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!
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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.
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.
Thank you, thank you, A million times thank you from this short frustrated person!
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.
If you're a man, you don't need to pee standing up. This will save you a lot of cleaning.
I started sitting down long before mobiles and tablets. In my first flat the toilet was right beneath a sloping roof and it was absolutely impossible to stand in front of it. ;)
Same here. Went to a college that was until very recently a girl's school. No urinals in the bathrooms, no worries.
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I showed to my hubby the surrounding of the toilet with blacklight, since then he sits :)))
Well, I suppose it saves cleaning for those who *would* clean. A lot of them just leave the mess, judging by the state of basically every public bathroom I've ever been in.
I find it easier to empty my bladder standing up. Also, I clean my own toilet.
Maybe oversharing, but I can't empty my bladder fully if sat down. Kinda got stand if I want to do the job properly!
Best positions for bladder emptying isn't typically standing, though we do vary I know! https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/316706
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I (the mummy) was the main toilet trainer for my 3 sons, when they were little. They also saw me going tot he loo much more often than they saw my husband (“will you kids just give me a minute, please?!”), consequently they all default to “sitting down wees”. Now they’re at school, I keep wondering if I should encourage them to do more “standing up wees”, just for the sake of status quo and “fitting in”? I’m a bit of a free range parent so I figured they’d do it if they felt compelled. My husband doesn’t think it’s a big deal (and he went to an all boys school) AND the clean up is less, so….I dunno.
My son sits down to pee at home but stands at school. His reason why was more novelty or lack of patience than needing to fit in according to him. He's a 3rd grader (almost 9). I'm a divorced solo parent so I chose to teach him to sit down rather than deal with p**s on or around the toilet. Some dudes loose their mind and tell me I'm damaging his masculinity. Jokes on them since his dad has always sat down to pee.
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I agree. Mine sits and our toilet definitely smells worse if it's not done daily. Had five brothers and it never smelt this bad.
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I'm all for the comfort of it, but how will it save me a lot cleaning? I don't make a complete mess of standing up to p**s in the first place...... it's not like it's a tiny target and hard to to hit........ even with a mornin' hardon and bent nearly double.
However, I have lived with quite a few women........and i get how you don't have much directional aim.... so i've gone into the loo just after them and lifted the seat to have a wee to find p**s literally dripping off the underside of the seat. And they'd swear blind it's always the guy making a mess and not them. girls... maybe once in a while lift up the seat after you''ve' pissed
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I think it's just common sense. In a wood men are luckier, as peeing is easier for them. At home they can do whatever they prefer and whatever they are most comfortable doing, with the foresight of not doing a mess or at least enough respect to clean up if they do it. In my home my son (not talking about my husband because fortunately is an adult and he can take care of his own toilet habits and/or messes) can stand or sit to pee, but if I find a mess after he went to the bathroom, he has to clean up. His mess, his responsibility. (Edit: typo)
Also if you're a woman you don’t need to poop sitting down. But this will cost you a lot of cleaning & is totally disgusting.
the whole peeing standing up thing is a male dog dominance thing that alleged "alphas" can't let go of. In my household all the men/boys have to sit to pee. it's not a debate. I hate cleaning up splashes everywhere.
You can't put alpha in speech marks and then compare men to dogs at the same time. Is it BS or not?
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I prefer to clean my mess (if I make some) than to sit where other people sh*t and sprinkle tiny bits of feces onto my buttocks/balls/penis/legs, thank you very much. Nature gave me the privilege of choice on this one, and I'll use it gladly...
I don't care about the cleaning and I don't have to, because it's just so much more relaxing to sit down and let it all come out. Also, please flush with the lid down, unless you want a fine mist of pee and poop to spread all over your bathroom.
At some point when young I figured out the splashback and have rarely stood up since. Also, close the toilet lid before flushing if you don't want a face full of s$?t water!
When you get up in the middle of the night and it takes you 5 minutes to squeeze out a few drops you'd better be sitting down.
I work as a house cleaner, and I'm often grossed out by the mess that some single men make of their toilet area: dried up pee drops everywhere... I wonder, is it so hard to aim right or just do it sitting down? In family homes I rarely see such a mess, so apparently women don't let their SO's get away with this dirty habit... ;-) (I myself am a woman married to a woman, so I can't tell from my own experience.)
I agree! I only ever stand up at public toilets. Or behind my workshop. ;)
Ive done it for years. I sit the other way round, so during the night I dont have to pull the light on or wake up 100%. Dont rest your head on the cisten though as sometimes you fall back asleep (too many times) :)
I have tried this a couple of times and it just seemed weird to me. So used to standing up to pee.
I know a woman whose middle aged fire fighter and police officer sons still sit down to pee at her house.
Nope. I'm to masculine for that. Well endowed men don't fit that way.
I wish we'd stop teaching little boys that standing to pee is for real men. Every man I've ever known has insisted that their pee never splashes & looks at me like I'm crazy when I suggest they try sitting instead.
I always sit down to pee. How else am I going to use my phone while peeing?
I (male-ish) started peeing sitting down before age 16. It’s more polite, less messy by far, and it gives you time to read sitting down. What could be the problem with that??
You're taking a big risk of getting trapped between the toilet seat and the bowl... Especially for the first of the morning or middle of the night go at it! Very painful! Maybe "#Peentoo" will help raise awareness to the plight.
One of our cats convinced my husband to sit. She either swatted him on the butt startling him forward or tried to swat at the dangly things. He preferred not to pee on the cat or the floor, thankfully.
Absolutely not it's one of the very few perks of being a man being able to pee standing up
As a restaurant manager I've had to clean the men's room. They still miss the urinal.
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This sounds like it was written by a woman. Men don't have to, but it's more convenient.
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.
Using a gift card to sign up for free trials.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Be careful with enamelled cast iron pans, it can damage them to be heaten without anything inside (Le Creuset instructions for use)
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.
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
I have seen this before and am still baffled people did not know this.
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.
Yoda is the best here. "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering".
you cut tomatoes with a serrated edged knife. It's just... so much easier. there is no squishing of the tomato.
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.
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!
Sliding your thumb on the spacebar of your phone will move the cursor.
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.
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.
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.
Boots first, then corset.
Rejoinder: pee first, then corset. Else it's a pain in the a*s trying to get your skirt/underwear back in place underneath!
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.
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.
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.
Add vinegar to the wash, and your clothes last longer before getting stinky. I suspect fungi / general microflora are involved.
Replace clothes with lettuce and tomatoes, and once you retrieve your fork from behind the picture, you can have lunch.
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.
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.
Can someone please explain this to me I don't understand. Is the picture showing the wrong way to do it?
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.
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
When the soap bar gets to the last sliver, you can just stick it on to the new bar to use it up completely.
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 :)
Long-pressing on a letter on your phone will show you various accents to choose from. Voilà!
Useful for getting around Bored Panda’s language filters so one can say shít, áss, and bütthole!
You can take the silverware basket out of the dishwasher when unloading it. 💀
The dishwasher we had when I was young had the silverware basket zip-tied in. 🤔
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.
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.
or you just fold a small part of the tape over at the end after each usage.
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 😅
*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.
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.
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.
I suffered with this a lot. Dandruff has 3 causes, as I understand it. 1. surface fungal infection. Anti-dandruff shampoo can help with this. A further symptom is crusty buildup on the scalp, like dried plasma. That's a fungal dandruff. 2. psoriasis. Reducing shampoo usage and just rinsing with water helps. Also identifying allergens. 3. Dry scalp. This is normal. You can resolve again by reducing strong soap usage.
Note: this post originally had 89 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
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.
wow apparently I've been doing stuff right most of my life. yay for me :)
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…
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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This is just like a BuzzFeed article I just read with the exact same facts. Not sure who stole it from who but
There are an awful lot of snobby, condescending people up in those comment sections...
I'm 70 and only just now found out about the opening beverage cans tip. I drink a LOT of sparkling water, buy it in 12-oz. cans, and have struggled with opening them for years. I'm about to open one in a few minutes, so will use that tip!
Save money around the holidays by signing up for their mailing list and list your birthday as 11/20. Many send out freebies or coupons that can be stacked with other deals this time of year.
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.
wow apparently I've been doing stuff right most of my life. yay for me :)
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…
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.
Load More Replies... This is just like a BuzzFeed article I just read with the exact same facts. Not sure who stole it from who but
There are an awful lot of snobby, condescending people up in those comment sections...
I'm 70 and only just now found out about the opening beverage cans tip. I drink a LOT of sparkling water, buy it in 12-oz. cans, and have struggled with opening them for years. I'm about to open one in a few minutes, so will use that tip!
Save money around the holidays by signing up for their mailing list and list your birthday as 11/20. Many send out freebies or coupons that can be stacked with other deals this time of year.
