Results tagged “useful” from The official blog of Vat19.com

I get shocked a lot. And I don't mean emotional shock. I mean static shock, mostly from car and door handles. I often find myself pausing before touching them, bracing myself for the inevitable SNAP. It's a horrible feeling, awaiting the impending doom of a big ol' static shock.

Thank goodness for this little guy, the LCD Static Eliminator. Just touch him to whatever metal surface that might have a static charge, and he'll eliminate the charge without a snap or sting. Then you are free to open a door or touch a car without fear. And it attaches to your keyring. Handy!

Oh NeatDesk, where have you been all my life?

The NeatDesk is a high-speed desktop scanner that can scan a bunch of your receipts, business cards, and documents all at once. That's enough to impress me, but hold on to your hats folks, there's more. After the items are scanned, the included NeatWorks software identifies and extracts the important information and automatically organizes it for you on your computer. Seriously, push one button and your documents become PDFs, your receipt information goes into an Excel spreadsheet or QuickBooks, and your business contacts are stored in a digital Roladex.

At about $350.00 a pop, it's quite an investment, but it would make an awesomely unique gift for anyone who is too busy - or too lazy - to keep up on their document organization.

Be sure to check out Vat19.com for more great items to keep you organized.

If you're anything like me, when you go on a trip, your toothbrush gets tossed into a plastic baggie and you end up bringing along your full-sized tube of paste (or forgetting both altogether). It's not convenient, and it can be a little messy. There are those plastic travel tubes for your toothbrush, and travel-sized tubes of paste, but still. Can't we just have an all-in-one?

Yes, we can, and it's called the OHSO Travel Toothbrush. It looks like a pudgy pen, but remove the cap, and there's your brush. The bottom chamber fills with paste and with a turn of the knob dispenses the paste directly onto your brush. It's clean, it's neat, and it's compact, making it not only great for travel, but super easy to carry around every day in your purse or pocket.

When I was a kid, my grandma had a huge yard with tons of leaves in it. She pitted my brother and I against each other and paid us one penny each for every leaf we gathered. If I'd had these Bear Claw Scoops back then, I would have totally kicked my brother's butt.

Seriously, while these may be a bit goonie-looking, they seem like they'd be insanely useful. You'd get twice the yard work done in half the time, maybe even less than that. And then you could chase kids around and freak them out with your big green plastic bear claw hands. Goodtimes!

According to the Salt Institute, there are nearly 14,000 documented uses for salt. Personally, I was just tickled at the fact that something called the "Salt Institute" actually exists. The idea that it might have compiled a list of over 10,000 ways to use salt was just mind-boggling.

If you want to check out a fairly detailed list, you can visit the Salt Institute's page on consumer uses of salt. Their page was fairly long and the colors made it a little unpleasant to read, though, so I've posted some of the highlights here:


Testing egg freshness - Place the egg in a cup of water to which two teaspoonfuls of salt have been added. A fresh egg sinks; a doubter will float.

Cleaning stained cups - Rubbing with salt will remove stubborn tea or coffee stains from cups.

Reducing eye puffiness - Mix one teaspoon of salt in a pint of hot water and apply pads soaked in the solution on the puffy areas.

Removing dry skin - After bathing and while still wet give yourself a massage with dry salt. It removes dead skin particles and aids the circulation. Note: This is so much better than buying a Ped Egg.

Drip-proofing candles - Soak new candles in a strong salt solution for a few hours, then dry them well. When burned they will not drip.

There are hundreds of uses for a simple paperclip. A list of over 100 uses (some realistic and useful, some creepy and ridiculous) can be seen here. Here's 10 interesting ways that someone might actually use a paperclip, other than to hold papers together.

• Lottery Ticket scratcher (Because coins or fingernails are hard to come by.)
• Substitute a lost Monopoly or Clue gamepiece (Who done it? I believe it was Colonel Mustard in the Billiard Room with the Paperclip.)
• Nose weight for paper airplanes (Add some extra zoom to that little guy, champ.)
• Ornament hook (Believe it or not, many ornaments do not come with a hook.)
• Unclog salt and pepper shakers (For those of you who don't love to intake large amounts of sodium, your shakers might actually have a chance to get clogged.)
• Tool to flick crumbs out of the keyboard (Who hasn't eaten while at their desk?)
• Mark pages in a book or catalog (Paperclip the pages with presents you want and "accidentally" leave it on the coffee table.)
• Unclog a bottle of glue (How can you make a construction paper masterpiece if the glue won't come out!?)
• Hair barrette (Since bobby pins or a pack of Goody's are SO expensive.)