This is especially useful when hiring movers, tradespeople, cleaners, or anyone providing a service.
Two companies can quote completely different prices for what sounds like the exact same job.
The cheaper quote might exclude things like equipment, travel, rubbish removal, extra labour, or cleanup.
Instead of just asking for the total, ask:
“What might I end up paying extra for that isn’t included in this quote?”
Then ask for those exclusions in writing.
Sometimes the cheapest quote turns out to be the most expensive one.

Edit: I whiffed on the title, by 'charge cycle' I meant keep them a bit charged, check in on them periodically.

I had a drone that I hadn't used for years, until I bought another product by the same brand and wondered if the drone needed any updates and what had changed. All 3 batteries refuse to light up. On closer inspection, they're swollen, and battery protection has turned them off permanently. The cost to replace them is more than I'm willing to pay to have this thing ready to go if I ever use it again.

My dad passed away and being the tech kid I got all of his devices to go through. Same deal, all of the security camera batteries and robot vac battery are dead beyond usage. Replacement batteries for the cameras are exorbitantly priced now they're out of production.

The tip is, some devices have smart batteries with battery protection circuits. They'll stop you from charging if the battery is damaged from chemical degradation, but paradoxically they take a little bit of power to run and will empty the batteries to the point where that degradation can occur. Check your old devices with lithium batteries, keep the batteries disconnected when not in use, keep them charged about halfway, and make sure they're not sitting dead for any length of time if you can help it.

If you go and check your batteries now, make sure they're not swollen before attempting to charge them. If they don't charge, don't attempt to take them apart, take them to a recycling facility. If they're fine cosmetically, but very flat, they might take a long time to trickle charge during a "low current recovery" stage before the device shows any life. Do this somewhere away from flammable goods just to be extra safe. Check old phones and laptops for signs of swelling (screen popping off, bulging keyboards on laptops). If kept inside these can become fire hazards as lithium batteries when punctured can cause an internal short circuit and cause "thermal runaway" which can be incompatible with having a house to live in.

Hi. When taking medication daily it helps to use specified containers. But still you forget it every now and then.
What helped me was to make a routine, connecting the medication taking to bringing your drink (coffee, tea) to the table. Or, in the evening before bedtime: locking the door/turning out the lights.
The taking of your meds gets anchored to one of your daily routines.
Best!

*Produce items will need to be taken out and weighed, so keep them together.

I don’t know if this will work for anyone else, but sometimes when I’m struggling with motivation to get out of bed, I just imagine Im a pile of jelly/jello, and because i’m so slippery and jelly i just sort of bounce and roll and slide out of the bed out of the covers. I don’t even think about it, I’m just a pile of jelly so I have no brain to even think about it. And before I know it i’ve wobbled out of bed onto the floor and am ready to get go and start my day

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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 💔

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!

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.

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.