Some life hacks require a complete how-to guide just to understand. Others are so genius in their simplicity that they speak for themselves. Here are ten of our favourite self-explanatory “MacGyver” tricks from the Lifehacker archives.
10. Make Perfect Pancakes with a Squeeze Bottle
It doesn’t have to be a ketchup bottle, any kind of squeeze bottle will work — including the kind you buy empty from the store. See more here.
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9. Use a Post-It Note to Avoid a Drilling Mess
When drilling a vertical surface, you always end up with a scattered mess of dust and shavings on the ground. Use a Post-It note to catch the mess and make cleanup a snap. See more here.
8. Seal Plastic Bags with Old Bottle Caps
Zip-top bags are great, but sometimes you buy something in bulk and you’re stuck with an unsealable bag. Home-centric blog Re-Nest shows us an easy way to give these bags an airtight seal with an old water bottle. See more here.
7. Remove a Stripped Screw with a Rubber Band
The head of the screw you stripped while you were hanging that shelf may not have seemed like a big deal at the time — until you needed to unscrew it, that is. Next time you’re having trouble, try a rubber band. (Then fix the hole with toothpicks.) See more here.
6. Organize Anything with an Over-the-Door Shoe Holder
Here’s a cheap tool for corralling all those individual snacks, seasoning mixes and other odd items that easily overflow in your pantry or take up too much space in their original boxes: an over-the-door shoe organiser.
Just hang and fill. This works with anything from pantry items to cleaning products to gadgets, game controllers and even cables. See more here.
5. Create an Instant Snack Bowl from Any Snack Bag
Sure, snack bowls are nice if you have guests over, but who needs one just to eat some pretzels in front of the TV? Instead, roll the bottom of the bag into a bowl for easy access. Then eat the snacks with chopsticks to avoid getting the mess on your fingers, too. See more here.
4. Create Extra Shelf Space with a Tension Rod
In the kitchen, you can use all the space you can get. That’s where the handy window tension rod comes in. Turn one into a mini-shelf for those small spice containers that otherwise just take up too much room. (Tension rods are great for oh-so-many things.) See more here.
3. Organise Cables with Toilet Paper Tubes
If you are a tech head, you’ve probably amassed quite a collection of miscellaneous cables that you aren’t currently using, but might need later on. Keep them organised and tangle-free with a few toilet paper tubes in a box. It ain’t pretty, but what cable organisation system is? See more here.
2. Use Soft Drink Can Tabs to Save Closet Space
Short on wardrobe space? Use the tabs from the top of soft drink cans to double your hangers up, making more efficient use of your space and letting you keep favourite outfits together. hang pictures, too. See more here.
1. Use Binder Clips as Cable Catchers
Really, binder clips are just a MacGyver hacker’s dream. See more here.
We know there are a lot of others out there, so if you’ve got your own favourites, share them below!
Comments
5 responses to “Top 10 MacGyver Hacks That Anyone Can Do”
8. Seal Plastic Bags with Old Bottle Caps
Why not just put the stuff directly into the bottle and be done with it it.?
3. In the process of collecting bog rolls for that one. 🙂
and exactly how do you propose to get Doritos into a plastic bottle?
Well if you suck on ’em for awhile they go soft, so you could do it then 🙂
Besides that, since when does a packet of Dorito’s last long enough to warrant sealing! And good luck getting a decent seal around the bottle top with all that plastic or foil shoved through the thing?
I’ve done this before, it works surprisingly damn well.
Or you can, you know, just use a rubber band *shrug*
Yeah if you’ve seen MacGyver lately I don’t think he is leaving any Doritos in the bag.
http://www.keycelb.com/images/Richard-Dean-Anderson-03.jpg
+1 internets for you, sir!
laughed my arse off
No. 3. If you arent using those cables for something, why have them at all?
Because some of them are like $20 each and I hate spending $20 for something when i gk on holiday that I have already bought in the past.