A great idea doesn’t necessarily mean coming up with a world-changing invention. Sometimes, greatness comes in smaller, more understated ways, solving the tinier problems of everyday life that are still problems despite their size.
Whether you use any of these ideas or not, you’ll probably wish you’d at least come up with some of them.
“Sew a piece of microfiber on the (inside) end of your shirt so you can clean your glasses more easily.”
I think some shirts come with this built-in. In any event, it looks like a great solution for smeared glasses.
“In case of fire.”
This is more of a dad joke than a lifehack, but I’m still here for it. The world can use more dad jokes in physical form. Nothing wrong with adding a little levity to the world.
“Keep a 20 in your phone case for emergencies or exceptional customer service.”
This is kind of like making sure you always have some cash in your wallet: even though it’s a good idea, I’ll never remember to do it. Or, if I do, I’ll never remember it’s there when I need it.
“The elevator button that leads to the burger restaurant’s floor I ate at is a little burger.”
This is only relevant in elevators that lead directly to a burger restaurant, but it raises an important point: why can’t all elevators be connected to burger restaurants?
“Use an old cupcake tray to organize your nuts and bolts when dismantling something.”
Do you organize parts in a muffin tin or just leave them strewn haphazardly on your work surface? If you’re anything like me, you should do the former but usually do the latter.
“A friendly message on the bottom side of my bag of coffee.”
This isn’t a big deal. It isn’t a life hack. Still, when you wake up bleary-eyed in the morning, it’s nice to know that your bag of coffee beans has your back.
“A fitted sheet at the beach can come in handy as a picnic area.”
I saw this on a lifehack list once and wound up actually utilizing it at the beach. Set up something heavy in each corner, and it’s like the sheet was made for the beach.
“Got water pooling somewhere and are feeling lazy and want to go to bed? Place some absorbent material in the pooled water and lead the other end into the sink/bucket. The water will travel through the material while you go sleep.”
Personally, I’d be too anxious to sleep if I had water pooling somewhere, but this is still a really cool idea.
“Incorporating the rain into your garden.”
My downspout leads to a depression in the ground that doesn’t want to drain. If I’m feeling ambitious, maybe I’ll try this, because it’s much more attractive than an accidental swamp.
“Wish I’d thought of this.”
You can always fold over a corner of the tape, but that wastes tape. This is clearly the way to save yourself the agony of losing the end of the tape.
“I think y’all will like my go-kart with a Miata muffler exhaust.”
Is this a cool idea? Absolutely. Go-karts are just inherently cool like that. Would I trust this go-kart to take me anywhere safely? Absolutely not.
“My mom bought a CD rack for her ramen.”
We all have to do something with the CD racks we accumulated in the ’90s, and here’s one person’s humble idea. Hey, you can’t say it doesn’t work.
“When the cable is too short.”
Facemasks have become commonplace over the past couple of years, and too frequently end up as soggy litter on the ground. It’s nice to know they have an alternative use.
“Wanna store cake in a container but don’t want to dig it out later? Flip a Tupperware upside down and use the lid as the bottom.”
This has the added advantage of serving as kind of a low-rent version of one of those fancy dishes that comes with a dome on top.
“When room service is too expensive.”
Hotel cuisine has come a long way. A hot meal is more appetizing than using a pocket knife to slice up sandwich bread, and it’s not even particularly close.
“Been storing my headphones in this sour candy case for years, wanted to share.”
Many of us have AirPods or other wireless options, but nothing beats wired headphones for reliability. Here’s a way to stow them in a compact way.
“Yup, that’s a sponge on the back wiper.”
Other than obstructing the view a bit, I can’t think of any reason why this wouldn’t be a good idea. But I’m happy to let someone else experiment with it all the same.
“My local grocery store has canned fruit you can look at.”
Canned fruit is fine, but canned fruit that you can ogle from the outside is even better — if only to ensure that the can of peaches actually contains peaches and not, say, peas.
“Brewery in my hometown converted a church into their taproom/brewery.”
If this brewery was looking for a grandiose, opulent way to serve its suds, it’s certainly found it in this old church. Maybe it’s like dressing for the job you want?
“Boys at my old middle school found a solution to too-thin toilet paper.”
It’s like these TP dispensers were made to be used in this way. Take that, suppliers of super thin toilet paper!
