Little Life Hacks That Make My Life Easier and Better
Little things can add up to big things in terms of time, money, or sanity-saving. I'm sharing hacks for cooking, your house, tech, health and beauty, workouts, and more! 💥
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Food and Cooking Hacks
Cook double (or triple) the amount of food for that meal so that you have planned leftovers - especially chicken. I know there are some people who are anti-leftovers but I am not one of those people. I know there are people who don’t have protein goals but I am not one of those people. 100 grams a day, minimum.
So when I grill chicken, I cook 3 pounds. Half a pound is shrinkage and so I’m left with 2 1/2 pounds. Of which about a pound is eaten that day and then the remaining 1 1/2 pounds is used over the next few days. If you’re more of an air fryer chicken person, I personally pack my air fryer with as much as it can hold within reason, and add a few minutes to the overall cook time.
Straight off my camera roll from earlier this week (above) with recipe (below):
3 pounds of chicken breasts, marinated in a large ziplock with 1/2 to 2/3 cup ranch salad dressing (marinade hack that does not make the chicken taste like ranch, instead this seals in flavor and moisture), 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice or lime juice (doesn’t make it lemony or limey but the acid tenderizes the chicken), 2 teaspoons salt (don’t skip), and pepper to taste.
Seal bag, squish around, refrigerate for 1-4 hours, take out of fridge 30 minutes before you grill.
Grill hack is to grill it over medium heat, take it easy, slow and steady, so you don’t burn it. Don’t crank that grill all the way as hot as it goes, please
Take the temperature and know for sure it’s 165F, rest it 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
Check out these grilling recipes too!
Make a stir fry rather than letting produce go to waste! Or soup when it’s soup season. This Chicken Egg Roll Bowl (left below) is a stir fry inspired recipe that I’ve added just about everything to that’s not listed in the recipe - zucchini, mushrooms, onions of any color, broccoli, summer squash, spinach, kale, fresh herbs - and it always turns out great. The same can be said for this Pork Noodle Stir Fry (right below) add zucchini, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, seriously almost anything you have in your crisper drawer!
Tech Hacks
Get someone else’s contact info stored in your iPhone without typing it in! Just touch the tip of your iPhone to the tip of their iPhone kind of like they’re kissing and voila, your contact info is shared/theirs is received (you have to allow/accept). More info here!
This is particularly useful when you’re at an event, you meet someone, you want to get their contact info…. But….you may have had a few drinks making this simple task more clumsy than it needs to be, you’re bad with technology anyway, you have fat fingers, you forgot your readers, problem solved.
Save or add people with descriptive details. I never just say Allison Smith in my own phone. I always enter in things like: Allison Smith/tall blonde from Jenny D’s party. Or Allison Smith/mom of Sophia on cheer team. How many of us enter other women’s info in our phones based on their child and connection to our own child? You get the point though. I meet a lot of people and while we had an amazing connection in the moment, I have a lot of moments and my memory 2 weeks later may not serve. So this is 100% always necessary and helpful.
Tech-Related Book Hack: Sometimes if you come across a book that’s free on Kindle Unlimited, download it as usual, and be sure to check your Audible Not-Yet-Started books because sometimes it will give you the free audiobook too.
For my book fans, I keep all the books I’m reading updated in my Amazon Store - Books so you can easily find and grab my favorites there.
Also check out my book reviews.
Household and Shopping Hacks
Buy everything that’s bulky and/or repetitive on Amazon (or your favorite big box retailer with delivery) and let them do the work of bringing you your 112 rolls of toilet paper, 10 triple rolls of paper towels, 12 pack of wipes, 10 pounds of cat litter, etc. directly to your doorstep. Think of all those steps in grocery store or big box retailer parking lots you didn’t take, steps through the actual store, wrestling with a cart with bad wheels, the long check out lines, hauling it from your driveway into the other corner of the house, only to end up paying more for this “shopping pleasure trip” than had you just Amazon’ed it.
Put things on auto-replenish or autoship that you know you’re going to use anyway if this helps you. For me, I don’t tend to autoship because I have a 1000 square foot house with no storage so I literally can’t budget space for 112 extra rolls of toilet paper until I’m exactly ready. And I’m also very on top of what I need and am fortunate to live in San Diego where most Amazon orders arrive either same-day or next day delivery for no extra charge. Some markets are not like that such as Las Vegas or Salt Lake City because I speak from personal experience. Even so just plan ahead by 2-3 days and you’re golden.
Most things are always cheaper online than they are in your actual store so plan ahead and buy online. Whether you use Amazon, Target, Walmart, or something else, things like dish soap, laundry detergent, pet products of any kind, health and beauty items like deodorant, cotton balls, toothpaste, body wash, drugstore level makeup like mascara, facial products, Tylenol or Advil and their respective generics, it’s always cheaper! There are exceptions. I have never found tampons to be cheaper on Amazon. If you have other ones, please share in the comments.
Also for two more days this is going on and you NEED to check it out! ⬇️
The One In, One Out Principle to Buying and Donating. When it comes to clothing purchases, I try very hard to live by this rule because again, back to my small house with no storage situation, so if I buy a shirt, a pair of jeans, dress shoes, tennis shoes, etc. I also try to give one away. It doesn’t have to be one shirt in, one shirt out. But something should go. If I’m buying more, that means I’m not wearing what I have, so why do I still want that what I’m not using in my closet? I don’t. Let it go to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, church, or many times in San Diego, I just put a bag of clothes or a pair of gently used running shoes on the street corner and because of the large unhoused population we have, it disappears in minutes. I try not to actually let my closet get to the point where I have bags and bags of clothes to donate.
Hair Hacks
On hair wash day, do a hair treatment while you go about your day or workout. For me, this means in the afternoon, I wet my hair (just splash some water from the sink on it) because for best results, the K18 Hair Treatment I use should be applied to damp hair. I rub it into my ends, tie my hair up, and 4-6 hours later when I wash my hair, it’s soft and been treated all day. That hair treatment actually repairs damaged hair shafts, not just covers it up, best treatment ever.
Use a hair drying towel to save time off your blowdrying routine AND expose your hair to less heat. Best towel I’ve ever used is the Crown Affair Hair Towel. I have one, my daughter has hers, I’ve gifted it, it’s wonderful.
Stop wasting hours of your life washing your hair. My favorite dry shampoo is The Dry Shampoo from Crown Affair. Life changing, life altering, takes day 5 hair and makes it look like day 2 hair. I have shaved hundreds of hours a year off washing, combing through, and blowing out my long hair. I’ve never met a woman with medium to long hair who says, oh I wish I could spend more time washing my hair. LOL. Get this dry shampoo and free up some time.
Workout Hacks
Put your workout in your planner just like any other appointment. You’re not canceling on your dentist, your kid’s parent-teacher conferences, or that Zoom with your boss last minute or because “something came up”. So you’re not canceling your workout either once it’s penciled in, booked, and locked.
A walking pad will save you when nothing else will. I wrote about my Space Saving Walking Pad (currently ON SALE!!) and that I really did not want to get on board with the walking pad trend because I want to walk outside, period. But that’s not always possible due to work or weather which is how this pad came into my life. I had very specific requirements: Must be as small as possible since I have no dedicated place to keep it up, must fold, must be white (I cannot stand bulky black exercise equipment in my home), must be under 50 pounds, must go to at least 4.0mph speed, must be quiet. This delivers on all fronts 100%. I fold it and keep it under my bed when not in use. As long as you’re walking slow but steady, you can take work calls, put a standing desk up, plop your computer on it, and treat yourself to 2k-5k steps before 9AM.
Stop making excuses for why you don’t work out. No excuses - excuses keep you weak. Get up 30-60 minutes earlier. Put down phone and stop doomscrolling. And please for the love of God, please stop staring at a screen when you could be moving your body - whether that’s a movie, show, series, social media scroll, or going down an internet rabbit hole - I promise you will feel SO much better doing something for your health than you will sitting on your butt staring a screen. Enough said. It’s simple, not easy.
Tell me what little hacks do you do that make your life easier? Share below in the comments and help everyone!