Never Underestimate the Value of a Toothpick

We all probably have a few (or a few hundred) toothpicks lying around the house. Some are round, some are flat, and we know what they're supposed to be used for. But in a pinch, they can serve other purposes.

In our house we always keep a few handy for those times when a screw gets stripped or simply when the hole for the screw is too large. Just insert one or more flat toothpicks into the hole in question, and the screw can be used again. It bites into the soft wood of the toothpick and securely holds.

Toothpicks are also great little glue applicators when you need to do some precision gluing in small spaces.

Here's a video with some other interesting ideas.

And here's a fun trick you can try with toothpicks. Just for kicks.

Have a great day!

More Life Hacks

It's been a while since I posted (summer chores/projects have eaten up lots of time), and I usually don't like to post long videos, but this life hack video had so many good ideas (and probably a few crazy ones) that I had to share. Admittedly, it moves quickly and I had to go back and watch some of the ones I wanted to remember more than once. I hope you find something useful here.

And one more from the same YouTuber with many different ways to organize things (also quite a long one. You may want to watch these over time).

Enjoy!

Myrna

Christmas Hacks

Christmas is almost upon us, and things often get stressful during the last few days. Sometimes we just need a little help. Here are some Christmas life hacks that may (hopefully) help make things just a bit easier.

Source

As always, I didn't think I could use some of those, but I did like the one about finding the end of the tape (that seems to be a theme with me this year).

The one below repeats some of what is in the last one, but I included it because I liked the sleigh package. That looked clever, inexpensive and easy.

Have a wonderful day!

Myrna

More Lifehacks

It's always fun to find an easier (or faster, less expensive) method of doing things. So, I thought we'd look at some more household hacks. The ones in this first video all center around the bathroom. Some of them look promising.

Here are some interesting and useful things to do with toilet paper rolls (okay, one of them was just silly and the last one was rather crude, but a number of them showed promise). 

Here's one of those ideas put to use. The toilet paper roll seed pot idea has been circulating for awhile, but...what a great idea! I've also seen people cutting and folding layers of newspaper to create a seed pot. I would think that both probably result in seed pots that will readily break down once planted in the soil.

Source - Stacie on flickr

On the creative front, another person took a toilet paper roll, put it on a paint roller (their friend used a lint roller) and affixed foam cutouts to create a roller stamp.

Source - szs-flickr

And another person created crayon holders

Source - David Werner - flickr

I hope you got some helpful (useful, creative?) ideas from this post.

Have a great day!

Myrna

More Life Hacks - It's Vinegar, Lemon and Baking Soda Day!

You probably already know a lot of these, but there might (hopefully) be one or two new ones that will be helpful vinegar tricks. (Note: there's a long mattress ad at the end of this, so the actual useful part of the video ends at about 4:11).

Here's a very short video on uses for lemons (I love the scent of lemon).

And last up in today's cleaning life hack collection is baking soda (Note: I'm not so sure it's wise to put boiling water down your drain on a regular basis if you have PVC pipes, so I would be cautious about that particular life hack).

Now, I'm off to clean some stuff (no, actually I'm not, but when I do, I might be using vinegar, lemon or baking soda rather than harsher chemicals).

Have a great day!

Myrna

Time for Some Life Hacks

I'm not sure why some of the things in the many life hack videos online are called hacks. They're more like tips. No matter. Most of the videos contain at least one or two items that are useful (some not so much).

Here are a couple I saw this week. See if there's anything in here that might make your life easier:

And what better time to look at winter life hacks than when it's 90 degrees outsides? (But when winter comes, I'll be ready).

Have a fantastic day!