The "Tips That May Help You!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Asking my wife if she remembered the time I painted all my school keys different colors.  When I taught school I had keys for just about everything.  I was the athletic manager for a few years so I needed a key to the locker room and one to the metal cage where I washed all the uniforms.  I had to have a key to get into my classroom as well as keys to the other classrooms for the Industrial Arts Department.  Since I did the in-house printing I needed another key to get in the school on weekends and holidays.  Keys to garage doors and side doors were also needed.  Since they all looked the same, I painted the top of each key a different color.....and painted the matching lock with the same color paint.  My classroom key had red paint on it and the small center of the doorknob that you put the key into matched my key.  Went well until the next faculty meeting when the principal asked the person who painted all the doorknobs with different color paint  to remove it.  I wasn't real popular for a few weeks when he found out it was me.  Well, I recently read that what I did is a great way to remember which key went with which door lock.  Jeez, I could have written about that a long time ago.  There were quite a few really neat ideas that were part of the article I found and I thought I would share some of the best ideas with you in case you may want to try them.  (1)  Naturally the key/lock painting idea is my favorite. 

Make wine ice cubes for cooking or even chilling your wine.

A few ideas that will help those of you who love wine are: Chill wine with frozen grapes so you won't dilute the flavor of the wine with ice cubes and if you cook with wine, make wine ice cubes and when needed, defrost them and pop them in your recipe. 

Pretty neat way to make your charger
cords last longer.

(2) We all have cords for our phones and computers, chargers for just about everything and anything from Kindle chargers, etc.  If you take the spring off a pen refill and wrap it around the cords it will protect the ends and keep them from fraying.  (3) If you play the piano or even an organ, how do you clean the keyboard?  Do you wipe them with a dust cloth.  That may push the dust and dirt between the keys and cause problems for the future.  Take a Post-It Note and use the sticky part of it to remove the bits of food or pieces of grime.  (4) Do you ever need to slice through dough?  If you make pastries or maybe certain cookies you may create a roll and then cut it with a knife.  Try using dental floss instead, since it will help slice the dough without having to push a knife through it. (5)

Punch holes in the protective cover and shake it out.

When you buy some cooking oils or dressings they come with a thin aluminum covering over the top of the bottle.  That is placed there so you know that no one has opened the bottle and placed something in it before you purchased it.  Leave the foil in place and punch small holes in it and you can shake the oil or dressing through the holes.  Works with mineral oil, rubbing oil, etc.  (6)

Great place to keep snacks and treats.

If your family drinks coffee and buys coffee creamer, use the empty creamer bottle to hold snacks such as cheerios, trail mix, etc.  Good for the car or boat and you don't have to worry about spilling the snacks.  (7) I saw that you can take the metal tab from a soda can, or something similar, and place it over the hook on a clothes hanger.  That will give you two places to hang something if your closet space is slim. 

Use the soda can tab to hold an extra hanger.

(8) My next favorite trick, after painting the keys, is to put a large rubber band around your paint can while painting and it will allow you to take excess paint from the brush before you use it.  Beats running your brush along the lip of the can to remove excess and having the paint get in the groove.  I'm sure you put the top back on and used a hammer to seal it and splashed excess paint all over the place.  There are more ideas I have found, but I think you might get bored if I try to write more.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

A favorite of mine is using a rubber band to scrape excess paint from my brush.  Keeps the lip of the can clean.