These 7 Life Hacks Are So Brilliant, People Almost "Don't Want To Share" Them
Reddit can be an amazing place to find all sorts of advice — and there’s no wonder why. The site is a treasure trove of tips, from cleaning hacks to home advice. Redditors on the r/AskReddit subreddit are sharing their best life tips that are so good that they almost don’t want to share their life wisdom. If you want to make your life a little bit easier this year, read below for seven unexpected but ingenious hacks that’ll help you breeze through some common problems that are all too relatable.
Ensure you never deal with mismatched socks again.
There’s nothing more annoying than struggling to find the missing mate to a pair of socks you really like. However, you can make sure you’re never stuck with single mismatched socks again if you follow this advice from @PretzelThirsts.
“Find a pair of socks you really like. Buy like … 40 pairs. Throw out your other socks,” they suggest. “Now you can just grab any two socks and have a pair. Get a hole in one? Throw it out. You still have tons of others of the same.”
This solution also ensures that you will always have socks in the same texture, cut, and color, even if your favorite style is discontinued. If you want no-show, running, or hiking socks, you can mix and match your sock stock-ups to get a dozen pairs of each that all match with each other, too, without sacrificing on the socks types you might need.
Simplify gift-giving when you’re struggling to figure out what to get for someone.
The holidays or birthdays can be stressful if you’re shopping for someone who is tough to buy presents for. However, @Someone_Somewear bypasses this issue with their ingenious gift-buying tip.
“I keep a running list in the Notes app on my phone throughout the year,” they wrote. “Any time my friends or family mention something they want, we share an inside joke, or I get inspired, I jot it down under their name. When it’s time to buy them a gift, I just check the list.”
Meanwhile, @ZackLimp had an idea for people who stay mum on what they want, revealing, “I tell the person that I already purchased the best present ever for them and then let them have a few guesses. Then I buy one of their guesses.”
Keep a stash of greeting cards at all times.
Birthday, holiday, condolence, and thank-you cards can be deceivingly expensive, which is why @wishingwell56544 suggests stashing a bunch of greeting cards early to avoid a last-minute run — and so you’re prepared for any occasion.
“Every time I’m near a gift shop, I buy 1-2 greeting cards,” they said. “I have a whole stash always available, and I never have to run last minute to the store for birthdays and holidays.”
Other Redditors also chimed in, suggesting loading up on inexpensive cards at Trader Joe’s or at thrift stores, so you’re only paying a fraction of the cost.
Make important information easy to search on your phone.
If you’ve ever struggled to find important addresses, work schedule dates, tickets, plans, or other information in your phone, Redditor @Lock_Slight has a hack for ensuring you can find them by using your phone’s search bar whenever you need.
“If someone sends you important info in a message, write back using key words so that you can use the search option later,” they said. For example, if someone sends you their address, you can respond with “NAME address” so that it’ll come up whenever you look up that phrase in your phone.
For confidential information you don’t want to send to other people, @Course_You_Do suggests sending it to yourself via email and “use all the keywords I might search for.”
“Then it’s easy to just type in something like ‘TSA Pre-check number’ and get what I need,” they revealed.
Have a designated place to put things that everyone abides by.
If you’re constantly misplacing things in your home, @IcyMarsupial5003 suggests designating a set place for it with a simple hack. “If you look for something and it’s not in the first place you look, THAT IS THE PLACE WHERE IT GOES. So when you do find it, put it in the first place you looked for it,” they said.
Once you have a designated spot for things like glasses, sunglasses, keys, and phones, ensure everyone you live with knows where that spot is. Redditor @4986270 said, “If anyone in the house comes across any of these items, they get put back in ‘their spot.’ For instance, if I see my SO’s sunglasses laying about, I’ll take them to the window ledge as that’s where all our glasses/sunglasses go. We both know where to look for stuff that way.”
Create a QR Code for WiFi
If you feel like you’re constantly having to dictate your WiFi password, you can create a QR code that guests can scan and then get on the network with no input from you. User @PennyPincher2008 suggested using a website like qifi.org to generate the code, but @InYeBooty said that they have a NFC or “RFID tag inside the light switch by the front door” that guests can simply tap with their phone to get access to the password.
Use the “search-and-replace” feature in your phone to avoid typing things out.
Constantly typing out your passwords or email addresses can be annoying, especially if they’re long. However, @_stuey said they’ve gotten around this by designating symbols for their email address, and then using their phone’s “search-and-replace” feature to effortlessly swap them in.
“I have mine set as @@, easy to type and you would never put two of them side by side under any circumstance,” they said of their email address. Meanwhile, @SpencerNewton said they’d upgraded this email hack by going one step further.
“I have @@ set to my main email, but because it doesn’t autofill until you hit space after,” they said. “I can have @@@ as my professional email and @@@@ as my current work email.”
Further Reading
I Tried the 90/90 Rule and My Closet Is Now Fully Decluttered
We Tested (and Rated!) All the Sofas at Ashley — Here Are the Best to Suit Your Style and Space
See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room
