A majority of adults drive cars, so why not make the trip from point A to point B — and the upkeep of your car — a little bit easier?
No, these tips and tricks won’t make you a certified mechanic or magically eliminate those people who can’t seem to exert enough energy to slightly lift one finger and use their turn signal, but they can make general upkeep and travel a little bit less stressful.
Use toothpaste to clean headlights.
Simply buff your headlights with toothpaste on a soft cloth, and they’ll look good as new in minutes.
Via: PopSugar
Properly adjust your mirrors.
Safety experts believe that mirrors should be positioned so that no part of your car appears in them, as that’s the best way to negate blind spots that require you to turn your head when changing lanes.
The mirror placements should slightly overlap with the field of view in the center-mounted rear-view mirror.
Via: Car and Driver
Tie up your phone.
Thread a rubber band through your air conditioner vent for a makeshift phone holder.
Image: Imgur
Fast food fix.
Tired of fast food ruining your car floors?
Shower caddies are a simple solution to keeping meals in place during a bumpy ride, which is especially helpful with kids.
Via: Lookie What I Did
Make a trash can.
Need a sturdy trash can? Line a cereal container with a bag and you’re all set.
Back that thing up
Hang a tennis ball in your garage so you know exactly when to stop backing up.
Via: I Dream of Clean
What side is the tank on?
If it’s time to fill up the tank and you’re in an unfamiliar car, save yourself the embarrassment of pulling up to the wrong side.
The arrow on the gas gauge points to the side that the tank is on.
Image: Imgur
Never forget where you parked.
It’s easy, but do we remember to do it? Rarely.
Save yourself the time wandering around the parking lot by taking a picture of where you parked.
Image: Pixabay
Quickly tell what side of the highway your exit is on.
While there’s no guarantee that all signs are set up this way across the country, the next time you’re driving on the highway, check out the sign position.
As the pictures shows, it could help you quickly know, even from a great distance, which lane to get into.
Via: Lifehacker
Remove a registration sticker.
Whether it’s an oil change reminder or a registration sticker, the goo they leave behind is irritating at best.
Grab a newspaper and put warm water on it, place it over the registration sticker for approximately 10 minutes, and the sticker residue will be gone.
Easily open a key ring.
Instead of fumbling around for 15 minutes and breaking your nails, use a staple remover to easily open a key ring.
Via: WikiHow
Cool a car down without air conditioning.
Roll down one window, and open and close the door on the other side five to six times. The hot air escapes through the door you’re opening and closing, while the cool air enters through the window on the other side.
That way you’re not wasting any gas by blasting the air conditioner.
Image: Shutterstock
Keep doors from freezing shut.
Doors freeze because water settles into those gaskets and then hardens.
What to do? Use ordinary cooking spray on the rubber gaskets on the inside of your door and then gently wipe with a paper towel.
It makes the seals tighter and harder for water to get in.
Image: Flickr
Stash those tissues.
A reusable coffee mug makes a great holder for tissues, and you know it will fit right into the cup holder in your console.
Via: Curbly
Use your chin to increase your remote car opener.
If your remote car door opener doesn’t have the range to open your door, place the car key fob on your chin to increase the range of the car-retrieval signal.
The fluids in your head turn it into an adequate conductor.
Organize stuff for a buck.
A shoe organizer from the dollar store is a great way to organize all your travel supplies.
Via: Décor-ganize Crafts
Dryer sheets do double duty.
Stash a few dryer sheets in your car to keep it smelling fresh, and apparently placing them in under the hood will also help keep away mice.
Via: Albany Kid
Treat windshield cracks with nail polish.
You can slow a crack in your windshield until you can get your car to the shop by brushing clear nail polish on the crack on both sides of the glass and then pull it into the sun to dry.
Image: Wikimedia
Plunge (small) problems away.
If you have small dents in your car, just push a plunger firmly against it and pull out to see your car go mostly back to normal in just a few seconds.
(That’s much more pleasant than what you normally use a plunger for, now isn’t it?)
Create a GPS stand.
Are you using your phone as GPS?
Create a helpful stand by simply using rubber bands and a binder clip and resting it in between.
Via: Romance On a Dime
Clean with a coffee filter.
Simply dab a little olive or vegetable oil on the coffee filter and then rub it over your car’s console.
If you don’t want to use the oils, feel free to go without it or use another cleaning solution instead.
(The filters are much better as cleaners than dryer sheets, which are often recommended as well, because dryer sheets can contain a lot of chemicals.)
Via: PopSugar
De-ice a frozen lock.
Add hand sanitizer to your key when trying to get at a frozen car lock.
Why? No, not to prevent germs, but because the alcohol on the key will melt the ice.
Image: Shutterstock
Never forget how to change a tire.
Via: Daily Infographic
Ready to ride?
Sound advice, but please leave your phone in you pocket when you drive, I log over 170,000 miles a year and cell phones seem to lead to ditches and near misses at the least in my experience.
Not only that, but if something /does/ happen, your phone won’t have flown all hither and thither while the car’s getting tossed around.
Buuuuut, you and I both know people don’t give a shit.
That kind of stuff neeever happens to /me/.