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 😂

Re poaching eggs, line a cup/mug with a piece of clingfilm, crack in egg, gather up edges & twist together - looks like an enormous sperm.
Put in pan of boiling water with tail over the side. Perfect every time.

Our tin opener has a red tool on the side to lift up the edge of lids. I’m still going to try Hannah Fry’s idea though as I think she’s fab!

Yes! I still do this 😂

I got mine from Mumsnet, if your toilet is blocked (mine did as too many in my house use like a bin for paper when removing make up!) get a toilet brush place a hardy plastic bag on it with elastic bands so you are making a giant sucker, plunge it vigoursly and it unblocks the pipe. This has worked every time for me and has saved a plumbing bill of £120 or so! Prior to plunging I put bicarbonate of soda down it and bleach on one occasion but the second time I didn't bother and it worked.

I'd like to go back to saying "tips" instead of "hacks"

Can you explain how to do it? Thanks!

Not necessarily a hack but everyone comments on it. My husband built me a laundry chute. He noticed i was struggling to carry heavy baskets of washing down the stairs, so he took out the floor/ceiling between the airing cupboard and pantry cupboard, bracketed a huge pipe to the wall, cut a hole in the bedroom wall, put on a little door on it so now i just put the washing down the pipe and it lands in a basket in the kitchen.

You place a white cloth over the stain, you tube recommends cotton. I use a tee shirt or tea towel. Then you hot iron over it keeping the iron moving, and kind of moving, and wiping with, the cloth too. Keep going until it vanishes! It takes under a minute generally for the stain to disappear.

That's impressive!

It does work but it also leaves micro scratches on the silver which make it tarnish faster in the future.

Safest to use just a soft polishing cloth. I'm a silversmith and give cleaning instructions with all my jewellery.

I only recently realised I could use a laundry pen to mark the top corners of the duvet and the duvet cover. Its made putting the cover on so much easier.

Or you could run it under hot water for a few seconds.

For an insect bite that itches - heat up a spoon under the hot tap and when it's hot, but not hot enough to burn, hold it against the bite for around 30 seconds. I was amazed how well it worked. If you suffer with any other type of itching, anything with menthol in will relieve it. I used Voltarol for hives and it works like magic. If you get contact dermatitis on your hands (those tiny itchy blisters) use a hand wash with tea tree oil and they will disappear.

I just throw washing down the stairs!

I haven't had sperm for breakfast in a long time
🤣🤣

Install a dumb waiter
or marry one
( oops was that sexist sorry guys )

Not RTFT but this immediately sprung to mind, so apologies if it's a repeat.

You know those sticky labels on things when you buy them that are a bugger to remove? I used to fill up the cup or plate with hot water to warm the sticker to remove it more easily, but discovered this weekend that the easiest way to remove them is with another bit of sticky tape!

I bought a new mug, put sellotape all across the sticker and peeled it back off and it brought the paper sticker off cleanly without a jot of residue!

Aldi own brand are hard tablets and as good as anything else I have used.

That has never worked for me.

I have just tried the 'cleaning Tupperware of grease and tomato sauce stains with hot water, detergent and kitchen towel' and can confirm that it works brilliantly!

@Mix56 - do you live in the UK? If so, where is this halycon place where you get "full sunlight"?!

At least two washing machine repair guys over the years advised always use washing powder never liquid or capsules, they just said it is better for the machine (not sure how though) but I do always use washing powder.

The 5 chores in the morning, 5 chores in the evening approach. It reduces most of my everyday housework to 20 minutes twice a day.

Evening - 1) kitchen surfaces wiped down and cleaned, 2) dishwasher put on, 3) washing from washing-machine hung up to dry or tumbled, 4) downstairs toilet cleaned and sink wiped, 5) kitchen hoovered and floor wiped.

Morning - 1) washing-machine put on, 2) dishwasher emptied, 3) living-room and hall hoovered, 4) dry laundry taken upstairs and flung into the correct box for each person (no folding or ironing), 5) bins and recycling taken out.

I do these chores on repeat, every morning and every evening, so they are now automatic and I don't really have to think about them. Everything else can wait till the weekend or our fortnightly cleaner visit.

Upstairs loos and bathrooms are cleaned when the kids are in the bath.

I agree with this.

Dirty laundry here is lobbed on one corner of the stairs to go down when I'm going down.

Clean laundry is chucked in the other corner to come up.

Yes, I do that but no one gathers it at the bottom and as I am a bad aim it is strewn (?(?) across the bottom 4-5 steps as we have quite steep steps this is definitely hazardous at the bottom.