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Nobody is born wise, so we shouldn't beat ourselves up too much whenever we're reminded of our shortcomings. However, sometimes your ignorance takes center stage and it becomes quite hard to ignore it.
Recently, Reddit user Slart_n made a post on the platform, asking others what everyday things they did wrong for years until they finally realized, and people immediately started sending in their answers.
Eventually, the thread turned into somewhat of a life hack archive and we at Bored Panda thought there's at least one useful lesson for everyone, so continue scrolling and happy learning!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Not making a joke when someone gives you a compliment. I have learned to say “thank you. That’s nice to hear”. Game changer for me.
RELATED:
#2
If you're trying to hang a picture by catching the crosswire on a nail in the wall, slide a fork down over the nail so the prongs are behind the nail head and the fork is angled away from the wall. Slide the wire down behind the fork, and it will be guided right onto the nail. Then just pull up the fork. Saves a dozen attempts to "catch" the nail on the wire.
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
Thank you, thank you, A million times thank you from this short frustrated person!
#3
Opening a beverage can.
I keep my fingernails very short and sometimes it would be a bit finicky to open the tab on a can.
I was damn near 40 years old when my buddy showed me you’re supposed to push down on the hinge portion of the tab with your thumb to raise the other edge of the tab so you can get your finger under it. I felt like an idiot.
#4
If you're a man, you don't need to pee standing up. This will save you a lot of cleaning.
#5
Not an everyday activity, but someone showed me I'd been wasting celery for years. When it goes limp and loses its crunch, you can just soak it in water overnight, and it makes it crisp again.
#6
Using a gift card to sign up for free trials.
#7
My aunt is a physical therapist, she said that if people did simply one teeny tiny change in the way they walk, older people would be in better health.
That oh so simple thing is just walking up steps by placing your whole foot on the step, and keeping your heel on the ground with each step. As opposed to having your heel hang off the step.
That’s it. Requires zero additional effort, just changes the way you walk up stairs. What it does is increase hamstring strength. You already have enough thigh strength from general walking. The amount of older people she sees every day with weak hamstrings is wild.
#8
If you’re mounting something to the wall that has pre-designed holes on the back, rather than measure between the holes and try to space the nails/screws accordingly, stretch a single piece of painters tape (blue tape) across the back of the piece from just before the beginning of the first hole to just after the last one. Mark each hole with a pencil/pen on the painters tape, then place the tape on the wall and voila, you have a perfect mounting template. I suggest you do a quick check with a laser level on the wall just to make sure your marks are level before drilling.
Ches Yamada 1 year ago
Or put a bit of toothpaste on the sections that need screws/nails, then press against the wall. Hammer/screw where the toothpaste shows up.
#9
Putting the bedding away. Fold the covers and the sheets and put them inside the matching pillowcase. Then they all neatly fit in the cupboard and you can easily find a complete set.
#10
I would always add oil or butter to my pan right away and wait for it to heat up. You're actually supposed to wait until the pan gets really hot and then add the oil. Doing that makes any pan non-stick.
Nadine Debard 1 year ago
Be careful with enamelled cast iron pans, it can damage them to be heaten without anything inside (Le Creuset instructions for use)
#11
I used to open a banana by pulling the top, then I saw some documentary with a monkey opening them from the bottom and it's 10 times easier.
I also learn that I'm more stupid than a monkey that day.
#12
Taking the safety cap off of deodorant.
I used to try to get my finger nails under it and pop it off. They were quite a pain in the a*s to get off. In my late 20s my roommate was talking to me while unpacking her groceries and she opened her deodorant and just twisted up the stick so that the cap came off. I was shocked
Ches Yamada 1 year ago (edited)
I have seen this before and am still baffled people did not know this.
#13
Emotional processing.
If I was sad, I'd let myself be sad for a tiny bit, and then brush it off... Saying "I don't have time for this", or " I'm stronger than this", or "crying does no good"
Then anger and frustration would build up until arguments over nothing would happen.
I was shown how to "make space" for those "negative" emotions, and just *feel* them until they quieted on their own.
Been doing that every time they show up, and the anger and frustration is gone. Most of the anxiety is gone too.
Did it with fears too, which is making a *huge* difference in relationships.
It's a good thing too; old me wouldn't be able to handle half the s**t that current me is shouldering.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
Yoda is the best here. "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering".
#14
you cut tomatoes with a serrated edged knife. It's just... so much easier. there is no squishing of the tomato.
#15
Putting onions in the refrigerator for a half hour/ hour before cutting makes it so you don’t cry from the fumes. Learned this working in a restaurant kitchen having to prep 100 lbs of onions every shift. Refrigerating them first was a necessity.
#16
Those tiny, obnoxious cans of tomato paste. You can take both ends off with the can opener, and use a wooden spoon to push on the top. It comes out clean like a push pop!
#17
Sliding your thumb on the spacebar of your phone will move the cursor.
#18
Cleaning the stupid microwave. I used to scrub it and hurt my back before I stumbled on a video about microwaving vinegar beforehand and it really works. I am disabled so all that time I could have cleaned it without hurting myself all those years.
Ches Yamada 1 year ago
Or you can also wipe it down after any use if you notice it's dirty. I hardly ever have to "scrub" mine, it's kept clean because I keep an eye on it.
#19
I just remember that one dude being told you could wait for the shower to warm up instead of having to stand in it cold as it warms up lmao.
#20
Boots first, then corset.
Genericist 1 year ago
Rejoinder: pee first, then corset. Else it's a pain in the a*s trying to get your skirt/underwear back in place underneath!
#21
If you know you are supposed to do something simple (take out the trash, clean your room, etc) but you just can't find the motivation, stop.
Decide what you want to get done (it has to be something you can do as a single action.)
Decide how you would feel if you had completed it (relieved, content, happy, etc)
Ask yourself how long you are willing to go without that feeling (a day, an hour, five minutes, etc)
Now you aren't dreading doing the thing, you are asking yourself why you are denying yourself the feeling you want to feel.
#22
Using electrical tape. Typically, I use this tape to wrap electrical connections like my security cameras or TV cable to weatherproof them. If I need to change out the connection in a couple of years, it results in a gooey mess after struggling to remove the tape. A pro showed me that you spiral wrap the tape over the connection sticky side out, reverse at the end and wrap sticky side down back over the first wrap. When you need to replace it you only have to cut away the ends and the remaining tape is a non-sticky tube that is easy and less sticky to remove.
Legoinsinööri 1 year ago
Or use proper connectors and vulcanic tape or even a small junction box to weatherproof it properly and won't have to change the tapes anymore.
#23
Add vinegar to the wash, and your clothes last longer before getting stinky. I suspect fungi / general microflora are involved.
LizzieBoredom 1 year ago
Replace clothes with lettuce and tomatoes, and once you retrieve your fork from behind the picture, you can have lunch.
#24
Rinsing my hair - I used to rinse with hot water and assume I just had frizzy and dry hair. Rinsed with cold water once and realized I'd lived far too long with frizzy hair for no reason.
#25
How to properly secure a towel around the waist after a shower. Instead of tucking the hem inwards, you fold it outwards and down, much more secure, you can like, run around and not worry about it falling off.
Sinclair13 1 year ago
Can someone please explain this to me I don't understand. Is the picture showing the wrong way to do it?
#26
Brushing my hair. No one taught me how to do it right because I always had short hair as a kid, and my mom somehow got the impression I knew to brush the ends first, and work up to the roots. Nope. I started at the top and would rip down. No wonder my hair was so bad. But then I saw Tangled AS AN ADULT and realized I had been brushing my hair wrong my entire life.
A Bi-Cycle 1 year ago (edited)
Wait, I'm confused. What's the proper way? Very curly frizzy shoulder length hair here. Edit: thank you everyone for your kind comments! Greatly appreciated :D
#27
When the soap bar gets to the last sliver, you can just stick it on to the new bar to use it up completely.
Dark Side of the Loom 1 year ago
I put that last sliver in one of those small mesh bags that you receive when you buy jewelry (Closed by little cords). When wet, it foams quite nicely when you rub it against your skin :)
#28
Long-pressing on a letter on your phone will show you various accents to choose from. Voilà!
Well-Dressed Wolf 1 year ago
Useful for getting around Bored Panda’s language filters so one can say shít, áss, and bütthole!
#29
You can take the silverware basket out of the dishwasher when unloading it. 💀
The Bearded Llama 1 year ago
The dishwasher we had when I was young had the silverware basket zip-tied in. 🤔
#30
Put on pillow covers. I used to shove the pillow in there and struggle with it until my wife showed me how to flip the pillow case inside out and cover the pillow while flipping right side out.
#32
My Nana was a very clever woman. She taught me more than any of those viral life hacks ever did. When she wanted to save the end of a roll of tape, she took one of those tabs from a bread bag and stuck it on the end. Just one of many small, but genius ideas.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
or you just fold a small part of the tape over at the end after each usage.
#33
Felt like an idiot for years I’d bite the shells of pistachios open.
A friend showed me I can just use a half shell to lever the others open 😅
Tammilee Truitt 1 year ago
*Warning* Shelling is no problem, however, recently I was eating the damn things while watching TV. I couldn't stop. I ate a lot of nuts. About 3 hrs later I woke up to the worst tummy and back ache. Felt exacting like I was in labor. Lasted a couple of hours. Beware the little demon nuts.
#34
Cut bell peppers. For years I did it in a messy way where it got seeds everywhere.
Then one day I decided that there was probably a better way so I watched YouTube.
What you do is you cut the top and bottom off first, pull the seeds out in one piece, then cut down the sides and unroll it like paper. Then you cut the unrolled piece into strips.
#35
Washing my hair. Had bad dandruff from high school into my 20s.
Turns out you don’t need to shampoo daily and less is more with conditioner.
Shaved my head for 10 years just so my scalp could heal.
Finally started going to a stylist and she explained it in a way I understood and now I have long luscious curls.
What do you think ?
The Queen Of Upper Butt Crack 1 year ago
When wearing a 1 piece bathing suit and need to pee just move the material to the side instead of taking the whole wet swimsuit down to your knees and worse, trying to get the wet bathing suit back up.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
wow apparently I've been doing stuff right most of my life. yay for me :)
Fembot 1 year ago
Since you’re asking me what I’m thinking, BP: - is this how we learn these days? Don’t people learn this stuff from parents or peers? Have we lost generational wisdom and skills? - it would be wonderful to pay as much attention to being nice, taking care of others, being useful in society etc than we do to the best way to peel garlic…
Dilly Millandry 1 year ago (edited)
Probably most of us learn the majority of these things from our parents but there are still a lot of people who don't have families with this kind of knowledge. Or they might have been brought up in care or with parents that don't care. Cultures can have different skills and wisdom too - eg I quite rightly trusted my Chinese friend to know better than my mother on how to cook rice! Most of us have better or easier access to huge amounts of information these days but there's an awful lot that gives conflicting advice.
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The Queen Of Upper Butt Crack 1 year ago
When wearing a 1 piece bathing suit and need to pee just move the material to the side instead of taking the whole wet swimsuit down to your knees and worse, trying to get the wet bathing suit back up.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
wow apparently I've been doing stuff right most of my life. yay for me :)
Fembot 1 year ago
Since you’re asking me what I’m thinking, BP: - is this how we learn these days? Don’t people learn this stuff from parents or peers? Have we lost generational wisdom and skills? - it would be wonderful to pay as much attention to being nice, taking care of others, being useful in society etc than we do to the best way to peel garlic…
Dilly Millandry 1 year ago (edited)
Probably most of us learn the majority of these things from our parents but there are still a lot of people who don't have families with this kind of knowledge. Or they might have been brought up in care or with parents that don't care. Cultures can have different skills and wisdom too - eg I quite rightly trusted my Chinese friend to know better than my mother on how to cook rice! Most of us have better or easier access to huge amounts of information these days but there's an awful lot that gives conflicting advice.
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