IllogicTC
Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2013
- Posts
- 3,452
Let's face it, part of the reason for this community is to save money by learning how to DIY your GMT. But why should we stop there? I've always found ingenuity to be extraordinarily interesting - from coming up with novel fixes, to great ways to repurpose things (and as a bonus save the landfills for you "green" types).
I give you the life hacks thread. This is dedicated to novel fixes, repurposing old junk, finding new and creative uses for things, time-saving tricks, anything like that! It can be GMT-related but there is a lot more to it than that!
Some examples:
This guy had a heatsink from an old Dell desktop laying around. Rather than toss it or try scavenging about 5 cents worth of scrap metal, he now uses it as a bill/letter organizer. Great example of repurposing, and thanks to already being honed to specific measurements from the factory, looks pretty nice already.
View attachment 32527
This person has thought of a nice way to never forget your gas cap (for those of us where the plastic tether broke) - place the cap on the bottom of the gas pump's nozzle cradle. It also makes sure it's not going to blow away.
A simple way to organize your cables when setting up a desktop (or a home theater, or whatever else has a bunch of small cords that seem to bundle up over time)
A way to make holes line up when mounting something if you're not the sharpest with a tape measure or rule. Probably still want a level though to ensure the install doesn't look like crap.
I've seen other stuff - a dish strainer with power strips lining the outside edge. Great for the office if multiple people have tablets or other devices, they can place their device in one of the plate rack slots, then put their charger to it.
One that we use at my house is a way to reduce water consumption by the toilet. In our case we use a 24-oz bottle, but the size you need may vary depending on the specific toilet model. Just fill it with water and place it in the tank, out of the way of the mechanical stuff. Test after setting up, to make sure your toilet flushes and refills properly. Each time you flush, you save water equal to the displacement of the bottle (a 24 oz bottle actually saves slightly more than 24 oz, can't forget the space of the cap and the dry spot up top). We have three people using it, so if at minimum there's three flushes a day, we're saving over 17 gallons a month.
What hacks have you guys come up with? Novel replacements for those expensive Kent-Moore "stealership" tools? Maybe a way to organize tools by repurposing some other item? I wanna hear it!
I give you the life hacks thread. This is dedicated to novel fixes, repurposing old junk, finding new and creative uses for things, time-saving tricks, anything like that! It can be GMT-related but there is a lot more to it than that!
Some examples:
This guy had a heatsink from an old Dell desktop laying around. Rather than toss it or try scavenging about 5 cents worth of scrap metal, he now uses it as a bill/letter organizer. Great example of repurposing, and thanks to already being honed to specific measurements from the factory, looks pretty nice already.
View attachment 32527
This person has thought of a nice way to never forget your gas cap (for those of us where the plastic tether broke) - place the cap on the bottom of the gas pump's nozzle cradle. It also makes sure it's not going to blow away.
A simple way to organize your cables when setting up a desktop (or a home theater, or whatever else has a bunch of small cords that seem to bundle up over time)
A way to make holes line up when mounting something if you're not the sharpest with a tape measure or rule. Probably still want a level though to ensure the install doesn't look like crap.
I've seen other stuff - a dish strainer with power strips lining the outside edge. Great for the office if multiple people have tablets or other devices, they can place their device in one of the plate rack slots, then put their charger to it.
One that we use at my house is a way to reduce water consumption by the toilet. In our case we use a 24-oz bottle, but the size you need may vary depending on the specific toilet model. Just fill it with water and place it in the tank, out of the way of the mechanical stuff. Test after setting up, to make sure your toilet flushes and refills properly. Each time you flush, you save water equal to the displacement of the bottle (a 24 oz bottle actually saves slightly more than 24 oz, can't forget the space of the cap and the dry spot up top). We have three people using it, so if at minimum there's three flushes a day, we're saving over 17 gallons a month.
What hacks have you guys come up with? Novel replacements for those expensive Kent-Moore "stealership" tools? Maybe a way to organize tools by repurposing some other item? I wanna hear it!
that's a pretty good hack!
)
