40 Life Hacks Around The Home

40 LIFE HVCKS AROUND THE HOME Keeping your house clean and tidy can be a stressful experience! To help make things a bit simpler, here are 40 life hacks that are guaranteed to make your home life that little bit more relaxing. Some hacks save you time, so save you money, and some are just really fun to try out! GENERAL HACKS 3 FILL A BUCKET COLD DRINKS The seemingly impossible task There's nothing worse than of filling a bucket of water (that warm beer/wine/cider usually leads to a very wet floor) can be done using a (delete as appropriate, or not, we don't judge.), so dustpan! Simply place it under here's a hack to get that tap to create a little bottle cold in just 15 minutes! waterfall that leads to a bucket Wrap the bottle in wet on the floor! kitchen roll and place it in the RESTORE WOODEN freezer, and in 15 minutes it FURNITURE will be ice cold! You're You can rub a walnut over welcome. any scratches or marks on wooden furniture to help restore it (and yes, it works on walnut wood!) We wouldn't recommend eating the walnut after though... 6. RESTORE LEATHER SOFAS IRON A SHIRT COLLAR Leather sofas can start to Even if you have an iron, look pretty worn out (which ironing a shirt collar can be isn't surprising with the tricky business! If you've got a number of TV series on pair of straighteners handy, Netflix!) You can use shoe they are excellent at ironing polish to remove these shirt collars. Note: Probably scratches though, and make best not to do this while your furniture look as good you're wearing the shirt, to as new. Just don't sit on them IRON A T-SHIRT WITH ICE avoid neck burning incidents. until the polish has dried to CUBES avoid embarassement! If your t-shirt is creased and you can't be bothered to iron it, just chuck it in the tumble dryer along with a few ice cubes for 5 minutes. It sounds crazy, but it's just crazy enough to work. 7 8. 9. SAVE DRAWER SPACE A HANDY TAPE HACK This hack is perfect for So you've got a hack for somebody with a lot of wrapping paper, but what clothes! By stacking your about the tape? Simply stick tops in the drawer vertically a paper clip to the end of the instead of horizontally, you tape, and it will be easy to save space and get to see find the end of the roll next your whole collection at the time you need to use it! same time. EIENE A CHRISTMAS LIFEHACK Cut through a toilet roll tube and it will be perfect for keeping your tube of wrapping paper from unravelling! A simple hack, but one that you'll thank us for every Christmas! 10 11 12 ICE COLD WINE REHEATING LEFTOVERS Another alcohol-related hack, Another tip for reheating but this time you actually get food, is to create a hole in to drink it! Instead of using the middle. This will allow for ice cubes that water down the whole meal to be heated your wine as they melt, try up evenly! using frozen grapes. Green grapes for white wine, and red grapes for red wine! REHEATING PIZZA Reheating leftover pizza from the night before is possibly the tastiest breakfast in the world, unless the crust goes soggy! By placing a small glass of water in the microwave with the pizza, it will prevent this from happening. CLEANING HACKS 13 14 15 A SQUEE-EASY HACK CLEANING A SHOWER HEAD Squeegees don't just clean This hack makes cleaning windows, they are also your shower head incredibly incredibly effective at easy. Simply tie a small bag removing pet hair from the of vinegar to your shower carpet! Simply run the head and leave it there squeegee along the floor, overnight. This will clear it of and voila, pet hair begone! any built up grime, and save CLEANING TOYS you from scrubbing! It's important for your child's health to keep their toys clean, but cleaning them one by one can take ages! Shove them all in the dishwasher and let it do the hard work for you. We'll warn you though: it looks a bit like a Toy Story-esque nightmare in there... 16 17 18 REMOVING GREASE CLEANING BLINDS We've all ruined clothes by Blinds can be quite fiddly to accidentally spilling oil or clean, but this hack makes it grease on them. These stains quick and easy. Just put an are almost impossible to get old sock over your hand and out - until you know about simply wipe along each this hack anyway! Rub chalk blind! over the stain and it will wash right out. A SMASHING HACK You can use a slice of white bread to clean up broken glass - it's excellent at picking up all of the tiny pieces. This hack is the best invention since, well, sliced bread! 19 20 21 FINDING LOST JEWELLERY CLEANING SPONGES Losing small items such as Kitchen sponges get dirty earrings on the floor can be and full of harmful bacteria a nightmare. However, if you incredibly quickly. Wet a place a stocking over the used sponge and heat it up end of a vacuum cleaner in the microwave for 2 before vacuuming the minutes - it will kill 99% of floors, it will catch these CLEANING A MATTRESS germs and keep your items for you. Mattresses are difficult to sponge cleaner for longer. wash, unless you have vodka in the house! Pour vodka into a spray bottle, and spray lightly over a bare mattress and leave it to air dry. The alcohol will kill all odor-causing bactera and disinfect the mattress. 22 23 24 A HANDY PAINTING TIP A HAIR-RAISING HACK Next time you need to paint Shaving in the mirror always the house, cover the roller leads to one thing - a sink tray in tin foil before pouring full of hair that takes ages to the paint in. When you're clean! Next time you shave, done, you can just peel off just place a sheet of the foil, and the tray is ready newspaper in the sink. It will for next time (without any catch all of the hairs and can washing up!) SHARP THINKING be easily disposed of Everyone always ends up afterwards. getting covered in paint when painting the house, but running a razor along your clothes is the perfect hack to keep your clothes paint-free. Just be careful not to shred your jumper to pieces! 25 26 EMPTYING A BIN Taking the bin bag out can be tricky sometimes, especially when it sticks to the bottom! By drilling a couple of holes in the bottom of your bin, it will make it really easy to lift the bag out! A MINTY CLEAN HACK Toothpaste has amazing cleaning properties, and you can actually apply it to the hazy looking car headlights on your driveway! When you clean it off, they will look as good as new! TECHNOLOGY HACKS 27 28 29 THRIFTY SPEAKERS SAVE IPHONE CABLES You can save a fortune on Surround the end of your fancy speakers by simply charger cable with the small using a toilet roll tube and spring from an old biro pen, 000 a couple of plastic cups to and it will keep it from amplify the sound. They're breaking. A pain that iPhone portable and will never users will know only too well. run of battery either, but UNTANGLING CABLES We feel your pain. you probably wouldn't We've all had this problem: look like the coolest kid in going to get a cable and finding it's all tangled up town rocking up to a party with them. with about 5...000 others! By putting toilet roll tubes into a box, you can separate all of your cables for easy use in the future! Who knew toilet roll holders could be so handy?! 30 31 CHILL OUT YOUR LAPTOP Laptops can get pretty hot, and it can be quite dangerous. Keeping them cool is important, but a stand can be expensive. Use an old egg carton to create your own free laptop cooling stand! SAVE YOUR KEYBOARD There comes a sad time in everybody's life where the legs of the keyboard snap! But this hack will solve the problem for you - binder clips work as cheap keyboard stand replacements. DIY HACKS 32 33 34 AN IDEAL JEWELLERY MAKE A DRAUGHT HOLDER EXCLUDER Remember that mug holder Socks don't just keep your (do you remember them?!) feet warm and cozy, but you got as a present years they can keep your house ago but never use? Well warm too. Save yourself why not add a splash of some money and make a paint to it, as they actually thifty draught excluder with make for a wonderful socks! Fill an old colourful jewellery stand! pair of socks (without ADAPT A CHILDREN'S CRIB holes!) with cotton wool When your child grows too big for their crib, you don't have to throw it away or give it to a friend! You can get and seeds. many more years out of it by removing one side and turning it into a childrens desk! 35 36 AN ORGANISED SHELF Most people download their music these days, and CDs have become rather obsolete! Don't just throw away that old CD rack though, turn it horizontally and use it as an organised shelf on the wall! AN EASY LANTERN Use the torch app on your phone, and place it under a bottle of water. This distributes the light around the room and makes for a really cool lantern. Adding colour to the water makes it great fun for kids too! OUTDOOR HACKS 37 38 A DELICIOUS HACK After you've dirtied the BBQ grill with food, you should clean it with... more food (if you've got any left!). Using a fork, rub half an onion over the grill to leaving it sparkling clean. It will even add some flavour for your next BBQ! CONDIMENTS AT A BBQ If you have a cupcake baking tray at home, they are absolutely per fect for BBQ condiments and sauces! It also makes washing up a lot easier. 39 40 MAKE A SPRINKLER AN EASY WATERING CAN Pierce holes in the lid of an A plastic bottle can also be reused as a cost effective old milk bottle, fill it up with hose attachment for your water, and you have a completely free watering can garden. Pierce holes over the to water your plants with! bottle, and attach it to the end of the garden hose. When you turn the water on, it will work as a sprinkler! Find a cleaner, pay online, relax. HVSSLE.com|sorted SOURCES + REFERENCES lifehack.org whydontyoutrythis.com diyncrafts.com dedalvs.tumblr.com boredpanda.com