Brilliant tips for every day

25 clever ideas to make life easier

Posted on November 01, 2011 in Bed, Bath & Kitchen, Decor & Furniture, Organise & Personalise by Simone

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Via: amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com

Why didn’t I think of that?! We guarrantee you’ll be uttering those words more than once at these ingenious little tips, tricks and ideas that solve everyday problems … some you never knew you had! (Above: hull strawberries easily using a straw).

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Via: apartmenttherapy.com

Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes.

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Via: unplggd.com

Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or computer screen with WD40 (also works on walls).

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Via: athomewithrealfood.blogspot.com

Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box by securing with a rubber band.

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Via: marthastewart.com

Overhaul your linen cupboard – store bedlinen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match.

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Via: realsimple.com

Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone / iPod in a bowl – the concave shape amplifies the music.

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Via: savvyhousekeeping.com

Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags.

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Via: iheartnaptime.net

Add this item to your beach bag. Baby powder gets sand off your skin easily – who knew?!

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Via: realsimple.com

Attach a velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys.

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Via: flickr.com

Look up! Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor.

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Via: instructables.com

Gotcha! Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a stocking over the vacuum hose.

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Via: realsimple.com

Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting crosses into a box lid.

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Via: stephmodo.com

For those who can’t stand the scrunching and bunching: how to perfectly fold a fitted sheet.

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Via: sprwmn.blogspot.com

Forever losing your bathroom essentials? Use magnetic strips to store bobby pins (and tweezers and clippers) behind a vanity door

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Via: realsimple.com

A tip for holiday packing. Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty soles rubbing on your clothes. And you can find them in just about every hotel!

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Via: familyfun.go.com

A muffin pan becomes a craft caddy. Magnets hold the plastic cups down to make them tip-resistant.

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Via: unplggd.com

Bread tags make the perfect-sized cord labels.

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Via: kiboomu.com

Bake cupcakes directly in ice-cream cones – so much more fun and easier for kids to eat. Definitely doing this!

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Via: squawkfox.com

Microwave your own popcorn in a plain brown paper bag. Much healthier and cheaper than the packet stuff.

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Via: jengrantmorris.blogspot.com

Brilliant space-saver: install a tension rod to hang your spray bottles. Genius!

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Via: 9gag.com

Win friends at breakfast with this heart-shaped egg tutorial. Aww shucks!

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Via: wilton.com

Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough over the top and voila – you have cookie bowls for fruit or ice-cream. Click here for recipe.

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Via: realsimple.com

Freeze Aloe Vera in ice-cube trays for soothing sunburn relief.

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Via: lifehacker.com.au

Gutter garden: Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering.

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Via: re-nest.com

Use egg cartons to separate and store your Christmas decorations.

What do you do on your Mobile?

Infographic Of The Day: All About The Mobile App Market

A superb infographic from GDS reveals three important insights about what people want from the apps on their phones.

Everything you hear about these days is mobile-app this and mobile-app that. But what does the mobile-app market look like? What do people want from apps? And what does the competitive landscape look like when you compare iPhone to Windows to Android?

Lucky for you, we have answers, thanks to James West of GDS Infographics, who created this superb collection of facts and figures for the iStrategy conference. Let's dive in.

Games are obviously the killer app of the mobile market--64% of people who pay for an app also download a game; other popular ones include social networking, weather, entertainment, and banking:

[Click to view larger]

But the really astounding stat lies at the bottom of that chart: Despite all the noise about Android owning more market share than Apple, Apple has 300,000 apps available compared to Android's truly pitiful 25,000. You be the judge about whether that's because Apple was first or because developers find Apple apps easier to develop or because the device's users simply use more apps--it's hard to deny how significant a content lead Apple's iOS has over its competition.

Moving onto the next chunk of insights. You might think that since games dominate the app market, they would be the only things that people are willing to pay for. To some extent, that's true: The top five paid-for apps on the market are all games, while the top five free apps all have some sort of function:

There's a massive gap in the app market.

But again, pay attention to the bottommost charts in that panel (above). While 93% of people who paid for apps might be willing to pay for a game, 84% are also willing to pay for a productivity app and 77% are willing to pay for a food app. Compare that to the things that people actually bought, in the first panel we saw above: Only 21% actually bought a productivity app and only 18% actually bought a food app.

That means one of two things: Either people say they'll buy things they actually won't. Or: There's a massive gap in the app market. I find the latter option a bit more likely: As app developers have chased the dream of creating the next Angry Birds, they've left some huge gaps in the market. As I've argued before, we're coming to a point where if something is important to you, then it lives as an app on your phone. But developing all those applications is a far different task than developing a game: For one, you have to think in a deep way about the user, rather than just the user experience. In other words, building that new generation of apps is hard work. But that's where the real opportunities lie in the app market.

The last panel brings us to some different insights. But in many ways, this is the most surprising information of all. Check out the first chart: iPhone, Android, and Windows 7 users all download games at about the same rate. But iPhone users spend way, way more time actually playing those games:

I suspect that there's a few things going on here: For one, given the huge lead that Apple has in apps available, the games might simply be better.

But I would bet there's something more subtle going on as well: People relate to their iPhone a bit differently. All you have to do is pick one up and compare it to the competition. You quickly realize that in many ways it's a friendlier device, with a less complicated interface. It feels a lot less like a productivity tool than it does a window onto this big zoo of apps. That's a very subtle effect that arises from a slew of design details. But it's nonetheless true that those design details can change your attitude to a product--and how you use it.

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