Have you ever been scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and seen one of those posts marketed as “life hacks”? Yes, you have. You’ve seen them everywhere. Things like using a straw to remove the stem of a strawberry, or hiding your spare key under a rock in an old medicine bottle. These ideas sell themselves as things that “make life easier”- hence the name life “hack”. Urban Dictionary defines ‘life hacking’ as, “the act of making small tweaks to everyday activities in an effort to make them easier and more efficient”. With that, the topic of discussion then becomes- how much easier and efficient will this really make my life? Conceptually, being able to use random items lying around the house to solve all of the petty first world problems 21st-century suburbia throws at us is tempting! In practice, however- that’s what I’m here to find out. This is Life. HACKED.

Hack #2: De-Wrinkling your Clothes with Ice Cubes

I saw this hack and instantly knew I had to try it. Two of my favorite shirts- my X shirt and my cactus shirt- often find themselves on the floor of my bedroom after only a days’ worth of wear. By the end of the week, I’m anxious to wear them again, but quick to such thoughts’ demise do I realize that, because I left them in a heap on the floor with the rest of my clothes (inches away from the hamper, I should note), they are all wrinkly, and thus unwearable. If I had the decency to hang them up, maybe they wouldn’t be so wrinkled, but here we are.

The pictures above show the “before-ice-cube-wash” of my shirts. The lighting in my room is sub-par, but I can assure you that these had the texture of crinkled aluminum foil. I knew it was time to give the ice cubes a try. Essentially what is happening during this process is that of how an iron de-wrinkles your clothes- with steam. The ice cubes melt in the hot dryer and create steam, steaming the shirts.

It’s no different than how you would wash your clothes on a regular basis- simply an expedited version. The “easy way out”, or “any teenage boy’s anti-laundry dream”.

Actually, I take it back. It’s different. But not TOO different. Apart from the fact that you aren’t actually washing the clothes, you’re just replacing the dryer sheet with a handful of ice. The overarching theme of this review- success.

Post-ice-cube-wash: no wrinkles! Again, take my word for it- the picture quality this time around was not great, but these were as smooth as a baby’s butt. I promise. I could leave it there, but a review is not a review unless it covers the goods AND the bads.

For the first couple of minutes, the ice cubes banged around in the dryer. As you can imagine, it sounded like a machine gun, with the ice whipping back and forth like bullets, bouncing off the walls of the chamber. Not only was it obnoxiously loud, but I feared for the well being of the inside of the machine. Fortunately, further inspection revealed no dents.

Ultimately, I would consider this hack a successful one. Regardless of the noise, it got the job done. For my own benefit, however, this hack is useless because my dryer is one of the newer boujeé models that is equipped with a “de-wrinkle” mode. For the purposes of this review, I know not everyone has one of those, so I guess I have to call it a win!