My Small Assortment of Life Hacks

Ah, life hacks. The tips and tricks that make our existences a little easier to live.

Everyone likes reduced labor, right? Especially me and my lazy self. So here are a few of the life

hacks I’ve picked up over the years.

1. Hand sanitizer takes out everything. I’m not kidding about this. It will take out Sharpie,

ink stains, dirt, and food stains, and it will take it out of clothes, sheets, blankets, even

furniture. Admittedly, it may not completely get rid of stains, but it will definitely make

them less noticeable. The sooner you get to a fresh stain with the hand sanitizer, the

better, although it can take out older stains too.

2. Spotify has playlist folders. If you’re as avid a music lover as I am, you probably have

way too many playlists in your music library. If you’re tired of scrolling through all eight

hundred of them to find the one playlist you’re looking for, and if you have Spotify and a

Macbook or other Mac computer, try making a playlist folder! If you have a Macbook,

open Spotify, click “File”, and you’ll see there’s an option for “New Playlist Folder”.

You can drag and drop your Spotify playlists into your folders and get yourself

organized! Even better, if your browser’s Spotify and your phone’s Spotify are synced,

the playlists will show up on your Spotify app on your phone.

3. It is possible to make Cup-o-Noodles with a microwave. This doesn’t involve actually

putting your delicious ramen in the microwave: there is a “DO NOT PUT IN

MICROWAVE” label on it for a reason. If you don’t have clean hot water or a safely

functioning stove readily available to you, simply do what I would do first semester: heat

up a glass or a bowl of water in the microwave, use a damp paper towel to take it out of

the microwave without burning your hands, and then pour the water over the sink and

into your ramen.

4. To make your hair wavier, don’t blow-dry it. I haven’t used a hairdryer in four years, and

my hair has taken on an *at least slightly* wavier quality since then. Air-dry it, baby. It’s

better for your hair and ears to lay off the blow-drier anyway.

5. There’s a really neat trick to folding fitted sheets. I hate fitted sheets with a burning

passion. My mother has tried to teach me how to fold them for my entire existence, and

for the longest time I simply couldn’t get it. Until she taught me this: stick the opposite

inner corners into each other, so that it makes a rectangle, and it’s easier to fold. That’s

all fine and good, except I forget exactly which corners you fold into themselves, and

Here is a fitted sheet, the bane of my existence. But not anymore! And it doesn’t have to

be yours either!

So there you have it! There are just a few of my life-changing life hacks. I hope, if you do

decide to try these out, that they are as successful for you as they have been for me.

then I always mess it up somehow anyway, so my trick is to avoid the whole task and

leave the sheet out until I actually use it. Reduced labor, ahoy!

• Adulthood
• college life
• life hacks
• tips