Friday OT - Life Hacks

[CYdTracked]

I guess I would consider this a hack but for items at the grocery store that usually have shorter expiration dates like breads, milk, fresh items, etc. I will dig out one from the back of the shelf to see if it has a longer date. Working years for grocery stores in HS and College I learned this as if the person stocking the shelf is doing it correctly they are supposed to pull the existing items of the shelf and stock the new inventory in the back and place the older inventory at the front of the shelf. Your average shopper will just pull the closest item from the shelf which is supposed to help rotate the inventory through before expiration.

 

[cowgirl836]

Recently our family had to make a visit to the DMV for our child. Since the Ames DMV can be an ordeal, we always go to the next county over. It takes us less time to drive there, renew or get whatever we need, and get back than it would come in Ames.

What are your small life hacks that are very specific but huge time savers or help?

Weird taking your 8yr old to the DMV but whatevs

 

[psycln11]

I guess I would consider this a hack but for items at the grocery store that usually have shorter expiration dates like breads, milk, fresh items, etc. I will dig out one from the back of the shelf to see if it has a longer date. Working years for grocery stores in HS and College I learned this as if the person stocking the shelf is doing it correctly they are supposed to pull the existing items of the shelf and stock the new inventory in the back and place the older inventory at the front of the shelf. Your average shopper will just pull the closest item from the shelf which is supposed to help rotate the inventory through before expiration.

I do this as well.

 

[SCNCY]

I guess I would consider this a hack but for items at the grocery store that usually have shorter expiration dates like breads, milk, fresh items, etc. I will dig out one from the back of the shelf to see if it has a longer date. Working years for grocery stores in HS and College I learned this as if the person stocking the shelf is doing it correctly they are supposed to pull the existing items of the shelf and stock the new inventory in the back and place the older inventory at the front of the shelf. Your average shopper will just pull the closest item from the shelf which is supposed to help rotate the inventory through before expiration.

I’m a little split on this because on one side, your potentially increasing the amount of food that gets wasted by leaving the stuff that could be consumed prior to expiration in favor of a longer expiration for you. On the other hand, by taking the items with longer expiration, you don’t risk throwing it out yourself and therefore getting your full value worth.

 

[ackatch]

I guess I would consider this a hack but for items at the grocery store that usually have shorter expiration dates like breads, milk, fresh items, etc. I will dig out one from the back of the shelf to see if it has a longer date. Working years for grocery stores in HS and College I learned this as if the person stocking the shelf is doing it correctly they are supposed to pull the existing items of the shelf and stock the new inventory in the back and place the older inventory at the front of the shelf. Your average shopper will just pull the closest item from the shelf which is supposed to help rotate the inventory through before expiration.

This is fine and dandy - but as someone who worked in the diary cooler, there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ******* WORSE than people who would move **** around and NOT PUT IT BACK IN A DECENT PATTERN. I'd be cruising along stocking stuff and then a date digger would show up and just leave crap everywhere. Pints don't go with the gallons you dumb *****, put it back!

Sorry - it's been 20 years and I'm still bitter about people.

 

[20eyes]

We have an absolutely massive silver maple in our backyard. The amount of leaves is staggering. I said **** this with raking and use a high powered blower to push them all on a tarp. Time saver for sure. I do the same for getting snow off the walk instead of shoveling.

Your method is better but I watched a tik tokker turn his rake upside down and PUSH the leaves. Absolutely blew my mind!

 

[CYdTracked]

I’m a little split on this because on one side, your potentially increasing the amount of food that gets wasted by leaving the stuff that could be consumed prior to expiration in favor of a longer expiration for you. On the other hand, by taking the items with longer expiration, you don’t risk throwing it out yourself and therefore getting your full value worth.

I'm more concerned about not wasting food in my house so I try to limit stuff with short expirations that may go bad before it is consumed. There are food rescue organizations that work with some of the retailers to recover food that is about to or has just expired and get that food to people that can use it immediately. Plus the mark up on items in stores I can guarantee you they are not losing money on products that go bad either.

There are enough shoppers that don't pay attention to expiration dates either so it all averages out too. A well managed store should not only be rotating through inventory quickly enough through proper stocking process but also not over-stocking items that they are regularly having to pull expired items from. I remember managers would spot check shelves after we stocked the latest truck of product that arrived and if they found new items in the front and older items in the back of the shelf because someone was too lazy to pull the existing items off to put the new in the back that person usually had a talk then had to go back and fix the shelves they stocked.

 

[CYdTracked]

This is fine and dandy - but as someone who worked in the diary cooler, there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ******* WORSE than people who would move **** around and NOT PUT IT BACK IN A DECENT PATTERN. I'd be cruising along stocking stuff and then a date digger would show up and just leave crap everywhere. Pints don't go with the gallons you dumb *****, put it back!

Sorry - it's been 20 years and I'm still bitter about people.

I know the feeling! I worked mainly in the meat department and we still had to stock lunch meat and cheeses along with the pre-packed fresh meats. I would take some extra shifts on nights I was not scheduled in the meat room and do shelf stocking too when I could. One store I worked at we had a lady that came in regularly and the managers nick named her "the tornado" because she would dig around all the cases and just leave things a mess by the time she finished so we had to go out and straighten it all back up after she left. Shoppers in general are lazy and inconsiderate. Some will take an item then halfway through the store decide they don't want it and just leave it on the shelf in another aisle. That was always my pet peeve especially if it was a cold item that someone left in a dry goods aisle because it would have to be thrown out because you don't know how long it had sat unrefrigerated.

 

[pulse]

TSA pre-check

 

[CascadeClone]

Just mulch your leaves with your lawn mower and leave them on your yard. It's actually good for your yard as long as you mulch them down well. I mean if Bob Villa thinks it's good then it's legit right? I haven't raked/bagged up leaves in years. Saves a lot of time and money by just mulching them if you can stay on top of it as they fall. Or just wait for a windy day and they may become your neighbors problem LOL.

Why Mulching Leaves Is Better Than Raking Them

Agree but it can depend on how thick they get. If you have 5 huge maples in a grouping, or a big tree in a small yard that doesn't blow clear well, even mow/mulching them will still be too much surface cover.

 

[JM4CY]

DMV - drive to a rural county near you. Completely worth the time and gas and whatever fee they may charge.

 

[CYdTracked]

Agree but it can depend on how thick they get. If you have 5 huge maples in a grouping, or a big tree in a small yard that doesn't blow clear well, even mow/mulching them will still be too much surface cover.

My first house was in an older neighborhood and I had 4 large trees on my property including a silver maple, locust, and 2 ash trees. Used to get fed up with raking/blowing/bagging leaves till I learned just keep on top of mowing the leaves as the fall and they mulch up pretty well if you don't wait till all of them have fallen. If I got behind I would just make 2 passes on the same mow to mulch them up or a few times I just blew them to the sidewalk and mulched them up there then they bagged up really easy and used less bags that way too.

I'm pretty lucky now, in a neighborhood that is around 20-25 years old and not a lot of huge trees yet. All I have is a younger maple right now, just cut my black ash tree down last weekend that was nearly dead and between the 2 of them they really never had a ton of leaves yet that 1 or 2 good mows in November mulched them up with ease.

 

[FarmerCy1]

This is fine and dandy - but as someone who worked in the diary cooler, there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ******* WORSE than people who would move **** around and NOT PUT IT BACK IN A DECENT PATTERN. I'd be cruising along stocking stuff and then a date digger would show up and just leave crap everywhere. Pints don't go with the gallons you dumb *****, put it back!

Sorry - it's been 20 years and I'm still bitter about people.

You must have worked in a fancy store if you had a diary cooler- my simple Fareway just had a dairy cooler.

With the DOT- I actually renewed my license online this time around. You can only do it every other time, but it worked amazingly and would recommend that vs dealing with waiting or appointments.

 

[cydsho]

Life hack-have an extra million or so dollars in back up. Really helps.
I practice this in theory only however........

 

[wxman1]

Weird taking your 8yr old to the DMV but whatevs

Want to feel old? I decided/realized this past week or so that if I just drive my car for 4-5 more years I can just give it to LittleWx.

 

[SaraV]

Parking at a store/mall with angled parking? Park in an aisle that the one way goes away from the store. That way, when you go to leave, better chance of avoiding pedestrians that are leaving the store while you leave the parking lot.

 

[CascadeClone]

Going bald / shaving my head has saved me a lot of time and trouble getting ready in the morning.

10 minutes per week of pitbulling my head saves a lot of time drying and combing everyday, not to mention no more trips to CostCutters or wherever.

 

[Trice]

Want to feel old? I decided/realized this past week or so that if I just drive my car for 4-5 more years I can just give it to LittleWx.

If you start saving now, you'll be able to afford the first six months of auto insurance.

 

[CHim]

I started storing leftover rice in ziploc bags instead of containers. Fits around things in the fridge better but also keeps the rice from clumping up into one big container shaped lump that you can't break apart in any orderly way. I usually use an oversized/gallon bag.

 

[mkadl]

Going bald / shaving my head has saved me a lot of time and trouble getting ready in the morning.

10 minutes per week of pitbulling my head saves a lot of time drying and combing everyday, not to mention no more trips to CostCutters or wherever

Going bald / shaving my head has saved me a lot of time and trouble getting ready in the morning.

10 minutes per week of pitbulling my head saves a lot of time drying and combing everyday, not to mention no more trips to CostCutters or wherever.

I am going on 25 years and only had 1 paid for haircut and that was in in 2008.