Everyday Things With Hidden Features You Never Knew About

Ashley - May 11, 2023

Photo: doyouremember.com

Since the internet took off, people have been sharing their best life hacks, tips, and tricks. It’s great to learn about ways you can make your life easier, and it’s especially helpful when it relates to things you use every single day! Life is full of tiny details that get overlooked, and there are tons of common, everyday items with hidden features that most people have never noticed. You’ll make your life so much easier by learning about these features and changing how you use these common items. Get ready to take notes and share these life-changing tips with your friends because they will seriously blow your mind!

Microwave Your Food The Right Way

Microwaves are an awesome piece of technology that allow us to skip the cooking some nights and get straight to the good part- eating! However, it’s not always as simple as it should be. Half the time, your dish comes out too hot in the middle and ice cold on the edges. There’s a simple way to prevent this from happening, and you’ll be amazed once you try this trick. All you need to do is dig a little hole in the middle of your dish with a fork or spoon. This will help evenly distribute the temperature throughout your meal. No more burning your mouth on one bite and freezing your taste buds on the next!

NEXT >>

Turn An Orange Into A Roll-Out Snack

How often have you spent ages peeling an orange and dealing with a stringy, citrusy mess? No one wants to put that much effort into a snack that’s only going to take two seconds to devour! We have a much easier way to prepare your orange that will leave you with zero mess and 100% deliciousness. This trick just takes a couple of seconds to do. Cut off the top and bottom of the orange, and then make a cut on its side. You’ll then be able to easily roll out a line of perfectly portioned orange slices for your dining pleasure. This is also a great way to get your kids interested in trying a fresh orange! If it looks cool, they’ll probably eat it.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

The Secret Of French’s Mustard

Here’s another hidden feature that will change your meal prep once you learn about it. Picture this: you’re adding mustard to your sandwich, making a cute design on the bread, when all of a sudden, the tip of the mustard bottle dips into your artwork and completely ruins it! Now you’ve got a big mess to clean up, and your perfectly distributed mustard is destroyed. French Mustard bottles have a solution for you! Look on the back of the cap until you spot the little nub, as indicated in the picture. When you pull back the cap, keep pulling back until it clicks into place on the nub. This will prevent the top from dragging across your mustard swirls and messing up your sandwich.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Leave The Plastic Discs Alone

Have you ever taken a good look at the caps on your bottles of water or soda? Each cap has a tiny plastic or rubber disk in it. You might think this little disc is just a waste of plastic, but there’s actually a very important reason it exists. These little discs help create a tight seal when you close the bottle, which helps prevent the drink from leaking or becoming flat. Without these little discs, you wouldn’t be able to carry the bottles around without creating a huge mess!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Makeup Doesn’t Last Forever

If you’re anything like most makeup wearers, then you probably have a couple of drawers or storage bins full of makeup in your home. New makeup gets tossed in with the old makeup, and sometimes you reach in and pull out a bottle of foundation from two years ago! Makeup is expensive, and as long as the consistency and color look good, most of us will try to keep using it. However, makeup does have an expiration date, and it’s written in code on the back of your makeup bottles. Turn over any bottle of foundation or pallet of eyeshadow, and you’ll find a little image with a number on it like the one in this picture. It tells you how many months your makeup will last after you open it! Pro tip: Use a sharpie to mark the date your makeup expires on a piece of paper or sticky note and tape it to your bottles and pallets.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Let Your Blender Wash Itself

Blenders are so much fun to use for making breakfast smoothies or protein shakes throughout the day, but these things get extraordinarily messy! It’s such a process to disassemble all the parts, and no matter how hard you try, it’s easy for old ingredients to get stuck under the blades or in other crevices. Save yourself the time and hassle, and let your blender do the work! All you need to do is throw a cup of water into the blender, add a splash of dish soap, and start blending. All the parts will get nice and clean; all you need to do is rinse it out and let it dry.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Don’t Ruin Your Nails Opening Cans

Whether you love getting long acrylic nails done or you struggle with fragile nails, you need an alternate way to open cans of soda. Thankfully, there’s a super easy way to pop the tab on these cans using a tool you likely have lying in your kitchen drawer. Take a basic bottle opener, like the one shown in the picture, and slide the flat part underneath the tab. Then, just apply a little pressure and the tab will pop with ease. You can even keep a simple bottle opener like this on your keychain, so you can easily open soda cans wherever you go.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Make Perfect Cuts On Your Cinnamon Rolls

Homemade cinnamon rolls are the perfect breakfast treat, and it’s way cheaper to make them yourself than buy pre-made ones from the store. However, these delicious treats aren’t the most stable, and you risk having flattened or oddly shaped pieces when you try to cut slices with a knife. Rather than ruining your masterpiece with a heavy, awkward knife, try this awesome trick instead! Take a length of simple dental floss and slide it under the cinnamon roll. Then, pull the ends of the dental floss across each other and pull tight until the floss slices through the cinnamon roll. You’ll have perfectly round and even cinnamon rolls when you use this hack!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Protect Yourself From Germs

Did you know there’s a proper way to lay out these toilet seat covers? Most public restrooms have these, but very few people use them correctly. That flap in the middle is meant to hang down to protect you from any germs or yuckiness on the outside of the toilet. When you’re finished, just flip the flap back up toward the toilet so it flushes down easily. You may be wondering how necessary it is to use these, but most public restrooms are only cleaned once an hour. If fifteen people visit the bathroom in that time and don’t use a toilet seat cover… well, that’s a lot of germs!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Most Staplers Have Two Settings

If you’re like most people, you probably never realized that your staplers have had two settings all these years! The little metal plate sitting on the bottom of your stapler can be rotated to provide a different outcome. The default setting is the one most people are familiar with. Using this setting, your stapler will fold the staples down tightly against the paper to give it a secure hold. However, if you rotate the metal plate, then the staples will be given a more outward bend, which makes it easier to remove them later. This is great for those who frequently go through their paperwork and remove pieces that are no longer needed and don’t want to rip the pages.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Load Your Dishwasher The Right Way

Dishwashers have been a life-saving invention for many of us. Handwashing dishes takes forever, and it’s one of those chores that most people are desperate to avoid. However, there’s an art to loading your dishwasher that will make it run more smoothly and efficiently. Your most heavily soiled dishes should go on the bottom rack in the very center. This will place them directly above the spraying arm, where the strongest cleaning power is. You also want to avoid placing dishes in a way that will block the detergent dispenser because that can cause your soap to distribute unevenly. Learning the art of loading your dishwasher will ensure you spend less time worrying about re-washing a dish, and more time avoiding other chores around the home.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

It Feels Awkward, But It Works

It’s early in the morning, and the coffee you’ve been dreaming about is finally sitting in your favorite mug, ready to be enjoyed. All you need is to add a splash of milk. You go to pour some out from the carton and splash! Now you have a mess to clean up before you can even enjoy your coffee. Sound familiar? It happens to all of us, but pouring milk from a carton doesn’t have to end in a mess. This trick will feel really awkward at first, but you’ll get used to it after a while. Pour the milk from the opposite end of the carton. You’ll have better control over the flow of the milk, and you’ll be far less likely to spend time cleaning up spills afterward.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

The Secret Of Utility Knives

Unless you’re a professional builder or hobbyist who uses these little tools frequently, you’ve probably never inspected a utility knife all that closely. These knives are super handy to have around and can be used for many projects around the home, but unless you know about this hidden feature, you won’t get a full life out of these knives. Do you see the evenly spaced perforation marks down the blade? Those marks are there for a reason! When the tip of the blade becomes dull, you simply snap it off along the perforation to give yourself a sharp-as-new blade to work with! This trick will expand the lifetime of your utility knives by years.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Only Use A Pea-Sized Amount Of Toothpaste

We all know advertisements give us false expectations, which also applies to toothpaste ads. You’ve probably seen ads where people put a generous dollop of toothpaste on their brushes, but this isn’t necessary. These ads use extra toothpaste for aesthetic reasons and to encourage people to use more of their product. Dentists recommend using a pea-sized amount only. Children should use even less when they start using fluoride-based toothpaste. For young children, only use a tiny amount of fluoride toothpaste- about the size of a couple of grains of rice.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Always Choose Wooden Hangers

Hanging clothes is a good way to keep them free of wrinkles and make sure they’re easy to grab when you’re getting ready in the morning. Lots of people use wire or plastic hangers these days, but if that’s what your closet is full of, then you need to go out and buy yourself some wooden hangers! The wood used for these hangers is specifically chosen to repel moths and other insects that eat holes in the fabric. Along with keeping your clothes free of wrinkles and ready to go, wooden hangers protect your clothes while they hang out in your closet!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

This Lollipop Feature Is A Life-Saver

Have you ever noticed these little hollow holes on the ends of lollipop sticks? While most of us used it as a fun whistle when we were done with our treats as a kid, there’s actually an important reason these holes exist. Kids don’t have much impulse control, and they often swallow things they aren’t supposed to. This hole is designed to keep children from choking if they swallow the lollipop stick. It also has a structural purpose. The hole is filled with sugar before attaching the lollipop head, which helps the head stick and keeps it in place!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Never Pull Up To The Wrong Side Of A Gas Pump Again

No one considers running to the gas station a fun chore, but it’s a necessary one. Have you experienced that awkward moment when you get out of the car and realize your gas tank is on the other side? Then you have to shuffle back into your car and pull around to the other side of the pump. Well, you won’t have to worry about that again when you know about this hidden feature! There’s a little arrow next to every gas icon in every vehicle that points in the direction of your gas gauge. The next time you borrow a car or rent a vehicle, look for that arrow before you pull up to a pump.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

These Black Dots Actually Serve A Purpose

Have you ever noticed these little black dots on the windshield of your car? Some cars even have them on the windows as well, but very few people know what the point of these dots is. Many people assume they exist for aesthetic reasons, and some have even theorized they have something to do with radio signals, but that’s not the case. These dots are called frits, and they serve two important purposes. First, they provide an etched surface for the glue or adhesive to stick to that bonds the glass and frame. Secondly, they work to disperse heat more evenly across your windshield and windows, which helps prevent cracks and protects the adhesive from UV rays.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Keep Your Hair In Place With Bobby Pins

Bobby pins are great for keeping your hair in place while trying out a cool new ‘do, but you’ve probably been using them wrong your entire life! All bobby bins have two sides. One side has little waves, and the other side is completely flat. For whatever reason, everyone has grown up believing the flat side of the bobby pin should lie against their scalp, but that’s not right! You should be sliding the wavy part against your scalp because it provides far more grip and will help your hair stay in place for much longer. This is a necessity for people with long hair who like to do up-dos to know.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Hang Bags Of Groceries On Your Shopping Cart

When you’re shopping for a family or buying in bulk, it’s hard to fit all your groceries inside the cart without damaging delicate items like bread or eggs. Thankfully, most shopping carts have a built-in solution to this worry. There are little loops on the sides of most grocery carts that exist purely to give you additional space to hang groceries. This is the best spot to hang lightweight items and delicates that you don’t want to get crushed by the rest of your groceries.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

You’ve Been Using This Drawer Wrong All Along

The bottom drawer under the oven has been mystifying kitchen users for decades. Most of us assumed it was a little built-in storage spot for keeping extra baking sheets or frying pans, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. There’s an actual use for this drawer that will change your life once you know about it. When cooking a large meal, you can place the sides in this drawer to keep them warm until the main dish or the rest of the food is ready! You don’t have to frantically time the cooking of every dish to ensure everything is still warm when it hits the table. All you need is this nifty drawer!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

The Mysterious Fifth Pocket

Most people would agree jeans have four pockets; two are in the front and two in the back. However, plenty of jeans have a tiny additional fifth pocket on one of the front pockets. People have found a lot of creative uses for this pocket over the years, but its actual use might surprise you. This pocket was originally designed for laborers to carry around a pocket watch! Obviously, pocket watches haven’t been in style for a very long time, so it’s a good thing there are so many other items we can shove in that pocket. It’s the perfect spot for holding your lip balm, quarters, a few folded bills, or a few sticks of gum.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Your Potato Peeler Has More Uses Than You Think

Most of us have a potato peeler or two sitting in a drawer in our kitchen, but these nifty little devices are actually capable of a lot more than peeling potatoes! You can use your peeler to grate perfect slices of cheese or get paper-thin carrot slices to throw into your salad. They’ll also make super quick work of slices onions, which is ideal for those of us who succumb to tears every time we get near an onion with a knife! Also, once you get all the skin off your potatoes, use the peeler to cut off super thin potato slices. Use these slices to bake your own potato chips! They’ll be much healthier than the ones you buy at the store, and it’s a fun activity to do with friends and family.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Metal Rivets On Jeans Aren’t A Fashion Statement

Have you ever noticed these little metal rivets on your jeans and wondered why they exist? You may think they’re just part of the fashion of jeans, but these little rivets serve a pretty important purpose! Back when jeans were first invented, they were made popular by laborers and farmers who put their jeans under quite a bit of wear and tear. These rivets were strategically placed on the seams that were most likely to fall apart to give the jeans a longer lifespan. Nowadays, people mostly wear jeans that show off their best assets, but the rivets remain as a small nod to the past.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Your Sponge Is A Secret Bacteria Haven

This secret might skeeve you out a little, especially if you’re sensitive about germs, but it’s an important thing to know! Sponges become breeding grounds for bacteria when used frequently, leading to a risk of contamination when washing your dishes. Thankfully, there are a couple of ways to eliminate the bacteria building up on the sponge sitting in your sink. First, never use your sponge to clean raw meat. Always use a washable towel for this task because you can easily throw it in the wash after. Second, make sure you sanitize your sponge at least once a week by either placing it in boiling water for five minutes or microwaving it for one minute.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

The Reason For The Ridges

Have you ever wondered why the edges of quarters and dimes have ridges, but pennies are perfectly smooth? Those ridges don’t exist simply for the sake of aesthetics, and the reason behind them dates back to nearly a century ago. Back in the day, coin manufacturers made coins like the silver dollar out of one ounce of silver. People would shave the edges off the coin and hold onto the shavings to melt them down into a new coin eventually. Then, they would go out and use the shaved silver dollar for its full value, even though it wasn’t worth the full amount anymore. Coin makers put a halt to this practice by carving edges into the coins, so merchants could easily tell if a coin had been shaved. The practice continues to this day!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

The Hole In Soda Tabs Serves A Purpose

Who doesn’t love a nice, refreshing drink of soda on occasion? Soda is a flavored, sugary drink many enjoy across the world, but there’s a secret to these cans that you might not know about. The tab on top of the can has a pretty sizeable hole that many of us assumed was to give our fingers more purchase when trying to pop the tab, but it’s actually meant to hold a straw in place. All you need to do is pop the tab, spin it around, and place a straw in the hole. This makes it way easier to enjoy your soda, and you don’t have to deal with the yucky backwash that can end up on the rim of the can.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Different Plungers Have Different Uses

No one wants to be in a situation where they need to use a plunger, but when a scenario inevitably arises where you reach for one of these, it’s important to make sure you’re using the correct type! Most people have one of these two types of plungers. The shorter one on the right is called a cup plunger, while the one on the left is an accordion plunger. Cup plungers are best for unclogging sinks and drains, while the accordion plunger is what you should be reaching for when you have a clogged toilet. Also, plungers work really well for removing minor dents from car fenders and bumpers!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Don’t Throw This Extra Fabric Away

Lots of clothes come with these little baggies filled with extra buttons and scraps of fabric. Logically, most people assume these are meant to be used if you have to patch a hole in your clothes, but there’s another use for those extra scraps of fabric. They’re actually meant for you to test your cleaning products on (laundry detergent, fabric softener, etc.) to make sure they don’t stain or ruin the fabric! This is especially helpful when you buy a super expensive dress or suit set. Always test your products on that bit of cloth first!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

The Tab On Your Rear View Mirror Helps You See Better

Maybe this is obvious to some automotive-inclined people in the world, but it’s certainly not obvious to everyone. Have you ever noticed that little tab on the bottom of your vehicle’s rear-view mirror? It’s designed to help you see better in different conditions, and learning this will greatly improve your experience driving at night. Push the tab back when you’re driving at night, and it will angle the rear-view mirror to keep other car’s headlights and obnoxious high beams out of your eyes! Flip it forward again in the daytime to readjust it.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

The Holes In The Sides Of Your Converse Are For Comfort

Converse shoes have made a huge comeback in the last decade or so, and once more people started wearing this brand of shoes again, the questions started rolling in! What are these holes for? Are they a fashion statement? It turns out that these holes aren’t a fashion statement, and they aren’t there by accident. The holes in the side of Converse are designed to use with your shoelaces. Converse are made to fit any basketball player’s feet, so these holes change how you can lace your shoes to provide you with the perfect, comfortable fit.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

We’ve Been Peeling Bananas Wrong All Along

The art of peeling bananas has been passed down in families for generations. Most people have learned the same method for peeling- starting from the stem on the top. It turns out that we’ve been peeling our bananas wrong this entire time! You should be peeling them from the bottom, and there’s a genuine explanation for this. Peeling from the bottom reduces the stringy pieces that get stuck to the fruit when you peel from the top, and it also prevents you from squishing the fruit. Seriously, if you love bananas, you need to try this trick!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Paper Margins Existed Because Of Rats

Does anyone else remember transitioning from the notebooks we used in high school to “college-ruled” notebooks that came with much shorter margins? The margins aren’t there to indicate how much space you should be using for your note-taking or homework. They’re actually the result of a massive rat problem many moons ago. Margins were added to notebooks back when rats were a common pest in most people’s homes. Rats love to snack on paper, so wide margins gave people some protection for their work. Thankfully, most of us don’t have to worry about rats sneaking around late at night and eating our homework. Also, you probably shouldn’t use that as an excuse the next time you forget to do your homework!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Lock Your Aluminum Foil And Plastic Wrap Rolls In Place

When you’re ready to wrap your leftovers after a long evening of cooking, you just want the process to go smoothly. How many times have you had to deal with a roll of aluminum foil or plastic wrap trying to jump out of its box when you try to pull out a sheet? It happens to everyone who doesn’t know about this trick! On the sides of your aluminum foil and plastic wrap boxes are little tabs with perforated edges. Push in those tabs to lock your rolls securely in place. You’ll never fight with a roll of wrap or foil again!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

Paper Condiment Cups Are Meant For Easy Dipping

Most quick-service restaurants offer these little paper cups for customers to use for ketchup, mustard, and other condiments. These tiny paper cups don’t seem like they offer enough surface area to easily dip more than a single fry or chicken nugget at a time, which leads many of us who like to eat out to question why they still use these. It turns out that these paper cups are meant to fold down and expand, which gives you plenty of extra space for your dipping needs. Try this trick the next time you go out to eat. It’ll make a huge difference, and your guests will be impressed with your eating-out knowledge!

<< Previous

Must Read

We Don’t Know How People Used To Live In These Historic Homes

Monica Gray - February 10, 2024

Vintage Items Inside Of Your Parents’ Home That’s Worth A Fortune

Lindsey - December 14, 2023

Terrible Home & Life Habits That Are Harming The Wildlife Around You

Monica Gray - December 6, 2023