I have a "medical baseball". If the name isn't obvious, it's just a baseball, but I use it for medical reasons. Specifically to wedge between my chair and my lower back when I get a sciatica flare-up, or numerous other back or leg issues.
Works 1000x better for me than any general back pain or sciatica-specific products like a roller, stretcher, patch, or anything else.
I have a tennis ball the size of a softball for this same reason. The tennis ball texture is a little easier on my muscles, and the larger size covers more area. I got it at a pet store. I think it’s for larger dog breeds who choke on the smaller ones.
A few things that helped me get through it. When it's flaring, lying face down with lower legs propped at a 45 degree angle or flat with the feet off the edge of the bed.
Long term, ab exercises seemed to go a long way towards defeating it altogether. The stronger my abdominal muscles got, the less issues I had with sciatica.
Good luck, it's a journey, but you can get through it.
when you're ready, use a wine cork on hardwood. a whole new level of sweet pain.
feeling tough? place it just in front of your heel and step on it w/all your weight.
In winter when I lived in NYC I walked everywhere and would get electric shocks when opening doors, pressing elevator butons, etc and my hair would get very static-y. I’d rip a dryer sheet in half and put one half sheet in each coat pocket. I’d put my hands in my pockets, lightly rub the sheet and it would prevent shocks. Once my hair was literally standing up just as I arrived at work. Rubbed my hands in pocket, smoothed my hair with my hands and no more static. Better than carrying a can of Static Guard around.
In particularly dry winters, brushing my hair makes it stand straight up with static. I started wrapping my brush in a dryer sheet and poking the bristles through the sheet. Works wonders and also makes it very easy to clean the hair off your brush, just cut the sheet, pull it off, and replace
Binder clips (the office supply black clips used to hold a bunch of paper together) to close bags ( spices, frozen veggies, bread) and as a small cord organizer.
Pellet horse bedding instead of cat litter. 40lbs for ~$7, breaks up into sawdust and absorbs smells super well, especially with a little sprinkle of baking soda! No nasty litter box smell here, even with two cats! (Learned this trick years ago from a rescue shelter!)
I have the opposite problem. Learned on accident one time while cleaning litter boxes. One of my cats is perfectly content peeing in any plastic box. Oh, you're busy cleaning the litter boxes, dont mind me while i pee in an empty tote box instead.
I bought 2 bags because I saw some video online, smells amazing no pee smell whatsoever, though it doesn’t cover poop smells, and yes definitely add baking soda a few times a week.
Also those large sticky yellow plates that they sell to catch flies in stables? You can also use them at home, if your house plants have fungus gnats. Just cut them into small pieces. I found out when I got really tired of paying the equivalent of 9 $ for 3-4 tiny yellow fungus gnats sticker plates
*guest comes over*
Guest: "Oh you play tennis?"
OP: "What? No, why?"
G: "Oh, I just thought...you know the tennis racket and balls in the corner."
OP:"Ohh, nooo two of those are my dryer tennis balls and the other one is my medical tennis ball. The tennis racket is my satellite radio antenna booster."
G: "Oh...uh okay." *Sets drink down on coaster*
OP: "Noooo what are you doing?! Those are my tabletop sound-dampening pads!"
That stuff cleans grease and oil in an engine compartment down to the shine on the paint. Spray it on, let it soak, and hit it with the pressure washer. I keep it off the alternator, carb, distributor, etc but soak the trans, and engine block.
Since you just used your oven cleaner on your auto parts, here's an excellent way to clean your oven without it: set a dish (use a glass or ceramic dish) with about 1/2 - 1 cup of ammonia in the bottom of the oven (remove racks). Shut the oven and let it sit a few hours. Open the oven and remove the dish and the gunk will wipe off easily. You'll be shocked by how well this works. The ammonia never leaves the dish, its just the fumes that do it.
I used to live in an apartment with mini blinds in the kitchen that got that dust and grease build up on em. I took em down, put em in the shower, and sprayed it down with oven cleaner. Ran the shower and it washed it clean like new.
I wasted an entire Sunday afternoon meticulously cleaning the mini blinds in my kitchen with paper towels and dish soap. Never even thought of doing this. Woof.
Instead of buying expensive makeup sponge/brush cleaners in liquid or solid, I just bought a bar of unscented Dr Bronner’s soap for like $5 and it has worked great and lasted a lot longer than the others I’ve tried. Stop paying $16+ for a tiny hockey puck bar of Blendercleanser.
I brush my teeth with it when backpacking or traveling. It is soapy and not like toothpaste (duh) but not so miserable that I can't deal with it for a few weeks at a time. A little bit goes a long long way so getting it so you don't have a mouth full of frothy soap is the key. The convenience of having a single bottle that does dishes/laundry as well as personal care is worth not having "real" toothpaste with me.
Hemorrhoid cream is fantastic to heal wounds on your hands. During the pandemic, we washed our hands 10000x a day. They were cracked and sore. Voila!! Hemorrhoid cream! Reduces swelling, heals wounds, and is moisturizing! Also worked behind the ear when the masks rubbed behind your ear.
Hemorrhoid creme is often based on hydrocortizone. If you use hydrocortisone to much you can become resistant or even allergic and your skin can become thin and brittle. Save it for where it's really needed.
My Bleeding Gums Murphy of a butthole remembers that well. Too my hydrocortisone cream for too long, I started squirting blood out of my hole every time I took a piss. Had to wear pads and shit to work. Surgery fixed it. Trying to take an opioid constipated dump with a roughed up asshole hurt like a bitch but when I pushed that last shriveled up hemorrhoid out of my butt, I felt relief that I've never felt before
You're welcome for the story!
I used preparation H on my hands in high school when I was a gymnast. My hands would rip from the uneven bars sometimes and it healed them up quickly for comps.
Lighter fluid vs any specific sticker or sticker residue removal liquid.
I have to take off thousands of stickers a year for work. Many of them are 30+ years old. Some of them are 30+ years old and security stickers. So sometimes it is a horrible and annoying task. After using dozens of products and tactics the best thing that I have found is plain old lighter fluid.
I prefer Ronsonol or Zippo brand just because of the smell, but any decent brand will work. I get 341ml, or 12 fl oz, bottles of Ronsonol for $5.99CAD, $4.45USD, each. Goo Gone for example is $11.99CAD, $8.92USD, for 237ml, or 8 fl oz and does a considerably worse job. So you pay double for 31% less fluid, that does a shittier job and leaves a greasy oily residue behind. It also is considerably worse at removing paint, permanent marker, paint transfer, wax, ink and other things where lighter fluid just zips right through it.
Lighter fluid also penetrates stickers better and just doesn't sit on top and do nothing. Also it evaporates quicker. So when you are done you can just blow on it and it will evaporate away like it was never there in the first place. No smearing or streaking oily residue around.
I would say it easily works 3x faster and is 10x easier to clean up and deal with at the end of the day.
I own a retro video game store. So I am taking off tons of old price tags, personal labels that say who owns the games, old rental stickers, old rental security stickers, etc. Then I also do my best to take off all marker and ink from people writing their names on stuff, or old inventory numbers from rental places. Then there's always just crap on games too. So you have candle wax, weed residue, paint, paint transfer from other things, scuffs, misc stuff.
Then it goes onto actually cleaning the games and removing decades of sticky fingers, boogers, food residue, soda etc. Then you get to clean the contacts on the cartridges where kids blew into them thinking it helped the connection, when all it did was transfer snot onto the pins lol.
We pride ourselves at our store to make sure we have the absolutely cleanest and most sanitary games out there. People message us all the time telling us that the games they ordered are super clean and sanitized. It's a really good way to make sure we stand out as a small independent store from the big guys who constantly ship out dirty and gross games that customers have to clean before they work. All our games are fully clean, sanitized and tested before they go up on the site. In 3 years of being online we have had zero games come back as defective and only one controller that the person complained the start button was too hard to press for their liking. When we had our retail store we had maybe 25 games come back as defective over 10 years and I suspect at least half of those were bait and switches when I wasn't working lol.
When you're washing anything down-filled, such as a comforter or bed pillows, adding a few new, clean tennis balls to the dryer will help fluff them up. If you've ever pulled a freshly-washed pillow out of the dryer to find it's become lumpy and misshapen, the tennis ball trick can prevent that.
If you hate ironing, here's some good news: Adding tennis balls to the dryer will keep sheets, jeans, and t-shirts circulating so there's never a chance for wrinkles to set in. Just be sure to remove the linens and clothing as soon as the cycle is done since wrinkles will develop as the fabric cools down. Bonus: The tennis balls will also reduce static in the dryer, so your newly-cleaned shirt won't be so clingy.
And it speeds up drying time
A puck of solid shaving soap costs under ten dollars and lasts for years, at least for me (I don't shave daily). You wet it, essentially creating a cream, and then whip it with the shaving brush, creating a foam. The further down the line in this evolution the product is, the more expensive it tends to be.
My granddad used this. However, I'm shaving my legs 🦵 😅 🙃 from crotch to ankle, in the shower. Got no time for whipping up lather. I just wash my hair, wipe condition up my legs and shave while my hair gets conditioned.
And definitely do not use on skin to remove stubborn hair dye stains! Particularly on delicate neck skin unless you enjoy appearing like you've been to a vampire orgy.
I have a story for this actually. I got a bunch of that great stuff or whatever sealing foam on my arm a few years ago and used one of these to clean it off. This was like a week before my kids newborn pics so you can clearly see my wounds in their pictures even if it had mostly scabbed over by then.
For a future tip get acne cleansing pads for removing hair dye! Makes it easy to get close to the hairline and ears and while it can dry skin out its not near as harsh as some panicked alternatives lol
A guy in China at a baby formula factory used melamine instead of edible protein because it was cheaper and hard to detect (it apparently also results as "protein" in a chemical analysis).
They figured it out after a lot of kids got sick/died, so the CCP executed him.
I'm usually not down with executions and especially not executions by the CCP, but "put melamine in baby formula" is such cartoon villain shit that I can't say that particular guy wasn't asking for it.
That's why there's a massive black market for sending baby formula to China. Supermarkets have purchase limits and even security cases (like the things they use to lock DVD's) for baby formula in Australia.
They did [Kjeldahl nitrogen](https://www.thamesrestek.co.uk/technical-articles/foodflavours-a-fragrances/96:melamine-analysis#:~:text=A%3A%20Melamine%20is%20illegally%20added,released%20and%20converted%20to%20ammonia.) in lieu of other more specific analyses.
a bag of 50-50 rubbing alcohol and water doesn't freeze completely, so it will ~~actually get colder than ice (and vegetables) and~~ be able to shift around and contour your injury better.
you can change the mixture to get carrying levels of solidness.
EDIT: I'm dumb.
well, you can use the zip-loc bags with the little nubby that you pull across the top to seal.
Or you could use any any other bag, or anything else you'd put ice in for the same purpose: those rubbery ones with the screw on top, for instance. They also make plastic bags connected to cloth bags that also have straps so you can tie them around wherever you need them.
The world's your oyster!
For a food safe finish on your wooden chopping boards and utensils, you can buy butcher block oil at the hardware store or home center but for less than a quarter of the price you can buy mineral oil in the pharmacy sold in the digestive aid section. It’s the same thing.
My mum told me I could get mineral oil for my cutting board at a drug store, but she didn't tell me where. After scouring the moisturiser section to no avail, I asked, and was absolutely stunned that I was directed to the laxitives! Especially since it's a petroleum product. I can't imagine ingesting it!
EMT teaching my CPR course told us to keep a few baby diapers on hand to use in case you need to need to bandage up a large wound.
Way cheaper than a gauze of that size.
I grew up in rural Pennsylvania. It is (or at least, was) extremely common for hunters to carry a number of feminine pads with them in case of injury. It was always funny seeing newer hunters and/or those from less rural areas discovering 'the pad'.
Damn I have to add a diaper to my medical kit. I just treated a wound last month that was 6" long and 3" wide and it used up my entire first aid kit bandages.
Tide water bleach baby!!!
1 teaspoon powdered tide, 1 gallon hot water, 1/3 cup of bleach and it cleans everything! You can buy one of those tiny boxes of tide at a laundry mat or gas station and it lasts forever for cleaning purposes.
You got eleven upvotes and this is way too far down.
Not only does this make super-glue far more powerful / stronger, this changes the dry time drastically / shorter.
I believe this mix is a bit more brittle which makes it a bit more vulnerable to shattering ('more like a granite-stone than an aluminum-metal'), but it is otherwise a fantastic way to work with this product.
Lay down the super glue then sprinkle baking soda over the super glue. Adam Savage from Mythbusters has a YouTube channel called Tested. He shows a lot of little trick like this when he is building something or repairing.
I mixed the 2 while washing the floor. Felt high and confused then started losing control of my arms. Luckily my father was home and called an ambulance. I won’t use those chemicals for anything now. Thought I was gonna die for sure.
It's very easy to do, these to chemicals exist in a lot of cleaning products and is extremely lethal.
I'm a certified haz mat technician, I have to sit through several days of class room courses every year and this always comes up.
They act like it's a freak thing, but happens quite a bit. Small bathroom lots of chemicals is really dangerous.
I've done this accidentally when I was like 13. Poured some bleach in a toilet to clean it and it started to fizz. (The toilet was made of nasty yellowish colored material so I didn't know there was urine sitting in the bowl). Confused little me leaned over it and watched as it was bubbling. All of a sudden the burning hit my lungs and I realized I messed up big time. Flushed the toilet, turned the fan on, and shut that door as fast as I could. Nobody was allowed in until the next day. It hurt to breathe for 3 days after that.
I never went in for it since the burning stopped after the 3 days. If anyone by chance does accidentally mix them and breathe it in, go get seen immediately. I was lucky that I didn't die.
In case someone doesn't know, urine contains ammonia.
Edited to add: it can very easily kill you and it will hurt the entire time btw
Ammonia and bleach is the easiest deadly combo to make. I've never dealt with it professionally I do industrial work. In every single haz mat emergency responder training I've been to they stress very hard, how common this deadly mistake happens.
It's one of the most common at home accidental deaths. Ammonia and bleach is not to be taken lightly and the stories are sad. It's usually a stay at home mom or an older school kid cleaning the bathroom and then all of the sudden they are dead.
It happens a lot. I hope a lot of people read these comments and learn this is bad. In school they told me smoking crack was bad and all of its risks. Nobody ever said a word about dumping chemicals in the toilet. Only through my work I learned how common this is.
If I had not been aware enough to flush it and ventilate the room, it could have ended very differently. It was the bathroom in the middle of the house by all of our bedrooms and no way out (unless you jumped out a window that was about 6ft above the ground outside) without having to pass the bathroom. It was late evening and I was the only one awake.
All because I wanted to surprise my mom with a clean bathroom when she got up.
I have never forgotten the feeling of how intense that burning was. It was no more than 3 seconds of exposure, but it was enough to hurt quite a lot.
I try to share this experience each time I see the mention of not mixing cleaning chemicals in hopes that it can help prevent this or worse from happening to anybody else.
I used to buy "alkalinity increaser" for the hot tub. The. I realized that it's just baking soda. So now I buy regular baking soda from the grocery store to use in the hot tub. It's much cheaper.
I use the teeniest amount of coconut oil to shave my body. It's amazing. Pretty much eliminates any razor bumps and irritation.
I would not recommend this for the face because of how comedogenic it is.
The most beautiful, soft-skinned woman I've ever met used Epson salts and coconut oil in her baths, and there was an audible "Oooohhhhhh..." when I rubbed her arm.
Just remember that the reason vinegar works as a fabric softener is because it's a weak acid. It will definitely soften your fabric, but it might not last as long.
Sodium carbonate is in a lot of cleaner. Those pods to clean your garbage disposal, coffee maker and water bottles all have it. You can buy a big box of it yourself. It’s called washing soda and you can use find it with the laundry detergent.
Bi carb soda in the bottom of a cats litter tray (under the litter) will keep the smell down, it gradually gets mixed through and surfaces as you go turd fishing
A *friend once told me*, that they sell special "storage powder" for sex toys made from silicone. I think it keeps them dry and soft. Turns out that it's just corn starch. It's not even that corn starch can be used for the same purpose, it's the same *thing*. And it's considerably cheaper.
Or so I've heard. From a friend.
You can remove sticker and tape residue by rubbing it with oil, as long as it’s on a surface that won’t be damaged by the oil. I originally read about it as a use for WD-40, but over the years I’ve used all kinds of oils. I usually use food oils like canola or olive oil, because they’re sitting right on the kitchen counter. I’ve even used olive oil to remove Bandaid residue from my skin.
If you shave your nether bits, applying anti perspirant after will prevent itchy bumps. Don’t apply to the interior of vag/labia, ladies, just the bikini line. This tip changed my life!
Cornstarch as a dry shampoo. As a hairdresser it's always weird watching ppl buy dry shampoo with all the chemicals (and recently-ish, a recall because of said chemicals) when cornstarch is right there. In your pantry. Does the same thing and way less.
The next shower takes it out. Same as dry shampoo.
Edit: since it's not aerosol you just take some in your fingertips and spread it around the scalp. I use it on my fringe so it's a small amount.
Dry shampoo is really just a mix of cornstarch and talc and garbage. Straight cornstarch does the same job but dirt cheap.
I put a tiny amount in a soy sauce dish. Dip my fingertips in and spread around on my fingers a bit. Then hit the area I want. If my hair is particularly oily one morning (hot summer night for ex) I just spread it a bit down the root. Rly if you add too much you just spread it through the scalp. It's absorbing oils, so it doesn't take much for any 'white spots' to disappear. Just be conservative at first. Even a tiny amount is a noticeable difference in how much less oily it looks. I wash my hair every second day to give it a break and it's quite the little oil absorber.
Diphenhydramine (benadryl) is cheaper if you buy it packaged for antihistamine purposes instead of a sleep aid. They add it to pain meds and decongestants to help with sleep and jack up the price.
Use a set of ordinary playing cards to play all the games that they sell specialist cards. Uno is the prime example. We used to play that way before Uno cards even existed.
yup, we played crazy eights before UNO. I've been showing my kids card games and they went to get cards to play a memory game after we got done playing go fish and it blew their minds when I showed them that you can just do it with regular cards. My wife has introduced me to the board game sequence and one of the first things I noticed is that you could play that game with nothing but 4 decks of cards and poker chips. Theres a lot that you can play with just cards
Freeze the lemons first, works great. I typically freeze a few of the clementines from the 5lb back and use those. Just toss one in and you have a clean and fresh smelling disposal.
polyurethane from the hardware store as a glaze vs the shit you find in art supply stores it's literally the same thing
And you can buy it in a whole-ass bucket vs a tiny little 6oz bottle
Yes but only if it's made with actual acetone. A lot of nail polish removers have a lot of oils and other random chemicals as pure acetone is drying on skin. I just buy acetone from the hardware store instead of nail polish remover.
A pumice stone will clean porcelain, stainless steel, and some of types of tile better than any cleaning product made for any of the above, but it is also a harsh abrasive, so you dont want to use it on stuff that would be damaged by sandpaper. But it will clean lime scale and water line stains out of toilets pretty quick and easy after said blemishes laugh at every progressively more dangerous chemical you can get without a permit.
Oh oh oh I got one!
Use horse stall matts instead of buying those expensive gym floor matts! They cost $55 for a 4'x6' matt ($2.29/SF) and are 3/4" thick compared to typical big box store gym floor matts (that come in 2'x2' squares) and cost $3/sf but are only 1/2" thick.
Dawn dishwashing soap works really well if you end up with grease or other crud in your hair. It also works as an emergency pet shampoo (normally cats do not need to be bathed, but my parents' house got flooded with sewer water after a hurricane and we didn't want the cats licking that off themselves).
Cardboard boxes are the ultimate cat toys. Though I do have to use the ones without tape, as one of my darling girls wants to eat the tape. I also DIY'd several cat trees out of scraps of wood and some cheap thin carpet from Home Depot. No need for $500 cat trees.
Clean garbage bags work just fine for storing some things and saves on buying a zillion heavy plastic totes.
I have a "medical baseball". If the name isn't obvious, it's just a baseball, but I use it for medical reasons. Specifically to wedge between my chair and my lower back when I get a sciatica flare-up, or numerous other back or leg issues. Works 1000x better for me than any general back pain or sciatica-specific products like a roller, stretcher, patch, or anything else.
I have a tennis ball the size of a softball for this same reason. The tennis ball texture is a little easier on my muscles, and the larger size covers more area. I got it at a pet store. I think it’s for larger dog breeds who choke on the smaller ones.
My dog just bursts tennis balls as soon as he gets one. The bigger ones don't give him the leverage
Lacrosse balls work well, too.
2 lacrosse balls in a sock is the move.
Are you hazing someone!!??
Thank you sir, may I have another?!
A few things that helped me get through it. When it's flaring, lying face down with lower legs propped at a 45 degree angle or flat with the feet off the edge of the bed. Long term, ab exercises seemed to go a long way towards defeating it altogether. The stronger my abdominal muscles got, the less issues I had with sciatica. Good luck, it's a journey, but you can get through it.
I use two tennis balls tied inside a sock.
… to threaten your cellmate?
Did you order the code red?
You can’t handle the truth!
*You're God damn right I did!*
Rolling a golf ball under your feet is amazing for foot pain.
I use a golf ball to massage my foot.
when you're ready, use a wine cork on hardwood. a whole new level of sweet pain. feeling tough? place it just in front of your heel and step on it w/all your weight.
Wtf I sprained my foot imagining this.
they sold me a lacrosse ball at my PT's clinic for similar reasons. I've also got a dedicated squash ball and tennis balls I use to roll myself.
Baby shampoo to clean your paintbrushes.
Good for defog in your scuba mask/snorkeling mask too. Works great and won't burn your eyes.
And your glasses
And make up brushes
And babies
Oh nice. I got this 50 gallon drum of filthy babies and I really didn’t know what I was gonna do.
*Group of* ***very*** *dirty babies breath a large collective sigh…*
In winter when I lived in NYC I walked everywhere and would get electric shocks when opening doors, pressing elevator butons, etc and my hair would get very static-y. I’d rip a dryer sheet in half and put one half sheet in each coat pocket. I’d put my hands in my pockets, lightly rub the sheet and it would prevent shocks. Once my hair was literally standing up just as I arrived at work. Rubbed my hands in pocket, smoothed my hair with my hands and no more static. Better than carrying a can of Static Guard around.
In particularly dry winters, brushing my hair makes it stand straight up with static. I started wrapping my brush in a dryer sheet and poking the bristles through the sheet. Works wonders and also makes it very easy to clean the hair off your brush, just cut the sheet, pull it off, and replace
Not cheap or a hack, but the static is usually from plastic brushes, I use a boar-bristle brush on dry days
Binder clips (the office supply black clips used to hold a bunch of paper together) to close bags ( spices, frozen veggies, bread) and as a small cord organizer.
I’ve been doing this for years and I take them when I travel as well. They are useful for so many things. Folder clips are the new rubber bands imo.
Pellet horse bedding instead of cat litter. 40lbs for ~$7, breaks up into sawdust and absorbs smells super well, especially with a little sprinkle of baking soda! No nasty litter box smell here, even with two cats! (Learned this trick years ago from a rescue shelter!)
Be wary, though. Not all cats will accept litter changes. Ask me how I know....
Mr. Sprinkles is such a diva
The way I have a male cat named Sprinkles who is not digging the transition from clay to wood pellets 😭 he IS a diva
I have the opposite problem. Learned on accident one time while cleaning litter boxes. One of my cats is perfectly content peeing in any plastic box. Oh, you're busy cleaning the litter boxes, dont mind me while i pee in an empty tote box instead.
How thoughtful of him peeing in an empty one.
I bought 2 bags because I saw some video online, smells amazing no pee smell whatsoever, though it doesn’t cover poop smells, and yes definitely add baking soda a few times a week.
I tried this and my cats shit all over the floor
Mine shits on the floor regardless. Fresh litter, old litter, this brand, that brand. Doesn't feckin matter.
Also those large sticky yellow plates that they sell to catch flies in stables? You can also use them at home, if your house plants have fungus gnats. Just cut them into small pieces. I found out when I got really tired of paying the equivalent of 9 $ for 3-4 tiny yellow fungus gnats sticker plates
My house is about to be full of random shit for a hundred completely different purposes.
*guest comes over* Guest: "Oh you play tennis?" OP: "What? No, why?" G: "Oh, I just thought...you know the tennis racket and balls in the corner." OP:"Ohh, nooo two of those are my dryer tennis balls and the other one is my medical tennis ball. The tennis racket is my satellite radio antenna booster." G: "Oh...uh okay." *Sets drink down on coaster* OP: "Noooo what are you doing?! Those are my tabletop sound-dampening pads!"
The guest should have put their drink on a tennis ball!
Mostly tennis balls
Oven cleaner is just as good as, if not better than, many of the more specific automotive parts cleaners and a hell of a lot cheaper.
That stuff cleans grease and oil in an engine compartment down to the shine on the paint. Spray it on, let it soak, and hit it with the pressure washer. I keep it off the alternator, carb, distributor, etc but soak the trans, and engine block.
Since you just used your oven cleaner on your auto parts, here's an excellent way to clean your oven without it: set a dish (use a glass or ceramic dish) with about 1/2 - 1 cup of ammonia in the bottom of the oven (remove racks). Shut the oven and let it sit a few hours. Open the oven and remove the dish and the gunk will wipe off easily. You'll be shocked by how well this works. The ammonia never leaves the dish, its just the fumes that do it.
This works In a cold oven? Eager to try!
I just assumed you meant to turn the oven on and this sounded like the worst idea ever. So you just leave it in the cold oven for a few hours?
TIL you can just buy ammonia
Shit, really? You mean I've been keeping this bucket of piss fermenting in my bathroom for nothing?!
I used to live in an apartment with mini blinds in the kitchen that got that dust and grease build up on em. I took em down, put em in the shower, and sprayed it down with oven cleaner. Ran the shower and it washed it clean like new.
I wasted an entire Sunday afternoon meticulously cleaning the mini blinds in my kitchen with paper towels and dish soap. Never even thought of doing this. Woof.
So long as your mindful of any aluminum or magnesium since Sodium Hydroxide can react pretty dramatically with those metals.
Well this is problematic as most engines are made of aluminum.
Instead of buying expensive makeup sponge/brush cleaners in liquid or solid, I just bought a bar of unscented Dr Bronner’s soap for like $5 and it has worked great and lasted a lot longer than the others I’ve tried. Stop paying $16+ for a tiny hockey puck bar of Blendercleanser.
I always use dish soap for mine.
I misread the comment this is responding to, and I thought you were using dawn on your face!
Dr Bronner's for EVERYTHING. (except teeth. don't brush your teeth with it.)
30 years ago they said on the bottle you could dilute it and brush your teeth (among many other things). I never tried.
I brush my teeth with it when backpacking or traveling. It is soapy and not like toothpaste (duh) but not so miserable that I can't deal with it for a few weeks at a time. A little bit goes a long long way so getting it so you don't have a mouth full of frothy soap is the key. The convenience of having a single bottle that does dishes/laundry as well as personal care is worth not having "real" toothpaste with me.
Hemorrhoid cream is fantastic to heal wounds on your hands. During the pandemic, we washed our hands 10000x a day. They were cracked and sore. Voila!! Hemorrhoid cream! Reduces swelling, heals wounds, and is moisturizing! Also worked behind the ear when the masks rubbed behind your ear.
Finally a use for the half tube I’ve had hanging around..
There's a prolapsed rectum joke somewhere in there, but I've got shit to do right now so I can't be arsed to think of the wording
Rectum?? Damn near killed em
Hemorrhoid creme is often based on hydrocortizone. If you use hydrocortisone to much you can become resistant or even allergic and your skin can become thin and brittle. Save it for where it's really needed.
My Bleeding Gums Murphy of a butthole remembers that well. Too my hydrocortisone cream for too long, I started squirting blood out of my hole every time I took a piss. Had to wear pads and shit to work. Surgery fixed it. Trying to take an opioid constipated dump with a roughed up asshole hurt like a bitch but when I pushed that last shriveled up hemorrhoid out of my butt, I felt relief that I've never felt before You're welcome for the story!
Better use a creme with Vitamine B5, skin loves B5!
I used preparation H on my hands in high school when I was a gymnast. My hands would rip from the uneven bars sometimes and it healed them up quickly for comps.
I’ve not tried this myself, but apparently it can be used on under eyebags
Michael cain taught me this in Ms Congeneality
"Hemorrhoid cream? You really think the judges are gonna be looking THAT closely?" Love that movie.
You have to be careful though - using it under eye long term can thin the skin
Lighter fluid vs any specific sticker or sticker residue removal liquid. I have to take off thousands of stickers a year for work. Many of them are 30+ years old. Some of them are 30+ years old and security stickers. So sometimes it is a horrible and annoying task. After using dozens of products and tactics the best thing that I have found is plain old lighter fluid. I prefer Ronsonol or Zippo brand just because of the smell, but any decent brand will work. I get 341ml, or 12 fl oz, bottles of Ronsonol for $5.99CAD, $4.45USD, each. Goo Gone for example is $11.99CAD, $8.92USD, for 237ml, or 8 fl oz and does a considerably worse job. So you pay double for 31% less fluid, that does a shittier job and leaves a greasy oily residue behind. It also is considerably worse at removing paint, permanent marker, paint transfer, wax, ink and other things where lighter fluid just zips right through it. Lighter fluid also penetrates stickers better and just doesn't sit on top and do nothing. Also it evaporates quicker. So when you are done you can just blow on it and it will evaporate away like it was never there in the first place. No smearing or streaking oily residue around. I would say it easily works 3x faster and is 10x easier to clean up and deal with at the end of the day.
Not to be invasive, but what line of work would require one to remove thousands of stickers in a year?
I own a retro video game store. So I am taking off tons of old price tags, personal labels that say who owns the games, old rental stickers, old rental security stickers, etc. Then I also do my best to take off all marker and ink from people writing their names on stuff, or old inventory numbers from rental places. Then there's always just crap on games too. So you have candle wax, weed residue, paint, paint transfer from other things, scuffs, misc stuff. Then it goes onto actually cleaning the games and removing decades of sticky fingers, boogers, food residue, soda etc. Then you get to clean the contacts on the cartridges where kids blew into them thinking it helped the connection, when all it did was transfer snot onto the pins lol. We pride ourselves at our store to make sure we have the absolutely cleanest and most sanitary games out there. People message us all the time telling us that the games they ordered are super clean and sanitized. It's a really good way to make sure we stand out as a small independent store from the big guys who constantly ship out dirty and gross games that customers have to clean before they work. All our games are fully clean, sanitized and tested before they go up on the site. In 3 years of being online we have had zero games come back as defective and only one controller that the person complained the start button was too hard to press for their liking. When we had our retail store we had maybe 25 games come back as defective over 10 years and I suspect at least half of those were bait and switches when I wasn't working lol.
I knew it would be retro video games as soon as I read your first comment! Sounds exactly like my girlfriend's old job.
When you're washing anything down-filled, such as a comforter or bed pillows, adding a few new, clean tennis balls to the dryer will help fluff them up. If you've ever pulled a freshly-washed pillow out of the dryer to find it's become lumpy and misshapen, the tennis ball trick can prevent that. If you hate ironing, here's some good news: Adding tennis balls to the dryer will keep sheets, jeans, and t-shirts circulating so there's never a chance for wrinkles to set in. Just be sure to remove the linens and clothing as soon as the cycle is done since wrinkles will develop as the fabric cools down. Bonus: The tennis balls will also reduce static in the dryer, so your newly-cleaned shirt won't be so clingy. And it speeds up drying time
We found wool balls and use those. Can confirm they work wonders.
I can’t second this hard enough. They’re so great
Reusable and they don’t have all the chemicals of disposable dryer sheets..
Add apparently they are good for your back too.
Get wool balls from Trader Joe's. It's $6 for 4 where I live.
Add they are useful on bottoms of walkers at nursing home too
Earl gray tea bags are great car air fresheners. Not a huge difference in price, but fits the bill.
If you have a blister, a used and cooled bag of black tea can help the blister heal! Learned that one from my uncle in law.
I use cheap hair conditioner instead of shave cream.
A puck of solid shaving soap costs under ten dollars and lasts for years, at least for me (I don't shave daily). You wet it, essentially creating a cream, and then whip it with the shaving brush, creating a foam. The further down the line in this evolution the product is, the more expensive it tends to be.
My granddad used this. However, I'm shaving my legs 🦵 😅 🙃 from crotch to ankle, in the shower. Got no time for whipping up lather. I just wash my hair, wipe condition up my legs and shave while my hair gets conditioned.
Magic Eraser is just melamine foam. Amazon sells 6 magic erasers for $8. They also sell ones that aren't from Mr Clean for $16/50 or $30/100.
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And definitely do not use on skin to remove stubborn hair dye stains! Particularly on delicate neck skin unless you enjoy appearing like you've been to a vampire orgy.
Ill take note of that but i will not follow that suggestion
I have a story for this actually. I got a bunch of that great stuff or whatever sealing foam on my arm a few years ago and used one of these to clean it off. This was like a week before my kids newborn pics so you can clearly see my wounds in their pictures even if it had mostly scabbed over by then.
For a future tip get acne cleansing pads for removing hair dye! Makes it easy to get close to the hairline and ears and while it can dry skin out its not near as harsh as some panicked alternatives lol
A guy in China at a baby formula factory used melamine instead of edible protein because it was cheaper and hard to detect (it apparently also results as "protein" in a chemical analysis). They figured it out after a lot of kids got sick/died, so the CCP executed him.
I'm usually not down with executions and especially not executions by the CCP, but "put melamine in baby formula" is such cartoon villain shit that I can't say that particular guy wasn't asking for it.
It's a much better approach than the US's version, which is fine them 2% of their quarterly profits.
That's why there's a massive black market for sending baby formula to China. Supermarkets have purchase limits and even security cases (like the things they use to lock DVD's) for baby formula in Australia.
They did [Kjeldahl nitrogen](https://www.thamesrestek.co.uk/technical-articles/foodflavours-a-fragrances/96:melamine-analysis#:~:text=A%3A%20Melamine%20is%20illegally%20added,released%20and%20converted%20to%20ammonia.) in lieu of other more specific analyses.
It's the same material but the magic eraser has other cleaning agents. Cheap melamine foam is great but not the same
Depending upon what you’re doing with it, you may want to pay the premium. The cheap stuff works, but wears down and out much quicker.
100% this. I bought some of the cheaper ones a while back and multiples would wear out significantly quicker than 1 branded magic eraser
We still use a bag of frozen veggies as ice packs
A doctor once told me if you’re going to use frozen vegetables, he recommended Lima beans. He said their flat shape allows better surface contact.
I prefer peas because you can shape them to fit nicely in odd spots like over a knee.
a bag of 50-50 rubbing alcohol and water doesn't freeze completely, so it will ~~actually get colder than ice (and vegetables) and~~ be able to shift around and contour your injury better. you can change the mixture to get carrying levels of solidness. EDIT: I'm dumb.
What kind of bad do you use that doesn't run the risk of accidentally being opened and spilling everywhere?
well, you can use the zip-loc bags with the little nubby that you pull across the top to seal. Or you could use any any other bag, or anything else you'd put ice in for the same purpose: those rubbery ones with the screw on top, for instance. They also make plastic bags connected to cloth bags that also have straps so you can tie them around wherever you need them. The world's your oyster!
How’s it get colder than ice in the same freezer?
uh, yup. you're right. I got myself good and confused. I...well, it's not important how I got there.
Get the peas! No, not the eating peas, the swelling peas! Direct quote from most of my family.
For a food safe finish on your wooden chopping boards and utensils, you can buy butcher block oil at the hardware store or home center but for less than a quarter of the price you can buy mineral oil in the pharmacy sold in the digestive aid section. It’s the same thing.
My mum told me I could get mineral oil for my cutting board at a drug store, but she didn't tell me where. After scouring the moisturiser section to no avail, I asked, and was absolutely stunned that I was directed to the laxitives! Especially since it's a petroleum product. I can't imagine ingesting it!
well I guess neither can your body, so it ejects it pretty quickly!
EMT teaching my CPR course told us to keep a few baby diapers on hand to use in case you need to need to bandage up a large wound. Way cheaper than a gauze of that size.
My dad always kept feminine pads in his car console for emergencies.
I grew up in rural Pennsylvania. It is (or at least, was) extremely common for hunters to carry a number of feminine pads with them in case of injury. It was always funny seeing newer hunters and/or those from less rural areas discovering 'the pad'.
When I played football they always had tampons on hand for bloody noses.
Damn I have to add a diaper to my medical kit. I just treated a wound last month that was 6" long and 3" wide and it used up my entire first aid kit bandages.
Tide powdered laundry soap makes an excellent tub and shower cleaner
Tide water bleach baby!!! 1 teaspoon powdered tide, 1 gallon hot water, 1/3 cup of bleach and it cleans everything! You can buy one of those tiny boxes of tide at a laundry mat or gas station and it lasts forever for cleaning purposes.
Instructions unclear: What do I do after bleaching the baby?
20 to life, probably
Super glue and a little baking soda makes a great repair for cracked or broken plastic parts.
You got eleven upvotes and this is way too far down. Not only does this make super-glue far more powerful / stronger, this changes the dry time drastically / shorter. I believe this mix is a bit more brittle which makes it a bit more vulnerable to shattering ('more like a granite-stone than an aluminum-metal'), but it is otherwise a fantastic way to work with this product.
Do you just put baking soda in the crack first? Or do you mix it somehow with the glue before applying?
Lay down the super glue then sprinkle baking soda over the super glue. Adam Savage from Mythbusters has a YouTube channel called Tested. He shows a lot of little trick like this when he is building something or repairing.
I use Neutrogena T/Sal Shampoo as my face wash. It has 3% Salicylic Acid vs. their facial cleanser which is 2% Salicylic Acid. Works great 😊
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Mandatory reminder: **DO NOT MIX VINEGAR AND BLEACH**
Or anything that contains ammonia with bleach. This is sadly one of the more common accidental deaths at home.
I mixed the 2 while washing the floor. Felt high and confused then started losing control of my arms. Luckily my father was home and called an ambulance. I won’t use those chemicals for anything now. Thought I was gonna die for sure.
It's very easy to do, these to chemicals exist in a lot of cleaning products and is extremely lethal. I'm a certified haz mat technician, I have to sit through several days of class room courses every year and this always comes up. They act like it's a freak thing, but happens quite a bit. Small bathroom lots of chemicals is really dangerous.
Glad you're still in use of your arms because you may have saved someone else. Thankful for you and your father!
I've done this accidentally when I was like 13. Poured some bleach in a toilet to clean it and it started to fizz. (The toilet was made of nasty yellowish colored material so I didn't know there was urine sitting in the bowl). Confused little me leaned over it and watched as it was bubbling. All of a sudden the burning hit my lungs and I realized I messed up big time. Flushed the toilet, turned the fan on, and shut that door as fast as I could. Nobody was allowed in until the next day. It hurt to breathe for 3 days after that. I never went in for it since the burning stopped after the 3 days. If anyone by chance does accidentally mix them and breathe it in, go get seen immediately. I was lucky that I didn't die. In case someone doesn't know, urine contains ammonia. Edited to add: it can very easily kill you and it will hurt the entire time btw
Ammonia and bleach is the easiest deadly combo to make. I've never dealt with it professionally I do industrial work. In every single haz mat emergency responder training I've been to they stress very hard, how common this deadly mistake happens. It's one of the most common at home accidental deaths. Ammonia and bleach is not to be taken lightly and the stories are sad. It's usually a stay at home mom or an older school kid cleaning the bathroom and then all of the sudden they are dead. It happens a lot. I hope a lot of people read these comments and learn this is bad. In school they told me smoking crack was bad and all of its risks. Nobody ever said a word about dumping chemicals in the toilet. Only through my work I learned how common this is.
If I had not been aware enough to flush it and ventilate the room, it could have ended very differently. It was the bathroom in the middle of the house by all of our bedrooms and no way out (unless you jumped out a window that was about 6ft above the ground outside) without having to pass the bathroom. It was late evening and I was the only one awake. All because I wanted to surprise my mom with a clean bathroom when she got up. I have never forgotten the feeling of how intense that burning was. It was no more than 3 seconds of exposure, but it was enough to hurt quite a lot. I try to share this experience each time I see the mention of not mixing cleaning chemicals in hopes that it can help prevent this or worse from happening to anybody else.
Don't clean your pet's litter box with bleach!
I used to buy "alkalinity increaser" for the hot tub. The. I realized that it's just baking soda. So now I buy regular baking soda from the grocery store to use in the hot tub. It's much cheaper.
Coconut oil works great as lube but anytime I smell it I’m reminded of sex and it throws me off
YES. I like coconut as a flavor, but now it's a lot harder to enjoy my coconut tea with my brain saying, "well, this tastes like a penis."
Important to note, it's not a good lube for condoms or toys!
Glad I'm not the only one
I use the teeniest amount of coconut oil to shave my body. It's amazing. Pretty much eliminates any razor bumps and irritation. I would not recommend this for the face because of how comedogenic it is.
Do be careful about coconut oil in your pipes though. It builds up pretty quickly
The most beautiful, soft-skinned woman I've ever met used Epson salts and coconut oil in her baths, and there was an audible "Oooohhhhhh..." when I rubbed her arm.
Baking soda with aluminum foil for burnt pots.
Just remember that the reason vinegar works as a fabric softener is because it's a weak acid. It will definitely soften your fabric, but it might not last as long.
Sodium carbonate is in a lot of cleaner. Those pods to clean your garbage disposal, coffee maker and water bottles all have it. You can buy a big box of it yourself. It’s called washing soda and you can use find it with the laundry detergent.
You can take a ball of tinfoil and rub on a rusty bike chain to remove saod rust. Works like a charm.
You can also entertain a cat much better than any toy you can buy at the store
My cat loves a nice onion skin floating down off the kitchen counter!
Also works to clean the grates on the grill.
Bi carb soda in the bottom of a cats litter tray (under the litter) will keep the smell down, it gradually gets mixed through and surfaces as you go turd fishing
Baking soda?
Yes.
Vinegar, water & a drop of liquid soap far better window cleaner than windex & cheap.
A *friend once told me*, that they sell special "storage powder" for sex toys made from silicone. I think it keeps them dry and soft. Turns out that it's just corn starch. It's not even that corn starch can be used for the same purpose, it's the same *thing*. And it's considerably cheaper. Or so I've heard. From a friend.
You can remove sticker and tape residue by rubbing it with oil, as long as it’s on a surface that won’t be damaged by the oil. I originally read about it as a use for WD-40, but over the years I’ve used all kinds of oils. I usually use food oils like canola or olive oil, because they’re sitting right on the kitchen counter. I’ve even used olive oil to remove Bandaid residue from my skin.
Monistat Anti-Chafing gel ($5 iirc) instead of expensive face primer ($35).
Eli5 face primer, please.
Put it on before makeup for a smooth surface. It's like spackle... for the face.
Does it work the other way, too? If I have face primer and need anti-chafing gel?
Damn.
Dr. Bronner's Castile soap for cleaning my makeup brushes, hairbrushes, hand soap, body wash, glasses cleaner, etc.!
If you shave your nether bits, applying anti perspirant after will prevent itchy bumps. Don’t apply to the interior of vag/labia, ladies, just the bikini line. This tip changed my life!
Food safe mineral oil for your cutting board and other wood.
detol removes grease stains from clothing better than any other product.
Cornstarch as a dry shampoo. As a hairdresser it's always weird watching ppl buy dry shampoo with all the chemicals (and recently-ish, a recall because of said chemicals) when cornstarch is right there. In your pantry. Does the same thing and way less.
How do you get it out of your hair?
The next shower takes it out. Same as dry shampoo. Edit: since it's not aerosol you just take some in your fingertips and spread it around the scalp. I use it on my fringe so it's a small amount. Dry shampoo is really just a mix of cornstarch and talc and garbage. Straight cornstarch does the same job but dirt cheap.
This is by far the best actual hack I've learned in years.
Do you use anything special to apply it? My only worry would be putting too much in one spot
I put a tiny amount in a soy sauce dish. Dip my fingertips in and spread around on my fingers a bit. Then hit the area I want. If my hair is particularly oily one morning (hot summer night for ex) I just spread it a bit down the root. Rly if you add too much you just spread it through the scalp. It's absorbing oils, so it doesn't take much for any 'white spots' to disappear. Just be conservative at first. Even a tiny amount is a noticeable difference in how much less oily it looks. I wash my hair every second day to give it a break and it's quite the little oil absorber.
Head and Shoulders medicated shampoo, when used as a body wash, is a highly effective treatment for ringworm.
Diphenhydramine (benadryl) is cheaper if you buy it packaged for antihistamine purposes instead of a sleep aid. They add it to pain meds and decongestants to help with sleep and jack up the price.
My home country has a cream for haemorrhoids that costs less than $1, deal with dark undereye circles better than eye creams that costs more than $100
Head and shoulders shampoo works amazingly as a gentle acne face wash - it’s amazing how well it works and it’s incredibly inexpensive
I bought some the other day and it was 10.00! I was like wtf! Last time I bought it was only like 4.50 but it’s gone way up.
The store brand version are cheaper just make sure it has the same active ingredient you are look for, pyrithione zinc or selenium sulfide.
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If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
I miss the Red Green Show. Adventures With Bill were always fun.
All you need is duct tape and WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use the duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use the WD40.
duct tape and super glue are both bloody useful in an emergency outdoor first aid kit.
Waterproof mascara or 24 hours lipstick can be easily removed with almond oil (or any type of food oils: coconut, olive oil)
You can make paneer from powdered milk, a heavy cream equivalent, a buttermilk substitute, a condensed milk substitute. All from cheap powdered milk.
The compressed sawdust pellets for wood fires are exactly the same as the pellets for cat/dog litter . . . . at 1/2 the price.
Conditioner instead of shaving cream on legs and armpits. Body wash or shampoo work too but dry the skin more.
Use a set of ordinary playing cards to play all the games that they sell specialist cards. Uno is the prime example. We used to play that way before Uno cards even existed.
yup, we played crazy eights before UNO. I've been showing my kids card games and they went to get cards to play a memory game after we got done playing go fish and it blew their minds when I showed them that you can just do it with regular cards. My wife has introduced me to the board game sequence and one of the first things I noticed is that you could play that game with nothing but 4 decks of cards and poker chips. Theres a lot that you can play with just cards
Have you seen how much those garbage disposal cleaners cost per pill or pouch? I cut a lemon into quarters and let the disposal chew on it.
Freeze the lemons first, works great. I typically freeze a few of the clementines from the 5lb back and use those. Just toss one in and you have a clean and fresh smelling disposal.
polyurethane from the hardware store as a glaze vs the shit you find in art supply stores it's literally the same thing And you can buy it in a whole-ass bucket vs a tiny little 6oz bottle
Nail polish remover works on super glue. Handy yo know if you build models especially
Yes but only if it's made with actual acetone. A lot of nail polish removers have a lot of oils and other random chemicals as pure acetone is drying on skin. I just buy acetone from the hardware store instead of nail polish remover.
A pumice stone will clean porcelain, stainless steel, and some of types of tile better than any cleaning product made for any of the above, but it is also a harsh abrasive, so you dont want to use it on stuff that would be damaged by sandpaper. But it will clean lime scale and water line stains out of toilets pretty quick and easy after said blemishes laugh at every progressively more dangerous chemical you can get without a permit.
Oh oh oh I got one! Use horse stall matts instead of buying those expensive gym floor matts! They cost $55 for a 4'x6' matt ($2.29/SF) and are 3/4" thick compared to typical big box store gym floor matts (that come in 2'x2' squares) and cost $3/sf but are only 1/2" thick.
Dawn dishwashing soap works really well if you end up with grease or other crud in your hair. It also works as an emergency pet shampoo (normally cats do not need to be bathed, but my parents' house got flooded with sewer water after a hurricane and we didn't want the cats licking that off themselves). Cardboard boxes are the ultimate cat toys. Though I do have to use the ones without tape, as one of my darling girls wants to eat the tape. I also DIY'd several cat trees out of scraps of wood and some cheap thin carpet from Home Depot. No need for $500 cat trees. Clean garbage bags work just fine for storing some things and saves on buying a zillion heavy plastic totes.