5 Convenient Life Hacks for the Summer

This is supposed to be the time for relaxing, right? Yet small things like insects, opening a bag of chips wrong, and getting your valuables stolen at the beach can surely make you want to tear your hair out. The solution? Start hacking.

Whether you’re spending your summer out in the sun or right in your Tagaytay rest house for sale, these might come in handy any time of the year.

1) The Chip Bowl

Say all your friends have come over and you’re all sharing a single bag of Doritos. It can get messy, especially when you’re all trying to dig your arms into the bottom of the bag. Get rid of that problem with the custom chip bowl.

How to:
• Open the bag by cutting off the top.
• Fold the opening inward.
• Push chips up from the bottom, tucking in the bag underneath.
• Watch the chips rise to the brim.

2) Coffee Cubes

Don’t you just hate it when you just want a decent iced coffee but the ice cubes won’t quit making your coffee bland once it melts? Double up the coffee by using the ice tray to make coffee jelly cubes, a delicious way to keep the coffee iced.

How to:
• Make a coffee jelly mix. Recipes may differ, but they always involve coffee and gelatin.
• Pour them into an ice tray.
• Stick the tray into the freezer.
• Pop the coffee cubes into some coffee or milk.
• Be cooler than all your friends with bland iced coffee.

3) Makeshift Tunes

So now you’re in the middle of camp and in desperate need to sing along to all the songs of Coldplay. But you and all your friends have forgotten to bring speakers. Get creative and make your own set of speakers.

How to:
• Take the cardboard tubes out of two tissue rolls.
• Stick these two together with some duct tape or any other adhesive.
• Cut open a slit in the middle of the long tube for your phone.
• With a pair of scissors, a key, or any sharp object, cut up holes in two plastic cups, right in the size of the cardboard tubes.
• Attach the plastic cups on either end of the cardboard tube.
• Place your phone into the slit.
• Rock out to Coldplay.

4) Popsicle Umbrella

Popsicles and sticky fingers often go together, and it’s never fun. You can never stop the popsicle from melting, especially in this weather. Solve the problem of sticky fingers by making a popsicle umbrella.

How to:
• Take a piece of cupcake liner or wrapper.
• On the bottom, make a slit exactly the size of the popsicle stick.
• Slide it under the popsicle, so that the cup can catch any of the melted ice cream.
• Take your time eating that popsicle.

5) Sunscreen Safe

Sad truth is that we can’t always be sure the people around us are a hundred percent honest. Thievery exists. Think about how many beach trips have been destroyed because someone stole your cellphone, or your watch, or your three hundred-dollar pair of sunglasses. Never experience that again by concealing your valuables in more smartly.

How to:
• Pop open an empty sunscreen/shampoo bottle.
• Cut the nozzle or the narrow opening off.
• Clean out the bottle so that the residue of the sunscreen or shampoo is gone.
• Put your valuables inside the bottle.
• Clip the lid on.
• Enjoy the sun. Don’t stress. No one’s going to want to steal your sunscreen.

Brittany, the premier name in luxury real estate in the Philippines, is a subsidiary of Vista Land & Lifescapes, the largest and most successful homebuilder in the Philippines and pioneer in themed real estate development. With Brittany’s Old World European and American-themed projects, Brittany creates masterpieces of upscale living for sophisticated home buyers with a taste for artful living. Brittany offers a fine selection of home designs in excellent locations: Portofino in Alabang, Georgia Club in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, La Posada in Sucat, and Crosswinds in Tagaytay.