If you’re packing a razor, use a bulldog clip to protect the razor from getting blunt and your hands from getting sliced as you fish around your bathroom bag.
Madly packing at the end of a holiday and need a bag for your shoes? An excellent excuse to steal the free stuff in the bathroom. Make use of the hotel shower cap and use it to protect your clothes from grubby soles!
This is a hack that you may have seen before. It has been around for a while without the cups and I tried it out, but it was actually a bit crap so I didn’t feature it here. I recently spotted this new version and I gave it a road test – and it works really well!
Make your own phone speaker using a toilet roll and some cups. You probably don’t need directions, just cut the holes in the right places according to this picture and ta da! You have a teeny tiny boombox.
Next time you book a flight online, clear your cookies.
If you’re bouncing about on comparison sites looking at fares, a flight may seem more expensive when you return to buy it because the cookies (which track your browsing history) have told it you’re shopping around. Airlines know that once you see the price has gone up, you’re more likely to buy it because it seems as though the seats are selling out.
I’m all for kids turning absolutely feral on holidays, getting messy, running amok. But there’s one element of ‘Lord Of The Flies holiday parenting’ that just doesn’t work. Hair. After the beach, in and out of the pool – it’s going to get tangly and no one is having fun with a half naked child screaming as you gently try to undo days of beach hair. So take a hairbrush and an armoury of hair elastics, all joined together with a handy carabina.
This will halve your laundry pile over summer if you have small kids who like ice-lollies. Cut the top half off a paper cup and pierce a hole in the bottom of the cup. Stick you lolly stick through, and viola… a slop stopper. No more sticky fingers!
Always take Doritos with you camping because,
a) they are delicious, and
b) they are highly flammable (proof if needed) so you can use them as kindling when everything else is damp.
If you’re sampling some of the local beers but you forgot your bottle opener*, you can thank old Steve Jobs for designing a built in bottle opener in each Apple laptop charger.
*If you forgot a bottle opener but happen to have an Apple charger with you.
This one is all about vampire charges. What is a vampire charge? Well, even when they’re not in use, all electrical appliances use a small supply of energy just by being plugged in and switched to ‘on’. To avoid so-called vampire charges, be sure to switch off all your appliances – think toaster, TV, printer etc − at the plug to stop the constant trickle of energy racking up your utility bills.
You’re on holiday and you managed to beat the Germans to a good towel spot, so you’re staying there all day. Where do you put your cash when you want to go for a swim? Inside a tennis ball, of course, but you might want to watch out for dogs. Other great places to stash cash include: Inside a ‘used’ nappy, in an empty sunscreen bottle, or rolled up in a pair of socks.
If liked those, check out the rest of my Hacky Mondays, and loads more great ideas.
All styling and photography: Emma Scott-Child
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