Favorite Life Hacks

What Are Your Favorite Life Hacks?

Happy New Year, full of promise, hope, and opportunities. It’s a great time to introduce some new hacks into your life. What are your go-to life hacks that make your life easier, save you time, and are simply impressive? At www.lifehack.org, you will find some fascinating articles discussing a myriad of hacks and I encourage you to check it out. In the meantime, here are a few life hacks I’ve tried:

1. Make bed linens packets: I learned this trick from Peter Walsh and it’s a game-changer for maintaining an organized linen closet and finding a complete set of sheets immediately. Here’s what you do: “Rethink Your Linen Closet/ Warning: Your mind might be blown by Walsh's brilliantly simple linen system. To store his sheets in complete sets, he folds [the] fitted sheet, top sheet, and extra pillowcases inside a pillowcase of the same set. Needless to say, he never has to ransack his closet for an elusive match” (https://www.oprah.com/home/peter-walsh-organizing-secrets-spring-cleaning-tips/all). I take it one step more and fold over the opening of the pillowcase that holds the rest of the set to make a little contained linens set packet.

2. If you want to look thinner, try these hacks. I DO NOT advocate body shaming and dieting. Still, there are times when we want to appear a little ‘streamlined.’ And, most of these are for female dressing.

* File your nail tips in an oval or pointy shape rather than squared off. Square shape will make your fingers and hands look ‘stubby.’

* Wear light colors from the waist up and dark colors from the waist down. Or, wear monochromatic clothes.

* Avoid wearing horizontal stripes, patterns from the waist down.

* Wear V-neck or deep scoop-neck tops to elongate.

* Wear “your” colors. Have a style analysis to see what colors look best on you and plan your wardrobe around those colors.

* Avoid squared or widely rounded toe shoes. Instead, wear more pointy or more narrowly rounded toe shoes.

* Wear a statement necklace that isn’t too large, statement earrings with a drop, rather than round shape or hoops, or wear a scarf. They will draw the eye up and make you look taller and sleek. The added bonus to this hack is people will tend to look at your eyes rather than at your butt because the attention is being drawn upward. Of course, you may wish to highlight your butt; if so, ignore this hack.

3. Do most of your cooking for the week on one day. Plan your menu for the week ahead of time.

4. Iron front closing clothing inside out to avoid cracking/breaking buttons.

5. Divide your living space and plan to clean/dust/declutter/do laundry one space a day so you don’t have all of the cleaning or laundry all on one day.

6. When you pack to travel, roll your clothes to fit better in the suitcase.

7. Buy a dry cleaning kit at the grocery store and use your dryer to either dry clean or freshen clothes.

What are some of your favorite life hacks? Please share them in the comments section.