flooring.
Need a Tweezer but Don't Have One Handy? This Coin Trick Will Do
Coins make excellent clamps! And if you've ever had the displeasure of getting a splinter jammed inside your skin, you know just how handy a pair of clamps or tweezers can be. Seriously, we have no idea how a micrometer of wood slightly jammed inside your skin can be so painful, but it is, and that's just something we have to live with. Luckily, now we know this trick for those sticky moments.
Line up three coins on top of one another and slide only the top and bottom ones together. In a few seconds, you'll have your very own DIY tweezers! This is useful for removing splinters or even annoying hair.
Get Rid of Birds by Putting Fake Fruits on Your Garden Crops
This woman's friends and family laughed at her gardening hack. Until it started showing results, that is. She began painting rocks to look like strawberries because she learned that if you put them around berry plants and bushes before the fruit appears, the birds will peck the red rocks. Since these birds don't like pecking super hard surfaces, the idea is they will eventually leave the fruit alone - including the real fruit once it starts to grow.
"We had about eight crows day after day, out by my raspberry bushes, and after the rocks were placed around... no crows," this brilliant garden-lover reported.
How Grandpa Gets Away With Reading Random Novels in Church
There's a story behind this picture: the original poster had asked his grandfather why so many of his books were smothered in duct tape. To that, his grandpa replied that he taped the covers so that they looked like bibles. That way, he could read them during church. Now, that's diabolical. And it's also genius. We can only hope God forgives this man for outsmarting the church like this.
We wonder what kind of books he brought to the sermons. Were they raunchy? Were they just your regular-old books? Only the grandpa knows what went down in that church of his.
For When You Want Eyes in the Back of Your Head
If you've ever found yourself in dire need of a quick little check-up (say, for instance, you're trying to make sure you don't have any leftover food hanging around your face), then you may just enjoy this little trick right here. The original poster of this image obviously felt a bit crafty and decided to stick a spoon to his computer monitor, thereby turning his spoon into a fully-functioning mirror.
Now, this is definitely one of those tricks that you won't be using every day, but there's sure to be a time in which the whole spoon-mirror thing will help you out.
Give Your Ears a Rest While Still Wearing a Mask
One way to eliminate the discomfort of your face mask constantly sliding off or pulling off your ears is to fasten that mask onto a headband. How should one go about doing such a thing, you ask? Well, it's all about buttons. Look at the person in the picture below and how they utilized buttons to hold their mask in place. Whether they realized it or not, they were onto something when they came up with this.
So if you find yourself having to wear masks often and dealing with them sliding off, just add some buttons to a headband, and it should fix the problem.
Help a Stranger Who Lost Their Keys
Ancient civilizations had a really good way of drawing attention to certain things - they marked them. They used whatever was at their disposal at a given moment to make something visually stand out. This can come in handy when trying to point out things in the real world. This person, for instance, had lost his car keys, only to find out that somebody had marked them out for him on the street.
We do have to admit that this move is not only incredibly kind, but it's also kind of ingenious. We'd probably never think to mark something out like this on the street.
No Leash, No Problem
You could use a leash. That's the first method. The leash symbolizes the domination of man over his best friend, the total control and authority a person has over his furry pet. The second option is to use an open bag of chips; now, while the chips seem to be the more heterodox solution, it is, apparently, just as effective. It's also a lot craftier and less authoritative.
The dog, mesmerized by the prospect of tasting the salty goodness dangling before him, will follow the bag of chips wherever it goes. Now isn't that a great way to control your pet?
The Ultimate Book Opener
This is one of those gadgets that anybody with just a tiny bit of woodworking skills can make. It's also one of those things that those who do put in the time and effort to make it know that that was time and effort well spent. Anyone who's into reading knows just how much of a pain having your book close on you all the time is. That's why we need this gadget.
The best thing about this neat contraption is, though, just how it takes the load off your fingers. No more straining your fingers, desperately trying to keep your book open.
A Clever Way to Get Around a Broken Touch Screen
If there's one thing we all dread, one thing that haunts our waking lives, one nightmare just waiting to erupt into reality and turn our lives into an insufferable affair, it's the scare of having our phone's touch screen give out on us. Seriously, there's nothing scarier. That is, at least, until you learn that you can plug in your Micro USB to a USB, plug that USB into a Bluetooth gadget, and then use a mouse to navigate your phone.
The craziest thing about this is that it actually works. Now, with this trick in mind, you'll be able to save any files that were to go missing and reply to messages as you save up for a replacement phone.
Turn Your Empty Pill Bottles Into Cute Spice Containers
So, you're taking some sort of prescription pills. Cool! Now, what on Earth are you to do with all those neat little containers? Well, you could just throw them away like some unknowledgeable simpleton, or you could utilize them to the utmost by turning them into spice containers! Now, how's that a good idea? Imagine these bad boys filled to the brim with paprika, cumin, curry, and whatnot.
Also, imagine just how surprised all your guests will be when you pull out a prescription container filled with cinnamon. Isn't it worth it just to see the look on their faces?
Use the Backs of Frames as Stands for Your Technology
Yeah, remember all those photos you've taken over the years of your loved ones, of lovers past and friends dear to your heart? Of your family, years ago, so far back, it's almost cathartic to look at those photos and see how much you've all grown. Well, throw them all away. Who needs them? Now that you've done that, you can use those photo holders as a computer stand!
We're just joking; we recommend using a frame, not in use for this hack. Now, you have a way to keep your tablets or laptops at the perfect angle.
Make Sure Your Tiny Dog Can't Escape Through the Fence
So the original poster of this picture seemed to have a bit of a dog problem. His small little dog was just too tiny. In fact, he was so tiny that he managed to squeeze through the holes in the fence surrounding the backyard, which could have spelled disaster for the poor guy. So what did the owners do? Well, they thickened him up a bit and turned him into a literal hot dog.
Not only did they just enhance their pet's cuteness factor at least threefold, but they also managed to find a nice, practical solution to their problem. Good on them and their creative thinking.
The Best Way to Warn People There's No Toilet Paper
This is definitely one way of showing people that there's no toilet paper, thus successfully averting what could have been a disaster. Imagine some good samaritan had the ingenuity in him to help you out like this in your hour of need; imagine all the awkwardness that could have been avoided. If only everyone did this, we would be truly living in a better world. A kinder world.
But, alas, not everyone will do this, and that's just an unfortunate fact of life. It does make us appreciate the times when someone does go through the trouble of warning us like this.
Dog Cones Are so Out, Cowboy Hats Are so in
If there's one unfortunate fact that every parent and dog owner alike knows, it's that they have the responsibility ility of taking care of their pet or kid. This also means making sure he doesn't scratch himself into oblivion. How does one go about making sure of that? Well, one could utilize a random cowboy hat and have his dog shish-kebab it like so. It's a great solution, and it's also cute as heck.
Just look at this adorable little creature; he looks so happy and healthy in his little cowboy hat. More people should dress their dogs up as cowboys. That much is certain.
Color-Code Your Earphones for Easier Use
If there's one thing we know as modern people with modern sensibilities, it's that symmetry is grossly overrated. Sometimes, a little bit of asymmetry may just save you a lot of hustle. Take these earphone caps, for example; if you switch one of your earphone caps with a spare cap that you saved from a different pair of earphones (for instance), you'll be able to tell apart right from left, no problem.
Also, saving your earphones is just generally a good idea. Earphones tend to shed their silicone caps for some reason, so you may just want to keep a few extra pairs around your house.
Wheelbarrows Can Be Great Outdoor Seating
You may have gone about your life believing that you did not need a wheelbarrow. "A wheelbarrow," you would probably say, "Why on Earth would I ever need something like that? The very prospect of me needing a wheelbarrow is preposterous." Well, prepare to eat your words because this guy just came up with a whole new use for the wheelbarrow - he turned it into the perfect camping chair.
Just look at how comfortable this guy seems chilling in his impeccably crafted chair. He looks at peace; he looks at one with the universe. This is something we need in our lives.
Wrenches Are Handy When Lifting Heavy Buckets
Not many know about the secret history of wrenches. Truly, the history of this repair tool has been a well-kept secret for many, many generations, but everything's coming to light now. Okay, actually, there is no secret wrench history. We just made that up to make this lifehack seem a bit juicier. This hack, though, is actually real, and it may just help you out of a pinch one day.
If you ever find yourself stuck struggling to carry a huge bucket filled with heavy things, you may just want to try sticking a wrench in between the arch of the bucket's actual handle. That'll definitely make things easier.
A Simple Bra Hack for the Horse Lovers
This just in: bras make for great DIY eye shields. Now, unless you own a horse, we're not quite sure what kind of use you could possibly have for eye shields, but this little trick may just come in handy when you least expect it. Life, after all, is full of surprises, and some of them may just call upon you to break out your bra-eye-shield combo.
This situation, for example, features a horse with an eye infection. His caretakers had nothing to wrap his eyes with but a bra, but that was good enough, and the horse got the treatment he needed!