Critical Mass

Readers offer their best tips for storing earbuds without getting them tangled, uses for old box TV armoires, and more cheap, household laptop stands..

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About the Tips Box: 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, share it here, or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.

Keep Headphones Untangled with a Slipknot

Video by LifeButBetter.

lifebutbetter shares a quick tip for keeping headphones untangled:

You can stop earphones from tangling by folding them in two to bring the ear-buds and jack together and putting a slip-knot in the cable near to that end.

We’ve shared some other ways to wrap your headphones, but if you’re in a rush, this is probably the quickest method you’ll find.

Repurpose Old TV Armoires for the Kitchen

Photo by Alan Levine.

Vulcan Has No Moon shows us that you don’t need to throw out that armoire with your old CRT:

When we got rid of our big box TV, we took our TV armoire and pushed it into the kitchen. No modding required since it came with adjustable shelves. We keep our microwave, coffee pot, and other gadgets in the space where the TV went and cook books on the VCR shelf above (yeah, it’s really old). Down below where the VHS tapes were stored is room for place mats and tablecloths.

Use a Shoe Rack as a Laptop Stand

Jorge lets us know what he uses as his cheap laptop stand:

I just read the post on the makeshift laptop stand, I had a similar idea some time ago. I use this stackable shoereack I bought from Walmart some three years ago for something like $5 a pair. Same concept, but it not only keeps my Dell laptop cooler, it also raises it to eye level so it’s much more comfortable. Laptop stands are usually around $30… why spend that!

Keep a Folder of Spam to Unsubscribe From

David tells us how he keeps his spam organized:

Any time I get an email from a list to which I don’t want to be subscribed, I label them with !unsubscribe (in gmail). Every once in a while I go through all those emails and go through their sometimes lengthy unsubscribe / alter subscription process, rather than getting distracted by doing it on the spot.

This may seem simple, but you may be surprised how much you have still not unsubscribed from because you couldn’t be bothered to at the time you receive the emails. This way, you can do it when you aren’t so occupied with other things.

Read more here:
From the Tips Box: Tangled Headphones, Old TV Armoires, and More Laptop Stands [From The Tips Box]

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