9 Ideas For Household Items
Looking for things you can use around the home?
Here are 9 novel ideas that you can easily use with household items you already have.
1. Vegetable Peelers
There’s only one way to use a vegetable peeler, but it does more than just peeling the outside of a vegetable. You can use it to peel vegetables in just about any way imaginable, which can really come in handy when you have a meal to prepare.
Try using your vegetable peeler to slice onions. Chopping onions with a knife works well enough, but sometimes you want thinner strips and you don’t have the patience to slice everything up nice and thin.
2. Saucepan Handles
Eating is something we all do every day, and there’s very little eating that doesn’t start as cooking. The upside of cooking is it inevitably leads to eating, but the downside is it inevitably leads to cleaning up afterwards.
If you’ve ever made a mess by dipping a spoon in a saucepan of food and then leaving the spoon out on the countertop, then this handy trick will be a lifesaver. Almost every saucepan has a hole in the handle, and you can use this to balance the spoon and save yourself the clean up after.
3. Pasta Measuring Ladle
This has happened to everyone who ever cooked pasta: you think you’ve picked the perfect serving size, only to find you’ve got too much pasta. Pasta always grows when you cook it, and you can end up with way too much — or worse, with just a little bit extra, but not quite enough to save for later.
The little hole in a pasta ladle can help save the day. You can use it to measure out how much pasta you should cook, and it tends to give you just the right amount for a meal for one.
4. Frozen Sponges
Keeping your food fresh and your cold meals cold can be a challenge. There’s a simple way to create an impromptu ice pack whenever you need it, though, just by grabbing an everyday item like a sponge. Just fill a fresh sponge with water, place it in a plastic bag, and stick it in the freezer.
The frozen sponge will stay cold for a long time. Just make sure you’re using a fresh, clean sponge — and make sure the bag you use is watertight!
5. Coca Cola Toilet Cleanser
Coca Cola is everywhere, and there’s no denying it’s delicious. There’s a reason it’s one of the world’s most popular sodas. There are a lot of other uses for the beverage, though — some people use it to settle an upset stomach, but the acidity of Coca Cola can also make it useful for other things.
Some people will use it to clean tiles, porcelain, and to remove rust. It may seem strange, but plenty of people swear by it.
6. Bread Tag Labels
Once you’re done with your bread, you’re probably done with your bread tags. Most people don’t think twice before throwing the tags out with the bread bag (and usually, the crusts, too.) There’s more that they can do than hold a bread bag closed, though.
You can use your bread tags to keep your cords organized, by clipping them together — or by writing notes on the tags, and keeping them as reminders.
7. Drink Cartons
Pouring yourself a glass of milk or filling up a bowl of cereal sometimes leads to accidents. There’s no use crying of spilled milk and that’s because it happens all the time. There’s something about all that liquid sloshing around that makes it harder to keep control.
Unless that is, you try this simple trick. If you pour milk from the other side of the carton there’s less milk sloshing around and it’s easier to hold it steady. It may seem weird, but give it a try and see how it works.
8. Measuring Tape Diamonds Stud Finder
Another little detail that’s easy to miss is on a tool we all have, but which we might not use all that often, our tape measure. Everyone’s seen a tape measure and most of us have used one, but there’s more to it than just stretching it out and counting the numbers.
There are tiny markings on tape measures that are there to help you find the right position for wall studs. These black diamonds are known as “stud finders,” and they can help mark the centre point between two studs.
9. Peeling Oranges
An orange is a delicious snack, it’s good for you, and it’s lots of fun to eat as well. Except once you’re done, there’s juice everywhere, and you’re all sticky. There’s a better way to do it that avoids all the mess and makes the whole experience easier too.
Cut the orange on both ends, top and bottom, and then you can just pull it open. The orange will unwrap conveniently and you can use the skin to keep it all together. Very handy.
