There are some pretty darn clever life hacks out there. Some of them work, some of them don’t, but it’s always an adventure finding out for yourself. Some of these tricks are even so obvious you kinda want to smack your own forehead for not thinking of it first! Here are twelve of our favorite houseboat summer hacks that we personally can’t wait to try out:
1. When you’re getting to the bottom of a chip bag, try folding the top edge inside the bag and fold the bottom corners up. What do you know, your own impromptu chip bowl!
2. Got water in your ears? Try blowing up a deflated balloon to help your ears clear.
3. When you’re ready to jump onboard after running around in the sand, use baby powder to clean off your feet fast.
4. Wrangling bottles and cans in your fridge can be hard, especially with waves rocking the houseboat. Try clipping binder clips on one side of your stack to keep your beverages in place.
5. Everyone loves ice cream, especially while winding down after a hot day playing in the sun. Rumor has it you can keep it crystal-free longer when you store the tub in a gallon Ziploc bag—assuming it lasts that long, anyway.
6. Does your straw keep floating out of your pop can? Try threading it through the pull tab to keep it in its rightful place.
7. If you’ve collected some mosquito bites and forgot ointment at home, try dolloping a little toothpaste on instead to soothe the itch.
8. Cover your drink with a cupcake liner to keep bugs out—just poke your straw through to hold it in place, and voila! Plus they look pretty cute to boot.
9. When you’re serving a cold drink like lemonade or punch and don’t want to dilute the flavor, try freezing little ice cubes of the drink itself and use those to cool it off.
10. Is the strap on your flipflops starting to come off? Lend em a longer life by slipping a bread tag over the bottom of the strap where it pokes through the sole of the shoe.
11. Is space tight in your galley? Buy a cutting board that fits neatly over your sink to save on counter space. Should have thought of this years ago…
12. Did you get deodorant on your shirt again? No worries—try rubbing the mark with a dryer sheet to make it disappear in no time.
Photos credited to justimagine-ddoc.com, Adam Pash, mom4real.com, and popsugar.com, respectively