25 simple tips and tricks that can make life easier - Rest Less (2024)

Often, we become so used to our routine and doing the same daily tasks that we don’t consider how we could do things differently. But there are plenty of quick tips and tricks that could help to simplify your life, while also saving you time and money.

With this in mind, we’ve come up with a list of 25 life hacks that’ll hopefully help you solve everyday challenges in new and creative ways. They can be fun, satisfying, and will hopefully make things that little bit easier!

This is by far one of my favourite hacks! So many times a recipe book has shut on me while I’ve got my hands covered in flour, so I can’t open it back up to see the next step.

This useful tip will stop you from losing your page (and your flow) when you’re getting creative in the kitchen.

Simply hang your hanger from one of your kitchen cupboard handles and clip your book to it for a low-stress, hands-free cooking experience.

If you’ve got seeds that you’ve been meaning to plant but nothing to plant them in, consider using toilet paper tubes to make seed starter pots.

They’re biodegradable, take just a few minutes to make, and will be sturdy enough to allow seeds to start putting down roots before you later upgrade them to a larger pot.

This hack is a great way to recycle your toilet roll tubes because the microbes in the soil will break the cardboard down into carbon – which your seedlings will use as plant food!

As the weather begins to warm up you might be looking for ways to keep your white or rose wine chilled for longer. Ice cubes are an obvious choice but will water your wine down.

An alternative way to keep your wine cool is to freeze grapes and use them as ice cubes. Plus, you can enjoy eating them afterwards!

Furniture gets scratched and scuffed over time, and many people assume that they’ll either have to live with the damage or sand down and re-varnish the entire piece of furniture.

But, did you know that you can cover up dings on wooden furniture in a matter of minutes by rubbing the area with a walnut?

Simply rub the walnut over the scuff or scratch a few times. Then rub the area with a soft cloth to help the wood absorb the oil from the nut. You might be surprised at how well this works!

If you’re suffering from stress or negative thoughts, these sensory bottles can provide a great distraction and help keep you calm. They can also make fun additions to your office desk or bedside table.

Some sensory bottles are made using glitter. However, glitter (even the biodegradable kind) is harmful to the environment. This is why it’s best to make your sensory bottles with water beads (or ‘Orbeez’), which are non-toxic and biodegradable.

Water beads are tiny, absorbent beads that grow to 100 times their size when added to water.

All you need to do to make your sensory bottle is to put a teaspoon of water beads into a clear bottle or jar, fill it with water, and leave it for four to six hours. Once it’s ready, shake it up, watch, and relax.

Don’t you hate it when you realise that you forgot to close your cereal box properly? Or that it popped open soon after you closed it, leaving your cereal all soft and chewy?

If this sounds familiar, try this handy trick that’ll help to keep your cereal boxes firmly closed. They’ll look much neater too!

It can be frustrating when you go to fill up a bucket and realise that it won’t fit in your sink.

But, if you’ve got a dustpan, then by positioning it in your sink in the right way, water will be able to flow across your dustpan, down the handle, and into your bucket.

Have a watch of the quick video below to see how it’s done.

Is your shower head clogged or looking grimy? If yes, try pouring some distilled white vinegar into a sandwich or freezer bag and tying it around your shower head.

Prepare to come back the next day to see it squeaky clean!

To be as eco-friendly as possible, you can save the bag to repeat this trick in future.

Did you know that by rubbing beeswax over any pair of shoes, you can make them waterproof?

You’ll need a bar of beeswax (or a candle) and a hairdryer. The short clip below will take you through what to do next…

Cutting a crumbly cake with a knife does the trick, but it often doesn’t produce as clean or even a cut as most of us would like. Then, before you know it, there are crumbs everywhere and one of your guests is asking why they got a smaller slice than Jeff over there.

A simple trick for solving this problem is to cut your cake using unflavoured dental floss. All you need to do is cut a long piece of floss, hold it over the top of the cake at the point you want to make the cut, and make a sawing motion back and forth as you press down into it.

The number of cuts you make will depend on how many slices you want to get out of the cake.

You can also use this technique to create a layered cake, for example, when making a Victoria sponge – and it can be particularly helpful for cutting a cake that has an especially delicate, crumbly texture.

Before you start cutting, take a look at the video below…

With frequent usage, charger cables can become frayed or damaged. When this happens, they have a greater risk of overheating and starting a fire, or they may just stop working altogether.

To prevent this, you can take the metal spring out of a pen and wrap it around your charger cable to give it extra support. This’ll hopefully help it to last longer.

The video below shows you how to do this in a few easy steps.

We’ve all longed for a cold drink on a warm day but forgotten to put our bottles or cans in the fridge.

Next time this happens, try wrapping a wet cloth around your drinks bottle or can before putting it in the fridge. The water will rapidly evaporate and cool, chilling your drink much faster. You should have a nice frosty beverage in just 10 minutes.

A lazy Susan is a turntable that you can place on any counter or shelf to help you access your food more easily.

So, if you regularly find yourself with food piled up at the back of the fridge or cupboards, making it difficult to see, this hack is for you.

You can store all your food on a lazy Susan, which has 360-degree rotation – so you’ll never forget about what’s at the back of the cupboard or fridge again. Those who get them tend to never go back!

There are plenty of lazy Susan options available on Amazon.

If you want to protect your fingers when you’re lighting a candle, consider using a dry piece of spaghetti for a longer reach.

This is a great tip for lighting candles in glass holders because you often have to use matches and lighters at funny angles to reach the wick, meaning your fingers risk getting toasty!

If you’re making a big dinner with lots of different components, sometimes it can be handy to have some extra chopping space.

By pulling out your kitchen drawer and putting your chopping board on top, you may be able to create an extra work surface.

If you can’t fit any more hangers in your wardrobe but need some extra hanging space, it’s worth keeping hold of the tabs on drinks cans.

This helpful video will show you what to do next…

If you’re keen to keep bugs away, consider mixing 10-15 drops of peppermint oil with a cup of water and putting it in a spray bottle. Then, lightly spray window and door frames, or anywhere that bugs are most likely to gain entry to your home.

While we might enjoy the pleasant smell of peppermint, the majority of bugs (including spiders) find it offensive and will usually head in a different direction once they smell it.

To cook the perfect fried egg, try cutting a thick onion ring and cooking your egg inside it.

This is one of the most satisfying hacks on the list because the egg really does come out perfectly round and it tastes delicious!

Cleaning a blender can be a fiddly (and potentially risky) job because it requires you to clean the blade.

Next time you use a blender, rather than trying to clean it by hand with a sponge, try filling it with some soapy water and letting it run for 30 seconds. Then, just give it a good rinse and allow it to air dry. Repeat if necessary.

If your phone has run out of battery and you need to charge it in a hurry, try putting it on aeroplane mode.

You won’t be able to receive calls, but your phone will charge much faster!

Putting your pancake batter into a bowl or jug before pouring it into a frying pan can make for a messy experience. Instead, why not try putting your batter in an old squeezy bottle instead?

You’ll have much more control over the size and shape of your pancake, and it’ll make less mess. This is also a fantastic way to recycle old ketchup and mayonnaise bottles.

Although most of us boil our eggs, it’s also possible to create the perfect hard-boiled egg in the oven.

Baking them can be much easier if you’re making large quantities of eggs. The shells are also less likely to crack and splinter – making for easier washing up!

To bake eggs in the oven, preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Then, place eggs in a muffin/cake tray and cook for 20-30 minutes depending on how hard or soft you like the yolk.

When a car tyre has a slow puncture, it can often require a whole new tyre. But, sometimes, doing a home repair on the existing tyre is also possible – if you’re able to locate the source of the problem.

Being unable to tell where your car tyre is slowly leaking air from can be frustrating. Sometimes there’s no obvious damage and other times the object that caused the leak in the first place – like a nail or a small shard of glass – is lodged deep in the hole it’s made.

One of the best ways to find the source of a slow leak is to mix some washing-up liquid and water together in a spray bottle and spray the tyre all over. You’ll usually see bubbles start to form at the point where the air is leaking.

If you want to remove odours from your shoes, try putting a few dry tea bags in each shoe to absorb the smell.

There are many different types of tea bag out there, but it helps to choose ones with a more appealing scent. Peppermint or lemon are popular choices.

Looking for a natural way to cure headaches? Try cutting a lime in half and rubbing it on your forehead.

This one’s a bit of an old wives’ tale, but many say that they’ve found success with this method.

We hope that the life hacks above will save you some time or money – or simply make you smile!

If you’d like more tips and tricks to make life a little easier, check out our articles; How to declutter and reorganise your home, How to make money from your clutter, and 16 creative upcycling ideas that could save you money and help the planet.

Did any of these tips or tricks work particularly well for you? Or do you have any others that you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!