A Hundred-Year Old Life Hacks That Still Solve Everyday Problems

Nowadays we have got a myriad of kitchen utensils that facilitate our lives. Still, there are problems which are not so easy to solve. But are there really? In fact, some of them were successfully handled even in 1916!

You can use it to do the washing or to clean the sink. As a matter of fact, in 1916 another interesting property of vinegar was discovered.

I bet you cracked a few egg shells while boiling them. The truth is that you don’t have to take them out of the boiling water – keep on boiling them! Just add a bit of vinegar into the boiling water. The white of the egg will not flow out!

If you are afraid that you will break some precious vases while doing the dusting for example, simply pour some sand inside them. They will be much heavier and as a result it won’t be so easy to knock them off the shelf. Of course it doesn’t have to be sand – these could be some stones or rice as well.

If you put one glass into another, it is sometimes really difficult to separate them. If you do it too violently, you may easily break both. Again, a one-hundred-year old trick will do; put the bottom glass into some hot water and pour some cold water into the top one. In a moment you will easily manage to take the top one out.

Nothing’s better than a glass of something cold on a boiling hot day. Unfortunately, diluting the drink with ice changes its flavor. That is why if you want to have something cold, wrap the bottle with a kitchen towel and put it into a bowl. Now pour some cold water into the dish and wait a few minutes.

Washing the thin neck of a bottle is troublesome. Luckily, there is another old and yet still reliable trick that fixes it.

Pour some rice onto the bottom and add water. You can also add a few drops of washing-up liquid. Now cork the bottle and give it a good shake. Then pour the water with the rice onto a sieve so that the rice won’t clog your sink and piping.

This is going to take just a moment. Put on some gloves to protect your hands and first pick up the biggest pieces of glass. Then soak a cloth and put it on the smaller ones. Wait a moment and pick up the towel forming a paper ‘ball’. This is how all the glass will get collected. Finally throw away the cloth or shake it off over a glass waste container.

If you have to lift a lid while you are cooking, a laundry clip will come in handy. Just clip it onto the pot and let the lid rest upon it. If the lid slides off, press a pin into the clip.