Did you know that there are many common household items that you’ve been using wrong this whole time? When repurposed the right way, these items can solve several pesky little issues which bother us on an everyday basis.
Image Credits: Livestly
Here are some 40+ everyday items that are probably somewhere around your house that you can use in a much more efficient way, with a cool hidden purpose! Scroll down below to find out what they are.
Loop In Back Of Shirt
First of all, it’s important to mention that this trick doesn’t apply to garden-variety shirts. We are positive that you own at least one nice, collared shirt that has this mysterious loop at the back, in the middle.
Image Credits: Livestly
We can thank the Navy for this loop. While they were out at sea, men in the Navy would have loops on their shirt so that they could hang them on hooks. In the 60s, the loops were also used by college students to hang their shirts and keep them wrinkle-free while exercising at the gym. Today, these hooks are put on shirts as a sign of class and quality.
Arrow On Gas Gauge
In all cars manufactured after 2010, there is an arrow next to the gas gauge with an arrow indicating on which side of your car your gas cap is located. Most of us don’t need a reminder, because we fill our cars up with gas regularly, so it has become routine.
Image Credits: Livestly
However, this trick will come in handy if you are ever driving a rental car and pull up to a gas station. You don’t want to look foolish by going to the wrong side. So, use this trick and save yourself the hassle.
Charcoal As An Air Purifier & Odor Remover
We are not talking about those heavy bags of charcoal that you use to make BBQs. Activated bamboo charcoal, which can be found in any home goods store, can be used to remove odours and purify the air.
Image Credits: Livestly
Unlike Febreeze, baking soda, or chemical sprays, bamboo charcoal can purify the air, remove bacteria, and a lot of allergens. You can get a BreathGreen Charcoal bag for only $10. The best part of it is that every month, you can simply leave it in the sun to recharge, with the bag “reactivating” itself.
Randomly Placed Buttons On Jeans
If you wear jeans a lot, you’ve surely noticed all the extra buttons on the pants, usually around the pockets. Yes, it’s weird, but by now, you’ve probably just accepted that it’s how jeans are made.
Image Credits: Livestly
Technically, these buttons are called rivets, and they have an important purpose. They are placed in strategic spots on the jeans to avoid them getting worn out and ripping. This was the legendary Levi Strauss’ idea, and he owns the patent to the rivets.
Extra Fabric With Clothing
You’re probably familiar with the tiny bag with an extra patch of fabric that comes with some clothes. Most people think that it’s there in case the shirt or pants rip, to sew up the hole with the fabric.
Image Credits: Livestly
However, that’s not why it’s there. The extra fabric is there so you can test out washing the material a certain way, to see if the colours will bleed or if the material will shrink. Pretty neat, right?
Extra Holes In Sneakers
Unless you don’t tie your shoelaces yourself, you’ve definitely noticed the unused extra holes at the top of your shoes. These holes are there so that you can tie up your shoes tighter if you are prone to blisters, for example.
Image Credits: Livestly
You can place the shoelaces in the extra holes, but in the opposite direction, creating a loop on each side, which allows you to cross your laces in each loop. Then, you can create a much tighter lock by pulling down on the laces and then tying your shoes normally.
Pom-Poms On Winter Hats
For people who live in cold places, winter hats are crucial. But have you ever stopped to wonder why so many of them have a fluffy ball on top? This fashion can be traced back to Scandinavia!
Image Credits: Livestly
It was done as a way to gather the seams in a time where knitting was uncommon. Over the past several hundred years, many types of headgear have had this pom-pom on top, and for some reason, it is still trendy today.
Holes In Airplane Windows
Have you ever freaked out on the plane after noticing a tiny hole in the window? Yes, it is a little odd at first, but that hole called a breather hole and isn’t a manufacturing defect but rather very important.
Image Credits: Livestly
It is there so that when an aeroplane climbs and the air pressure outside drops, the cabin stays at a safe and comfortable level. That little hole allows the plane to deal with the pressure difference.
Golf Ball Dimples
Well, the first bit here is that technically, golf balls aren’t round, so they’re not really balls but that is a battle for another day. We are more concerned about the texture of gold “balls”. If you’ve ever held one in your hand, you will have noticed that the outside of the ball is full of little dimples.
Image Credits: Livestly
If you’ve ever held one in your hand, you will have noticed that the outside of the ball is full of little dimples. They weren’t always like this, but with experience, savvy golfers realized that older balls with bumps and nicks would go further than smooth ones.
Long Neck Bottles
It is not by accident that adult beverages often come in bottles with long necks and yes, that is their technical name. It is pretty obvious, its shape makes it more comfortable to hold for long periods of time.
Image Credits: Livestly
In addition, the long necks help distribute the heat throughout the entire bottle when you’re holding it with your warm hand. Ultimately, long necks help beverages stay cooler for longer.
Soda Can Tab
If you’ve ever opened a can of soda, which you probably have unless you live in a cave, you may have noticed the tab at the top of the can. It might have annoyed you one day, as it sometimes detaches and falls into the can with the rest of the liquid.
Image Credits: Livestly
Never let it happen again because what do you know, the tab is there to be flipped over and used as a holder for your straw, just like in the image above. We wonder why isn’t this common knowledge?
Flat Takeout Boxes
Every Friday night needed to end and sometimes start with Chinese food! Most of us bring it home and dump it onto our own plates, or simply eat it straight out of the carton. However, this is all wrong.
Image Credits: Livestly
Chinese takeout boxes are actually designed to be their own plates! While the food is still in the container, carefully pull the sides apart and set it flat on the table. It’s so much simpler this way!
Keyboard Bumps
Look at any keyboard, and you will realize that the F and J keys have two little bumps on them. Have you ever wondered why they were there? Many have and most come up with bizarre yet wrong theories.
Image Credits: Livestly
The truth is that they are added so that users can find their way on the keyboard without looking at the keys. You can then keep your eyes on the screen and type more comfortably, especially with some experience.
Hole In Cap Of Ballpoint Pens
When you look at a pen, at first, it looks like there may be something wrong with it because it has a hole. Actually, that hole is there on purpose so that air can flow through in case it is swallowed accidentally.
Image Credits: Livestly
That might seem strange, but remember, many people have a bad habit of putting pen caps in their mouth, and with one bad movement, it could end up in the back of their throat.
Dip In Wine Bottle
Do you like drinking wine? Well, if you do, you probably realized that there was a sizeable dip at the bottom of the bottle. It seems a little weird, but there are a few reasons why it’s there.
Image Credits: Livestly
First of all, its called a punt or a kick-up, but it’s not exactly sure why. Anyway, it makes the bottle a bit more stable so that it won’t fall over and break with the slightest touch. Also, it makes the bottle stronger and more able to withstand higher pressure if there is champagne or sparkling wine in it.
Using Electrical Outlets & Walls As HDTV Antennas
Today, the average American household spends around $200 a month for TV, internet, and telephone, so there are new technology disruptors making devices using old-fashioned TV antennas and an electrical outlet.
Image Credits: Livestly
These “HDTV antennas” stream HDTV from stations like ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, TheCW, BET, and many more. As you can now pay around $10 a month for a Netflix subscription, it seems insane to pay $200 a month for HDTV channels.
Holes In Pot Handle
If you are not a professional cook, you probably wonder why most pots and pans have a hole by the end of the handle. Or, you may have never noticed that it was there. There are two good reasons for this.
Image Credits: Livestly
The first is that it allows you to easily hang it in your kitchen with the use of a hook, and second, you can use the hole to hold a utensil, just like in the photo above. Try it next time!
Black Grating In Microwave
Be honest – when have you ever taken a close up look at your microwave? The honest answer is never and we don’t blame you! Although, you had you probably would have noticed the black grating on the microwave door.
Image Credits: Livestly
It’s not just there for aesthetics but has a very important role and is called a Faraday shield, and it’s there to prevent electromagnetic fields from harming us while we are waiting for our food to heat up.
Hole Next To iPhone Camera
If you look at an iPhone, you will notice there is a little hole right by the camera lens. Well, despite what conspiracy theories will tell you, it is not a tiny hole that helps Facebook spy on you, but actually a microphone.
Image Credits: Livestly
In fact, there are three mics on almost every smartphone, one under the speaker grill, one on the bottom edge of the phone, and the third right next to the camera lens. Funny how even with all those microphones Siri still can’t understand what we are saying most of the time!
Zigzag Side Of Bobby Pin
Even if you’ve never used a bobby pin in your life, you’ve probably still noticed that one side is straight, and the other is a little wavy. Most people naturally assume and use bobby pins in a certain direction and what do you know? They are using it probably incorrectly.
Image Credits: Livestly
Professional hairstyles actually use the wavy side to help to keep the pin in place all day by helping catch a big clump of hair. So, that means the zigzag pattern is facing toward the scalp, so you can’t see it with the straight side facing upwards.
Cylinder Toward End Of Cable Cord
We’ve all used some kind of cable or power cord before, and you might have noticed a big cylinder-shaped lump at the end of it. These are actually called chokes or ferrite cores, and they’re meant to prevent any high-frequency electromagnetic interference.
Image Credits: Livestly
One such interference, for example, is the kind you get when your cell phone gets too close to a speaker and you can hear a weird noise in your call. Well, if you had one of these bad boys attached to your speakers then you wouldn’t ever deal with that distortion!
Wings On Apple Power Cord
If you have a MacBook, you might have noticed that there are wings on the power cord that you can pull up. These are not just there at random; they have a purpose and one which is very useful.
Image Credits: Livestly
They are there to help easily store your cord because if you flip them up, it makes it easier to wrap the cord around the power block so it doesn’t get in the way. You don’t have to use it, but some people like to.
Blue Part Of Eraser
Why on earth would an eraser need to be two different colours? As a kid, you might have heard the rumour that the blue part was there to erase ink Well, that is not exactly true but it isn’t false either!
Image Credits: Livestly
The blue part is made to be used on thicker types of paper than common notebook paper. The kind of paper artists use are more sensitive to friction, so they need a different type of eraser.
Square Patch On Backpacks
Does your back have square patches at the back? They aren’t just there to look cool which they kinda do but they also have a purpose. One which common folks like you and I probably don’t know about but should.
Image Credits: Livestly
The pig snout, as it is called, is there so that you can carry extra gear on your backpack, such as cords and strings that you can pull through the tab. Pretty neat, right? Apart from its practical use, we have to give it bonus points for the amazing name!
Black Diamonds On The Measuring Tape
The black diamonds that are printed on almost all standard measuring tape are called “Stud Finders.” Its purpose is to show you the exact centre between two studs on your wall.
Image credits: Pinterest
You can find the first mark is at 19.2″, and then it repeats at 38.4″, 57.6″, 76.8″ and 96″ inches. To make it simpler, if you are sure that your home was built using standard 16″ stud spacing, you can use these brands to find out exactly where the studs are. There is no need to buy an electronic stud finder!
Color-Coded Ice Cream Scoops
This one doesn’t apply to nearly as universally as most of our list but if you have ever worked at an ice shop, you should know what exactly what we are talking about. If you don’t, our guess is you probably aren’t working at an ice cream shop any longer or at least shouldn’t be!
Image Credits: Livestly
Ice cream scoops each has different colours with each symbolizing a different size of scoop, as they come in many different sizes, depending on whether it goes in a cup or how many scoops are needed to fill a 32-ounce container.
Brass Doorknobs
You probably never paid too much attention to a door handle, but if you are into interior design or generally nosy, we won’t judge you may have noticed that they’re all made of brass.
Image Credits: Livestly
This is not by accident, as surfaces made of brass are more resistant to bacteria so that doorknobs stay germ-free. This is important as people pick up germs from all sorts of places and hold the doorknob, which is then going to be held by other people.
Tab On Rearview Mirror
We won’t start this one with a cheesy quote about ” rearview mirrors and the past” but will ask you to have a closer look at your rearview mirror the next time you go on a drive because of a very specific reason.
Image Credits: Livestly
Did you know there was a tab at the bottom of the mirror? You might have seen it without knowing its purpose and well, it is there so that you can change the position of the mirror to avoid being blinded by the headlights of the car behind you.
Discs Under Bottle Caps
One day in your life, probably when you were a kid, you might have looked under the cap on a soda bottle and noticed a little plastic disc. We bet you also tried to pry it out and play around with it and yes, we won’t judge.
Image Credits: Livestly
At first, it seems unnecessary, but the disc is actually there to help with carbonation. Don’t ask us to get all scientific, but in basic terms, the discs trap carbon dioxide so that the soda doesn’t lose its gas.
Ridges On Coins
Maybe you haven’t noticed this, but quarters and dimes have rough edges, while pennies and nickels don’t. Go ahead and have a look. Well, this is because back in the day, coins were stamped in different weights to reflect the coin’s true value.
Image Credits: Livestly
This was basically done to avoid people shaving the edges of the coins and melting them into new ones, ridges were put to make it easy to tell if the edges have been tampered with.
Loops On Grocery Carts
You either love grocery shopping or you hate it but either way, you have come in contact with a grocery cart. Yaay to being lazy and not having to “hold” all your items! Only insane people use baskets! Right? Right!
Image Credits: Lifestyle
But what most people don’t realize is that there are loops that help frame the fold-out section to help protect the things in your cart. Thanks to these loops, you can hang plastic bags with fragile items such as eggs and bread, which you don’t want squishing by heavier objects.
Margins On Lined Paper
Have you ever wondered why notebook paper had margins? We will give you a hint – It had nothing to do with writing dates, keeping your handwriting neat and tidy and any other common-sense explanation you can come up with.
Image Credits: Livestly
You see, many years ago, when rats would often go into people’s homes, they would chew on paper. With margins on it, a rat could eat the edges of the paper without ruining anyone’s work. Obviously, this feature is not needed anymore, but they still help protect what’s written from general wear and tear.
Paper Condiment Cups
Every time we step into a fast food place, which is embarrassingly a lot we wonder why do we have to fill around twelve of these tiny paper condiment cups every time we order fries? They’re so tiny that if we order chicken fingers, we can’t even dip them in our sauce and now that is a travesty.
Image Credits: Livestly
Turns out, much like most everyone on this list, we have been using them wrong all along. These tiny cups can easily be unfolded so that they look like a little plate, just like in the photo above.
Pocket In Women’s Underwear
With such little fabric in underwear, it is surprising to us that the garment still managed to hold on to some secrets. This feature on women’s underwear is a rather dated one but can be practical, from time to time.
Image Credits: Livestly
We are talking about the secret pockets sewn into women’s underwear. They are there so that women can fit tampons or other small items, and they are called a panty gusset, but most manufacturers don’t even bother to stitch it closed. To be fair, it is much more comfortable without the extra seems.
Plastic Lids On Cups
Once you realize this little trick, you will see disposable cups is a whole new list. This one should be a particular favourite for all those neat freaks out there who just have to have everything looking perfect!
Image Credits: Livestly
The plastic lids on top of disposable cups are there to double as a coaster. Of course, if you are in the car, you need to keep the lid, but when you are sitting down and enjoying a hot drink, the ridges on the lid are designed to serve as a coaster that hugs the base of the cup.
Coloured Squares On Toothpaste
Have you ever noticed that at the bottom of the tube of toothpaste, there is a coloured block? It is usually blue, red, green, or black. This isn’t a random mark but is used for identification.
Image Credits: Livestly
These blocks are called “eye marks,” and they assist machines at the assembly line to know where to cut and fold the packaging. Without it, tubes of toothpaste would all be attached to one another.
Holes In Padlock
We’ve all used a padlock at one point in our lives, and you may have seen a little hole at the bottom of it without knowing what it’s there for. There are actually two important purposes for this.
Image Credits: Livestly
First, it allows any water that gets inside to drain out of the lock, so it allows the lock to handle the elements. Second, it allows you to pour oil into the lock so that it doesn’t get jammed up.
Detachable Headrest In Cars
When you were a kid, did you ever sit in the backseat on family road trips and play with the headrest of the person in front of you? Come on, we can’t be the only one who did that? Especially to their siblings?
Image Credits: Livestly
Well, you might have noticed that the headrest can completely come out of the seat, and this is meant to be used in an emergency if you’re trapped in the car, as you can pull out the headrest and use the metal parts to break the window.
Lines Of Red Solo Cup
You were probably too busy having fun at your last party to notice a series of horizontal lines on these cups. Well, they have a purpose; they’re there to tell us how much alcohol to put in the cup.
Image Credits: Livestly
At the bottom, the first line measures one ounce, which is basically one shot of hard liquor. The next line is five ounces, a perfect amount for a glass alone, while the last line denotes 12 ounces, which is the size of one beer.
Three Handles On Jerry Can
You’ve probably seen a Jerry can before, especially if you like travelling and camping. If you have, you may have wondered why there are three handles at the top. This isn’t a manufacturing flaw, instead, it is quite the opposite.
Image Credits: Livestly
These are there so that the fuel is distributed evenly while carrying the can, especially if it is being carried by two people. With two people, they should each grab both outside handles.
Wooden Coat Hangers
Yes, we agree that wooden coat hangers are fancy and classy, but that is not why they were invented in the first place and once you hear the particular reason they were made, we are sure you are going to run to the store and grab a couple for your home.
Image Credits: Livestly
Coat hangers were made out of wood to help repel moths and other insects that may want to damage clothing. Heavy clothing, in particular, is prone to this, and the cedar wood has a pleasing smell that is known to repel moths and other bugs.
Flaps On Juice Boxes
Why are there heavy flaps at the top of juice boxes? Well, simply look at the photo below, and you will see why. Do we even need to explain the magic of this design detail? We don’t need to but you know we will!
Image Credits: Livestly
This young genius has realized that those bulky flaps can be folded outward to make it easier for children to hold. Remember, these juice boxes are usually meant for those aged two to ten, so this helps them.