Life Hacks: My 2020 Potluck San Diego Presentation!

If you attended my presentation in Temecula, California at Potluck 2020: San Diego, these items will look familiar!  But even if you didn’t attend, you might find some of these items useful too.  They all make my everyday life more efficient, convenient, and/or cheaper (who doesn’t like saving money?), therefore freeing up more of my time, energy, and money to spend on other things (like editing your photos!).  Please note: this post contains some referral and/or affiliate links.  What this means is, if you click on one of the links and purchase the item shown, I may receive a small commission from the company selling that item (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases).  This happens at no additional cost to you – the price of the item is the same whether you order through one of my links or not.  

Now without further adieu, happy shopping!

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Storage & Organization:

Over the door organizers – from left to right, these are the exact items I have inside the doors of:

1. my office (for misc. office supplies)
2. linen closet (for iron/ironing board)
3. laundry room (for big step stool)
4. master bedroom closet (for shoes)
5. pantry
6. If you have wire shelves in your closets, lining them will help keep items from tipping over or falling through the slats.  Skip the cheap thin liners though, and go for something thicker like cardboard, or coroplast (what I use).  I bought mine in a big sheet from Home Depot and cut it to size (click HERE), but you can also find it on Amazon in various sizes (see below for an example).
7. And while you’re organizing, label everything with my beloved painter’s tape.

Click the images below to go to the corresponding item’s page on Amazon:

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In the kitchen – from left to right, click the images below to go to the corresponding item’s page on Amazon:

1. Battery operated salt & pepper grinders let you season with one hand (no more chicken/fish/meat fingers on your grinders!).
2. Kitchen calculator helps you scale recipes up or down, and convert measurements (how many cups is 25 tablespoons???).
3. Declutter your utensil drawer by removing the ones you use least.  Stick ’em in tall coffee mugs like I did, or use a stainless utensil crock like the one from Amazon shown below (especially if you tend to break your crocks by dropping the utensils in like James C. does!)
4. Stick coffee filters between your non-stick pots and pans to help protect the non-stick coatings from dings and scratches that make the coatings start to peel or chip faster.
5. Use inexpensive dishwashing pans inside your freezer/pantry/cabinets to make small items easier to look through – just slide the pan out, get what you need, and put it back in.  Handy for those of us who don’t have drawers or pull out shelves in those areas.  I bought mine at Dollar Tree, but the ones shown below are the same size and just as inexpensive.
6. If you haven’t discovered the joys of Glad Press ‘n Seal, let me just say it will make you hate plastic wrap a lot less.

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Home improvement/maintenance – from left to right, click the images below to go to the corresponding item’s page on Amazon:

1. 3m Command picture hanging strips mean no more crooked frames on your walls!
2. 3m Command cord bundlers help manage cords behind your tv, or on your small appliances.
3. 3m Command small wire hooks allow you hang items in the “dead” space in your closets.
4. Magnetic strips organize everything from tools, to kitchen knives (stick ’em UNDER your upper cabinets!), to scissors.  I purchased mine from Harbor Freight, but the ones from Amazon below are similar.
5. If you shop at Harbor Freight, you probably have a bunch of these freebie blue led lights.  I use them in all my closets.  Get them from Harbor Freight, or order them from Amazon using the link below.
6. Transfer paint to quart size glass mason jars and store inside the house to take up less space and make the paint last longer.
7. A magnetic wristband makes hanging a gallery’s worth of pictures faster and easier.

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More home improvement/maintenance – from left to right, click the images below to go to the corresponding item’s page on Amazon:

1. Kraft paper isn’t just for dust covers on the backs of picture frames.  Use it to plan gallery walls and to make any kind of templates.  My roll is 30″ wide.
2. Several people mentioned having trouble finding a cutter for their kraft paper rolls.  This one fits my 30″ roll.
3. If you use landscape edging in your yard that requires stakes, skip buying the overpriced extra stakes and buy a box of 6 inch galvanized landscaping staples instead.
4. An Easy Bagger helps hold your lawn bags open and keeps branches from poking through while you’re filling the bag.  The Easy Bagger can be purchased from Ace Hardware HERE.  If you bag more leaves than limbs, I found a super extra one on Amazon (see below).
5. Alexa devices can be helpful if you live alone.  If you’re within shouting distance of it (and can’t reach your phone), you can call out a friend’s phone number (or their name if you’ve imported your contacts into the device) to get help.

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Electronic organization & money saving apps/extensions:

Ibotta app (for discounts on grocery purchases or other online purchases): https://ibotta.com/r/ronjsxu

Key Ring app (for storing rewards cards/membership cards): https://keyringapp.com/

Good Rx app (for prescription discounts): https://www.goodrx.com/

Honey Browser extension (for automatic coupon codes when shopping online): joinhoney.com/ref/6nwckj

OneTab browser extension (consolidate all those open tabs!): https://www.one-tab.com/

Evernote (convert your piles of paper and bookmarked recipes/articles into searchable PDFs): click HERE

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Miscellaneous:

The miscellaneous items I couldn’t categorize – from left to right, click the images below to go to the corresponding item’s page on Amazon:

1. Tiny rubber spatula helps you get every last drop out of your expensive makeup and skincare bottles.
2. A paper clip holder makes an amazing bobby pin dispenser.
3. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are the best tool I’ve found to clean the white soles on Vans, Converse, or other white soled shoes.
4. (*not pictured*) Depotting makeup into a palette makes it easier to travel with and use.  I use metal palettes from Make Up For Ever (click HERE).   I couldn’t find a similar one on Amazon, I only saw the kind made from paperboard there (which I don’t recommend, if you saw the dings my metal one has gotten, you would understand why I don’t suggest buying palettes that are essentially made from cardboard).

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Some items that were not in my presentation, but came up during discussion – from left to right:

1. This little step stool folds up and takes up very little space, making it easy to store (used by me and Jenny DM).
2. An assortment of felt furniture pads comes in handy for many things, this is what I used on the back of my magnetic strips when I hung them on pegboard (it keeps the strips from angling downward).
3. One piece mason jar lids do exist (this one’s for you Mark)!
4. Kate mentioned these Post-It Labels are easy to remove.

Click the image to go to the corresponding item’s page on Amazon:

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