Life-Changing Tips That Will Make Your Time a Little Easier

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Becoming an adult means learning all the little life hacks and cautions parents once took care of. However, some things are less obvious than others.

Life-Saving Tips

Social media users gathered to share their top ten life-saving tips that everyone should know.

1. Skip the bleach

Ammonia and bleach should never mix. It can create a lethal gas, as most people are aware. However, one user expanded on this ban.

“Do not clean litter boxes or spots where cats have peed with bleach. Cat urine has enough ammonia to create chloramine gas if you try to clean it with bleach. [My] partner was unaware and nearly gassed herself.”

2. There’s a wrong way to put out a fire

A far less common and somewhat counterintuitive warning came from two commenters. “Water is denser than oil, so if you pour water on a grease fire, the water will do two things:

The water won’t smother the flames but will go straight through the oil, displacing the oil and causing the burning oil to overflow the pot or pan and run everywhere.

2. There’s a wrong way to put out a fire

2. Trapped under the layer of burning oil, the water will flash to steam, and the pressure will build until it erupts, sending oil flying in all directions. This aerosolized oil will then ignite in mid-air.

“So you’ve turned a small fire in a pan into a fireball.”

A better solution? According to Very Well Health, pouring baking soda or salt over the entire fire will snuff it out. You can also use a lid or baking sheet to cover the pan, which blocks the oxygen the fire needs to keep burning.

3. Don’t store those loose batteries together

Speaking of fires, one user warned against lazy battery storage. “9-volt [batteries] can spark when they touch each other. I had several 9-volt [batteries] in a box in my tv stand, and they sparked and then started an actual fire.”

“Had to throw the entire stand outside. If my wife and I hadn’t been there watching tv, it’s likely that our entire house would have burned down.”

4. Flooded roads can be deadly

No one likes taking the long way around. It’s tempting to use the shortest route, even if a little water is the way.

“Don’t drive through water on a flooded road even if it’s only a few inches,” one comment cautioned. “The road can be gone underneath, or your car can get pulled into a deeper section of water. People die every year from this.”

5. Listen to those pre-operation instructions

Before surgery, doctors tell patients not to consume any food or drink. But why? “You’re told not to eat on the day of a surgery because of the chance that you’ll vomit under anesthesia and then aspirate it into your lungs, which could be deadly.”

6. That breath before sneezing is more important than you think

“One day, I was telling a joke, and running out of breath, and felt a sneeze coming, and decided I could spend the last of my air on nailing the punchline then worry about the sneeze.

“Right as I had expelled the last of my breath, the sneeze decided it couldn’t wait,” one user shared.

6. That breath before sneezing is more important than you think

“When you sneeze, your muscles try to quickly, forcefully constrict your lungs to push the air out of them. This happens even when there’s no air to squeeze out. For me, that meant dislocating two rib heads. Since that day, about 15 years ago, I have had pain related to that injury, sometimes so bad I can’t sleep.”

7. Beware the riptide

Riptides are water currents that go in the opposite direction of other tides. At the beach, this means they can pull a swimmer further out into the ocean—very quickly and suddenly.

“If you’re ever caught in a riptide,” a commenter advised, “Swim almost parallel to the shore rather than straight against the current. This will slowly bring you in rather than fatigue you for basically no progress.”

8. Do NOT pick up a fallen person

Helping someone up can seem like the kind thing to do, but you might cause more harm than good.

“If you see someone fall over, don’t try to drag them to their feet immediately. Offer to help them up if they need it but don’t pick them up! Can’t believe it needs to be said, but I fell at work a few years ago, and a few people tried to get me to stand on what turned out to be a dislocated ankle.”

Head and spinal injuries are also possible with falls—moving a person can seriously complicate these injuries.

9. Careful with those pot lids

“Don’t place pot lids rim-down on glass stoves while cooking,” a user warned. “If they’re wet, they can create a seal and absolutely shatter all the glass when you pick it up.”

10. Metal and microwaves don’t mix

Everyone knows metal and microwaves don’t mix, right?

Well, it’s only common knowledge if someone tells you, as one social media user shared. “I myself didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to put metal in a microwave until I was 19. I just never knew it because no one told me and because I had never put metal in a microwave before, so I never found out for myself (thankfully).”

“When I was accidentally about to microwave a metal plate, I was questioned why the hell I would do that, and I said it’s because I didn’t know because no one told me.”