‘What’s one life hack you have that goes under the radar?’ – 19 tips that are low key super useful

Everything is a ‘life hack’ nowadays. They used to be known simply as ‘tips’ or ‘handy hints’, but as we seem unable to stop repackaging and commodify absolutely everything as a species, we have to give them an internet-friendly name instead.

And yet, however much you might roll your eyes about it, some of them are incredibly useful. Over on the AskUK subreddit, they’ve been discussing the ones that are brilliant but underutilised, after user BringBack5pFreddos posted this:

‘What’s one life hack you have that goes under the radar?

‘I’ll start: If you call a company and a robot greets you, just repeatedly say ‘agent’ to it and you’ll be transferred to a real person. This has saved me lots of time not going round in circles!’

It’s excellent advice, and plenty of other people had their own helpful little tricks to add.

1.

‘If you need to go to the toilet at night, and it’s dark, but you don’t want to put all the lights on… cover one eye while the bathroom light is on. The covered eye will stay in night mode, meaning you will still be able to find your way back to bed without putting more lights on.’
–dune__buggy

2.

‘I use the water my dehumidifier collects for my house plants.’
–ambergriswoldo

3.

‘Put your phone and computer into monochrome mode when you need to do (non-colour sensitive) productive things. You’ll find yourself less distracted by the ‘fun’ things on these devices when there isn’t bursts of colour assaulting you.’
–No_Imagination_sorry

4.

‘If you buy parmesan, don’t throw the last bit (we call it the crust in Italy). You can chuck in a soup to give flavour when making some.’
–IPoisonedThePizza

5.

‘Avoid any arguments about five minute cigarette breaks with non smoking colleagues by reminding them that each cigarette takes five minutes from your life so it all balances out in the end.’
–NarrowPhrase5999

6.

‘If you need a £1 coin for a shopping trolley at Tesco, those blue charity tokens are the same size and will work instead.’
–InviteAromatic6124

7.

‘Slice citrus fruit and cucumber, freeze on a baking tray in a single layer then keep in the freezer for G&Ts.’
–caroline0409

8.

‘Batch cooking especially when single. Cook up a huge amount of curry, bolognaise, chilli, and bag into single portions in the freezer. Coming home at the end of a day and having a meal ready to microwave is a life saver. Hugely economical too.’
–Practical-Purchase-9

9.

‘Once you make ice, take it out of the tray and put it in a different container then make more ice. Doesn’t have to stay in the ice cube tray.’
–FrankLebouefCurtains

10.

‘My older sister told me this about 15 years ago and I swear she was the first person in the world to come up with it. When you’re travelling, take just one international adaptor – and your own home extension lead. Mindblown.
–imheretofindfacts

11.

‘If I have a big pack of crisps, I push in the bottom so it can be free standing.’
–gamengiri420