Disposable email addresses

Signing up to a new forum or website but are you unsure of how safe your email is? Many people create a junk email for this purpose. Personally, I use disposable email addresses. I was discussing this with friends and I was surprised by how little these are used.

I like to use this service. Often you'll find websites may block the use of email@mailinator.com. In this case, it's best to use one of their alternate domains. My favourite is email@chammy.info, which as of yet works for basically any website.

It's important to note that anyone can access the email account you give, so use common sense.

Make clothes last longer

Inevitably, clothes will lose their colour and go out of shape with continued washing. However, you can make your clothes last longer by handwashing them. It takes about 5 minutes per garment and you'll find your clothes looking better and staying new for longer.

Handwashing is actually not as hard as most make it out to be. I handwash my t-shirts every day and it takes only a few minutes. I would recommend a liquid detergent (dissolves faster) and a fabric softener. Follow these steps.

1. Fill sink with water (preferrably cold) and add detergent (liquid detergent recommended over powdered detergent). Mix to ensure even spread of detergent and to get water soapy throughout.

2. Add your clothes. Wash similar coloured clothes together.

3. Kneed your clothing to get the soap through it. Be careful with fragile garments like wool/silk.

4. Unplug the sink. Fill the sink with water again and add the fabric softener. Kneed the clothing again.

5. Unplug the sink and fill the sink with water to rinse. Repeat this until the water runs clear.

6. Wring the clothing (again, be gentle with fragile clothes) and hang it up to dry (on heavier garments like jumpers lay them out flat to dry to avoid stretching). You can roll them up in a towel to absorb more moisture if you want them to dry quicker.

If you do this regular (rather than saving it until a huge load of washing builds up) it should take you at most 10-15 mins a day in exchange for your clothes lasting much longer and looking much better.

Fashion - what not to do

Fashion is a big topic so obviously it's impossible to cover in a single post. I thought I would post some of the most important (in my eyes) mistakes made by men in regards to fashion that I notice. I am personally a very conservative dresser. I like outfits that never go out of style. Therefore I am a skinny jeans hater, but each to their own.

1. Wearing cross trainers or running shoes with jeans - just look at the people who do this and you should be able to figure this one out. A good example of this are those ugly fat white NB shoes you see some people wear. A great way to let everyone know you only own a single pair of shoes. Leave cross trainers and runners for the gym.

2. White shoes with dark blue jeans - not necessarily that bad. It can look good if you're wearing a bright/light coloured top but it's just not very versatile. It's a difficult look to pull off. Keep it simple and buy some darker shoes.

3. Backpack with conservative dress - I see this a lot. Save the backpacks for when you're a kid or for the casual dress. Buy a nice messenger bag for a more mature look.

4. Skinny jeans - I mentioned before that I hate skinny jeans. I'm not going to simply dismiss them as being awful because I know so many people love them, but don't wear them unless you have thin legs. The moment you can see your calves through your jeans is the moment you know they're too tight.

5. Monocolour outfits - the key to fashion is contrast. If you're wearing black jeans, wear a bright/light coloured t-shirt. If you're wearing a patterned shirt wear a plain tie. Etc, etc.

Those are the 5 biggest things I wanted to comment on. I could go on and talk about other things like socks and sandles but those are obvious things and would probably insult your intelligence if I was to talk about them.

Acne prevention

Acne affects the majority of teenagers. There are many available treatments. Many work, many don't. Personally I tried both topical creams and accutane and met mild success with topical creams but accutane is what cleared my acne for good.

For topical creams I recommend Benzac AC. You will also need a moisturiser and a cleanser. Just follow the links for my recommendations and reviews you can read for those products. Many people's acne can be cleared entirely with topical treatments, but as mine was starting to lead to mild scarring I went on roaccutane.

Accutane can be read about here. There are some concerning side effects. However, it's easily the most effective way to cure acne and most people who are prescribed on it never have acne ever again. You need to get a prescription from a dermatologist (at least where I'm from) so it can be a little tedious to get your hands on.

Another issue is diet. There has been a lot of arguments that acne is caused by diet but most of those are myths. If you like you can read about it here but in summary, there is no evidence that frequently associated foods such as chocolate and salt cause acne.

Other tips include the obvious. Avoid touching your face. Try laying down a clean towel over your pillow before you sleep. I found that helped.

Anyway, hopefully I tackled most of the important points. There are many more treatments out there but this is what worked for me. Hopefully you found this helpful.

Welcome

Hi all. My name is Andrew. This is my first blog which I created as a hobby. What are life hacks? Life hacks is basically just a fancy term I thought of for tips or advice that make life a little easier. I like to keep things concise, so my posts will be relatively short but I hope they are helpful.

If you have any suggestions, questions or feedback feel free to drop me an email at lifehacks@hotmail.com.au.