25 People Shared Tips to Fix Daily Problems That Have Proven to Be Both Simple and Effective

We may be tired of seeing thousands of tips and life hacks that claim to work all over social media and the Internet, but ultimately, instead of helping, they just make you waste your time. Many of those life hacks seem to be like one of those classic situations in which we suddenly realize that our expectations were way too high for something that promised a lot for too little. But, of course, that’s how you get tempted to give it a try. However, among way too many life hacks that don’t work, there are some that seem to be real miracles.

Reddit users were encouraged to try some of these foolproof solutions for themselves and found several that actually do work like a charm. So Bright Side made a compilation with some of them that may prove very useful and practical to you.

• During pollen season...rinse your hair before bed. Otherwise, you’re just depositing pollen on your pillowcase every night and then rolling your face in it all night. And then multiply that by how many nights you use the same pillowcase. © blanketsmellslikeham / Reddit

• Rubbing vegetable oil (or any cooking oil) on your hands after you cut up jalapeños or other hot peppers. It gets rid of the awfulness that would normally be left on your hands from the peppers. I rub my hands with oil and then wash it off with dish soap. I can totally remove my contacts after doing this. It’s crazy how well this works. © PaulRuddsBu****le / Reddit

• Use shaving cream as anti-fog. I used it on the inside of my motorcycle visor. Smear it on, let it dry, then rinse off and dry. It also works for bathroom mirrors. You can use it on a small spot so you can still see when you get out of the shower. © Caspers_Shadow / Reddit

• Also, this really works for those who suffer from fogged-up eyeglasses! © anavillawolf / Reddit

• That rubbing alcohol removes chewing gum. I’d go through a 20-layer-deep marketing funnel to get to that tip because it really does work. © omgIamafraidofreddit / Reddit

• Rubbing alcohol works to get paint off clothes also! © kaseythedragon/ Reddit

• You can do the Heimlich maneuver on yourself. Use a chair or countertop, press yourself against it (right under your rib cage), and press down hard. Should force air up and dislodge a blockage. © Djason_Unchaind / Reddit

• The cheapest, most effective, and safest insecticide against roaches (especially those huge “water bug” roaches that we have in the South) is a spray bottle of mostly water with just a little liquid dish soap in it. Shake the bottle and get the water a little foamy, then spray the roaches. They will run, scramble, and attempt to escape, of course, but they will die. The soap film suffocates them faster than any chemicals will. A friend told me about this, and I thought she was crazy, but I tried it and it works amazingly well. Plus, it’s very easy to clean up and is safe around food (not that you want to spray soapy water ON your food). © SnooPickles3213 / Reddit

• Whenever you accidentally set off your smoke alarm, give your pets a treat so they learn to come to you when there’s actually a fire and you need to escape. © kataklysmiknut / Reddit

• Counting really slowly with the goal of reaching 150 is a decent way to fall asleep. If you have any thoughts during it, just let them play out, and if you forget what number you’re on just go from what you last remember. If you make any major movements, just start again. The goal is to force your brain to slow down and not have any jerky motions or thoughts, and eventually, reach such a level of carelessness that you eventually fall asleep without realizing it. Helped me quite a few times, especially with rain sounds. Hope it helps some of you too! © Solacekia / Reddit

• As someone who has struggled with falling asleep their whole life, I want to share another tip I found that works too! The counting one and this one are the only ways I can fall asleep in a short amount of time: the alphabet game! Pick a random category, like, for instance, “food” and name something (in your head) in that category starting with each letter. A for apple, B for bread, C for corn...I try to make the category a little more narrow/harder so I don’t go through it super quick. © sunflowerx86 / Reddit

• Makeup remover on deodorant stains! Influencer Vixella randomly brought it up while talking to chat on Twitch. My husband has a lot of T-shirts with white/stained armpits, so I gave it a shot. It worked. I should probably clarify that I used remover wipes, just a generic store brand pack of “cleansing towelettes,” on my husband’s old antiperspirant stained T-shirts from his bachelor days. He switched to a non-staining deodorant a while back.© kannakantplay / Reddit

• Put your onion in the freezer for 10 minutes before chopping it. It freezes the juices just enough to slow down the process of it turning into a gas, giving you a few minutes to chop the onion without tears. I learned this tip from a kid’s science show years ago and haven’t had to deal with onion tears since. So many people don’t believe me, and they are genuinely surprised when it works. © Lost_in_the_Library / Reddit

• If your car is overheating, turn your heat on full blast. When you turn the heat on in a car, it pulls heat from the engine into the cab, thus cooling the engine. I was taught this in driver’s ed 23 years ago. When my buddy’s car would run really hot back in high school, I told him to turn the heat on. He wouldn’t. I had to convince him it was true by saying I would pay for the resulting damage if the temp didn’t go down. It was the wintertime, and that heat was so hot we had to roll the windows down. But we watched his engine temp drop. I don’t believe it’s especially uncommon, but if no one ever told you, it would seem counterintuitive. This doesn’t work on electric cars and, depending on your mechanical Issue, it may not work at all. It’s not a permanent fix, this is to get you somewhere to safely address this issue. © Bryarx / Reddit

• Vinegar in a plastic bag with a rubber band tied around any faucet will make the faucet like-new. I’m talking decade-old rust and stuff gone...and water flows like the first day. It also works on showerheads. You can unscrew those and leave them in a bowl full of vinegar. © Aakwanderer / Reddit

• From the amazing book, The Gift of Fear, by Gavin DeBecker: “A woman alone who needs assistance is actually far better off choosing someone and asking for help, as opposed to waiting for an unsolicited approach. The person you choose is nowhere near as likely to bring you trouble as the person who chooses you is.” © DeeboComin / Reddit

• Clean jewelry with dish soap since other cleaning supplies might scratch it (like hand soap or anything that exfoliates) or chemically react with the metals (usually like harsh cleaning supplies) and dish soap is intended to clean glass and ceramic without scratching it and silverware without reacting with the metal, etc. © mojomcm / Reddit

• Run your wrists under cold water or rub an ice cube on your pulse points to cool down all over quickly when you get overheated. It seems obvious but I didn’t realize it until last summer working in a warehouse with no AC. © mannershmanners / Reddit

• If you’ve written on a dry erase board (or any glossy surface) with a permanent marker (like a Sharpie), just draw over it with a dry erase marker and it will wipe right off. © TheNoisyNomad / Reddit

• Smell is closely associated with memory. If you’re studying for an exam, buy an odd scented eraser (like pickle scent). Every time you try to memorize something, take a sniff. Take that eraser to the test and sniff it when you’re having trouble remembering an answer. © SixxTheSandman / Reddit

Which life hacks have you been able to test for yourself and get great results from? Which of the life hacks shared above have you found most useful, and will you put them into practice?