You Use Them Everyday but Not How You Should

How many hidden features are there in your car that you have never heard of? Most cars these days have everything color-coded under their hoods. It makes it way easier to know what you need to supervise between services: like the dipstick, the oil cap, or the coolant. You can even have a look at the brake and washer fluid. Anything else that’s black or gray, just leave it to the mechanics.

Ever seen a snowflake light on the dashboard of your car? It’s not there to let you know the winter holidays are coming if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s actually a sensor that indicates the exterior ambient temperature.

It gets activated and pops up the light whenever there’s a road warning due to a sharp drop in temperature. It may sometimes even come with an audio warning or a message on your dashboard to warn you that the roads may be getting icy, so you can either adapt the speed or change to the appropriate tires if necessary. Most cars come with added features for the summertime too, like those neat sun vizors.

Yours might have an added bonus you might want to check out: we all know they twist to help the driver out even when the sun is not shining from the front, but some of them can also extend, so they can provide shade to a larger area. If you figure out your sun visor doesn’t extend, there’s a simple solution, though: buy a sun visor extender, you can even find them online. They work by being attached to your existing sun visors or windows for better shade coverage and visibility.

Let’s find some hidden features at home. It’s not rocket science, but there is a wrong way to make ice in the freezer, and that’s because you’re probably not using the ice cube tray correctly. They come with that particular shape because you need to fill the trays until there’s a layer of water on the top.

This layer will help remove the cubes faster from the tray because it will crack when twisted and leave each cube poking out. You can then grab them in no time and enjoy your drink.

If you find that the heat in your oven is too high, or you need to cook some delicate dishes that require more control over the temperature, there’s an easy way to adjust that. The knobs on your oven should come with calibration screws on their backs. Pop out the plastic knob and adjust it to your preferences. Just be sure to disconnect the oven from any energy source before doing it.

Do you know what your stove and your car have in common? They both have hoods that you can open if you need to have a peek or if they need some cleaning. If you look closely at the top of your kitchen stove, you will see two hinges located on the back corners. You’ll be able to easily lift it up and clean out all the grime that’s been stuck in there.

Ever wondered why glue doesn’t stick to the inside of the bottle? The answer is a bit more complex, depending on the type of glue, but the simple response is, well, it doesn’t have any air in there. PVA glue contains some molecules called polymers and water.

When the glue is out, the water then evaporates, leaving just the sticky polymers behind. Things are more or less the other way around with superglue: it has a chemical that solidifies as soon as it hits water vapors in the air.

Did you know Microsoft Word has a feature that you can use for references and a bibliography? It’s not only helpful for keeping track of everything, but it also automatically formats all the information accordingly.

If you like to surround yourself with as many houseplants as possible, here’s an easy way to figure out if they need watering: stick your finger into its soil. It should give you a better idea than simply looking at the plant’s surface. If you can reach 2–3 inches into the soil and feel it is dry, the plant most likely needs some hydration.

However, this trick does tend to work better with smaller potted plants because of the limited depth. In any case, it’s always best to research the plant’s needs in terms of watering and sunlight before committing to a plan. And always be careful not to damage its roots.

Be honest, you indeed have clothes you wear all the time and some that just sit there in the back of your closet that you’ve most likely forgotten about. Here’s a neat way to figure out which one is which: for starters, you’ll need to turn all your hangers backward.

If you really feel like putting more effort into this project, you can wrap some pieces of electrical tape on the hangers and write the start date on each. After that, everything is pretty self-explanatory: each time you wear a particular item, turn the hanger around, making it face forward. After six months or a year, all those items that have yet to be turned around should go to donations or yard sales.

Another great way to use hangers to help you with your wardrobe organization is to use them for your scarves. They will be wrinkle-free, but you’ll also see them a lot better and have a clear view of the scarves you actually use and those you should let go of.

If you’re looking to increase the storage space in your wardrobe, especially when the season changes, go pick yourself up some vacuum pack storage bags. After that, you just need to fold your garments or other pieces of laundry, like bedding or blankets, for example, and place them in the bags. Turn on your vacuum cleaner, place the nozzle on the bag seal and remove all the extra air from the bag. It helps with reducing the storage size of clothes and keeps the clothes clean, dry, and moth free.

Should you have an empty basket lying around, and you aren’t sure if you want to recycle it just yet, you can always repurpose it as a cool lamp. Wicker baskets work best for this. Just cut a small hole in the bottom basket and place a pendant light kit there. You can even paint it manually or spray paint if you need it to be in a particular color.

Another way to neatly repurpose things around the house is to use leftover cookie jars to store dryer balls, but the sky’s the limit here.

You can also use dryer sheets to remove dust from screens around your house, like computers, laptops, or TV. These items are electrically charged, so they generally attract a lot of dust particles. Dryer sheets are made to reduce static cling, so they won’t only remove the dust but also help keep it at bay for a longer period of time.

Dryer sheets also help out if you’re having a bad hair day, believe it or not. They can seriously help out with taming flyaways whenever your frizz just goes out of control. Run one of those dryer sheets from the roots of your hair all the way down to the tip and be amazed.

If there’s a particular type of soap bar you like the smell of and want to replicate that on your clothes too, pick up one of those bars to make a day clothes freshener. Place it in a fabric and then place it anywhere between your clothes. Your shirts should smell awesome every time you pick them up. And you can also save up on fabric softener.

I don’t know about your washing machine, but mine does love to jump, I’ll tell you that! If yours tends to run out of its designated place, especially during those intense spinning cycles, it happens because it’s not perfectly fixed to the floor. The good thing is that most modern washing machines can self-level since they come with a pair of legs. Just lift the back of the device off the surface area it sits on, and it will drop them, locking them into place once perfectly leveled.