10 life hacks around the house

 

I am always on the lookout for life hacks around the house, whether they save me time or money, or just help to make life a little better.  So when I spotted an old Reader’s Digest book called ‘Household Hints and Handy Tips’ on a charity shop trip, I was excited to see what gems I could get out of it. 

 

The book is from 1992, so a lot of the advice, for example, the financial management section, is quite outdated.  Nonetheless, here are 10 hacks I picked up as I read through:

1)    If you want to line-dry a garment without pegging it, use a pair of tights.  With a delicate sweater, for example, thread a leg through each arm of the sweater, then pull the waist of the tights through the neck hole.  Peg the tights to the line, and you’ll avoid peg marks on the garment as it dries. 

2)   Store earrings by fastening them through the holes of a large button OR use an ice-cube tray as an organiser to keep earrings in a drawer.

3)   Freshen carpets with a homemade dry shampoo – sprinkle the carpet liberally with salt or cornflower (the book also suggests oatmeal, but presumably it would need to be fairly fine), leave for a couple of hours, then vacuum off. 

4)   Cleaning light bulbs keeps them brighter.  Remove them from their fittings when cold, and wash with a damp cloth.  Make sure they are completely dry before refitting. 

5)   Don’t make your bed when you get up – apparently, we lose up to 300ml of body moisture each night, and if you make the bed immediately, this moisture will be trapped in the mattress and bedding.  Leave the duvet or covers back for at least 20 minutes before making the bed. 

6)   Always use two pillowcases to protect pillows from skin oils, night creams etc getting into the filling.  If you have foam pillows, these are particularly susceptible to damage from oils. 

7)   If you want rice as an accompaniment to a meal you are cooking in the oven, you can cook the rice in the oven too.  Measure the rice by volume (50-90ml per person) and put into a dish which has a lid.  Boil double the volume of water, add to the dish, and cook in the oven with the lid on.  It will take a bit longer than on the hob, but it saves boiling a pot. 

8)   I try to use bowls and dishes to store food in the freezer, and so I sometimes run out if several are in there at once. A tip from the book is to line a bowl with aluminium foil, place food into the foil and freeze.  Once the food is solid, you can lift it out of the bowl in the foil, wrap it over, and put it back in the freezer. 

9)   If you can’t stand the fiddly process of peeling shallots, garlic cloves or small onions, pour some boiling water into a dish and soak them for a few minutes.  Let them cool down, and the skins will be far less papery and annoying, and much easier to remove. 

10)   Instead of buying a purpose-made steamer, you can steam vegetables using a metal colander or sieve set on top of a pan of boiling water.  Place a neatly fitting lid on the colander, and keep an eye on the water level in the pan in case it boils dry. 

These are not ground-breaking, I will admit, but I hope they help!