Category: Life Hack

Mail pick up (free printable)

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

We have a nice brick mail box, with no mail pick up flag. I tried attaching one of those plastic retrofit flags, but refused to fix it again the second time it broke. While looking for possibilities, I saw a magnet that attaches to the front of the box. I can make that. I whipped up a simple graphic, laminated it, and used a section of self adhesive magnet tape on the back.

Mail flag magnet
Magnet stuck on back

I was a little apprehensive to see how the mail person reacted, but when I went to check, there was the magnet, set neatly with my incoming mail, and the letter to go out was gone. Phew! And if it ever does go missing, it is easy and cheap to remake. If you want to make your own, print the graphic below on card stock (I printed mine 5” wide), laminate it (I used a heat laminator, but two pieces of clear shipping tape would work), and attach a self adhesive magnet to the back (available at craft or hobby stores).

Feel free to download and print your own!

Makeshift snake lock

On By CarynIn Life Hack

My eldest has a 2-year-old corn snake that has learned to open her (maybe his) own cage! She bumps the latch to turn it and eventually gets it open. Sophie the cat found her under her cage table one morning, so we had to come up with a way to lock it down, but still get it open relatively easy. We used a shoelace.

Shoe lace run through the mesh on the latch of the snake’s cage

We ran the shoe lace so that we can open it without unlacing it. When it is closed, we tie it with a bow. So far the cats have not been able to get on top of the cage, so the bow should be secure for awhile. Clever snek.

Corn snake attempting another escape

Fresh tea hack

On By CarynIn Life Hack

Fishing whole tea leaves out of tea is not ideal. I don’t have a tea ball, but I did have the idea of clipping the leaves together! I opened up one side of my wire clip so it could hang on my cup, then rather than tear the leaves off the stem, just clipped the stems together and hung them in the hot water in the cup. It works!

Wire clip converted to tea leaf clip
Mint leaves clipped and brewing

Missing feet

On By CarynIn Life Hack

I noticed one of our guitar foot stands was missing a rubber foot. I noticed it because my youngest and I were practicing and it scratched my floor when I moved it. Ugh.

Missing rubber foot

One of my readers told me about Sugru moldable glue (Thank you!). So I tried some to replace the missing foot. It works well! It is easy to shape, and after 24 hours it solidifies into silicone rubber with almost the exact same feel as the remaining feet. The stand is stable and doesn’t scratch the floor. Hurray!

Fixed foot

How to keep chickens from pulling rings off your finger

On By CarynIn chickens, Life Hack

Wear gloves.

Wearing a glove to protect my ring and my skin from my chickens (but that picture looks strange)

Long title, short answer, and one that is so simple and straightforward that it hurts I didn’t think of it sooner. I tried three different colored silicone bands (I wasn’t risking any gemstones!), and have three wounds on my ring finger for my efforts. Checking the chickens one cold morning I pulled on my gloves and sighed. I love simple answers.

I do have a little solace in that when I googled the problem, other people suggested not wearing rings or jewelry around chickens. No mention of gloves there either, although one suggested tucking necklaces into your shirt. Getting there.