26 Things That Have More Than Their Obvious Purposes

It should come as no surprise that most things around us seem to have a hidden purpose. Hey, down at the aquarium, they have a hidden “porpoise”, but I digress. Please tell me in the comments if you liked my joke, or about how many of these 26 multi-porpoise thingamabobs you knew about before. It’s cool either way. Let’s go!

Check the space button on your phone! Tap and hold it, and see how it turns into a cursor. This way, you can navigate the text you’ve typed easily instead of trying to tap that very letter you wanted to change. If this feature doesn’t work on your phone, consider upgrading your firmware!

Hair conditioner is meant to make your hair soft, but it can also be used as a makeshift fabric softener. Use it for handwashing only — your washing machine might dislike this trick.

Use an old pillowcase to separate your delicate laundry from the rest of the clothes: underwear, slips, stockings — you name it. Before laundry, make sure your stuff doesn’t fall out into the washing machine by turning the pillowcase into a drawstring bag. Sew a hem onto the opening of the case and feed a string through the hem, then pull it — and you’re done. Then just toss the filled pillowcase into the washing machine. It will act as a wash bag, making your delicates last longer.

If you have toothpaste based on baking soda, it will be helpful not only to make your breath fresher but also to clean stuff around the house. Reusable food containers tend to soak in food odors, but if you scrub them with such toothpaste, the smells will be gone before long. Also, try cleansing your kitchen sink with it, too — it will return the shine.

The big toe isn’t just a thumb on your foot — it has its own name, hallux. “Hey HALLUX, how the hal are you doin’, bud?” This toe is the exact reason we can keep our balance when standing upright.

Inserting bobby pins correctly is with the wavy side down, but that’s if you use them on your hair. Alternatively, you can put one at the end of the toothpaste tube in your bathroom, and it doesn’t matter which side in this case. The bobby pin will help you squeeze the toothpaste to the very last drop. Just slide it down the tube as you keep using it, and you might save a few days before putting toothpaste on your shopping list.

If you paint a fence or walls in your house, paint dripping from the brush on the ground or floor would usually make you irritated. To avoid that, stretch a large rubber band across the opening of the paint can. After dipping the brush into the can, scrape the excess paint off with the help of the band. Now it won’t leave a mess beneath your feet.

Not only is baking soda good at fighting foul odors — salt does the job too! For example, if your sneakers start insulting your nose with their smell, sprinkle a pinch of salt inside and leave them overnight. Sodium chloride crystals eliminate bacteria and the odors they create. Don’t forget to shake your sneakers out before putting them back on.

You don’t have to take a complete set of cutlery when going on a summer picnic with your friends or family — some toothpicks and dental floss will be more than enough. Cut soft products like cheese or bread using the floss: it’s strong enough to cut them into smooth and neat slices. Just make sure the floss is unflavored unless you fancy your cheese and bread with a hint of peppermint. Ooh. As for toothpicks, they can quickly act as forks — and it’s more fun this way. When you’re finished with the picnic, you can also use the floss and toothpicks for their direct purpose, of course.

Candle wax can be a nuisance to remove from furniture when it hardens. But you can get it soft again by using a blow-dryer and then remove the stain with a soft cloth. Or, for better effect, put a cloth or towel over the wax drip and turn the blow-dryer on high heat. The blob will soften and soak into the cloth, after which you only need to wipe the surface clean.

The little dots along the edges of bus windows are called frit. Don’t worry, it’s nothing to frit about. The glass is fitted into a special rubber frame, and the frit is there to protect the sealant from UV rays. It’s essentially a baked-in ceramic paint that makes the edges tougher.

Those flaps on your laptop charger are there to protect your wire. You can wind the wire around these clips to keep it safe and neat.

Glasses or sunglasses can have a frame that seems too shabby at first glance, with a bouncy and flexible feel. They’re not broken, though. On the contrary, it’s a sign of a good product, so grab those if you have a choice. This kind of flexibility provides extra comfort when wearing and also doesn’t let the glasses break or become too loose.

Sandpaper can have a lot of different applications, like sharpening scissors or needles, roughening slippery shoe soles, or removing stains or scuffs from suede. As for sharpening, tin foil also does the trick with scissors.

If you don’t have a special tool for your cuticles handy, take a pencil with an eraser at the other end. Just push the cuticles back gently, the thing works miracles with that.

Many types of fruit, like oranges, come in mesh bags. These things are rough enough to scrub dishes or your kitchen sink — just tie one into a tight knot instead of simply throwing it away.

You don’t need a special money clip to keep your cash in one place — a simple binder clip will suffice. It does the job with the same efficiency. Or you can give your cash to me. I’ll watch it for you. Trust me.

When you come across a yogurt that comes with fruit or some sweet topping in a separate container, don’t go scooping the topping with your spoon to mix it with the yogurt. Containers like this have a special structure that lets you fold them in two and simply pour the topping into the yogurt.

Using the same plunger on your sink and your toilet is actually not the best idea. The one with the simple cup is made for sinks, while toilets require another type. It also has a cup, but an additional flap folds out from inside it. The flap perfectly fits the toilet drain opening, creating enough suction to get rid of the... clog.

Fix a broken bracelet until you get it repaired using a paperclip. Latch both ends of the break onto the paperclip and twist it hard to fasten it on your wrist or ankle.

If the cup of a drink you just bought has a lid, and you’d like to sip it without hurry, you can take the lid off and use it as a coaster. Mess-free and neat.

Packing up your jewelry for a trip or just sorting it neatly in the jewelry box, use buttons you don’t need as earring holders. Put the earring pins through the holes in the buttons, up to two pairs, and lock them like you would on your ears.

Clear disks that are said to stabilize your earrings and make them look better on your ears aren’t actually to be worn. Their real purpose is to hold the earrings in place while they’re in the package.

Old tissue boxes can be used to store some other stuff when the tissues are gone. For example, you can put a bundle of plastic bags in there and get them out one by one like you would tissues.

There’s often a serrated opening at the point where the blades and handles of kitchen shears meet. It can be used to strip various herbs like thyme, chives, or rosemary of their leaves in a single motion instead of plucking them with your own hands.

The little hole next to the camera on your iPhone isn’t a flash — it’s a microphone. One of three, in fact. They’re meant to pick up every sound regardless of how you hold your phone. And this particular one also helps with voice recognition. Oooh, hello? Do you recognize my voice? Do I sound like myself?