I'm a sucker for a life hack, but most of them require super-specific items that you'd NEVER have laying around your house like pool noodles, spray paint, or a gallon of slime. I'm always on the lookout for practical hacks that don't break the bank. So without further ado, I present 23 life hacks you can do with the humble ~rubber band~:
1. "We needed to disassemble a shelf in an office and we didn’t have a mallet. Rubber bands + hammer = mallet."
2. "Use two rubber bands to get every last drop of your sauce."
3. "Pencil has a lousy eraser? Use a rubber band tied in a knot."
4. "Put a rubber band around the inside of the pockets of your shorts and never have to worry about your phone or keys on a run."
5. "A magnet taped to a rubber band. It's been more reliable than any stud finder I’ve ever purchased."
6. "Reuse rubber bands from produce like broccoli to extend the life of your bar of soap."
7. "Tie a rubber band around bottle caps. The extra traction makes them 100x easier to twist open!"
8. "I lost a screw in my glasses, so I used a few tiny rubber bands to hold the lens retainer down and a staple to hold the rubber bands in place."
9. "Transport your knives with an empty paper towel roll and rubber band."
10. "Add rubber bands on the ends of hangers to prevent clothes from slipping off."
11. "Combine the not-so-frequently used items in your pencil case with a rubber band, so you can find the more frequently used ones (pencil, blue and red pen, eraser, etc.) easily."
12. "Join an empty tissue box to your new one with some rubber bands for an instant used-tissue disposal."
13. "I got tired of family members using a cup then abandoning it, so now we each have our own colored rubber band we put around whichever cup we’re using that day…and I end up washing fewer dishes."
14. "You can make a water gun or spray bottle with a old water bottle and two rubber bands."
15. "Kids using too much hand soap? Wrap a rubber band around the pump to limit how much comes out."
16. "Do you travel a lot? Are you sick of the do not disturb sign falling off the knob every time you open the door? A rubber band from the business center will hold it back."
17. "Virtually identical bottles messing you up? Put different colored rubber bands around the caps."
18. "Rolled up sleeves keep falling down? Put rubber bands around the rolled up sleeve to keep them in place!"
19. "No in-flight TV? No problem."
20. "Chopsticks + two rubber bands = all the toothpaste in the tube."
21. "You can use a rubber band to prevent a door from latching."
22. Now, here's a meta one. Make your own rubber bands. "I cut up a beyond-repair bike tire into small rubber bands. I even made a little rubber band ball :)"
23. And finally, not a hack, but look at how satisfying this rubber band caught in a shoe looks:
Now, it's your turn! What's a life hack you've learned recently? It can use rubber bands or not. Comment below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.