Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media platforms make viral videos with various hacks and theories of how we can simplify our lives. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a short cut? So we consume these hack stories and videos to no end.
Some of the ideas are truly life changing and time saving, making our lives better than they were before viewing. Others are questionable and make us wonder, do these hacks actually work? We did all the work for you and separated fact from fiction, the hacks from the hogwash and laid it all down for you in this article. Read on to learn the real truth behind the scenes.
1. Mashed Potato from Potato Chips
What It Is: Mashed potatoes out of potato chips
What You Need: Boiling pot of water and potato chips
Does It Work: Yes
Potato chips are not the healthiest of snacks, but they are certainly tasty and totally addictive. In the famous tagline of Pringles , once you pop, you can’t stop! The question is if they can be turned into mashed potatoes and the answer is surprisingly, yes. Simply pour a bag of potato chips into boiling water and let them get mushy. Remove excess water and mash to the right consistency.
While this technically works, it is not necessarily recommended. Firstly, potato chips contain more calories and more ingredients than just potatoes making this option less healthy. Secondly, the verdict is that while it is possible to achieve the correct consistency, boiling the chips removes most of the flavor so you will need to add butter and seasoning. Perhaps sticking to real potatoes is better in this case.
2. Use Sprite to Revive Your Faded Flowers
What It Is: Sprite to revive flowers
What You Need: Sprite
Does It Work: No
The theory is that Sprite will bring your faded flowers back to life. But do flowers really like sugary drinks? And if not, what can we use that will actually work? The answer is, perhaps predictably, no. Flowers will not be brought back to life from consuming a bottle of soda.
What will help is plant food or a teaspoon of sugar, which is perhaps the origin of this myth being that Sprite is sugary. Another good tip is to cut your stems and make sure the water is clean. Keeping your flowers cool is also very important, and while you’re at it you can keep yourself cool by drinking that bottle of sprite rather than pouring it in your flowers.
3. Antiseptic to Remove Permanent Marker
What It Is: Antiseptic used to remove marker stains
What You Need: Antiseptic or hand sanitizer
Does It Work: Yes
Anyone with kids will know the horror of a child drawing with permanent marker on the table or the walls. One theory is that antiseptic will remove the stain, but isn’t a permanent marker permanent? In this case, no! The antiseptic is actually proven to remove stains.
Rubbing alcohol or even hand sanitizer will do the trick as it breaks down the chemicals in permanent inks. Stain on your table? Fear not! Just grab that sanitizer or antiseptic and rub it on. This will work on both porous and non porous surfaces.
4. Use Tennis Ball To Unlock Car Door
What It Is: Tennis ball to open a car door
What You Need: A tennis ball
Does It Work: Yes
That sinking feeling when you realize you’ve locked your keys in your car and you don’t know what to do about it. A locksmith costs a small fortune and takes ages to arrive, breaking the window causes a huge mess and then you’d have to go to the trouble of getting a new window which also costs a fortune.
If you’re lucky enough you will have a tennis ball lying around, because the trick to open your car door using a tennis ball seems to actually work! You’ll need to burn a hole into the tennis ball and take the side with the hole and put a lot of pressure onto the lock by smashing it down. The suction from the ball will create enough pressure to open the door and it doesn’t cost you a dime!
5. Cookie Cream Hack
What It Is: Expanding cookies using hairdryers
What You Need: A hairdryer and a cookie
Does It Work: Very unfortunately not
Wouldn’t it be great if we could take a hairdryer to our favorite sweet treats and they would expand to several times the size? Talk about five for the price of one! If that were the case in the future a hair dryer would be automatically fitted in the kitchen as we would want to expand all of our food. In fact it could be the solution to world hunger!
Unfortunately though this hack is more trick than treat and it in fact does not work. Blowing hot air towards a cookie will simply warm up the cookie, no more and no less. Cookie cream hack has gone up in smoke, unfortunately!
6. Color Your Hair With Concealer
What It Is: Using concealer to color your hair
What You Need: Concealer
Does It Work: Yes
Essentially hair dye is made of pigment among many other things, and so it’s no secret that a pigment based cosmetic could be used to temporarily color your hair. Those among us with grey hair may have heard of powder root touch up between coloring, which is basically pigment to cover grey until you can get to the salon next.
There is no reason why concealers should not be functional as well. Simply apply the concealer to your hair and consider it a blank slate on which you can apply any color you like! The sky’s the limit, and the best part is when you are done you can simply wash it off. No commitment, no fuss.
7. Lemon to Remove Highlighter Hack
What It Is: Lemon to remove highlighter
What You Need: Lemon
Does It Work: Yes
Are you studying and using highlighter in your work books? It is so helpful to highlight relevant and important bits so you know what to come back to later on. But what if you slip and make a mess? Or accidentally highlight the wrong section? It’s not like you can use white out to remove it, but you can use lemon!
All you need to do is take a cue tip and squeeze a drop of lemon on it. Rub the lemony cue tip over the highlighter you would like to remove and it’s really as easy as that! The best part is that it won’t affect the printed writing in the book at all, it will only lift the highlighter. No mess, no fuss!
8. Graphite Turns to Diamond in the Microwave
What It Is: Turning graphite into diamonds
What You Need: A microwave
Does It Work: No
There is an old phrase that goes:”My mamma didn’t raise no fool”. This is a great example of when that phrase might be useful. Let’s be honest, if it were so simple to make a diamond, everyone would own many diamonds and they would as a result be worthless.
For the purpose of this article though, we felt it necessary to clarify: putting graphite into the microwave most certainly does not turn it into a diamond. In fact it is quite dangerous and could cause a fire. In short: if anyone tells you they know how to make diamonds quickly, they are most likely wrong.
9. Use a Pop Bottle to Curl Your Hair
What It Is: Curls with a bottle
What You Need: Plastic bottle and a hairdryer
Does It Work: Yes
Going to the hair salon to get your hair styled is time consuming and expensive. Achieving those perfect salon curls at home is a seemingly impossible task though and ends up taking double the time with half the results. This hack claims to achieve gorgeous curls using a cut open plastic bottle and a hairdryer.
You will need a hairdryer with a nozzle and to cut a hole in the bottle to fit the nozzle quite precisely. Take a section of your hair and put it into the top of the bottle which you’ve cut open and turn on the hairdryer. Be sure to have it on a medium setting as you don’t want the bottle to melt. Your hair will spin around the bottle like a hurricane which will result in a lovely curl!