8 Easy Life Hacks to Save You Time, Money, and Energy

Put your straw through the tab on the can

Most people don’t think too much about the tab on their cans of soda as they drink. While some people may collect those tabs for charity drives, everyone else is understandably left asking what they should do with the tab after opening their drink.

If you happen to have a straw, the answer is a no-brainer: turn the tab around and place your straw through the hole. This helps to keep your straw in place, which is especially convenient if you find yourself having to readjust your mouth to the straw’s new position whenever you go to take a sip.

Using walnuts to restore wooden furniture

For homeowners, wooden furniture often feels like a double-edged sword. When you first get the furniture, it helps make your home feel very stately and mature. But over time, the wood will get various scratches, marks, and dents that cause it to lose its luster.

To make matters worse, many expensive over-the-counter “solutions” to damaged wood don’t really do anything. However, you can make most of the wood look as good as new by rubbing a walnut over the affected areas. Once you see the results, you’ll likely keep spare walnuts around as the perfect snack and perfect repair tool!

Turn toilet paper rolls into organizers

It’s always a little annoying to throw out toilet paper rolls. After all, we generate so many of them throughout the year. But unless you are creating a hamster obstacle course, you may not know what to do with all these leftover rolls.

Here’s a fun suggestion: use the rolls to organize things that often get clustered together. For example, you can use old rolls to organize your chargers and other wires that often just get mixed into one big box. With a bit of finesse, you can even use old rolls in order to keep your wrapping paper organized.

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Straws on strawberries

Does anyone else feel a bit self-conscious when taking the top of a strawberry? We never want to eat the green on top, but it’s difficult to pull the top off without taking off too much or too little. And, of course, it’s impossible not to look goofy when doing this.

But what if you didn’t have to look goofy or waste any of that delicious fruit? By putting a straw through the center of the strawberry (the “straw berry,” as it were), you can remove the top with ease. You also remove the middle, but don’t worry: that part doesn’t really have much flavor. And if you’re feeling decadent, you can now fill the center of the strawberry with special ingredients like chocolate (just make sure to invite us over before you start whipping some up).

Use an eraser on your smartphone

There’s a certain irony to owning these expensive smartphones. All of us are naturally concerned about breaking the glass, so we cover our phones with screen protectors. But the one thing that this invention can’t really protect your phone from is all those fingerprints and other marks that eventually overwhelm your screen.

However, you can make smudges, smears, and fingerprints on your phone by using an eraser on the surface. This doesn’t have to be a Magic Eraser or anything fancy. The same kind of erasers that you used to use to clean up your math homework can now be used to clean up your phone and make it look as good as new.

Banana peels as fertilizer

Bananas are a staple of a healthy lifestyle. Whether they are in your smoothie or you’re eating them right out of the peel, bananas provide a great source of potassium and fiber. When you’re done, though, be sure to hold onto the peel…it makes for a great fertilizer!

In fact, the potassium found in the peel helps to move needed nutrients around all of the plants that you are growing. It may look a little weird, but once you start using peels as fertilizers, your plants are likely to grow as they have never grown before.

Replace ice in drinks with frozen grapes

On a warm day, ice can be both your best friend and your worst enemy. Those frosty cubes help to keep your drunk cool. But once the ice melts, you’re left with a lukewarm drink that is frustratingly watered down.

If you’re already wincing in annoyance from memories of this happening to you, we recommend you try replacing the ice in your drinks with frozen grapes. Not only can the grapes keep the drink colder than the ice would have, but they won’t negatively affect the flavor of your drink like ice would as time goes on.

Take pictures of the fridge and pantry before grocery shopping

Ok, be honest: how many times have you gotten home from the grocery story only to realize you bought something you already had? Or, worse yet, forgot to buy some important ingredient you needed for an upcoming dish?

Sure, grocery lists are helpful, but most of us are visual creatures. And if that sounds like you, we recommend snapping some quick pics of your opened refrigerator and pantry before you go shopping. That way, all it takes is a glance at your phone to remember everything you need to grab (and, of course, everything you don’t need to grab).