Your most amazing tip or trick

What is your most amazing trick or tip?

For example, my grandmother would clear a stopped up drain by pouring some bleach into it, wait a couple minutes, then add hydrogen peroxide.

I will add more if this thread grows.

If you are in a pinch to measure something and don't have a ruler you can still get fairly accurate results by using a dollar bill, its length is 6 inches.

I know this is far from AMAZING but it's a handy piece of info that's been very useful to me over the years.

Oh, and a quarter is 1 inch.

a penny weighs about a gram.

This one could save your life someday.

If you don't have a compass you can still find direction. Get a say 4 foot long stick and stand it on end by sticking it in the ground or surrounding the end with rocks. Grab another rock and place it on the very end of the sticks shadow. Wait say 15-20 min and the shadow will have moved, place another rock on the end of the shadow. Now draw a line from the first rock to the second rock and that will point exactly east. Obviously from there you can locate ALL directions.





[edit on 5-1-2006 by kinglizard]

All from my Grandma...

Drink half a bottle of champagne and want to save it? Take a silver spoon and put the handle down in the neck (the round part stays out obviously) and it will keep the "fizz" in the champagne.

Have a cut that won't stop bleeding? Run for the sugar bowl. Sugar coagulates the blood and stops the bleeding.

Those are pretty handy....

Back to the drain thing. One thing I've found, is that if you take a stick and make a little whirlpool (making sure air can reach the drain), this will usually help unclog the drain... I can only remember one time this hasn't worked. For grease clogs, run the hot water for about 10 minutes, and there you go.

When travelling abroad, and unfamiliar with the Metric system, remember that average room temp is about 20 degrees celsius, so you can use that to guage how hot or cold it is when seeing the weather on tv...as for some reason, we Americans are stubborn and refuse to use the system the rest of the world uses...

A solar still for water...

If you have a piece or two of plastic, you can make a solar still to collect water. The simplest means of this is if you have a bowl or some other container. But, in the absence of that, you can dig a small hole and line it with a piece of plastic to hold the water. Next, you stick 3-4 sticks in the ground around the bowl or hole. Then, you attach the plastic forming a tent with a dip in the middle, so the dip is over the bowl/hole. Another thing is to poke a hole in the very bottom of the dip.

It doesn't provide much, but the idea is to make as many of these as you can, if you are somehow in the wild without water. The water from morning dew on the plastic will slide down into the bowl/hole and collect. The hole in the dip is to double for catching rain water and allowing it to then go into the bowl or hole.

If you have seawater, and two containers of differing sizes, you can get a lot more water out of this.

Place the small container within the larger one. Make sure to weight it down, as you don't want it floating. Now, fill the larger container with salt water, surrounding the empty inner small container. Use the same "tent" as mentioned above. As the sea water evaporates, it leaves the salt behind and condenses on the plastic, running down into the small container. Viola! Your own desalinization plant. May not provide much, but may keep you alive...

[edit on 5-1-2006 by Gazrok]

man I have a lot "tips" but like 99% will violate TOS!!!!!!!!



let me just say this.

oxyclean works great on glass.





if you got a bruise you can take a raw onion slice a slice and slap it over the bruise. avoid open wound lol

say you get blood on your shirt. you can take some windex spray it on the bloody stain rub it some toss it in the wash usually clears it out much better than that faded orange stain.

Heres a handy one for the kids,

If when using a pencil and you cannot find a eraser... use a piece of bread to erase the mistake,

to make your sink shine, cut a lemon in half and some salt and rub it in the sink..it will sparkle,

If you are familiar with Sam Kennison....the Alphabet thing really is a pretty good trick...

Originally posted by ZeddicusZulZorander
Have a cut that won't stop bleeding? Run for the sugar bowl. Sugar coagulates the blood and stops the bleeding.

A wet tea bag will work to stop bleeding as well.

For bleeding noses, once the bleeding has stopped, use a q-tip to rub Vaseline in your nose to prevent another bleeding nose.

If you have a small cut and can't get to a doctor to sew it up you can use crazy glue to close the wound. I’ve never done that but my friend tried it and he said it worked.

Staying with the "stain in clothes" theme, if you pour bleach on a stain and let it sit for about five minutes, it will get rid of the stain..............................and part of the shirt!


Just thought I'd share a story of my early days as a bachelor.

Peace

Vinegar is good for many things.

You can drink some for health - ggod for keeping blood thinned, cleans your insides.

Great for cleaning coffee pots.

Good for removing surface rust.

Good for removing calcium deposits.

Good for clearing slow drains.

Good for removing bubble gum.

Good for stopping ants.

Good for breaking up most glued items.

Good for cleaning windows.

Good for removing stains in clothes.

Good in a garden to kill weeds.

Good for sunburns and bee stings.

Never turn a two year old child upside down and tickle him AFTER they have eaten dinner. It never ends well....

Well, I don't have a tip or trick like everyone else but I can change my eye color at will.
Its pretty neat even though I have ever made a really major change.

My tip? Don't swim in shark infested waters...

For some reason the people owning the snack stand at the beach didn't like that as a good tip..hm...weird...I thought it would help...it being a beach and all...I guess everything revolves around money now...

Cider Vinegar makes your hair shiney ^_^

When I was younger and using the bathroom, (#1's) I would never shut the door. I had a cat that would always be asleep outside the bathroom so when I would go, she would wake up. After a few months of me using the bathroom with the door open, and her watching I noticed her kitty litter was always dry.

Here she learned to use the bathroom by watching me, as gross as that may seem

So now to this day, my cat uses the bathroom like anyone else and has no need for kitty litter.

So my weird tip is, I dont know

Chissler...are you serious?

--Kit.

Originally posted by chissler
When I was younger and using the bathroom, (#1's) I would never shut the door. I had a cat that would always be asleep outside the bathroom so when I would go, she would wake up. After a few months of me using the bathroom with the door open, and her watching I noticed her kitty litter was always dry.

Here she learned to use the bathroom by watching me, as gross as that may seem

So now to this day, my cat uses the bathroom like anyone else and has no need for kitty litter.

Yeah...are you serious? Cause if so...then that is uber

If travelling to a place with a reputation for mugging, create a false wallet. Take an old wallet, and put a few dollar notes or pounds etc in it along with some meaningless cards like outdated video or library cards etc and carry it with you.

It has to look at first glance like a real wallet though, so don't skimp on the money. £10 or £20 pounds in small notes is worth it in the long run.

If demanded for your wallet, hand it over and make a swift getaway.



[edit on 7-1-2006 by kegs]

When traveling in Mexico. Don't drink the water!!!!

To cure a hangover. You've heard the expression for a cure, you need a little of the hair of the dog. Use actual dog hair in tea with a little lemon.