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People Realized That It Was Just Their Weird Family Who Knew These 40 Household “Hacks”
Every family has its own traditions, routines, and little quirks that emerge out of their unique personalities and circumstances. A particular way of doing things can become second nature and feel totally normal when you’re just growing up and haven’t had the chance to see an alternative. But sooner or later, you go to your friend’s house and learn that tapas aren't a plate of leftovers from the meals you've had that week.
So, Reddit user Kaiablu decided to ask everyone on the platform to share their special household habits — the ones they thought were universal until they compared notes with the rest of the world. The responses ranged from charmingly practical to hilariously strange, proving that no two homes are exactly alike.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I had a lot of siblings and my mom would bring us to the library after school for a few hours to do homework, read, play under their big oak tree outside. I even learned how to crochet at the library from a sweet older librarian. I would check out books on knitting and crocheting too. Anyway, I thought it was pretty normal. I asked my mom about it recently and she said that we only had 1 car and my dad worked within walking distance from the library, but didn't always get off work at the same time - so the library would give us a safe, air conditioned, clean, enriching place to wait until he was done. I think back and I remember we'd always pick Dad up on the way home from the library (or sometimes he'd show up there and surprise us). What a great set of parents we had.
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#2
This may be common for some families but when I mentioned it to friends in highschool they were all surprised.
My grandmother sent each grand kid a card for every holiday and in the minor holidays she’d always have a $10 to $20 bill in it. I remember mentioning I’d gotten my Valentine’s Day money from my gram and my friends were all confused, I guess their grandparents only gifts on Christmas and birthdays.
Once we got older and she had great grandkids she started sending them cards for all the holidays. My cousin lived in my grams basement apartment and my grandmother still sent the card in the mail so her great grandson could be excited he got some mail.
My grandmother was the absolute best and I miss her every day ❤️.
While these anecdotes are certainly interesting, if you want to take a more quantitative look at people's habits at home, there's a survey of 500 Americans that reveals quite a lot:
- Dishes in the sink: 44% of respondents said it's acceptable to leave dishes in the sink for "a few hours," although 30% thought they should be taken care of instantly, and 21% were willing to let it go for a day or two;
- Forks in the dishwasher: Simple, points up or points down? 60% of people said points up. Maybe to ensure that they get cleaned properly?
- Pants at home: The majority of people (59%) wear either sweatpants or yoga pants while hanging out at home. 16% of the more formal respondents wear jeans, and 5% prefer no pants at all.
#3
My older brother rigged up a pulley/counterweight system and lower handle to the sliding screen back door (so that the dog could open it and let herself out/in and it would automatically close behind her).
It was so well-done that I honestly thought he had bought an add-on/kit (like *made for that door*). But I later realized no one else had one at their house.
Turns out bro just made it out of s**t we already had in ~~Dad's shop~~ the *junk drawer*.
#4
TL;DR: My parents took 40% of my paycheck as “home tax” while I lived with them, secretly invested it, and later gave it all back with profits to teach me how to save.
I don’t know if this counts as a “household hack,” but my parents charged me and my siblings a 40% “home tax” on every paycheck we earned while living at home.
I started gardening at 13 years old (through a summer municipal program), and they explained to me the cost of living, etc. They said this was just something they did to get by.
I moved out for three years and then moved back in to save up for my own place. The same rules still applied, but now the 40% was quite a significant amount.
When I made a bid for my apartment, my parents came to me with a piece of paper from the bank showing a pretty substantial amount of money, probably around two to three years’ worth of salary, and told me it was mine.
They had never spent any of the money I paid them; instead, they invested my “home tax” into funds that had done quite well.
They basically taught me how to save by “taxing” me. They did the same for each of my siblings, but made the older ones swear not to tell the younger ones because they believed it would ruin the learning opportunity.
#5
We'd have "tapas" night every Friday.
The tapas were all the leftovers that had accumalated during the week. .
Finally, when it comes to the most personal:
- Washing hair: 42% of people said they wash daily, 33% aim to shampoo every other day, and the other 25% wash even less frequently.
- Q-tips: If you wondered how many use them, 79% said that they swab their ears regularly. (However! Healthcare professionals recommend against it! Better to use soap and water instead.)
- Lying to the doctor (or dentist): 39% of people admitted to misrepresenting their flossing habits on their trips to the dentist. Eating habits (25%) and exercise (27%) are the next biggest lies, and 17% also bend the truth about their sleeping. Lies about alcohol consumption (12%), sexual activity (10%), and drug abuse (9%) were lower but still noteworthy.
#6
Growing up lower income we would place a 5 gallon bucket in the shower to catch the water until it began to warm up then you take your shower over the bucket. You shut the water off while you soap up and then turn it back on to rinse. We then use the water from the bucket to pour in the toilet instead of flushing the toilet. When friends come over they'd ask, what's up with the bucket and I'm like doesn't everyone use a bucket ?
Also Ziploc bags are not single use, you clean and reuse them just like plastic dishes. Plastic grocery bags are reused as trash can liners, why do they even sell trash can liners ? (per dad).
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 3 months ago
That's Level 4 water restrictions in Australia. Have done it many times :)
#8
Whenever I have something I NEED to take with me to work or wherever I’m planning to go, I put it in a plastic grocery bag and hang it from the doorknob so I will have to physically touch it to leave the house. It’s still possible to forget, but I forget less often this way than simply setting it on the counter.
#9
I have a 4inch semi-rigid dryer hose tube that I tied to the banister going to my basement. At the bottom of the stairs is a garbage can with a plastic bag for recyclable cans/bottles.
Instead of having to go downstairs everytime I have an empty can/bottle, I just send them down the chute.
here's a video of it
#10
In the winter, my dad would tie plastic sandwich bags over our feet before we put our boots on. This kept our feet dry when we inevitably got snow jammed down our boots while playing.
I recounted this to my husband once, and he was very confused. Apparently, it was just a thing my dad did. It was smart, though! We never had freezing wet feet. I plan to do the same with my kid.
StrangeOne 3 months ago
My mom tried this a number of ways with me. Including socks, bags, socks, boot liner and boots. Or Sock, sock, bag, liner, boot. Then sock, liner, bag, boot. The bag caused moisture to be trapped and not enough air circulation, causing my feet to get sweaty, which adds risk to frost bite. My feet feel warmer in my runners during winter than Sorrel boots, and easier to walk and feel the ground.
#11
My mom wrote the date on the lids of things she opened (tomato sauce, etc) so she would know when it had to get tossed. I do it, too.
#12
We use a cutter knife and cut a lotion or sunscreen plastic bottle in half to get every bit out. It’s expensive & there’s a lot left in there🙋🏻♀️😉.
#13
Folding empty disposable plastic grocery bags in a particular way. Did so automatically when at a friend's house for the first time before handing one to her and she was floored. Demanded I teach her, and we then spent 10 minutes folding all her saved plastic bags. I was glad to be able to pass on a (semi?)useful skill for reducing the space they took up.
#15
This is kind of a dated one. We had a record player with a lid that was fully detached (not on hinges). To solve the problem of then having to set this big lid down somewhere while playing records, my parents rigged up a brass pulley hanging from the ceiling, with a counterweight on the cord and a little bent tube that provided just enough friction so that you could lift the lid and would remain hanging wherever you left it. It’s rather ingenious in a Wallace and Gromit kind of way, but I thought this was just standard record player installation. I only found out differently when we studied simple machines in third grade and I had a homework assignment to draw simple machines I found around the house. I drew this thing for “pulley” and completely baffled my teacher!
Edit: Here's a picture I drew of it. Edit to the edit: this is a new drawing, not my decades-old homework, which is long gone. .
#16
Corn on the cob butter.
Growing up, we had a separate butter dish (usually just a small plate) that we used to butter corn by playing the cob directly on the stick of butter and spin it slowly. This is the best way to get complete and even butter coverage. I thought this was a normal thing until my husband was gobsmacked the first he saw us do it. He has since accepted the genius of our approach and we have taught our kids too (though we have had to tell not to do it at their friends’ houses).
Saltypepper 3 months ago
That's how everyone did it I thought everyone I know did does it that way
#17
Not sure if it counts as a hack but washing out soap/shampoo bottles.
Turns out most people just toss them when they start spurting rather than dispensing soap, we would add a little water and shake it up to get a bit more out.
#18
Poop Journal. Growing up, there was a spiral notebook on top of the toilet lid called The Poop Journal. If you went in the bathroom for any reason you could write in the journal, then put the notebook back for the next person to read. No telling what you'd find written in there or from whom. Everyone in the family, friends coming over to play, even our parents, wrote in it. It might be a joke, a silly comment, even asking what's for dinner?
As kids, it was funny. But now, 30 years and 8 notebooks later, they're hysterical.
.
#19
My grandfather had a workshop in his garage that was like a Rube-Goldberg machine that was actually useful. Need a shop-vac? There was a rope you could pull and the shop vac would drop out of the A-frame roof on a pulley. There were cabinet doors that opened from the top rather than to the left or right with pop-out rods that had all the different tapes he had stacked on them or a pop out wire frame trash bag holder that you folded the top of the bag over and had just the right tension to keep it in place and open until you wanted to change it out and it just lifted off when you pushed on the spring load for the wire to release the tension. There was also a huge overhead bell shaped industrial gas burning heater that he took from his company when it shut down that just tucked into the space between the rafters that could heat the whole garage to T-shirt temperature even in sub-zero weather. The guy had everything rigged up to be able to have what he wanted in front of him with the slightest effort. When I was little I thought every mechanic/engineer built their workshops this way, but he was just a mechanical genius that had an idea to make everything easier. Everyone joked that when we eventually had to sell the house that the dad moving in would cry tears of joy when he discovered the workshop.
Crystalwitch60 3 months ago
The if it ain’t in there you don’t need it ,I so need one of these lol ,
#20
Use a turkey baster to remove grease from a pan when cooking ground beef. My mom did it growing up so I thought it was normal. My wife thought it was witchcraft the first time she saw me do it. She immediately called her mom and sister to tell them to do it.
#21
I saw on Reddit a guy all pissed off because his wife would sprinkle baking soda on the carpet before she vacuumed. I thought the idea was pretty smart to remove odors.
#22
When ice cream used to come in the cardboard rectangle, my granny would slice it like cake, and peel the cardboard off of it after putting it on the serving plate. She would put saran wrap with a rubber band on the unused block.
I was always confused watching my friends painfully scooping it out.
#23
Asian millennial here, Growing up made to believe dishwasher is just a drying rack & storage for hand washed dishes/ kitchenwares.
Beef Brisket 3 months ago
It actually takes less energy to run a dishwasher than to wash dishes by hand. Use your dishwasher and do yourself and the environment a favor.
#24
We used empty butter tubs as Tupperware. I learned the hard way when I tried to make toast with leftover spaghetti sauce.
#25
My mom is a Type-1 diabetic, so we always had alcohol pads around the house. Besides using them for their intended use, she’d also use them for cleaning something sticky or for getting permanent marker off of things. I naturally did the same thing. My freshman year roommate was also a diabetic, so she did the same thing. It wasn’t until I lived with a non diabetic for the first time that I realized not everyone had a box of alcohol pads at their home that they used for random spot cleaning. I still keep a box at home!
Lady Eowyn 3 months ago
I'm not diabetic but always have alcohol pads around for first aid and cleaning use.
#26
Chopsticks for everything as when you become good at them they are finger extensions. Awesome for turning bacon!
#27
My family all shared towels until I loudly mentioned I didn't like the idea of drying my face on the same towel someone else dried their a*s. Suddenly, we were assigned towels.
#28
My mom always cut bacon packages in half and then put them in sandwich bags in the freezer. the night before she’d toss one in the fridge to thaw and then we would eat the half package and it was always enough bacon for the family.
When I was in grad school, I did the same thing and my roommate looked at me like I was insane. I didn’t realize the half pieces of bacon were unusual.
Shark Lady 3 months ago
Any fresh meat I buy gets split into portions and into the freezer. Meat is expensive, especially when you buy it in smaller packs.
#29
For pancakes, I get the stack and butter them. Then cut a + in the middle. Then let syrup seep into the + and saturate through the cake stack in the middle.
I got tired of pouring over the top and having dry pancakes except the top one.
#30
Twice a month we would get to go to a fast food restaurant for dinner or my mom would get take away. Any time it was McDonald’s she would get the 69¢ hamburgers and make us put cheese on them at home bc she was NOT going to spend an extra 10¢ for a slice of cheese lol.
#32
After my sister graduated and my Dad moved out, my Mom created a very thoughtful system that worked well for us. We both really liked certain foods, and we never withheld food from one another, but let’s say my favorite pizza only had one piece left. I’d put it in a plastic bag or Tupperware and then put a rubber band around it. That was our silent signal to one another that we were saving it for lunch the next day, etc. My Mom and I are incredibly close and that might sound kind of odd, but it was a good way to respect one another and to make sure we had some of our favorites left when we got home. My friends would come over sometimes and wonder why there was a rubber band on a certain can of pop, and only then would I realize that not every family did this. 😂.
#33
Damp paper towels on leftover salads to keep them them crisp for days. My husband thought my family was nuts but now considers it genius.
웅장한 거북이 🇰🇷🇰🇭 3 months ago
What is this "leftover" people keep referring to? I do not believe it, they just brag they dont eat all 😂
#34
My family would eat corn straight out of the can. Just dump out the water and straight on to a plate. It wasn’t until I got to college and my roommates asked if I was a hobo that I realized it wasn’t normal.
#36
I thought it was normal to make grilled cheese in the oven (broil, makes 6 sandwiches at once). I've since learned that everyone else I know cooks single sandwiches on the stove.
Our family method makes the nicest, most evenly toasted light brown buttery deliciousness. Stove-sandwiches are dry and blah.
#37
Okay. So my wife and I are Burmese born in Burma but our son is born here in Australia. In SE Asia they usually have those bidet sprayers next to toilets and my wife really wanted one. At the time, it hasn’t caught on yet in Australia and plumbers are very reluctant to install them even if you bought one from Asia. So I went to Bunnings one day, bought a new 5L weed sprayer with a hand pump, cut the nozzle short and just started using that instead. My son just … grew up with that.
When he started kinder, my poor boy was just so confused.
#39
Sock basket. all socks from any load of laundry went into a basket on the bottom shelf of the hall linen closet. when you got dressed, you tried your best to find the matchingest pair.
#40
Washing dishes while you cook. Everyone I know just sits around doing nothing between cooking steps.
#41
Placing something in a very inconvenient or weird place to remind you to do something important.
I've legit found my mom's keys in the fridge and learned to just leave them there. They're there to remind her to grab something important, probably her lunch, before she goes to work (and I'll make sure to text her to let her know I saw them in there, just in case she did it by accident).
Why is there a ladder by the door? A random fork on the kitchen countertop? A bottle of medicine balanced precariously on the alarm panel? No f*****g clue, but it's there for a reason and I need to leave it there.
#42
My mother would cut the sugar in our cereal. For example she would get 2 big boxes of Cheerios (one honeynut, one plain). She would open both and pour out of each one into a separate bowl half of each box, Then she would refill them with the other cereal (honeynut got the plain half and vice versa) then clip the bag and fold the tops and shake em up.
I did not know how SWEET full-strength Honeynut Cheerios were until university and I complained that the cereal was too sweet at the dining hall and she explained. Makes sense now but wow I'm still a bit stunned by her ingenuity.
#43
We used to have our kids set out half of their Halloween candy for the Great Pumpkin after they finished trick-or-treating. The Great Pumpkin would leave a gift for each of them (typically a toy they really wanted) as thanks. We wanted to do it to cut down on the amount of c**p they were eating. Worked great until they reached school-age and their friends started asking wtf a Great Pumpkin was.
#44
Tie the hairbrush to the bathroom faucet so one of the 5 daughters didn't wander off with it and leave the other 4 with a rat's nest 3 minutes before time to leave for school. .
#45
Colour coded dishes for us kids.
Then we for sure knew who left their cereal bowl under the couch!! .
WindySwede 3 months ago
Then you just eat food from your siblings colours, and they fet the blame?
#46
My mother would cook ground beef in a pan, pour out the grease into an old margarine tub, and then put the ground beef in a conical sieve and we'd mash it with a wooden tool to squeeze every drop of grease out. Finally, she'd run it under tap water
I always wondered why it tasted better everywhere else until I cooked for myself.
#47
Putting a cut raw potato in soup or sauce that is too salty. It pulls the salt into the potato without ruining the food. My wife looked at me like I was an alien.
Barong 3 months ago
I’ve heard this before and it’s complete BS. Osmosis is the movement of water across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of low solute concentration (high water concentration) to an area of high solute concentration (low water concentration). In this context of the broth, which is salty. This means water will tend to move from areas with less salt towards areas with more salt. It means the water from the potato is leaching out into the soup, diluting the salt concentration slightly. Not the salt into the potato. They could have just added water.
#48
When one of us is sick/has a sore throat, we always make sure to have Jell-O on hand. But instead of putting the liquid Jell-O in the fridge to set, we drink it hot from a mug. It’s sooooo soothing on a scratchy throat, and it made being sick a little less terrible.
Bonus: my sister-in-law taught us that eating a spoonful of peanut butter is an instant hiccup cure!
whineygingercat 3 months ago
Mom's doctor told her to do the Jello-water when I was VERY sick. Dehydrating critically from barfing. The gelatin in it stays down. This was before stuff like Pedalite became a thing.
#49
After reading the newspaper, my dad would put the ads in recycling but fold the A, B, C, and D editorial sections in order the same way it was delivered. My parents had a really nice wicker basket to keep the old newspapers in until recycling day. His dad also did the same thing, and had a really nice metal container that they were kept in. I think it showed how much they valued information, that they need it right there in case they needed to refer back to something.
Same grandfather, one time I looked in that newspaper container on a visit, and saw that two or three days prior, my grandpa and his friends had been on the front page of the paper. They did a full-page profile of these old guys who used to go down to the Delaware River and watch the boats every morning, his photo was above the fold and everything. I pointed it out to him and asked why he hadn't mentioned it, and his response was "Well ya know I go down to the river, I didn't think it was news.".
#50
We use liquid laundry detergent. When washing a load, I always used to fill the cap container, pour in the detergent, then return the still-wet-and-dripping cap to the bottle. It would always be a mess. My daughter taught me to simply drop the cap in with the wash. It comes out clean with the laundry and no mess. It makes so much sense. I’m 54 years old. Why didn’t I ever think of that?
Lady Eowyn 3 months ago
Filling the cap all the way is wasteful. Read the directions on the bottle, then use half that amount. It works just as well, even in cold water.
#51
Our birthday card from our parents had a dollar for every year of our birthday. Turn 18, $18 in the card, etc. I’d use my money to buy a memory something. Two years ago, I saw a cool jewelry piece that told my husband I was using birthday money to buy, then it hit me, with mu Dad dying a few months earlier, my parents were both gone, so no birthday card and no dollar per year. Got to admit, birthdays haven’t been the same.
#52
Cupcake sandwich - remove the bottom of the cupcake and put it on the top. protects you from getting frosting all over your face and makes it easier to bite. my in laws all do this now.
#53
My mum did this absolutely wild thing where she would put washed wool clothes under the rugs in the house (sandwiched by pieces of newspaper so they would stay clean), and the weight of the rug and people constantly walking over the rug would press them flat. Basically it was like “ironing” knitwear. Every time you walked over the rug you could feel something under it. She acted like this was completely normal behaviour but when I google it nothing even comes up about it and I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this!
#54
Putting the duvet cover on by turning it inside out, sticking your hands in and grabbing the corners of the duvet, then giving it a shake so it turns right side out with the duvet inside...
I never understood why people said they couldn't put the cover on without help...
#55
Maybe not a hack but we used empty TP rolls as cord holders. Still do it to this day as do my kids. First time I traveled with my high school team and took out my curling iron everyone was all "what is that?" They half mocked and were half amazed. This happened every time I would travel with someone. I do wonder if any of those people implemented the idea.
Crystalwitch60 3 months ago
I use em to grow seedlings in lol ,sweet peas love em and veggies seeds to plus you can put them direct in to the compost n soil when planting out 🤷♀️
#56
We have a house window fan. We didn't have central air until I was maybe 12. We had a 28 inch fan that you put on exhaust and then anywhere in the house you open a window, you'll get a breeze. Everyone in my family does it, but I've never met anyone outside my family that does it and the fans are from like 1975 and I inherited my aunt's when she moved into a senior living apartment. It's nice in the spring and fall.
Nils Skirnir 3 months ago
Used to do this. Still would, but temps have increased so much, especially at night that it isn’t optimal anymore
#57
Eat tomatoes. Whole. Like an apple. No salt and pepper or anything.
The first time my dad packed one for my lunch in middle school, I immediately ended up with the nickname "Tomato" (in an affectionate way. I was bullied for other reasons).
Ironically, I can't eat tomatoes or anything made from tomatoes thanks to GERD.
#58
My mom would make sure I a quarter in my shoe incase I got lost and needed to call her.. back when there were pay phones and no cells.
Jack 3 months ago
We’d have to call collect and use [name] [location] for our name. They wouldn’t accept and then know where to pick us up. I remember seeing a commercial later on “it’s Bob WeHadABabyItsABoy” (don’t remember what the commercial was actually for) and it made our ritual feel more normal 😁
#60
We would go to buffets right at the end of breakfast , just before they switched it to lunch and got a little of both for breakfast pricing.
Howl's sleeping castle 3 months ago
But isn't there a good gap between both the services? Hotels i have been to ,the breakfast ends at 10.30 and lunch doesn't start before 12.30.
#61
On our annual 1-week family vacation, we’d pack old clothes, underwear, and socks and discard them each day. We would come home to new socks, underwear, and “back-to-school” clothes that my mom bought.
#62
This is from when I was a kid, but communal socks on the dining room table. My parents divorced when I was young and it was just me, my brother, and my dad for a few years. We all shared the same white athletic socks, and we never kept them in our rooms. We never ate in the formal dining room and it was always just covered in socks. We’d each just take a pair each morning off the table. They were in a big mound.
It was just socks, no idea why. All our other clothes would be in our rooms. We had a LOT of socks for some reason, way more than we needed. They covered the table.
This went on until my dad met his next wife. She put a stop to it.
#63
Making spaghetti bolognaise just using tomato sauce (ketchup). Using pegs for multiple pieces of clothing on the line, for eg. 4 pair of undies pegged together and T-shirt ends pegged together in a line etc.
Once I left home it was examples like these that had me realising we didn’t have money like other families did!
Now I have enough pegs (so many pegs!) for every piece of clothing and it makes me feel rich 😂
Oh and I learned what real spag bol tastes like!
Edit: when I say tomato sauce I mean what us Aussies put on our meat pie, hot chips etc. The condiment similar to what Americans have called ketchup.
#64
I thought there was a deep reason for my mom putting chicken bones in the freezer - turns out it was only to keep the cat out of the garbage.
Same for putting towels on top of sweaters on the drying rack. I thought you had to do it that way, but it was just to keep the cat off of the clothes.
#65
When doing dishes I put a couple drops of soap in a bowl of hot water and dip my sponge in that to have a sudsy sponge through the entire load of dishes.
Plentyofoomph 3 months ago
...doesn't having a sink full of soapy water achieve the same thing?
#66
When I was a child, my parents always kept the boxes of crackers on top of the water heater tank in a quest to keep them fresher. The constant mild heat drove down the humidity. We always had crispy saltines.
#67
When the chip bag is 30-50% full, chop off the top for easier access. Then reclip with chip clip.
Beak Hookage 3 months ago
What is this not eating the entire bag the first time around madness you speak of?
#68
My Momma got us in the habit of each of us cleaning a room every time we left the house. Now every morning when I leave for work, I pick a thing to clean or organize.
When I wasn’t working 60+ hours a week, my apartment was operating-room clean, and impressed a lot of dates. But I’m old, fat, and tired now, so it looks more lived in, but still clean.
Child of the Stars 3 months ago
I do something similar with my kids. My kids sleep 5 nights a week at their dad's (I work overnights), but every Sunday, they pick up their room before they go to his house. That way they always come home on Friday to a tidy room.
#69
Throw a spaghetti noodle on the wall to test its doneness.
When my girls were little, they thought it was hysterically funny and always wanted to be the one who got to throw the noodle. Then it turned into a tradition that when we moved into a new house, the first home-cooked meal we made was spaghetti, and we left the noodle on the wall.
Now that they’re grown and gone and I live in a home they’ve never lived in, there’s still a noodle on the wall, with less giggles but plenty of fond memories. My kids do it in their homes now, too. One of them was cooking spaghetti at her MIL’s house and threw the noodle on the wall, and her MIL thought she’d lost her mind.
Francesca Annoni 3 months ago
If you like overcooked pasta... In italy they'll probably beat you with a wooden spoon if you do that
#70
Not paying for city trash service and taking it to a business park dumpster every week… I thought everyone’s “trash day” was this whole errand
I was a very sheltered kid and thought my parents were saving mad money. Wasn’t until I moved out and found out how much it actually costs lol they were just cheap and kinda gross.
#71
My paternal grandparents have war-crimes levels of weird food preferences. Like, whole pearl onions in spaghetti sauce weird. Or cracking eggs into a can of creamed corn, shaking it, and baking it weird. American cheese, chunky sala, on rye, sandwiches for dinner weird.
We all knew they were weird, and my father was insanely happy the first time my mom cooked for him. It was more than half the reason he married her.
Anyway, we put ketchup on tacos. Guess where that came from?
The first time I applied ketchup to a taco in front of someone, they reacted like that "little kid shielding an even-little-er kid from a rabbit" meme.
Anyway, my kids put "pink sauce" on their tacos. It's a combination of sour cream and ketchup.
The generational trauma continues.
#72
My parents would always dilute the soda we had. They’d open up a 12oz can, pour an equal amount into five cups, and then add tap water to fill the cups the rest of the way up. Thought this was the norm until I tried a full strength can and it was too sweet and fizzy.
Edit. I think they were being super frugal. They’d also cut a tall stack of paper napkins in half while sitting in front of the TV to make them last longer.
#73
My dad had a wrench to open our door handle to the car. We also had to crawl through one door to unlock the other. Another car had a hole that led right to the ground, we would throw things through the hole as we drove, like cheerios or gold fish. It was the size of a baseball. As an adult I realize how dangerous that was. .
Noyfb noyfb 3 months ago
The old Volkswagen Bug cars had the battery under the back seat. I bought as really old one and later discovered that acid from the battery had eaten a hole through the steel pan under the car body. Someone had slipped an old license plate under the battery to keep it from falling out through the hole it had eaten through the floor !!
#74
In the morning we would take off our PJs and put them under the pillow, wear them again the next night. Idk how often they got changed but it was at least once a week.
#75
My dad is just weird. He puts soda cans in the freezer to get them cold faster then gets upset when they explode. He's been doing this for years.
Ariom Dahl 3 months ago
If I need to put a can or plastic bottle into the freezer just to chill it I set a magnetic timer on the freezer door for as long as I want it in there.
#76
When I was a kid I used to be constipated a lot. My dad got tired of always unclogging the toilet with a plunger. He told me to stop flushing whenever I would finally poop.
So whenever I would finally poop, he would fetch a garbage bag and fish it out like you would pick up dog poop. I thought it was the most normal thing.
#77
Hanger underwear. Essentially you keep one pair of underwear on a hanger in your closet and when you get behind on laundry and run out of underwear, you have that lifeline and know you absolutely have to do laundry.
Auntriarch 3 months ago
I've got a pair of emergency knickers in the suitcase. You never know when you might need extra.
#79
We eat cereal out of plastic cups. My mom started giving it that way when we were kids and we still do it 40 years later. It’s just more portable than a bowl.
#80
Bless the food that goes into the microwave. I get weird looks from coworkers when I get my hands wet and give the old pizza a little sprinkle of water before it goes in the microwave.
#81
I keep unopened cans of tuna in the refrigerator, so it is already cold when you mix up tuna salad.
Shark Lady 3 months ago
You should transfer it to a different container. The metal oxidises (think thats the correct term) and leaches into the food.
#82
I don’t think many people do this but it works - Pour boiling water over cloves of garlic before peeling them, the skin then comes off very easily.
#83
Patting the grease off of pizza so it was less calories. When I was like, 12. Lol
ETA: I think if you do this for your kids without them knowing, it's fine. There's nuance of course. My experience was being actively encouraged by my mom to do it so I wouldn't gain weight. I didn't realize this is something parents may do before giving their kids pizza because I was always doing it myself alongside my mom to stay thin.
#84
Putting bread in the fridge. I thought it was normal… turns out it just makes you the weirdo with cold sandwiches.
Lady Eowyn 3 months ago
Bread, at least in my experience, goes bad faster in the fridge than on the counter. I freeze bread if it's too much to eat before it spoils.
#85
Keeping bread in the microwave instead of a breadbox. I thought everyone did it… until I went to a friend’s house and saw an actual breadbox for the first time.😅.
Lady Eowyn 3 months ago
I don't have room for a breadbox and use the microwave too often to store anything in it. The bread is on top of the microwave.
#86
My mom stores boxes of cereal in the oven to keep them from going stale.
I've never met anyone else that does this.
#87
We make our tea for sweet tea in the coffee maker. Just put the tea bags in the part that you would put the coffee grounds in and you don't need a filter either.
#88
In the winter, my parents insisted on heating the kitchen by turning on the oven and leaving the oven door open.
#89
We use a handheld mixer to mash potatoes.
#90
Immediately stopping a nosebleed by wadding up a piece of paper and sticking it under your upper lip.
CD Mills 3 months ago
I was in the ER once and a man was brought in for a nosebleed that wouldn't stop. They went through a number of tries and nothing they did stopped it so the Dr. left and came back with two super large, one-ended Q-tips and shoved them up the guys nostrils. The Dr. said he would write the man a note to give his boss stating that "Working Person" had been administered Coc.ain to stop the bleeding.(FYI It constricts blood vessels!) and how long it would be in his system before getting a "Clean" on a d**g test. The things you learn...
#91
Growing up we had the laundry hamper on the second floor and the washing machine in the basement. Instead of having a laundry basket my dad would make us take a dirty shower towel out of the handler, lay it down on the floor and basically make a hobo bindle and put all the other dirty clothes in the middle to transport them down to the basement washing machine.
#92
My parents explicitly taught me to enter cooking times on the microwave with double numbers. i.e. if something needed to be microwaved for 30 seconds push 33 instead. 1.5 mins? Push 99. The explanation was that this conserves a lot of energy and also saves you time by not having to move your finger to an entirely different button.
When I got to college and saw my friends pushing 45 instead of 44 I was appalled.
#93
Not putting leftovers in the fridge. Just cover them up with a clear Cloche and walk away. If they ended up in the fridge they never got eaten, under the Cloche 9/10 someone would have a midnight snack.
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What do you think ?
Lee Gilliland 3 months ago
Back when sheets only came in white, my mom assigned everyone a color and sewed threads on the sheets and towels.
Huddo's sister 3 months ago
My mum gave each of us a different colour for our towels, so we always knew which belonged to us.
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marianne eliza 3 months ago
When I see a post like this, I know the person writing it is young and doesn't realize there are many people out there who have seen and done things the OP hasn't encountered yet.
Lee Gilliland 3 months ago
Back when sheets only came in white, my mom assigned everyone a color and sewed threads on the sheets and towels.
Huddo's sister 3 months ago
My mum gave each of us a different colour for our towels, so we always knew which belonged to us.
Load More Replies... marianne eliza 3 months ago
When I see a post like this, I know the person writing it is young and doesn't realize there are many people out there who have seen and done things the OP hasn't encountered yet.
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