Five Handy Tricks Everyone Should Know!

We love lifehacks, which are handy tips that make life just that little bit easier. Nine times out of ten, they are very simple tricks that you probably haven’t thought about yourself. It can also be seen as ‘outside the box’ thinking.

Suppose: the lock of an old door or locker is difficult to open. What do you do if you don’t have any lubricant around? The answer is as simple as it is ingenious. A bit of granite can lubricate the lock. So all you need is an ordinary pencil to move a bit over the keyhole. The fine pencil-graphite that is left behind often solves the problem in no time.

Protect plugs from the rain

If, during a garden party, an unexpected rain shower could occur, it is wise to protect any plugs used for lighting and and the music system from the rainwater. If you do not do this, there is a good chance that a short circuit malfunction will occur and that the plugs will burn out. It is even possible that a fire will start, and you definitely don’t want that at all!

To ensure that the plugs do not come into contact with water, cut two small inlets at the sides of an (old) plastic container. Here, you can lay the ends of two cables. In the middle of the container, connect the two plugs together and put the plastic lid on top, to close it.

Where do you leave nails?

Everybody who works in and around the house knows the problem: you want to hammer in a few nails somewhere, but you’re stuck with the rest of the nails. By tying an elastic band around the handle of the hammer, you get rid of that. Under the rubber band you can slide in a few nails, so you always have them close by and you can continue with your job.

Not the right size wrench

You’ll just see that you don’t have the right wrench size to unscrew a bolt. The wrenches are one size too big. Fortunately, you can easily solve this by inserting a coin between the inside of the wrench and the bolt, as you can see in the picture above. Chances are that you will get the bolt unscrewed!

Padlock key lost

What do you do when you lose the key to a padlock? It looks like you’ll have to break the lock with brute force and hope that you don’t damage the lock too much. However, there is an easier way.

What you need are two wrenches. You have to squeeze them both in the eye of the padlock and then turn them in the opposite direction. You’ll see that – through the force – the lock will break open.