Often, I’ve been told that I am a plethora of (mostly useless) information when it comes to some (sometimes useful) things. It’s also been requested of me to share such things in an article, so here we are! For the start of this semester, rather than school-focused tips, I am going to be giving you some fun lifestyle “hacks” that will maybe be useful for life after college as well.
The first one is one that my mom had to, unfortunately, remind me of after I sunk in a pile of mud on campus in my relatively new white sneakers. And that is, most pairs of sneakers (and some other shoes) are able to be safely washed in the washing machine! Definitely look up if there is any specific way to wash your brand of shoe, but no more getting rid of that old pair of Converse because they look too old—one spin in the washing machine may be able to totally revive them!
Okay, so this next one is probably the most random one that I have, but also one that people find most shocking and useful. Its roots come from me being a swimmer at a young age and needing to get the sharpie on my hands from swim meets off within a day so when I was at school, I didn’t get accused of cheating (let’s be so real I don’t think any third grader would have some kind of elaborate encryption of test answers written on their hand, but I digress). If you spray sunscreen onto Sharpie or other permanent marker that you have on your skin, it will wipe right off instantly! Honestly, it could probably also make a really cool party trick. (But don’t spray sunscreen inside my mommy says that’s not allowed).
One that I often forget about but is so insanely useful is this: if you have a fresh deodorant stain on your shirt/dress/whatever you just pulled on over your head and got deodorant on, you can rub it with a dryer sheet! I think it’s some kind of combination of the texture of the dryer sheet and the friction that somehow lifts the stain right off and doesn’t leave any residue. I haven’t tried it, but it’s very possible that this would work for other dry stains.
Next is a hack that I thought I quite literally invented as a child, only to find that it’s relatively commonplace. However, I’ve still come across many people who are unaware of it so I figured I would share it here! If you have old, stubborn dry-erase marker stains on a whiteboard, you don’t have to bother with dousing the board in that chemically cleaner. If you use another dry erase marker to write over the old marks, you’ll then be able to easily just wipe away both old and new marks.
This next one I really haven’t started doing until pretty recently. But basically, I had been noticing that every time I would crack an egg on the side rim of any bowl, there would be the tiniest little shell pieces that would always end up inside the bowl, and I would have to go fishing to get them out. So, I have started cracking eggs on the table next to the bowl (either on a napkin or a plate) and have not had to deal with an eggshell since!
Hate dealing with mosquito bites? You can make a paste of baking soda and water to slap onto fresh mosquito bites to draw out some of the venom which won’t cause them to itch as much! This method can also be used for bee stings and other insect bites.
I hope that these fun random tips and tricks are able to help you at some point, or at least entertain you for a bit, until next time.
