61
votes
Accepted
How can I destroy sensitive documents without a paper shredder?
If you have a fire pit, or something similar that can contain a small fire, burning the documents will make it very hard to recover the information. Just be sure that the part where the information is ...
- 2,060
55
votes
Accepted
How can I eat my bagel when I lack a knife to cut it?
Knives are useful tools for cutting bagels and applying delicious spreads such as peanut butter or cream cheese, but luckily if you are missing this implement, you can still enjoy your bagel with 3 ...
- 819
42
votes
I lost my closet key, how to open it?
Very few if any closets open inward -- which means the hinges will have their pins on the accessible side. Just drive the pins out of the hinges, and the entire door can be pulled out of the frame (...
- 9,790
39
votes
How can I humidify a room without a humidifier?
Hang out your laundry to line dry in your house rather than putting it in the dryer. This will release a lot of moisture into the air. Depending on how often you wash your clothes, this may be enough.
...
- 7,450
38
votes
How can I humidify a room without a humidifier?
'Traditional' humidifiers look like this:
It's just a ceramic container with a hook that hangs over the radiator. Fill it with water, and the water evaporates as the radiator heats it.
You can ...
- 481
38
votes
How can I destroy sensitive documents without a paper shredder?
Blender or food processor with water. Turn it into pulp.
- 489
34
votes
How can I destroy sensitive documents without a paper shredder?
There isn't much substitute for the standby methods, burning or shredding. Most secure is to crosscut shred, then burn, and finally disrupt the ashes by grinding into fine powder or washing down a ...
- 9,790
26
votes
How can I humidify a room without a humidifier?
You can put many houseplants in the room, they will increase the humidity naturally. Take some pots with plants which have big leaves.
Some examples:
Fern
Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily)
Additional ...
- 5,653
25
votes
Adding a belt hole without a leather punch
I used to use a heated nail. Simply, hold it with pliers, and heat its tip up for a minute or so on the stove fire. Keep your belt stretched firmly (you can hold one side of the belt under you foot, ...
- 361
24
votes
Accepted
Adding a belt hole without a leather punch
Use a power drill with a small drill bit the size of the hole you want. Put a piece of scrap wood under the belt first. After the drill bit penetrates the belt, move the drill up and down to clear ...
- 610
24
votes
How can I humidify a room without a humidifier?
If the room is small, you can create a solution using a bucket of water and a few kg of table salt (sodium chloride or potassium chloride).
Dump a large amount of salt into the bucket, and add water ...
- 441
24
votes
How can I destroy sensitive documents without a paper shredder?
Bath full of water, and then a sharp knife swilled around once they are nice and soggy will do a great job of destoying everything.
Add bleach or something corrosive to ensure ink is wreaked beyond ...
- 1,268
21
votes
How can I avoid losing or missing a SIM ejector tool?
Keep it in the box in the same housing where it was supplied, along with the mini-manual you get, and the receipt.
If you didn't keep the box, put in a small plastic bag (like a coin bag) inside a ...
- 4,440
19
votes
How can I eat my bagel when I lack a knife to cut it?
If you can find some dental floss or thread, you can use that to cut the bagel. Wrap it around the circumference (as in picture), then cross ends and pull through. Bagel ready for the toaster.
- 1,025
19
votes
Accepted
How can I scratch lottery tickets?
Any type of plastic card may work, you probably have one in your wallet, so fairly accessible.
- 2,060
17
votes
How to find my way without a compass?
You can orient yourself without technology in a number of ways:
moss grows on the north side of the tree (in the northern hemisphere)
the sun travels from east to west — if you know what time it is (...
- 271
17
votes
Accepted
How to clean the inside of a desktop computer without a vacuum
Blow the dust out with compressed air OUTSIDE the building.
Word for the wise: place a soda straw or similar object between the cooling fan blades in a manner to prevent them turning, as blowing the ...
- 500
17
votes
How can I open an iPhone's SIM card slot without the included pin?
I have successfully opened an iPhone card slot using a paper clip.
Just straighten a standard sized paper clip and poke the end in the hole. It is a tight fit but it works.
- 1,828
16
votes
I lost my closet key, how to open it?
Vintage locks employed two concepts, sometimes individually and sometimes together.
A warded lock has structures within the lock, called warding, which are designed to fit in notches carved into the ...
- 261
15
votes
How to shred papers/letters without using a shredder machine
Use a 5 gallon bucket half filled with water; add enough paper to absorb most of the water and let sit for 24 hours; attach a paint mixing drill attachment to your power drill and power stir the ...
- 151
15
votes
I lost my closet key, how to open it?
I should suggest trying a bobbypin or a smaller flathead screwdriver if you'd like to save it. From my experience, these types of locks are very easily opened, even with almost no skill in ...
13
votes
How can I eat my bagel when I lack a knife to cut it?
Look around and see if you can spot a letter opener (old usage was "paper knife"). It's likely to be sharp enough, with patience, to cut the bagel, and it will surely work to spread your peanut ...
- 9,790
12
votes
Trick to measure the size of a mattress
You could compare it with the size of something that has a standard size. For example a CD/DVD is 120mm, so you could count how many times you can flip one over along an edge and get a rough ...
- 1,739
12
votes
Accepted
How to tell if surface is level
I'll give you two options for making a level of your own. Both are based on the simple fact that water is level, and will keep being level even going through a hose.
Level based on glass of water
...
- 6,984
12
votes
How can I scratch lottery tickets?
Also if you are a into music you may have one of these in your pocket that can do the trick.
- 2,060
12
votes
How can I avoid losing or missing a SIM ejector tool?
If it has a small hole on its rear end, put it on your keyring. Some designs don't have this, some do.
- 121
11
votes
How can I humidify a room without a humidifier?
Large bowl of water in the room with you.
I do this when the kids have stuffy noses/colds.
- 223
11
votes
Finding primary keyboard keys in the dark - alternative to purchasing adhesive dots
Most ordinary (cheap or expensive) keyboards have a little bump on the home keys. A lot of keys can be found by dead reckoning from there, and the function keys, Esc, etc. on a full sized keyboard ...
- 404
10
votes
What can replace a shoehorn?
Inspired by this post, I tried using some cardboard from a box of pasta. It worked pretty well. I don't think it will last forever, but there is plenty more cardboard produced through normal ...
- 1,977
10
votes
Accepted
Body temperature, without a thermometer?
No,
there is not a reliable hack to measure the body temperature in a sensible way.
We have to distinguish two case where an exact body temperature may matter:
Is there a rise in body temperature at ...
- 4,726
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible