r/LifeProTips • • Feb 09 '26

Announcing r/AskLifeProTips

222 Upvotes

For many years, redditors have been allowed to request Life Pro Tips here on a limited basis.

Now, there is a place where you can request Life Pro Tips on an unlimited basis!

If you are seeking a Life Pro Tip, please ask in our new subreddit r/AskLifeProTips!


r/LifeProTips • • 10h ago

Home & Garden LPT Raised Working Surface

130 Upvotes

Living in New England, my summer wardrobe & my winter wardrobe are very different. Every spring & every fall I swap short sleeve & long sleeve shirts. The most convenient place to do this is my bed. Remove hangers, fold & put away, etc.

Except, I'm 6 feet tall. My back kills me for a day or two afterwards. Until I discovered large folding bins, inverted. There are plenty of types & sizes. Just flip them over to make one or more flat surfaces.

One 3 pack of 45 L bins covers enough of the bed to do large garment folding. When done, collapse them & put them in the back of the closet.

There are other, similar jobs around the house. Worst case? Use them as lightweight bins. Don't overload them.


r/LifeProTips • • 2d ago

Finance LPT: Start tracking prices of things you want to buy on Black Friday

1.2k Upvotes

Chances are if you’re like me, you keep a list of things that you wanna purchase, but that are not important enough to buy immediately and you save to purchase on Black Friday because saving some money on them would be nice.

More and more it’s become common practice for retailers to mark up the everyday price of something in order to show an inflated savings when really the discount is only a few percentage points.

This will allow you to make more educated buying decisions on things you may or may not need.


r/LifeProTips • • 3h ago

Traveling LPT: Bypass the shitty hotel TVs

0 Upvotes

We’ve all turned up a hotel before and found that the TV either hasn’t been touched in the past 15 years, dosent have the streaming service you want or charges a fortune for movies you already pay for.

The workaround? Buy a fire stick/roku/apple tv it and bring it with you whenever you go to a hotel. They’re absolutely tiny and are also cheap af. Most hotel TVs let you switch input, so just select the device and bypass the hotel bs altogether. Saved me so many headaches over the years. Also stops you from having to sign in to all your streaming apps all over again.


r/LifeProTips • • 8h ago

Social LPT: Use text replacement (sometimes an autocorrect feature or keyboard setting) to correct language you wish to adapt while you speak.

0 Upvotes

The language we use is important. It has massive impacts on how we view the world. But it’s difficult to consciously choose, those word choices often come from a more subconscious part of our brain most of us don’t get to tap into.

Your phone has an autocorrect feature that you can add specific text replacements to. When you’re typing, if you actually wanted to use the original text, it’s the top left predictive text option, generally, so isn’t lost. But you can set your phone to automatically replace words!

One of the ones I’m using it for is AI -> Inorganic Intelligence. Honestly, this one is just a shortcut. I’m adapting my language to something that isn’t adopted by anyone else, so can’t just say II or nobody will understand me. But typing Inorganic Intelligence out again and again where others just use AI feels clunky. But since I want to commit to the verbiage change, and I don’t want to make that an experience that causes me friction, I’m just changing my text replacement settings to convert AI to Inorganic Intelligence.

Maybe you have a friend that changed their name as part of an identity transition, and you want to make sure you don’t dead name them while speaking to / about them. You could just add a text replacement (and it only takes a few taps to remove, this is temporary) to correct their name.

You’ll often notice the word change as you type, assuming you pay attention as you type, and that literal visual change in front of your eyes helps reinforce adapting your actual language that comes to mind.


r/LifeProTips • • 1d ago

Miscellaneous LPT: Is your hand soap runny? Thicken it with a pinch of table salt!

0 Upvotes

(please note it doesn't work with all kinds of soaps. natural oil-based ones might not work. but it works with most regular store bought brands like softsoap)


r/LifeProTips • • 3d ago

Food & Drink LPT: Use the Print Button for Online Recipes

1.2k Upvotes

If you, like me, are sick of awful recipe websites that pop up ads at critical points of the cook, scroll back to the top while you were checking the ingredients list, or have 4 pages of backstory before the recipe, use the print button! Almost every recipe website has one. It’ll open up a new tab with the simple text, all ingredients in one place, minimal or no ads, and a far easier layout to follow.


r/LifeProTips • • 3d ago

Food & Drink LPT: When smelling to check milk's freshness, pour it into a container first

1.6k Upvotes

Being inside the closed jug or carton can make it smell bad even when its perfectly fine. For things like cream the effect is even worse.


r/LifeProTips • • 5d ago

Miscellaneous LPT: If your cat hates the cone from the vet, make them a cheap, easy onesie out of old clothes.

593 Upvotes

Its super easy.

I haven't ever had a kitten so insistent on licking her spay incision before and she was not handling the cone. I needed something small enough to fit her, and fast, and cheap.

My mom suggested using an old shirt sleeve.

So!

LPT:

  1. Cut the sleeve from an old long sleeve shirt. Measure the length against your cat's body from the sleeve at their neck (make sure it isn't too tight.)

  2. Cut holes for all four legs and make sure you measure where (just eye it, but check against your cat's body where to put the holes. DO NOT CUT WHILE IT IS ON YOUR CAT.)

  3. Cut off the extra length, and cut a triangle shape from the butt end, underneath between the two back leg holes. This is for going to the bathroom.

Do not make the triangle too deep/ toward the belly or they will reach the incision.

  1. Put the new onesie on your baby. Make sure it isn't too tight in the neck/ throat. 2 fingers should fit between the neck and the collar. Make sure it isn't tight in the belly area- it should not press into the incision area at all.

Being tight in the belly area may cause irritation and swelling in the incision site.

  1. They may not like it. But if they tolerate it, they will get used to it and you can use it for the entire length of their recovery.

  2. Do not leave this on the entire recovery: The onesie will become dirty, especially around the incision site.

Remove and wash the onesie and replace it often to prevent infection.

  1. Optional, but usefull: Assuming the shirt you used has 2 arms, cut the other sleeve off and make a second sweater. This allows you to change your baby's onesie when it gets dirty, instead of leaving them bare to lick their incisions or tug at the stitches.

You could technically use this for a dog, as well. And pants instead of a shirt if the animal was large enough lol.


r/LifeProTips • • 3d ago

Miscellaneous LPT: Add detailed delivery instructions to your address.

0 Upvotes

Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and pretty much any other delivery service will let you add delivery details to your address.

If you take a couple of minutes to provide useful details for someone completely unfamiliar with your house, especially if they arrive in the dark, you will have a much better chance of packages not getting skipped or misdelivered.

For Amazon.com, you can go to "Your Addresses" and click on "Add delivery instructions". Put in useful information on how to find your unit (especially floor and side of building) and any specific hints on where to leave packages. "Call me when you arrive" is not helpful.

If you're at an apartment that makes it hard to know where your unit is, some drivers might elect to skip the delivery.

For other major carriers, you can call their customer service number.

EDIT: I get it - a fair number of delivery people ignore the instructions because they're being lazy or dumb. The tip here isn't going to fix that. But those looking to make the delivery looking for your home/apartment are more likely to deliver to the correct location if you make it much easier to find you.


r/LifeProTips • • 3d ago

Careers & Work LPT Prepaid vs Postpaid

0 Upvotes

LTP/ In my experience you should always be on a prepaid mobile plan. A couple people working for mobile providers told me that basically postipaid is a scam, for the convinience of "not having to think about paying your bill" you end up paying for something you are not even using.
Of course, sometimes if you are a super heavy user it pays off, but in most cases people actually use a fraction of the "Unlimited" stuff they give you.

You are tied in with a contract, paying for something you are not using...go prepaid free yourself :D


r/LifeProTips • • 4d ago

Food & Drink LPT: flavour your plain potato chips (or even hot fries) by sprinkling in packet soup mixes

0 Upvotes

If you’re looking to boost the flavour, these are much better than adding regular seasonings and spices - they provide the right consistency, flavour intensity and coat the chips much better than regular herbs, spices and seasonings.

They’re convenient, a single cup soup mix is almost perfect for a large bag, and you can get flavours they never make commercially - great for entertaining.


r/LifeProTips • • 6d ago

Home & Garden LPT-Buy Measuring cups with engraved information, not stickers or prints on each measuring tool.

1.6k Upvotes

No matter how durable it looks, it will rub off!!! then you can’t tell your 1/3 from your 1/2 and your 3/4 from your cup in a dark cupboard!


r/LifeProTips • • 7d ago

Computers LPT: Stop giving every service your real phone number/email

3.0k Upvotes

I realized recently that half the emails filling up my inbox come from websites i used once and completely forgot about, ordered food, downloaded something, signed up for a free trial, and somehow i'm still hearing from these companies years later. started using separate cloaked email/phone number aliases for different websites. Wish I started doing this before my inbox became a graveyard of forgotten signups.


r/LifeProTips • • 7d ago

Electronics LPT: Delete mobile apps and use the website instead to save storage AND get your life back.

5.2k Upvotes

I saw a LPT a month ago about saving space on your phone by deleting mobile apps. I wanted to give two more reasons you should do this.

Reasons to delete app and use browser:

  1. Storage

  2. Privacy and Ads: When you download an app, you're handing a tech company a blank check to run whatever software they want on your device, be it tracking or ads. When you use the browser, YOU control what code runs on YOUR device, aka you can get browser extensions that block adds and tracking.

  3. Less screen time: For media apps like YT, TT and Insta, the browser UI is much less optimized for addictiveness. It will feel clunkier at first, but you will get used to it. And at least for me it's way less addicting.

Reason to keep app:

If you need the app to send you notifications or other service where it must live on device.


r/LifeProTips • • 7d ago

Electronics LPT: Set up a unique notification sound for messages from close family - it's very useful for distinguishing it from all other notifications

613 Upvotes

Assigning unique notification sounds to specific contacts is an effective way to prioritize alerts without visual confirmation. This feature allows you to instantly recognize messages from close family/ friends or other important contacts, distinguishing them from general app notifications or less critical communications.

To set this up, you can use either system-level settings or in-app configurations:

iOS: Open the Contacts app, select the person, tap Edit, scroll to Ringtone (or Text Tone), and select a distinct alert.

Android (Contact-Level): Open the Contacts app, select the family member, tap Edit, and choose Set ringtone or Message notification to assign a specific tone to their calls and texts.

Android (App-Level): In Google Messages, open the specific chat, tap the contact’s name, select Notifications, and choose a unique Sound for that conversation.

WhatsApp: Open the chat, tap the contact’s name, go to Notifications, and select a custom Alert Tone.

Using distinct, emotionally resonant tones for family ensures you can identify critical personal messages immediately, even in noisy environments or when the phone is face down. 


r/LifeProTips • • 6d ago

Social LPT The answer to the question "how are you" isn't the answer "good/fine" but rather the other person's facial expression when answering

0 Upvotes

Humans always have changes in their facial expression when lying. Especially when they answer something in a way that is opposite from the way they actually feel. You can notice this especially in their facial expression. Their eyes can be relaxed when everything is indeed fine. But if they're sad they will look sad easier when you ask how they are, because the real answer is that they are not fine because of a certain reason

If something even happened they are ashamed about, they may look away in shame

If something happened they are angry about, they will have anger in their pupils


r/LifeProTips • • 9d ago

Home & Garden LPT Buy driveway/sidewalk Salt now while it's still a decent price.

1.2k Upvotes

Not only is finding salt when everybody else is looking for it a burden, but most of the time it's not in stock and you can't leave your home to pick it up.


r/LifeProTips • • 9d ago

Miscellaneous LPT Buy two!

1.6k Upvotes

LPT if your child or dog has a favorite toy, stuffed animal, whatever, buy at least one extra for when that item is broken, lost or worn out. Hide it in a safe place. Do not assume it will be for sale when/if you need it. Kids and dogs do not understand why their favorite thing went away and hearts get broken 💔


r/LifeProTips • • 8d ago

Home & Garden LPT - Keep your small plastic food trays for decorating

206 Upvotes

If you get food from the supermarket that comes in a flat-bottomed (hard) plastic tray, such as fruit, ready meals, meat etc, keep that tray for if you're decorating. They are usually the perfect size to fit a mini paint roller and then you have a ton of roller trays that you don't have to bother cleaning up when you're done!


r/LifeProTips • • 7d ago

Miscellaneous LPT: Slice the license plate tag so it doesn't get stolen

0 Upvotes

Just put the tag on the license plate and slice it a little so the thieves won't / can't steal it.


r/LifeProTips • • 7d ago

Miscellaneous LPT: If you’re stuck on hold with customer service, hang up and call back through the sales line then ask to be transferred

0 Upvotes

Support lines are almost always understaffed so you end up waiting 45 minutes while the same song plays on loop. Sales lines are the opposite cuz every missed call there is lost money so they actually pick up.

So next time, hang up, call again and press the sales or new customer option. When someone answers just say “sorry I picked the wrong option could you transfer me to support?” most of the time they will and you skip most of the wait.

Be nice about it though. The person on the line didn’t design the phone system and they can say no. Doesn’t work every time but it saved me a ton of waiting.


r/LifeProTips • • 10d ago

Miscellaneous LPT: The best way to clean the inside of your car’s front windshield/windscreen: face the car into the sun, use rubbing alcohol to clean gunk, clean towels to wipe clear, and then a foaming window cleaner to make it crystal clear.

2.3k Upvotes

You face the sun so that it highlights the remaining dirt or streaks left as you clean.

The rubbing alcohol breaks down all the oils, breath gunk and other things your body and HVAC system deposit on the window.

You wipe in the alcohol with a towel, and then use a separate clean towel to actually remove the gunk.

The foaming cleanser is what actually cleans the glass to a crystal clear finish and stays streak free. But again, the sun will show you where you’ve missed a spot.

Edit: for all the people responding. I’m sure you’ve had success. I’ve followed a lot of those recommendations over the years and across 6 cars with mixed results. The method I have has worked across all of them and in multiple climates.

If the sun is drying your solution, then you must be a slow cleaner. Start smaller and work your way up. Miyagi-style cleaning technique and don’t be afraid to stand up and reach into the car, watching your progress from the outside vs craning your body to clean everything from inside.


r/LifeProTips • • 10d ago

Electronics LPT: For years on android devices you can move the cursor through a body of text by moving your finger side to side on the space bar.

834 Upvotes

Seems this isnt that well known. Two coworkers had no idea this was a thing.


r/LifeProTips • • 10d ago

Social LPT: (Small but Mighty) Teach your young kids (3 years and up) to play UNO.

8.0k Upvotes

I'm a Special Education teacher and I use UNO a lot in my classroom for my students of all ages but I especially like it for young kids. My own 6 year old is actually asking to play Uno Attack versus asking me to have a turn on the Switch 2.

The game teaches:
Color Recognition
Number Recognition
Working Memory (remembering the rules of each card)
Impulse Control (waiting for his turn and not blurting out his "good cards")
Cognitive Flexibility (adjusting when some changes the color or direction)
Visual Discrimination (looking at all of his cards to see what he can play)
Speech/Communication (announcing "UNO!" and new colors)
Emotional Regulation (he's managing losing, having to draw cards or be skipped)
Problem Solving (Just deciding what card to play )
Social Skills (Taking turns, being kind while playing even if losing etc.)

Theres also a little bit of Occupational Therapy in there too by just trying to manage the cards in their hands and placing them down.

It fairly cheap considering the benefits and they have a lot of licensed character decks now. I like UNO attack for home after dinner and before homework (to get the brain going) but I have the hot wheels deck for on the go.

Bonus: They'll know at least one word in Spanish!