What hack has blown your mind?

[MindblownMia]

On the weekend I burnt some black felt onto my iron and it was impossible to get off. I tried spraying it with cleaner, scrubbing it with a sponge and scraping it when hot but nothing worked.

I was about to give up when I learnt that if you pick up a piece of paracetamol or ibuprofen with some tweezers and then wipe it all over the hot iron, the marks literally disappear.

My mind has been blown.

My mind was also blown when I learnt on Mumsnet that the stripes on a super king duvet go horizontally not vertically 🤣 I just thought none of my duvet covers fit 💀

What other things like this have blown peoples minds? I can’t keep living without all these amazing hacks 😂

What’s this one?

Wow, does that really work and the picture goes off intact?

I wash and iron duvet covers inside out. Much easier to get the duvet in, reach into the two far corners of the cover whilst holding the corners of the duvet and flip.

Also with poaching eggs, it's not the swirling or vinegar which make a difference, it's using fresh eggs and cracking them really gently and as close as you can, without burning yourself, to the pan of gently bubbling water.

What a great thread! I’ve learned lots of tips, but I really need one myself. We have recently moved to a house that already had a new kitchen. The sink is a grey composite and has loads of stains, probably mainly tea. I have no idea how to remove them as they are all over the draining board too. Has anyone got a tip? TIA

For me it’s the piece of kitchen roll with a bit of washing up liquid and water in a stained plastic container. You shake it and all the stains come off onto the kitchen roll. I use this all the time.

I'm old and creaky so like a bath every morning. When I get out I don't pull the plug but I slide the quick-release toilet seat in to soak in the Radox bubbles while I dry off. When I'm ready, fish it out, give it a quick wipe with a soapy cloth, rinse in bath and stand it on bath mat to drip dry. Quick wipe with cloth and back on loo. I know all the nooks and crannies are spotless (bit like me!)

When the lid's stuck on a new jar, tap each side of the lid on a hard surface to ease it

I saw this only recently and thought "load of rubbish", but it really works

I use 4 giant plastic clothes pegs, the sort people use to stop beach towels blowing away. One corner of the duvet into a bottom corner, peg, repeat for the other bottom corner, then for the tops. Give a good shake, fasten buttons, shake again.
Like this it’s easy to do a super king.

Rubber broom lifts pet fur/dust from carpets.

Use the side with the lip, and scrape towards you. Do small patches at a time, as it's quite tiring!

Also good for removing snow from cars!

Not so good at generally sweeping the kitchen - I thought I'd wasted my money using it as a regular brush until I discovered the carpet and car tricks.

Another white vinegar hack.

I nearly threw a set of glasses away because the misting from the dishwasher had become so bad. I assumed they were wrecked.

Just before binning them I sprayed them with white vinegar and left them for an hour. Once washed they were sparkling like new !!

I remember my mum doing this.

Or put it on the morning before to finish in the afternoon before?

Would this work on a cloudy mirror? We are renting a house with very old bathrooms and one of the mirrors is so white and cloudy the room never looks clean.

Putting dry shampoo on before going to bed. I always used to do it in the morning when it was already greasy but if you do it before bed it doesn’t get greasy at all. Game changer.

It's not achieving the exact same thing. You are not storing a sheet with your bedding like most people do when using the pillowcase method.

I break mine into a small cup or glass first. Makes it easier to drop them in gently. Still a bit hit and miss (I think that must be the freshness)

A sheet on top to keep it hot if I run it and then sidetracked , although I have then got in and left it on top like a blanket and had a very long very hot bath

Sheet of bubble wrap over the bath keeps it hot!

I love my rubber broom but then discovered scraping the floor with rubber soled shoe does it even better and less hard work. It’s still feels a bit Dickensian though, on my hands and knees scraping my slipper across the floor 😂

I wpuld try using 'pink stuff' . It cleans everything. I use it on 2nd hand furniture I buy ans renovate, it removes a lot of grime.

My tip re sheets: keep them in the room they're meant for, not the airing cupboard. And two sets is enough. 1 on, 1 in wash/waiting to be used. Then there's no need for all the faffing and putting stuff in a pillow case.

When making a cake, put the butter in the oven whilst it's preheating to soften.

Waahing- have the washer upstairs, saves dragging it up and down. We have an airer, but also a rail. Use coat hangers ans then juat gake clothes straight to cupboard once dry.

Are you putting the duvet cover, pillowcase and the sheet in the pillowcase? See what you mean if so. I still find it quicker to tuck pillowcases in duvet cover fold and put sheet on top.

Yes in one pillowcase you fold the other pillowcases and the sheet and the duvet cover.

@Sillysoggyspaniel this 100%. Took me to 41 to start a daily wash. My build is that I put it in the night before, set it with a delay to 6am and then put it out as soon as I go down.

To me a hack is doing something unexpected/in the 'wrong' way that actually works. So spaghetti as a taper is a hack, adding salt to pasta water is just how you make pasta. Of course it's a fuzzy line.