Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

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Number6
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Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by Number6 »

I'm starting this thread for us to post hacks that will make our lives easier. The first hack I'll post is cleaning mold.

In the bathroom shower, from the tile to the aluminum sliding door seals, there was some mold and normally I'd use vinegar and an old toothbrush to scrub it off. I found a better way and it uses something everyone probably has in their bathroom; toilet bowel cleaner. I squeezed some toilet bowl cleaner on area and let it sit for an hour. I then rinsed it off and the mold disappeared. When I learned of this hack, I didn't really believe it would work but I gave it a try and I was surprised that it actually worked. It makes sense, now, because if you properly use toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet you don't see mold so why wouldn't it work in the shower?
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Number6
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by Number6 »

My dishwasher went out about two weeks ago and I tried everything I could think of to start it but no luck. I was even looking online at local appliance stores to see if there were any Memorial Day Sales on dishwashers. So I did what most people would do, I looked online for solutions. Solutions included pressing the Heat/Dry button for two minutes but to no luck. One solution was to make sure the water valve under the sink was on; it was. And yet another solution was to unplug it for a couple of minutes but the plug is behind the dishwasher and I wasn't going to uninstall it just to unplug it. I finally found the solution and it was to turn off the circuit breaker for a few seconds and then back on. As soon as I turned it back on I heard the familiar beeps of the dishwasher. Problem solved. Apparently there was a power surge which caused the dishwasher to shutdown. The zero dollar solution saved me hundreds of dollars in the purchase and installation and a new dishwasher and the removal of my old dishwasher.
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carmenjonze
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by carmenjonze »

Well who the heck knew! Thanks Number 6
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47of74
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by 47of74 »

Having a lower asshole tolerance has helped a bit in making my life easier. If people know that to insult or belittle me because I'm in a TLSO brace is playing with G-D fire they'll figure it out soon, as a couple douche grocery store employees are about to find out. Accuse me of crapping myself just because I'm wearing a brace? (I hadn't actually done so). I wonder how much these two little douche nozzles will like it when I contact every management employee across the whole chain to tell them what I think of those who fuck around with me because I'm in a brace.
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Libertas
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by Libertas »

Great idea for a thread.

The power on and off for my Samsung TV's is helpful when it misbehaves, especially for one of them which will not do a soft reset (hold the power button down for several seconds until you see the UHD or SUHD sign come up.)

https://youtu.be/nn2FB1P_Mn8


As to dishwashers, we bought a new one a year ago (or maybe 2 now) at Costco, Samsung. Mistake. My research now tells me Bosch for dishwashers.

Twice the Samsung has needed repairs but using the Costco CITI Visa it extends warranty to a total of 3 yrs so both times I was reimbursed for repairs.
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Number6
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by Number6 »

Today's hack is how to wash your car with less than a pint of water. This method has a number of advantages some of which are using less water, no hoses or buckets of water, no soap, not getting the area around you car wet, and it's faster than washing the usual way. The key is to have a good coating or two of wax on your car before you begin. This is crucial because it makes washing the car easier. If your car is very dirty then I'd suggest a good power washing or washing it the normal way and then waxing it.

Here's what you need: a 1-quart spray bottle filled with tap water, a car duster to remove the dust on the car, and some terry- or microfiber cloths. First, dust the entire car, including window to remove the larger pieces of dust. Then, starting on the roof, spray water on a section of the roof, wipe it with a cloth and then use "dry" cloth to immediately dry the sprayed area. Continue this until the entire roof is done. Do the same on the hood. On other parts of the car break them down into sections, like doors and side panels and clean them the same way. Once you've completed all sections clean the windows, tires, and rims. When you're finished you'll find clean-up is a breeze.

I've used this method for years and it takes me about 20 minutes to completely wash my car. I live in a small condo complex with tight parking in the rear of the complex. There's no over-spray on other cars, no puddles of water, and no wet clothes. Also, the terry- and microfiber cloths can be washed and reused.
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Bludogdem
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by Bludogdem »

The fine art hack.

If you have a photo quality printer or access to one the world of fine art prints is open. Regular enhanced matte paper is all you need

There is an incredible abundance of fine art files available to download.

https://publicdomainreview.org/collecti ... ery-of-art

The more you drill down the more you find.

Also, if there are particular pieces or artists do a search using bing. Select images. Click on image and bing shows the sizes. 660,000 and up is usually sufficient. If you have access to photoshop you can open the file in camera raw and right click and click on enhance. This gives yo a much broader range for print sizes.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... erp=0&vt=0

Just click on image sizes.

I’m a big Wayne thiebaud and Edward hopper fan. Have a bunch of prints around the house. And the odd lots are fun too. Always loved a 1960’s miles Davis at the filmore poster.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ajaxserp=0

It graces the living room.

And it all very inexpensive.
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ZoWie
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by ZoWie »

There are also plenty of whatever they're calling service bureaus this year, which will take your enormous CMYK 300/600/1200 ppi file and print it on good stock using art-quality machines. Not cheap, but cheaper than buying similar stuff at art galleries.

Some of my signed original work, although so modest as to barely qualify as fine art, adorns walls in various places.

Note that this is not the same as NFTs. Those are basically bitcoin with pictures instead of funny money. Now, some rather creative NFTs have been made, but still you're talking bubble gum cards by comparison, and the speculators have made the market almost as scary as cryptocurrency.
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Number6
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by Number6 »

Anyone who has visited the beach knows one of the things that will happen is you'll get sand in your car no matter how well y to towel it off. What I've done over the past couple of years is to bring a one-gallon pump sprayer in the car. The spray has a handle to pump air pressure and has a three foot hose attached to a handle with a lever to release the water. When you get to the car, pump up the sprayer and rinse off. You can dry your feet with a towel, put shoes on, and not have to worry about sand in the car. When I've gotten back to my car and did this I've received a lot of comments about how good an idea that is.
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Number6
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Re: Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Post by Number6 »

If you have a small, tubeless wheel and it won't inflate I've got the solution. I've done this a couple of times and it works.

I have a two-wheeled hand truck and the wheels were flat. Because the wheels are tubeless, putting air into them won't work because the sides of the tires have to push against the wheel hub, by where the valve stem is, to form a seal to allowing you to inflate it. Here's the hack.

Take a length of rope, a couple of feet long, or a strap and place a loop in it. Attach an air compressor to the tire. Wrap the rope/strap around the middle of the tire and thread the end of it through the loop and pull it tight. Place a strong stick, a piece of wood, or as I did a 1/2" PVC pipe between the tire and the loop and twist it a couple of times. Start inflating the tire and watch the pressure gauge on the compressor. When the pressure begins increasing start untwisting the strap and if the pressure continues to increase completely untwist the strap. Once you get the pressure you need in the tire you're finished.
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