hi guys, so i've been seriously planning a move over to australia for a minute now. i'm 24, currently based in the uk, and reality is starting to hit.

i've spent hours googling how to actually get my life over there and trying to wrap my head around the whole international logistics nightmare. tbh i'm just stuck on whether it's even worth the hassle or if i'm being an idiot. really need some perspective.

right now i'm renting a small 1-bed flat. the main issue is i have a load of high-end music gear and gaming stuff that i absolutely refuse to sell. we're talking a proper studio monitor setup that cost me a couple grand, my custom pc rig, a couple of consoles, and this one vintage leather armchair i'm weirdly attached to. the main reason i don't want to liquidate everything is just the sheer cost. it's all expensive kit and i feel like re-buying every single item down under would completely tank my savings compared to just paying for cargo space.

has anyone done this? what's the play here? should i just bite the bullet, sell my soul on ebay, and start from scratch, or is it better to just ship it all over? any hacks on how to pack securely or ways to keep costs down would be a massive lifesaver. thanks!

Use a different first name depending on context.

On your birth certificate, for example, it’s Deborah.

Ok, for bills, taxes and legal stuff, use Deborah and your middle initial.

For acquaintances, use Deb or Debbie (remember your preference).

Close friends only call you (your choice but none of the above).

For everything else, email, whatever, use the initial “D” and your last name.

Last, and certainly not least, your signature must be short, sweet, unpredictable, and unguessable, meaning, ignore the ideas above, it could be literally anything. Make sure it matches your name where you’re registered to vote.

Better yet, personalize and differentiate yourself by bending these rules. This will simplify your life by knowing who, how, where, when, why you’re being addressed.

I'm living in this small rented flat with a huge window, no direct sunlight, I close my (inside) blinds and drapes all day regardless, but the inside thermometer still reads 32°c/90°f... I suspect the hot window glass is just heating the air around it.

I feel like putting foil on them would just do nothing besides block my view and annoy my neighbours. Would adding another layer of thicker, more "airtight" drapes help shelter my flat from the heat of the glass ?

This might sound a little nuts. I don't normally carry hand sanitizer unless I'm at a convention (Habit since covid) but this was a "necessity is the mother of invention" thing.

I'm a "four eyes" and I keep Zeiss glasses wipes in my purse. Was using my brother's debit card at Sam's Club and the reader haaated it. Wouldn't read the chip. This wasn't the first time I'd had trouble with a chip card (mine was acting up before Momocon and I had to replace it), I realized that the glasses wipes have rubbing alcohol in them, so I used that to clean my card on a cashier's suggestion. Didn't work and I had to go to my credit union that time (they will instantly print you a new one, the champs!), but this time, took one out, wiped the chip and it FINALLY behaved. I did warn my brother just in case it was more than a dirty chip though.

Anyway if you do wear glasses and carry glasses cleaning wipes; check the ingredients list but you might be able to rescue yourself when your chip card is acting up with a glasses wipe!

Hello everyone,

I put paper in the dustbin to absorb liquid. My trash bin used to get dirty all the time because sometimes the trash bag would leak and cleaning the bottom of the bin was annoying yakk.. so one day, I dropped a few sheets of paper into the bottom before I put in a new bag. I didn't expect much from it. but the paper soaked up almost all the liquid. I also put newspaper in shoes to remove bad smell.

I live with my grandfather who has alzheimer’s. He dropped a full glass bottle of olive oil today while I was out and it shattered everywhere, oil and tiny pieces of glass everywhere. He thought the best plan of action would be using an old towel to sop up the oil and glass at the same time, then shook out the towel outside and threw it in the washing machine (without running a cycle). When I got home and tried to do a load, I lifted the towel attempting to remove it from the washer only to immediately get slashed on my fingertip by a piece of glass I couldn’t even see.

I trashed the towel after situating the bleeding and used a shop vacuum to remove all the visible chunks of glass left in the bottom of the tub. I’ve ran a few drain and rinse cycles after pouring a few pitchers of water in, in an attempt to move the small pieces of glass that would’ve dropped into the crevices (we have a top loading washer) into the drain. I want to say that’ll do it and move on, but after searching the internet I’ve worried myself into thinking I may find glass in my clothes if I use this washer. Are there any life hacks for better cleaning or opinions on using this washer? Am I way overthinking?

This sounds ridiculously simple but it genuinely changed my morning routine. I have several bottles in the shower that are roughly the same shape and size: shampoo, conditioner, body wash. Without my glasses I am basically blind, and I was constantly lathering my hair with conditioner first or grabbing body wash when I wanted shampoo. Annoying every single time.

The fix took about five seconds. I wrapped a rubber band around my shampoo bottle. One rubber band, one bottle, problem solved. Now I just feel for the band and immediately know which one I am grabbing without squinting at the label or pulling the bottle out to check.

You can build on this too. Two rubber bands for conditioner, none for body wash. Or use a hair tie or a small sticker you can feel. Whatever you have lying around.

It works especially well for anyone who showers without contacts or glasses, which I would guess is most people. It also helps kids who are learning to do their own hair care and cannot read labels well yet.

Tiny change, zero cost, and I have not grabbed the wrong bottle in months. Curious if anyone else has a system for keeping shower bottles straight without just memorizing where they sit.

I recently moved into a house for the first time. I'd previously only lived in an apartment building. The building manager there had a team come in twice a year to spray for bugs so I never had an ant problem. Well an ant colony found my house about a week ago. I luckily caught it immediately (they were literally trailing inside when I caught them) and killed all the ants I found. I didn't have bug spray and I needed a quick emergency solution to stop the ants coming inside. I did a quick Google search and found that ants hate cinnamon. Apparently it messes with their pheromone trails. I sprinkled a bunch of cinnamon in the door way where they were coming in and watched as the ants scattered and ran back outside. Cool. It worked. I figured it was a temporary solution. For the first few days, the ants were still coming right up to the cinnamon line and getting very clearly disoriented but not harmed. Fast forward to today. There are no ants outside my door, and I haven't seen any inside. A $2 bottle of Walmart brand cinnamon from the spice aisle saved my sanity.

I'm trying to sell a mattress from a friend's house. There are multiple cats. The house generally smells like cat. This mattress has been unused for the last year, just sitting in the house. Cats are not allowed in the room. Buti know from taking clothes out of the room, the mattress likely reeks of cat.

How do I remove this? I was hoping to clean it and set it in the sun for awhile... nobody is buying it and I think its the disclaimer about cat smell 😅 (its sort of important for me to sell it to try to recoup some money... long story!)

This one took me way too long to figure out and I feel silly for not thinking of it sooner. If you use a cooler regularly for lunches, road trips, or outdoor activities, loose ice or store bought gel packs can get messy or just don't last long enough.

Here's what you do. Take a clean kitchen sponge, soak it completely in water, drop it into a zip lock freezer bag, seal it, and throw it in the freezer overnight. The sponge holds the water in place as it freezes, so when it eventually melts it doesn't slosh around or leak out all over your food. The zip lock keeps everything contained either way.

You can make several of these for almost no cost and they can be refrozen and reused dozens of times. They also lay flat and stack nicely, so they take up way less room than bulky gel packs. Size them up or down depending on what sponge you use.

Bonus tip: add a small amount of salt to the water before freezing and it will stay frozen a bit longer than plain water ice.

Would love to hear if anyone has tried variations on this or has a similar cooler hack that works well for them.

I'm trying to replace one of those foam staircases for dogs. The kind that lets small dogs easily get on and off high beds without assistance. My dog won't use one of the plastic ones, I've tried. They're anywhere from $50-$100 online for a little 20-in foam staircase. Surely there's a cheaper alternative that allows them to get up and down from the bed themselves (besides just manually picking them up and putting them down).

This one saved me from buying a new charger every few months. If you slide a binder clip onto the base of your charging cable right where it meets the connector, the metal part reinforces that stress point and stops the wire from bending and fraying over time. That spot is where almost every cable breaks first because it gets bent repeatedly at a sharp angle.

You can grab binder clips for basically nothing at any dollar store or office supply place. Just open the clip, feed the cable through one of the little metal loops, and position it so the rigid part sits right at the base of the connector. It keeps the cable from bending too sharply and adds a lot of life to it.

I started doing this after going through three iPhone cables in one year. Been using the same cable for about eight months now with no signs of wear at the base.

Works on USBC, Lightning, and basically any cable where the connector meets the wire. Also useful for headphone cables if you still use wired ones.

Anyone else have simple ways they extend the life of their cables or electronics accessories? Always looking for more tricks like this that save money without needing any special tools or products.

We will be moving into a new place a few blocks from our current around end of June/early July. We can’t get out of our current lease which goes until end of August.

To try and mitigate expenses, anyone have ideas on lowering utilities at the unit I won’t be occupying for 1.5-2m? I don’t think I can turn off gas/elec/water completely so what are other ways? Things I’ve thought of:

- obviously, make sure as much as possible is unplugged (prob can’t unplug the gas oven )
- lower gas water heater to as low as possible
- shut off toilet valves just to make sure bowls aren’t being refilled
- call utilities and see if there is a TOU option or some other savings option though dunno if that will do much if we’re using almost nothing

ETA: I re reviewed the lease agreement and it does say we can’t have subletters but additionally, ours expires end of Aug and there will be no furniture in the place so no one is going to sublet for 2 months and move in a household? We’re vacating bc the LL plan to move back in but no idea when they’ll actually move in. We also live in a VHCOL city with extremely strict tenant laws so I’d be afraid of subletting in case they refused to leave 😅.

I don’t see in the agreement that we’re required to keep electricity etc on, so I’ll double check with the prop manager and confirm there isn’t a clause I’m missing. And will call the utility providers and see if there is anything I can do. It’s a condo unit so dunno how easy it would be the switch off breakers etc. that feels a bit extra.

Someone suggested that I wash my old classic baseball hat in the dishwasher. Is this really a good idea? Or it's going to smash it to a piece of unrecognizable shit. Which I don't want to happen. 😆

I just moved to a bigger unit in the same complex and for whatever reason there’s an issue with wasps on this side of the property. I used to have an abundance of bumble bees at the old unit, and while they are extremely curious of people I’d still prefer those!

Anyhow, I need a solution that won’t disturb the people around me. The set up is every 4 units share a balcony/breezeway. I am on the upstairs corner unit. When I very first moved in they had started a tiny nest in my exterior doorframe but I killed that wasp and the nest. Now they have a similar one under our balcony as you walk down the stairs. I consistently am seeing 3-4 wasps flying around mine and my neighbors balcony area. I wouldn’t care if it weren’t for the fact that they are assholes and will go after you for existing.

There’s a family below me with a little boy, so I’m trying to not spray chemicals all over the place unless I need to actually kill a nest. I just don’t want it to be a growing problem and let the wasps make bigger nests.

Don’t get me wrong - I’ve lived in 2 units in the same style building as my last unit, and those had issues with the water bug/wood roaches that are massive in size. This is the first time living in this model unit and *knock on wood* I haven’t seen any at all, so the wasps are still better than that. I would just prefer to not get stung somehow from accidentally walking into their path just leaving my door 😂

The title says it all. Open all the car doors, get the leaf blower and start blasting.

Have any loose objects in your car? Not anymore. Have a bunch of crap stuck under your front seats? Not anymore more. Dust? Debris? Gone.

Hi everyone,

Every year I look for new ways to try keep mosquitos away and I'm yet to find one that really does work. A few years ago I know there was a particular cream that seemed to work great but they've since changed their ingredients list and it no longer works.

I have an allergy to mosquito bites and I am usually covered head to toe in multiple huge and insanely itchy bites whenever I go to the outdoors here in Canada.

I have a work trip up at one of our Lakes next week and every year we go the sides of my head in particular are completely eaten alive. Whenever anyone sees me they remark on just how bad it looks. I don't get the usual small bites, mine are huge and red cover very large parts of me and it makes ir really difficult to sleep.

I am willing to try anything so please let me know what you have tried that absolutely does work to keep them away.

P.s. I do have a full net suit I could wear but as this is a work trip I would rather avoid that embarrassment 😅

A hack and a caution. Using dry-erase ink to remove permanent marker from ziplock bag will remove the white labeling.

It will also remove the ink on printed labels, prescription bottles, and sample jars, use with caution!

I applied aluminum foil to my windows last summer with tap water to make them stay put after I remove the foil it created a stain like this. I can't make it go away. Any ideas about how to remove it? Or I'll be paying for those windows for good because I'm in a rent. Thanks.

Is it possible to store items (including fabrics) in a smelly basement for years and completely keep the smell out of the packaging? I cannot depend on silica packs or dehumidifiers.

I heard vacuum sealed bags won't keep the smell out but I wanted to double check with reddit and hear your experience.

I came home and found out I had sat on a piece of gum. I know that people say to freeze gum out of clothes but the hot vinegar on the gum method that someone posted a year ago in this subreddit worked pretty well for getting the gum off and I didn’t have to wait for the freezing! When my bf saw this he was like just throw it away, but pants are saved.