General Life Hacks/Tricks

Okay, so this is a list I made awhile back when I was working on my Pinterest Binder. Basically, Anything I pinned on Pinterest that I wanted to keep, I would type, print, & put in my binder. It gave me something to do while I was at work. It's a HUGE list of 13 pages, divided into subcategories: General, Health, Cleanliness, Beauty, Food, Common Household Items with Hidden Uses, How to Remove Stains, Baking Made Easy, What & What Not to Refrigerate, List of Useful Websites, & Money Management. There is a lot more on that list, but some of the categories don't really fall into "Hacks" & "Tricks," but I will eventually share them with you! Anyway, here is a list of general life hacks!

• Use a wet cotton ball or Q-Tip to pick up small shards of glass you can’t see.
• Place a dryer sheet in your pocket to keep mosquitoes away.
• To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle with cayenne pepper. It doesn’t hurt the plant & squirrels won’t come near it.
• To get something out of a small space add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum.
• Buy a chalkboard eraser & keep it in your glovebox for when your windshield fogs up.
• If you seal an envelope & realize you forgot to include something, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two.
• Kool aid in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint for kids.
• Peanut butter will get scratches out of CD’s.
• Pam will also remove paint & grease from your hands.
• Preserve a newspaper clipping – large bottle of club soda & a cup of milk of magnesia, soak for 20 minutes, let air dry.
• Look at someone’s elbows when you high-five. You will never miss.
• You can press 1, 2, 3, etc. to jump to 10%, 20%, 30% into the clip you are watching on YouTube.
• If your phone freezes, plug it into a charger.
• If you have a .edu email address, you can get an Amazon Prime account.
• After a job interview, if asked, “Do you have any questions?” always ask, “Yes, is there anything about my application that concerns you?”
• Recipe for relaxation: Exhale completely. Inhale for 4 seconds, hold it for 7 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds.
• Drop a battery from 6 inches off the ground. If they give one small bounce & fall over, they’re good. If they bounce around anymore, they’re dead or on their way out.
• Can’t afford Microsoft Word? Get “open office”, it’s the same thing except it’s free & has more features.
• Too broke to travel? WWOOF is an organization that allows you to travel the world, with food/accommodations covered, in exchange for volunteer work.
• If you download a PDF file & see that it ends in “.exe” delete it, it’s a virus.
• If the wifi at an airport or hotel costs money, add “?.jpg” at the end of any URL.
• If you want to download a YouTube video, just type “ss” between www. & “youtube”.
• If you accidentally close a Word file without saving, go to your file explorer & search “.asd” under this/my pc & the document will be back there.
• To make your essays longer, hit “CTRL + F” & search “.” Change all of the periods from 12 pt to 14 pt. They will still look the same size but your essay will appear longer!
• Hit alt & any Google image to have it saved to your computer.
• Having trouble falling asleep? Blink really fast. Tired eyes fall asleep easily.
• If you suspect someone is checking you out, yawn. If they yawn back, they were, because yawning is visually contagious.
• Mess with telemarketers! Some aren’t allowed to hang up, so answer the call, take a shower, have a snack, then say “no thanks.”
• Storing batteries in the freezer can up to double their lifespan.
• Exhale as much air as possible & hold it to suppress laughing at inappropriate moments.
• Target will always match Amazon’s price. If you find something cheap on Amazon, just go buy it at Target.
• If you need to remember something in the morning, send yourself a text the night before, but don’t open it until the next morning.
• Shoes too small? Put on 3 pairs of sock, wear the shoes, & blow dry for 10 minutes.
• Write emails to big companies saying that you usually buy their products but recently it was unsatisfactory. Free stuff will roll in!
• Put toilet paper in the toilet before using to prevent loud splashing & backsplash.
• When playing rock paper scissors, men are more likely to play rock & women are more likely to play scissors.
• If you mess up a voicemail to someone, press “#” to erase & re-record.
• In areas with lots of stop lights, going exactly the same speed will help you to hit a lot of green lights.
• Need to tell a believable lie? Include something embarrassing. Nobody will doubt a story that makes you look dumb.
• Don’t want to be embarrassed when buying something? Buy a birthday card with it!
• If you ever want to go to the zoo, wear the same colors that the employees do! The animals will come right up to you.
• If you bought something on Amazon & the price goes down within 30 days, you can email them & they will send you the difference!
• If a taxi driver asks if you’re “from around here,” lie & say yes. Taxi drivers will usually take a longer route (jacking up the price) for tourists.
• If you’re a few words short on your essay, just type in extra words on the end of your paragraph & change the font color to white. Your professor won’t be able to see them & it will increase your word count.
• When filling your car with gas, hold the trigger halfway. You’ll get less air.
• You can check how much you like someone by how strong the urge is to check your phone when you’re with them.
• People are more likely to return a lost wallet if they find a baby picture inside of it.
• Take a photo of your luggage when you travel. This will speed up the paperwork process if your luggage gets stolen.
• If you need a question answered, call 1 (344) 844 4244. This is a special line that calls Auburn University & they will answer just about any question you could ask!
• Peppermint stimulates brain activity & helps you concentrate.
• Sleeping on your right side helps you fall asleep faster than sleeping on your left side.
• You can get most answers to math problems online by typing in the name of the textbook on google & then “answers”.
• If you open Siri during a Pandora advertisement, it will skip the advertisement.
• When studying, pretend that you are teaching the material. It helps you concentrate more.
• When calling customer support & you keep getting an automated system, pressing “#” over & over again will force the system to connect you to a human.
• If you get something in your eye, look down & blink rapidly.
• If you do some small tasks with the opposite hand, you force the brain to work differently & your self-control will improve.
• Use a dust pan to fill a container that doesn’t fit into the sink.
• Cut open a toilet paper roll & use it as a cuff for your wrapping paper.
• Use soda pop tabs to offset your hangers & save closet space!
• Clean out an old lotion bottle for storing your keys, phone, & money at the beach.
• If you’re studying for an important test, just google site:edu [subject] exam. You’ll get a bunch of different college exams with similar problems that might be on your test.
• Use a can opener to open those tough plastic packages.
• Get something new often when you go out to eat.
• If you ever find a driver’s license, put it in a mailbox. The postmaster will deliver it back to its owner.
• You are allowed to call the police if you see a pet in a hot car.

Feel free to print this out & keep it for yourself. I love little life hacks! I will post more throughout the week! To get email notifications about new posts, don't forget to subscribe to my blog! It's FREE!