Readers offer their best tips for untangling necklace chains, saving money on mop pads, and speeding up your browser.
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Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments, email it to tips at lifehacker.com, or share it on our tips and expert pages.
Untangle Knotted Necklace Chains with Windex
Photo by Ginny.
Java-Princess shares a clever method for untangling a metal chain:
Lifehacker's
recent tip about undoing a tight knot
prompted me to share this. I don't know if it is well known but I discovered it independently of those folk-wisdom people.
If you have a fine silver/gold necklace that has got knotted up and your boyfriend doesn't have the patience required to untangle it for you you could do worse than the following.
Drop a little Windex on the knotted parts then put it in a (preferably) metal container in top of your washing machine or other vibrating object of your choice for the duration. The Windex lubricates the necklace and the constant vibration shakes the chain loose enough that you can then do the rolling between your fingers trick to pull it apart.
Use Puppy Pads as Cheap ReadyMop Refills
Eric finds a lower-cost alternative to ReadyMop refills:
Clorox ReadyMop refills are a real ripoff.
$12 for 16 of them
? OR, you can buy
puppy pads
for WAY cheaper.
If you look, the puppy pads are 22.5"x22.5" and the ready mop pads are 8.5"x10.5". So you can cut the pads into 4 pieces which means: 16 ready mop pads for $12.29 or 200 puppy pads for $6.99.
Obviously prices can be a little different at Target or Walmart or whatever, but it's still always a better deal.
You can probably find something similar that will work with the Swiffer, or whatever quick mop you have.
Disable Browser Plugins for a Faster Startup
KBS tells us about a tweak that'll speed up your browser:
Your browser will start much faster and even may run faster if you disable the rarely used plugins and add-ons. Enabling the plugins will only require page refresh whereas add-on requires browser restart.
You can check your startup time to see how much time you have saved using
About Startup
.
I didn't have to many plugins installed, but it looks like KBS did, so your mileage may vary.
Increase Mac OS X's Grid Spacing for Longer File Names
Audiopocalypse shares a quick tip for the Mac OS X desktop:
If file names are getting cut off on your desktop, you can increase their visibility by increasing the Grid spacing in the View Options. (Right click on the Desktop > Show View Options > Grid Spacing)