31. Peanut Butter
Best Place to Purchase: Local grocery stores, Whole Foods
Average Product Price: $5/jar*
Natural peanut butter is delicious and, for a lot of people, it is their favorite way to eat peanut butter. WebMD says that peanut butter is healthy for you (in moderation, of course) because it has a variety of vitamins and minerals, as well as healthy fats. Natural peanut butter is much less processed and might contain less saturated fats.
Peanut Butter Upside-down @DailyMail/Twitter.com
While it has less saturated fats, it definitely has more oil. It can be a pain to take the lid off a jar of natural peanut butter and have to stir it, slopping oil over the edges. Here’s a trick: store it upside-down. That way, the peanut butter and oil mix, no mess required.
32. Dress Shirts
Best Place to Purchase: Men’s Wearhouse, Target
Average Product Price: $30-$70*
This one’s pretty fascinating. As you might have noticed, there is a little loop of fabric on the back of men’s dress shirts. It’s not super noticeable, but it’s there (go to your closet and check if you don’t believe us). Well, this loop is called a “locker loop,” and it has been around since the 1960s.
Locker Loops @GearPatrol/Pinterest
The GANT Co., a men’s clothing company, wanted to appeal to the Ivy League crowd, so it added the locker loops. Ivy League students could hang up their dress shirts by that loop, keeping them wrinkle-free, even after they came back from a workout. You can still hang up men’s dress shirts by that little loop to this day.
33. Ketchup Cups
Best Place to Purchase: Any fast food restaurant
Average Product Price: Free (usually)
Chances are, you have not been using ketchup cups the (completely) right way. Everyone’s familiar with the tiny, free ketchup cups that McDonald’s and Burger King (among other fast food restaurants) hand out for free when you’re dining in-person. They’re able to fit more ketchup than the tiny packets.
Ketchup Cups @VybeLara/Twitter.com
Well, ketchup lovers can rejoice, as not only are these little cups able to fit more ketchup than the packets, they can also expand. Try stretching out the folds on the paper cups, and you’ll find that these containers expand to nearly twice their size, allowing you to use them to their fullest potential.
34. Can Openers
Best Place to Purchase: Amazon, Dollar Tree
Average Product Price: $4.99*
If you love having long nails and you like drinking soda, you’re at an impasse. It can be hard to pop the tab on a can of soda (or whatever other carbonated beverage you like) without breaking a nail, but there’s an easier way to do it. Keychain bottle openers are a dime a dozen (literally, depending on where you shop), but you don’t just have to use them for bottles.
Can Openers @u/FecalThunder / Reddit.com
These openers can work on soda can tabs too. Just hook them under the tab and pull. It’s an easy way to open, and, considering that you probably always have your keys on you, one that’s always by your side.
35. Slime for the Toilet
Best Place to Purchase: Amazon
Average Product Price: $5*
Kids usually play with slime just for the sake of it, but there’s so much more you could do with the jelly-like substance. You can pick up a bag of slime crystals on Amazon for around $5. When they come into contact with water, it creates a thick substance that looks like something fit for Ghostbusters.
Slime Toilet @YouTube
It didn’t take long for pranksters to realize that it makes the perfect practical joke when poured into a toilet. While we don’t recommend it for the sake of plumbing, plenty of YouTubers have done it so we don’t have to. This is one hidden purpose saved for a select few.
36. Plungers
Best Place to Purchase: Home Depot, Lowe’s, Amazon
Average Product Price: $6.99* (Sink), $14.49* (Toilet)
When you look at this plunger, you probably recognize it and even have one of it laying around your house somewhere. Plunging is a drag, and it’s never pleasant. However, you might be making plunging even harder on yourself by using the wrong plunger. There are certain plungers only for the sink, while others are for the toilet.
Plungers ©New Africa/stock.adobe.com
Here’s how to tell the difference. Look inside the suction cup. A toilet plunger will have a soft, rubber flap folding out from the inside of the cup. The flap is used to fit over the toilet drain. A red sink plunger won’t have that extra piece of material.
37. Plastic Container Lids
Best Place to Purchase: Local grocery stores
Average Product Price: $1-$7/lb.*
Cherry tomatoes are a great addition to any salad, sauce, or soup, but the process of chopping each one individually can be a little tiresome. Luckily, celebrity chef Rachael Ray came up with a hack that lets you use a plastic lid to chop a bunch of cherry tomatoes with one stroke.
@thekitchn/Twitter.com
Place the cherry tomatoes on a cutting board in a small one-layer group. Then, place the plastic lid on top of the tomatoes. Press down on the lid while slicing through the center. The lid will keep the cherry tomatoes in place, allowing you to cut a bunch in one slice.
38. Chinese Takeout Containers
Best Place to Purchase: Anywhere local
Average Product Price: $3-$12.50*
For most people, the whole point of ordering takeout is that they don’t feel like cooking and they don’t feel like doing dishes. That’s true for Chinese takeout, which is a billion-dollar industry in America. Every day, millions of people order egg rolls, sesame chicken, orange chicken, fried rice, and other delicious cuisines, delivered right to their door.
Takeot Container @Tso Chinese Delivery/Pinterest
Fun fact about Chinese takeout dishes: they can unfold into a plate, and you don’t even have to take out the food to do so. Next time you order up, unfurl the takeout container into a plate for an easy-to-use dish that you don’t have to wash.
39. Wooden Spoons
Best Place to Purchase: Walmart, Amazon
Average Product Price: $5.99*
We’ve all been there. You’re cooking a pot of pasta and you look away for one second to check your phone or wash a dish and, the next thing you know, you hear the sizzling sound of the pasta boiling over. It causes a huge mess, wasting water and getting your burner grimy.
Wooden Spoon ©uwimages/stock.adobe.com
Luckily, preventing that is easy. Just take a dry wooden spoon and place it on top of the boiling pot. Dry wood is hydrophobic, which means that it is unable to absorb water. When the bubbles come in contact with the spoon, they’re destabilized, and the boiling water retreats, saving you a headache.
40. Toothbrushes and Toothpaste
Best Place to Purchase: Dollar stores, Target, Walmart
Average Product Price: $2.20* (Toothbrush), $2.50* (Toothpaste)
Toothbrush and toothpaste: two things that we all (hopefully) use every single day, twice a day. To be fair, this one might have more to do with toothpaste ads themselves, which often show a giant glob of toothpaste being squeezed onto the brush. With these ads, it’s a case of do as they say, not as they do.
Toothbrushes and Toothpaste ©afrtosh / flickr.com
You might be using too much toothpaste. ABC News asked around, and most experts recommend that you use a pea-sized blob of toothpaste when you brush. You should also make sure that toothpaste has fluoride in it. Using too much toothpaste can actually damage and stain your teeth over time, proving too much of a good thing is definitely real.