From The Tips Box: Lost Luggage, Water Bottles, Headphone Jacks

Readers offer their best tips for finding lost luggage in an airport, putting together makeshift lids for your Nalgene bottles, and eliminating the need for headphone adaptors.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.

Take a Picture of Your Luggage for Easier Retreival

Photo by Mark Hillary.

Lindsay shares a tip for those that have lost luggage after their flight has touched down:

To avoid problems when an airline loses your luggage, take a mobile phone picture of your bags before you leave. That way, when you need to deal with the lost and found, you can just show them a picture without having to describe it. This works especially well if you’re in a foreign country and don’t speak the language.

Use a Planter’s Peanut Lid on Wide Mouthed Nalgene Bottles

Photo by Kyle LeBoeuf.

Calebhudson88 discovers a simple fix to a lost water bottle lid:

Just found this out by accident, but if you happen to lose the lid to a large mouthed Nalgene bottle, and you have an empty planters nut jar lying around (needs to be plastic), the lid of the planters jar can be used as a temporary or permanent replacement for your lost cap. It fits perfectly.

Unscrew 6.35mm Jacks to Reveal 3mm Jacks Underneath Them

Photo by Mathijs.

Hank discovers a handy feature of most high-end headphones:

I’ve started to buy nicer headphones, but they all have those big 1/4″ jacks that require an adaptor to fit my computer or iPod, which is annoying. I found this on Reddit, though — it turns out, some headphones actually have the smaller 1/8″ jack built in! You just have to unscrew it (even if it doesn’t look like it can be unscrewed, it probably can). Way better than using one of those bulky adapters.

As a headphone geek, I had no idea some people didn’t know this. This should actually be the case on 99 per cent of modern headphones you buy.

Put a Chin Up Bar in the Doorway of Your Bedroom for Quick Exercise Breaks

Photo by Mr. T in DC.

Audiopocalypse buffs up:

Here’s a tip to build up your arm muscles daily without really having to take any extra time out of your day: Install a pull-up bar onto the door of your bedroom, and every time you walk in or out of it, just do a few (5-10, but just 1 if that’s all you can manage — you’ll gradually build up to more). I tend to just do a set amount every night and take pauses, but I get a lot more in by doing just a few at a time throughout the day.

I’d still argue this isn’t as good as a well thought out workout plan, but it’s a pretty clever way to remind yourself to exercise and get a little workout in during the day.