TIPS AND TRICKS

RENEW, REPURPOSE,

FROM MAKER TO MAKER

Who doesn’t appreciate a really good tip now and then? Especially the kind, as one reader put it, “that changes your life.” Whether it’s something as easy as getting permanent marker off your whiteboard or as clever as repurposing bathroom hardware to help ripen bananas, we all rely on our friends and neighbors to tip us off to what’s new and good. —Arwen O’Reilly

Banana Hacking

When Sarah and Daniel Drucker moved into their new apartment, chaos reigned. “After our first grocery trip, the kitchen counter was a mess and there was nowhere to put the produce. But there was a box of shower curtain rings on the bathroom floor. We used a hinged, circular ring that snaps closed. Slide the open ring between the stems at the top of a bunch of bananas, and close it around any accessible bar or hook where it can swing freely, so the bananas will ripen evenly. If the ring is closed all the way you should be able to yank a banana off the bunch without undoing anything.”

Tools in a Jumble?

Corwin Hardham of Squid Labs suggests: “Try using a big carabiner as a cool means to store your box-end wrenches. The beener keeps all the sizes in order (or more precisely, you can keep them in order on the beener), and the whole mess clips to your belt for easy transport ... and for making more jingling noises than your high school janitor.”

Illustrations by Tim Lillis

Have a tip for MAKE readers? Send to tips@makezine.com.

Lock It Up

Wendy Boswell, over at the Lifehacker blog, has a great tip for remembering your lock combinations: “Just add your birthday or other important date (the month, day, and last two digits of the year) to the lock combination numbers and write it in permanent marker on the back of the lock. No one else will have a clue what the numbers mean, and if you forget, all you have to do is subtract.” makezine.com/go/lockit

The Sharpie Incident

Now in my opinion, Sanford, the makers of Sharpie and Expo dry erase markers, haven’t done enough to differentiate their products. It’s all too easy when you’re caught in the fire of a new idea to pick up that permanent marker and scrawl all over your whiteboard, only to find out afterward that no amount of scrubbing with the “eraser” will get it off. But wait, there is a solution! And it’s easier than you think! Just write over the permanent marker with the dry erase marker, and your scrawl will disappear like magic. I first discovered this by accident, but there’s a great post on wikiHow.com about it, too. makezine.com/go/sanford

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