Favorite Life Hack

[pharmjenn]

I love these ideas. This isn't a house organizer hack. This is more of a MacGyver/boy scout hack. While camping recently in the boundary waters north of Minnesota, DS3 was whittling and sliced his finger a good inch. The guide my boys were traveling with cleaned it out and glued it shut with superglue. Then he cut a strip from his foam sleeping mat and created a splint to keep DS3's finger from bending and re-opening the cut. He taped it all together with medical tape. DS3 (who is 12yo) canoed, hiked and camped like that for 5 days and nights before they could get to a doctor. When the doctor pulled the bandage off, it looked perfect. No infection, no redness. Nothing but a thin red scar.

Super glue. Who knew?

Superglue is what they use in the ER, and in the OR often to close wounds. It isn't called superglue, of course, but is the same thing. It is Dermabond brand for sterile use.

[gatorsmom]

Superglue is what they use in the ER, and in the OR often to close wounds. It isn't called superglue, of course, but is the same thing. It is Dermabond brand for sterile use.

The ER doctor and nurse were both impressed with how well it worked. They expected it to be infected and have to clean it out. It might be familiar to doctors, but I wouldn't never have thought to put it in my first aid kid!

[Liziz]

I forgot a favorite! QUIET TIME for everyone! I have been enforcing this since like day one of quarantine and it has saved my sanity. After lunch and read aloud time, everyone goes to their rooms for 1.5 hours from 1:00 to 2:30 every afternoon. I feel like all of us need it. I didn't know if the kids would do it willingly but the timing helps. Everyone is full, they've had a busy (schooling) morning, and I make sure that they have something fun they want to play with in their room. If they stay in their room the whole time, I let them have a treat. Usually a juice popsicle or popcorn or something not too junky. I'm looking at schedules for the school year and I'm going to see if I can continue to enforce this most days.

YES. We do this too and it's a sanity saver for me, it's a great reset for my DDs, and has also be excellent for helping them learn to self-entertain and also to take breaks when needed. Long live the quiet time! lol

[dhano923]

We use Cozi for our grocery lists. I have a list created for each of the stores we commonly shop at. All of us can add things to the list for the store we normally buy the item from, so when its time for me to do our delivery order, or DH is going to the store, our grocery list is all ready to go. Everyone knows they are responsible for adding finished items to the list (milk, eggs, cereal, etc) or things they want, so no one can say we are out of something. It saves me so much time from having to go through the cabinets and fridge to see what we need more of.

[hillview]

Oh my goodness well I will second the paprika app love it for meal planning. Saving recipes and grocery lists.

We have 8 hampers 2 per person one for clean and one for dirty. Everyone does their own laundry.

sticky note on the cabinet in the kitchen with a grocery list for the items we always run out of but forget unless I wrote it down

Sounds old school but a place for everything. I also like the container store multipurpose bins and label them. Gloves or sunglasses or sunblock etc. and a bowl for all keys and a large hamper for all shoes by the door

I also buy extras (spare goggles spare socks for soccer etc)

[NCGrandma]

For trips I have a master packing list. There’s a spot on them for quantities. Before a trip, I print them out, Update quantities and cross off anything unneeded (for example my list covers sleepovers- sleeping bags... but those aren’t needed for most trips; I have a wedding/special occasion category with dress shirt, tie, belt, socks...). If it gets left behind I know it’s not for my lack of trying!

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Even though it seems like a long time before we'll need stuff like this again ... I have sworn by packing lists for years. Before I retired, I had a professional travel list and a trips to visit family list, and could pack really quickly if necessary. Before I print out a list, I edit it so that instead of just saying x number of tops and y number of pants, I list which specific tops and pants, etc. Looking forward to when packing lists will be needed again!


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[gatorsmom]

Even though it seems like a long time before we'll need stuff like this again ... I have sworn by packing lists for years. Before I retired, I had a professional travel list and a trips to visit family list, and could pack really quickly if necessary. Before I print out a list, I edit it so that instead of just saying x number of tops and y number of pants, I list which specific tops and pants, etc. Looking forward to when packing lists will be needed again!


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My packing list is 17 years old. I've got sections now for backpack camping, glamping, beach trips, ski- trips, international trips, etc. I make changes to the list as I'm packing and leave the list behind to update on my computer when I get home from our trip. It makes packing and vacationing so much less stressful knowing that I probably didn't forget anything we really need.

A year ago for a 15 day trip that took our family of 6 to three different places in France by plane and bus, I used packing cubes. It was the first time I tried them and they were a huge help. They helped me plan out and keep organized each kids' clothes for the day. I couldn't have done it without the cubes because the tour company put our family in 3 separate rooms at each hotel, not always next to each other. I wanted us to all wear the same neon colors each day so we could find each other in the crowd. We stayed in 3 different hotels and finally an apartment in Paris. I organized it all to fit in 2 pieces of carry-on luggage per person. That turned out to be a smart move because the tour company lost half the checked luggage. I'm not sure I'd want to travel like that all the time because there isn't much room for sponteneity in clothing choices, but the cubes are great for staying very organized.

[SnuggleBuggles]

The travel ones remind me that we each have our own bags and they are stocked and at least 95% ready for a trip. Actually, the kids and mine are 100% ready to throw in but dh hasn’t totally gotten on board so I’m always left waiting until the last minute for his bag. I can’t believe how many years I wasted when I could have simply bought some extra stuff to keep in the bags vs waiting to pack until we got ready in the AM. Our general medicine is always stocked in a travel bag so that’s ready to go too

I used to be all in on packing cubes. Dh would probably still like them. For us, I put the kids outfit of the day in a ziplock bag. I started doing that for camp but I find it works on other trips too. At a minimum I pack our bags like this: least likely to be worn at the bottom (that "just in case" sweatshirt, jeans, dress), then by day I have a full outfit always with pants on the bottom, undies on top so it's clear where the stack ends then stacked day by day like that. Pjs for the first night on top. Socks and then bathing suits... tucked around. Being able to pull out a whole outfit each day just makes my life easier. I can't bring myself to buy that many packing cubes though. When I used them it was by item type (a cube for shirts, one for socks). I like my outfit way batter now.

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[SnuggleBuggles]

I bought a nice planter to keep on the front porch and back porch with gardening gloves and shovels for quick weed pulling.
I reuse paper bags from the grocery store for weeds. I don't know about where others live but our stores are not allowing reusable bags so I have a massive collection of paper bags to use now.

[NCGrandma]

Packing cubes remind me that, one Christmas, I gave a variety of travel accessories to a family member who was doing a lot of business travel. I included a set of various-sized packing cubes. Shortly afterwards, she admitted that she had thought the cubes were really silly ... until her first trip when she discovered how useful they were!


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