You know those little tips and tricks that help make your day-to-day life a little easier? Many people call them “life hacks,” but I don’t think that term is the best fit. While I don’t know any hackers personally, I have a feeling that computer hacking isn’t nearly as easy as they make it look in the movies.
That’s why I always felt that those little tips and tricks were closer to “cheat codes” than hacks. Back when my kids were little, they spent hours and hours playing games on the original Playstation, and many of those games had cheat codes you could unlock that would make make the game easier or give you some type of advantage. (Do games still have cheat codes? I’ll have to ask my kids.)
In today’s blog post, I’ll be sharing a few of my favorite “cheat codes” for real life. Just like the video game cheat codes my kids used to use, knowing these tips is an advantage that can make your day-to-day life easier. (And if you have a favorite tip or trick similar to these you’d like to share, swap your cheat codes in the comments at the bottom of this post.)
8 Hacks That Feel Like Cheat Codes For Real Life
1. Sunday Sandwich Prep
Save yourself time and stress throughout your work week by making all your lunch sandwiches on Sunday night! The key is to leave the bread out of the equation to prevent it from getting soggy. Instead, just assemble the insides of your sandwiches.
Grab a couple of slices of cheese, some deli meat, plus your condiments like mayo and mustard. Layer your meat and condiments between the two slices of cheese, then pop it all into a sandwich bag and put it in your freezer. Repeat for all the sandwiches you’ll eat that week.
Then when you’re leaving for work in the morning, just grab a bag of prepped sandwich fillings out of the freezer. Grab a couple of pieces of bread, put it all in your lunchbox, and you’re ready to go.
2. Skip The Previews
Some DVDs and Blu-Rays will play previews or ads before they start your movie. But you can skip them by pushing a few buttons on your remote! Just hit Stop, Stop again, then Play to skip the ads and get straight to the movie. (And if hitting the Stop button twice doesn’t work, try hitting it three times. That usually does the trick.)
3. Keep Your Night Vision
It takes time for your eyes to adjust to both the light and the dark, depending on the environment. This can be a problem at night when you need to turn on a light for just a moment to find something! But you can keep your “night vision” by keeping one eye closed when you turn on the light. Once you turn it off, your eyes will have a much easier time adjusting back to the darkness.
4. Execute Perfect High Fives
Have you ever gone in for a high five and missed completely? How embarrassing! But there’s an easy way to nail those high fives every time—just keep your eyes on the other person’s elbow. I don’t understand exactly how this works, but it totally does. No more humiliating high five do-overs!
5. Warm Up Your Butter Knife
The next time you’re making yourself some toast, place your butter knife on your toasted bread right after it comes out of the toaster. The heat from the toast will warm up your butter knife and help it slice through the butter like… well, butter! It will makes the butter easier to spread too.
6. Prevent Lid Leakage
Every disposable coffee cup has a seam where the paper overlaps, and if that happens to line up just right (well, more like just wrong) with the lid, it will leak as you drink it. Instead, position the lid so that the hole you drink from is on the opposite side of the cup as the seam. It’s a one-second fix that will help you enjoy your coffee free of leaks and dribbles.
7. Avoid A Dry-Erase Disaster
Where there’s a white board, there’s someone who will accidentally write on that white board with permanent marker. But instead of messing around with ineffective cleaners, there’s a much simpler way to remove permanent marker from a dry-erase board.
Just write over the top of the permanent marker with a dry-erase marker. Afterward, you can use a standard dry-erase eraser to wipe off both the dry-erase marker and the permanent marker at once.
Related: 19 Simple Ways To Remove Permanent Marker From Anything
More Ideas You'll Love
8. Cure Your Hiccups
Nobody knows exactly why hiccups occur, but everyone knows that they’re really annoying. To get rid of them, exhale all the air from your lungs, then inhale as slowly as possible until your lungs are full.
Hold your breath for as long as you can, then exhale all that air back out as slowly as possible. This is usually all it takes to get rid of a run-of-the-mill case of hiccups!
What’s your favorite cheat code for real life?
My trick for getting rid of hiccups is to drink 9 gulps of water then hold my breath for as long as I can. Works every time! (at least for me!)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hiccup cure: take one teaspoon of granulated sugar and sprinkle with any type of vinegar (ACV tastes the best) or either lemon or lime juice. This works every time.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Rubbing alcohol will clean even permanent marker off a dry erase board.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love this woman. I learn and apply, always, from this sweet ladies blog and WE all appreciate you Jillee. I’m a member too! :>)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have a small house so putting a night light in my bathroom is all the light I need if I get up in the middle of the night.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have those plug-in light-sensitive motion-sensitive lights in my bathroom, down my halls, and in the den and kitchen. Makes it easy to walk around in the dark when I can’t sleep or forgot to do or get something. They come on only when it’s dark and I walk near that outlet. Saves turning on the bright light. I also take some with me when I travel. Just don’t forget and leave them behind!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.To eliminate even the step of putting the meat and cheese on the bread in the morning, do this: Make whole sandwiches, bread and all, with the condiments inside the meat (so the bread won’t get soggy. Freeze them all. In the morning, grab one sandwich, put in a regular lunch bag (no ice), and it will be completely thawed by noon, having stayed just cold enough long enough for the meat, cheese and mayo to stay cool.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I posted a few here https://macgyverrevolution.neocities.org/ but other than that, I like to dry clothes on the line on their hangers. I’m always running out of clothespins for some reason, and keeping clothes on their hangers is a pretty good alternative unless the wind is really acting up.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I slice my butter thin, and as soon as the toast pops up I sandwich the butter between the pieces of toast. It melts quickly and spreads on both slices at the same time.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.For hiccups, try sucking on a piece of hard candy but hold it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue. I usually always have a peppermint in my purse, so this method is great when you are on the go.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve always found that a spoonful of mustard usually does the trick for my hiccups. Just be careful not to inhale just as you’re putting the spoon in your mouth.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I thought you shouldn’t freeze mayo.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I wouldn’t freeze a whole jar, but freezing enough for a sandwich is just fine :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have found that a teaspoon of sugar makes my really bad hiccups go away. I have tried the breathing exercises listed for minor bouts.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Nobody believes this till they try it To stop hiccups drink a tablespoon of vinegar and it is gone immediately. Don’t know why but it works always! Great blog, love the ideas and I love trying them. Regards from Germany. Lizette
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Interesting!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Never knew why some of the coffee cup leaked. I probably got it on right sometimes but that should help going forward. I love my toast hot so I usually warm up a towel in the microwave and wrap the knife up until the toast is cooked, easy peasy. Years ago, I hard 3 eye surgeries so I am very light sensitive in the one eye so like you, it is kept closed and I also cup my hand over it to keep any light out. Works like a charm or use night lights for “dim” but some light at night. Thanks for the coffee cup tip. I live reading your blogs.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks Mary – enjoy!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My husband cured my hiccups once by lying to me! He said that his brother Chuckie had said he was mad at me about (something I don’t remember, because it was years ago) and wasn’t coming to our house anymore! I was very upset! I asked him what I’d done to make Chuckie so mad. He said, “Nothing! But your hiccups are gone!”
Please log in or create a free account to comment.How funny!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I would use containers and greaseproof paper between layers when storing my food in freezer.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’m now getting older & my knee is shot. I use cookie sheets in my canned goods cabinet. Top & bottom shelves. Slide them out some & you can see & grab cans without too much trouble. Under the sink, in bathroom vanity, or plastic shoe boxes work too. Dollar stores!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.What a clever idea!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I use collapsible plastic boxes, then you can stack more layers.
We use a spoonful of peanut butter. :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve always hated the term ‘hacks’. We used to call them tips! Cheat codes is far better!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I used to get them all the time and none of the remedies seemed to work, or took a long time. A friend turned me on to the best hiccup cure ever. No eating, drinking, holding breath etc. Just put your finger under your nose (like you might do to stop a sneeze) and push up. Presto, almost instantly, no hiccups
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I take small frozen meals to eat at work. But only get 2 short breaks to eat (in a 10 hour shift) and don’t want to wait half of them for food to heat up. So I just put the frozen meal in my lunch bag along with whatever else I’m taking. The frozen meal keeps everything cool in the bag and by the time break rolls around it’s partially thawed and doesn’t need as long to heat up!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.A small spoonful of sugar stops hiccups almost as soon as you swallow it. It’s thought that it stimulates the vagus nerve that connects the stomach & the brain to stop the diaphragm from spasming.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This always works for me! Someone said the “grainy” texture was the trick.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love these. I enjoy your email every morning. I love that it’s one good thing. I never miss it because I know I will learn one good thing a day. You are awesome!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thank you Lisa!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I just want to say… Thank you! I have read several writers with tips, blogs, videos, you name it. And there is inevitably at least one typo in them all. But your’s are right on! No typos, easy to read, great info, and if I can’t use it all, I almost always find at least one thing to try. Keep doing what you are doing. I believe you have found your God Given Niche!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks Jenny! I try my best :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I too enjoy reading the tips. they are so helpful! and they make my day.
One of my main jobs for over 30 years included proofreading all correspondence before it was sent. I don’t want to be critical, but I can’t help disagreeing with your “no typos” statement. I find quite a few typos, words left out, or wrong words used when I read Jillee’s blogs. I’ve wanted to ask her if she has a proofreader. I agree that she is a good writer, just needs to be a bit more careful!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My husband discovered that an antacid (tums, rolaids) also cures hiccups. Also, a shot of pickle juice can help with muscle cramps and spasms.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Nice tips. I have a couple also also.
A fresh lemon or lime will stop hiccups every time. Just cut it half and drink some of the juice.
To keep your bed warm when you get up in the middle of the night, pull your blankets up over your spot. It holds your body heat in. When you crawl back in bed, your spot is still warm.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Personally, I just tell my kitty that I’ll be right back, and she crawls over and curls up in it. When I return, she (usually) moves and curls up next to me again. Nice and warm for both of us! *G*
Please log in or create a free account to comment.if your cat likes coconut oil (solid form), it works wonderful for hairballs and gives him a beautiful, soft coat……………….I just scoop out about a 1/2 tsp. on my finger and he licks it off. If he doesn’t get it all, I smear it into the side of his mouth……………
When I’m working I always get my lunch, clothes and makeup ready the night before. I use my desk for my makeup space. I also have a light up mirror and little desk lamp behind the mirror. I always need good lighting .Does that cup trick work for other cups. I recently bought a fancy Contigo cup and it sometimes leaks a little when I’m trying to take a quick drink l
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I also microwave my food the night before . I only have a short break time. I just heat it about 1 minute when I’m on break . This is a huge time saver for me.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.You are such a blessing, Jillee. I so enjoy reading your columns and learning so many things!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks Bev! ❤️
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love that you have a cheat code for high fives! So cute.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love the hiccup one. I swear by that one and no one believes how well it works.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This is kind of a funny “cheat”. When I take a car trip I pack a beverage, snack cooler. Soft sided and goes right in the back floor. The one I have has a couple pockets on the sides. I use refreeze packs and a soft drink carton. You know the ones that hold six drinks? ( Mine will hold two). Holds cans, sodas, juices, individual milks all upright and within reach. On a plane, cooler and drink carton folds flat, ready to be filled when you land and take that car trip. If have to use ice, cartons have a coating that holds up for a period of time….just toss when yucky. Thanks Jillee for the awesome tips! I look for your email every morning, starts my day.
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