Our parents always seem to have right answer, and even if we might have (multiple) disagreements with them, we know they have our best interests at heart. Take it from someone who grew up as a stubborn child and continually stepped to her own beat. I eventually figured out that I couldn’t do things without my parents. A few times, I learned the hard way and should have listened to them the first time.
Parents from across the country have shared their innovative hacks to make parenting easier. But in a college student's perspective, we can take these clever ideas to make our busy lives easier!
Here are 15 different ways the parents of this world have come up with to make our lives a bit easier.
1. Shower Caps Can Have a Double Use
The original purpose of a shower cap is to prevent your hair from getting wet in the shower, but now it can double to act as a covering for your food to help keep it fresh. Easy, peasy, keep it fresh.
2. Cool Down Coffee Without Diluting it
We all know that burning your tongue from a hot drink all too well. I can never seem to wait long enough for my drink to cool without managing to burn my tongue. And adding water to it simply doesn't do the trick. Place coffee cubes in an ice tray and then add it to your hot coffee to cool down your drink to prevent from a burnt tongue.
3. Chill Wine and Cocktails Without Diluting
It turns out you can do the same as coffee for alcoholic drinks by adding frozen grapes into your drink. This is a trick for those times where you decide to have a last minute turn up, but can’t chill your drink fast enough.
4. Secretly Stash Away Your Candy
I love my housemates, but I hate coming home to find the last of my candy has been consumed. Hide your candy inside of empty packaging of healthy snacks to keep your guilty pleasures safe from everyone else.
5. De-stem your Strawberry Fast
Just take a straw and stab it through your strawberry to remove the stem. It's literally as easy as that.
6. Sponges are Ice Packs
Frozen sponges placed inside a Ziploc bag are an affordable way to double as an ice pack. Plus you don’t have to worry too much if you lose it because they are easily replaceable.
7. Freeze a Capri-Sun
This is the easiest way to create a make-shift slushy in your own kitchen. BOOM, perfect study snack, especially on those hot days.
8. Get Your Baked-On Crust Stains Out
If you are one of those who likes to pile up your dishes to wash them another time, this one is for you. Tough grease stains are a pain to get out and no matter how much grunt you put into scrubbing your dishes, the stains are still on the pan. Placing a dryer sheet in your dirty pan to soak overnight will make it easier to scrub away those grease stains.
9. Avoid Hangry College Kid You
This one is simple, yet genius: just prepare pre-pack study snack packages in your food cabinet to make it easy to grab and go.
10. A Tip for Messy Eaters
No matter how slowly or neatly you try to eat, you somehow manage to get a stain on your clothes. Place a Press’n Seal wrap on your clothes to avoid them getting dirty while you eat. Basically acts like a bib without actually looking like you are wearing one.
11. Removing Stains
If you somehow have a food stain on your clothes and you don’t have Tide To Go, you can mix together Dawn, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda to remove set-in stains on your clothes.
12. Extend Your Birthday Cake’s Lifespan
This is kind of a weird one but it actually works. Place white bread against the exposed area of cake where you cut the slices, and then use toothpicks to secure the white bread to the cake. This is a sure-way to keep your birthday cake from going stale.
13. Prolong the Freshness of Your Chips
Stale food is no good and disappointing when you have to throw away a bag of chips because you accidentally let them go stale. This is a bit of a DIY project, but you can keep your chips fresher longer by using a lid from a pack of wet wipes.
14. Reheat Your Food Without Drying it Out
Place a cup of water inside the microwave to provide some moisture in the air for the food. This helps you avoid your food-getting-dry dilemma.
15. Hipster Burrito Holder
Use your mason jars to prevent your burritos from falling apart. Also, it’s a clever way to “plate” your food if you plan on serving this to your guests.