It's that time of year when the rising sun comes through the sun porch windows and jabs us both in the eyes. This happens for about a month in both spring and fall, but I discovered a hack for that. I drag the plastic shelving unit in front of the window and I've draped a black piece of cloth over the unit, so no sun can come through. Once the sun rises to a certain point during the morning, I put the unit back in the corner where it belongs.
Sometimes life hacks are useful. Sometimes not. Like the hack the previous owners of this house came up with for filling old nail holes. They used caulk instead of spackle, thus resulting in unsightly, lumpy goo. I hacked that by covering it with my cute, little grocery bag holder. To fix it right, I would've had to tear up the wall to get the caulk out.
Every day, Hubs prints scads of things that he looks at, fiddles with, and then discards. These have become our stack of scratch paper. Sure, he could simply print on the opposite sides, thus saving paper, but I hate doing that. Which side is the correct side? I invariably get the sides mixed up without making some kind of mark on the old side. What a pain in the ass. So, we print new stuff on new paper and use old paper for scratch. And I take some of the old paper, cut it into strips, and make grocery list paper to hang on the fridge.
There's a hack there, too, by the way. I took an old refrigerator magnet from some pizza place in CO (which I obviously no longer need) and a small binder clip. The magnet and the grocery list strips go into the binder clip and Voila! I have paper on the fridge to write grocery lists upon. When I run out, I only need to cut more strips. Saves me from having to buy magnetic grocery list thingies.
I save all sorts of containers. You never know when one of them will come in handy. I'm lucky that I have lots of cupboard space with which to store them, so our house doesn't look like an episode of Hoarders. If I think it may someday be useful, I save it. Oh, I don't save every single thing. If I've already got one or two of a certain container, I let the others go into the garbage. Last year, my coffee container collection was quite useful in creating my garden. This year, thanks to my friend who moved, I have scads of old actual planters (that she had hoarded) to use.
Every once in a while, my hack doesn't work out. I tried making a spool out of container lids and a aluminum foil tube for our property line string. It would've been awesome if the glue had held. But no. :shrug: Oh, well, it was worth a shot. No harm done.
I'm always coming up with crazy stuff. Years ago, I got the wild idea to attach beads to my fishing line, just above the hook. You know, to attract fishies to my worm. I went into the craft section of Wallyworld, got a bag each of red and pearl beads. The red ones are awesome and do seem to coax fish over when the water is murky. The pearl ones have holes that are too small to fit over a pre-lined hook, so not so convenient. They were only like a buck a bag, so totally worth a shot.
You do what you can with what you've got. I'm currently using a plastic paint tray as a water receptacle at the end of one of our gutter spouts. The water coming out of that spout was making a ravine. Now the water comes out into the pan and hits the side so it disperse some of its energy before spilling onto the ground. It has really helped stop the erosion over there. Plus, the smaller critters enjoy using it as a watering hole and a birdbath. Which makes it fun to watch, especially when the cardinals get in and splash around. Win win win.
These days, especially, hacks are a necessary thing. Saving money, substituting for when what you really want is unavailable, making do... making life as easy as you can make it these days.
Any hacks you've come up with the make your life easier?
Those are all pretty good hacks. Here are some I've used:
ReplyDeleteToothpaste and a Q-tip to fill in nail holes. This was especially useful in apartments. Dab it in, smooth it down and voila!
I use an old popcorn tin (it was a "special" buy with bags of microwave popcorn in it) to corral my instant potato packages. I also use an an old Chrismas tin--popcorn again but BIG--to keep by the front door for the porch ferals' kibble storage.
I've used a long branch from a crepe myrtle that was so old it was more like a tree for curtain rod. Also used copper pipe for curtain rods. Sheets are easy to convert into curtains.
I hoard glass jars. Just sayin'...
And...that's all that I can come up with but I've only had 2 cups of coffee and it was a toss-n-turn night. Great hacks, by the way! Later, tater.
I love your hacks! I save little tubs to put leftovers in, especially for when I make 6 cups of rice and freeze 5 of them.
ReplyDeleteI save plastic nursery pots to plant stuff in, but I rarely remember to use them. I should shovel some soil in there and plant summer squash. No, I better buy soil; clay doesn't make for good gardening.
Unfortunately, my sewing/craft room now looks like a hoarder's room from all the stuff I've saved to make something with. Or that Mom sent over because she didn't want to throw it away. I need to get in there and throw 99% of it away!