What tip have you heard about and been incredulous when it actually works?

[hiredandsqueak]

I saw on Twitter that filling a ziplock bag with water and a few coins and hanging it in a doorway/placing it on the doorstep will keep flies out. It seemed such a bizarre suggestion that I thought I would try it and can confirm it works. I've also hung one near the bins and there hasn't been any flies around for a week.
Are there any other tips that I should know?

Not really a tip (thanks for using that word instead of the modern hack) But build a pond and wildlife will come.

We built a pond at the start of lockdown and I've been sat outside today and my garden is teeming with so many different creatures, most that I don't recognise from the previous 10 years I've lived there. I never thought they would come so quickly, frog arrived within a week. Some how water snails turned up and now weve had the biggest, most beautiful dragonflys whizzing around today.

@thenightsky bucket of hot water, add a squirt of washing up liquid and a capful of fabric conditioner then swish together. Wash windows with a cloth and squeegee off for sparkly windows.

Two that I use all the time and learned from Mumsnet:

To get the smell of onions or garlic off your hands, rub them with the back of a stainless steel spoon. It totally works!

To undo a double knot in shoes/trainers just pull one of the laces, quite hard. You don’t have to undo the top knot/loop first. (This doesn’t work for everyone. I think it depends on how you tie the knots in the first place.)

To stop a sneeze press the end of your nose.

A really game changer - and I do it all the time, and showed it to a friend who didn't believe it until I proved it - how to stop hiccups. Concentrate. Yep, mind over matter. Hiccups are a 'twitch' in your diaphragm. Concentrate your mind on your diaphragm and breathe deeply and regularly. Sounds weird but I guarantee it works for me...

Yoga. 1. Actually doing it rather than just buying a yoga mat and wearing yoga pants round the house 2. Doing 30 mins every day 3. Actually listening and breathing when and how she says.

Total game changer. Yoga with Adrianne.
She's not annoying and after just 3 months I am strong and bendy for the first time in 45 years.

Who knew? Well everyone who does yoga I suppose. Still amazed.

And couch to 5k. Followed it to the letter. I struggled to run for a minute. . Started just after lockdown and yesterday ran 8.4k and enjoyed it. Astonishing

Karcher window vac, only way to wash windows..

@RememberTheSunnierDays

What do you do with your douwe Egbert jars?
I have loads, they’re too nice to put in the bin, but no clue as to what to do with them!

I didn't believe the drying stained clothes in the sun trick, but it works. DSs Harry Potter white t shirt saved from a korma curry stain.

Boiling water (what's left over in the kettle after you've used it) poured onto the weeds/grass etc, inbetween your paving slabs, kills off the weeds in a couple of days. Saw this in a gardening program and it really works. Chemical free too.

@NoShitHemlock

This one is probably fairly well known, but I dab Fairy Liquid (other dish washing detergents are available....) on fat stains e.g. hot butter off your toast and straight onto your t-shirt; splashes of oil etc. Wash as normal and it lifts the stain totally.

I haven't tried it on a big stain - just those really irritating little ones that always seem to hit right in the middle of whatever you are wearing.

Also works on "set" grease stains - clothes you've laundered and tumble dried. And then found a grease stain.

@reesewithoutaspoon

cold salt water also helps with blood stains. make a salt paste or let it soak in the cold salty water before washing.

I read it needed to be roughly body temperature water and salt??

If you get a bit of shell in your egg after cracking it, wet your fingers with a bit of water and you’ll be able to pick it up instead of it swishing around in the slimy egg white!

I'm going to try the 2p on chrome taps, do you just rub flat side doen?

And the crunches one. Will report back.

Old perfume gets the sticky goop from labels on jars etc.

@Tiredandfedup21

If you get a bit of shell in your egg after cracking it, wet your fingers with a bit of water and you’ll be able to pick it up instead of it swishing around in the slimy egg white!

Or use a bit of egg shell from the egg you've just cracked to fish it out.

@BillywilliamV Karcher window vac, only way to wash windows..

Totally agree, just water and the vacuum, not really a tip in the spirit of the thread as you do have to buy the vacuum but takes all the work out of it.

Boiling water (what's left over in the kettle after you've used it) poured onto the weeds/grass etc, inbetween your paving slabs, kills off the weeds in a couple of days. Saw this in a gardening program and it really works. Chemical free too.

I’m so going to try this! I’m always terrified of harming the dogs by using weed killer, but the patio is starting to be taken over by the weeds.

@Covert19

Burying a cat in the foundations of a new house brings you luck.

Dead or alive?

To open a stubborn jar, tap the lid on the edge of the bench.

For cleaning grout- mix 1 part bleach and 1 part bicarbonate of soda. The texture will be like toothpaste, slather over the area you want to clean, go back 20 mins later and rinse (use scrubbing brush gently if necessary but most of the work should already be done)

^ the edge of the lid that is, the bit you are trying to loosen

For hiccups, I drink a glass of water whilst holding my nose. I have to take at least three 'gulps' and swallows, and without fail the hiccups are gone. I read that this is something to do with creating a vacuum but I am not sure. It might even be a kind of 'placebo' technique but I've been doing it for years and completely believe in it. DD and DS now do it and it works for them too.

I am excited to try:

Coin/taps thing
Cleaning windows solution
and
Boiling water on weeds.

@Covert19

Burying a cat in the foundations of a new house brings you luck.

Poor cat - does it have to be dead or alive

@StealthPolarBear

I'm going to try the 2p on chrome taps, do you just rub flat side doen?

And the crunches one. Will report back.

I need to know about the 2p piece method!

I've just successfully cleaned my frying pan from burnt on sugar by covering it with bicarb and adding water and gently simmering on the stove.

However, using bicarb as a cleaner always leaves a residue. I wipe down with distilled malt vinegar but it's still an issue.

Mine was a batch cooking tip. Overheard it at the dentist’s waiting room. Was life-saving during the toddler years, still using it now for the grownups.

Basically, you don’t cook whole recipes, you pre-cook ingredients in batches. Then during the week, you can ‘construct’ loads of different meals quickly, depending on everyone’s preferences.

So put on a pot of water + stock cube to simmer. Cook up all the ‘boilable’ meat and veggies in seperate batches. Lift each out of the pot with a perforated ladle to drain. Put in the fridge in individual containers. Examples are: sausages, cauli, broccoli, carrots.

Then use the soupy flavoured stock you’ve created to blanche leafy greens or peas. Then cook rice, pasta, potatoes in it. Or keep it ‘starch-free’ as a base for soups, stews, sauces.

I’ll often also put a frypan on at the same time and separately precook chopped onion, garlic, celery, capsicum, eggplant etc. Then swish a cup of kettle-boiled water into that pan at the end (after removing the food) and tip it into the stock.

So then on a random Tuesday worknight, you can ‘shop your pantry’ and make a hot curry, baby purées, pasta dish and multiple veggie side dishes all in under 15 mins. You can tweak the flavourings towards Asian, Mediterranean, middle eastern or leave things fairly bland. I’ve got a great spice collection, with pre-mixed options. Also important to have things like curry paste, tinned tuna/tomatoes, chickpeas on hand. And herbs/lemons for freshness.

I found traditional batch cooking didn’t work for us. I’d freeze litres of complicated recipes, then no one would feel like eating them. Including me! I like the freedom to build something quickly that’s more tailored to who is home and hungry. And I can easily leave out ingredients for allergies, intolerances or keto. Less waste, more flexibility to buy seasonal food when I see it.

Hope it helps someone else, sorry it’s so long!