Adulting 101: Hacks to make your life easier and much more efficient

According to lots of dictionary, adulting could be defined as the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks. But let’s face it. All these ‘mundane but necessary tasks’ tend to not only be boring but difficult. Inserting a thread into a needle is nothing less than rocket science, cleaning is such a bore but this article will aid you.

Bringing numerous hacks to make ‘mundane but necessary tasks’ easier and well, hopefully, more fun (although let us be honest. Fun? Work? Er…).

Anyway, here we will cover sewing hacks, organising hacks, cooking hacks, frugal hacks and tech hacks for easy livings.
Sewing Hacks

Sewing Hacks

1. If your scissors are dull and can not cut through clothes, here is a hack to get them sharp. Take kitchen foil. Use your scissors to cut them. It gets the job done. Now make sure you cut clothes with one scissor and paper with another.
2. To keep your pins and needles from getting lost, stick a magnet to the back of any container. The container could be made of any material. Just make sure it is thin enough for the magnetic field to work. Keep your pins in the container.
3. Wash your fabrics before sewing them. Washing eliminates any worry of shrinkage. Hence, you would not get the chance to find all your work has gone waste since your clothes shrunk.
4. Do you have trouble inserting thread into the needle? Spray the end of the thread with hairspray to make it stiff. Now it will slip right in.
5. Buy or make a pin cushion with steel wool as stuffing. On the other hand, if you use rice as stuffing, it will make your pin cushion fuller and absorb moisture from your pins.
6. To avoid fraying of fabric use pinking shears. They are not expensive. Especially when combined with the way they tend to cut through the fabric.
7. Apply a coat of clear nail polish to the button tops so the thread keeps in place. This will prevent the thread from coming out and the button from coming lose.
8. Buy a hot glue gun. A lot of projects can be done without sewing. Not all but few can be stuck together. Search for ‘No-sew’ projects online.
9. Mix salt and vinegar before heating it on a stove. Use this solution wipe away any dirt or grime present on your iron. Hence, prevent your clothes from getting dirty!
10. Always keep extra buttons in tackle or utility boxes. This will prevent them from getting lost.

Organising Hacks

1. Take a strip of wood and stick clothes pin to it using hot glue gun. Use this to organize your belts and scarves inside your closet.
   
2. Invest in file box or accordion file to keep your paperwork organized. Label the sections like: bill, work, print etc.
3. Keep a chalkboard or whiteboard hanging to the wall. Use this to write your groceries. Whenever you discover something is about to end, just write it down on there. And when you are about to go to the market, click a picture of it.
4. Make a habit of keeping things back in place. One thing you can do is, keep a small plate by the door. Whenever you find something or want to remove something, just keep it in there. Later when cleaning, you can keep the items back in its place.
   
5. Half eaten chips packet you do not think you can finish now? Cut the mouth of a bottle and slid the open face of the packet into it. Pull the packet down over it. Run a hand down to remove any creases before closing the cap.
6. Prepare what to wear the night before. Keep two choices just in case your mood might change. And as soon as you come home, dump it in the laundry. Do not take it to your closet.
7. Find a place for everything. In case of homeless items, see where they usually end up and create a place for them there. Think more about practicality than aesthetic.
8. Prioritize your to-do list. Decide which one is more important or which one should be done first. Then do it.
9. Make your bed the first thing in the morning. If you do this, it would feel like you have managed to accomplish at least one thing in your day. It would give you the push to accomplish more.
10. Use three bins. One to throw, other to give and last to keep.

Cooking Hacks

1. Bhel: Take puffed rice, sev, onion, boiled and diced potatoes, diced tomatoes, cucumber, tamarind chutney and mint chutney. Mix them all well. And serve yourself.
2. Sandwich: Mash boiled potatoes. Mix them with sprout, pea, cucumber, carrot, lettuce, bell pepper, spices and salt. Spread butter and ketchup on bread slices. Add the mixture between the two slices of bread. Toast the sandwich.
3. In case you are wondering if you are really hungry or just bored, ask yourself if you wish to eat an apple or not. If the answer ends up being ‘no’, then no, you are just bored.
4. If you are not sure whether the pan is hot enough for cooking, drop a drop of water on the surface. In case the water forms two dancing beads, you may start cooking. Just make sure to clean the surface before cooking.
5. To prevent your chopping board from moving around, keep a moist towel underneath.
6. To keep herbs fresh, remove the leaves from stem and store in air tight containers.
7. Microwave lemon for 10 to 20 seconds for more juice.
8. To turn onion golden brown faster, just add a pinch of salt to it.
9. Wipe off dirt and grime from kitchen sink with used lime. It also removed bad odor!
10. Decrease the heat in chilly by removing the seeds from it.

Frugal Hacks

1. Learn to plan meal and use what you have. Rather than running to a grocery store to get something the recipe demands, check for alternatives.
2. Make a budget. Write what you have bought, what you are going to buy and how much money is left. Limit the amount you are going to spend. After paying the bills, buying the necessities, see how much is left. Keep just a bit for luxury buys and rest you save for the rainy days.
3. With the internet and phones so prevalent, ask yourself if you really need television and DTH services.
4. Use a jar to save loose change. After it is empty, get it converted to notes in the bank and splurge on yourself.
5. Take water bottle with you to various places rather than buying it off the market.
6. Make a point of unplugging appliances after use.
7. Before going out, fill your stomach up. This will reduce your desire to eat outside or buy something you do not need.
8. See if you can reuse items. Like use the cola can as a pen holder, old T-shirts as holi clothes and then rags.
9. Learn how to bargain and how not to be embarrassed while bargaining.
10. Use A/C sparingly. For few hours, you can use it but most of the time, the fan is your best buddy.

Tech Hacks

1. Open notepad in your browser by typing “data:text/html, ” in the address bar.
2. In Windows, create a folder with the name: “Control Panel Shortcuts.{ed7ba470-8e54-465e-825c-99712043e01c}” to access any control setting in the folder.
3. To compare the nutritional value of two food, open google and type: (food) vs (food).
4. To check whether a remote control is working properly, use a camera and to see if the remote emits any light when you press a button on it.
5. Use Ninite.com to install a bunch of programs without any junk software or clicking ‘next’.
6. Use MyFridgeFood.com to search recipes by ingredients you already own.
7. Photoshop CS 2 is a legal, free version of photoshop. You can also try GIMP.
8. Search unsubscribe in gmail and unsubscribe from websites you longer are interested in.
9. Want to read a magazine? Log on to Magastack.com
10. Want to wear clothes which was on television? Use WornOnTV.net to find it.