Things That Seem Like Snake Oil But Are Actually Legit

The Powers of WD40

"WD40 cleans candle wax off your living room carpet. If ever in doubt, consult an old housewife."

- Eastern_Chemist3726

"There is a guy on Snapchat that I follow and I can't think of his screen name right now, but he legit uses WD40 on just about everything. It's crazy some of the sh*t he does with it."

- FreewayWarrior

"That’s because it’s a solvent. It’s not a grease meant to loosen up tight screws, it’s a solvent that breaks down the crap making your screws stuck."

- Carmelpi

Everyone Likes the Smell of Cedar

"I had a weird-smelling basement. Someone said to get aromatic cedar blocks, sand them down, and leave them there. I thought there was no way this could work. But it did. The smell is totally eliminated."

"12 blocks. Each two by two by two inches. Just top layer sand down, half a millimeter maybe. I left them next to a pipe that I believe is the culprit. The basement is like 900 square feet."

- thetorontotickler

"An offering to the stink gods."

- likediscolem

"Ah, inches, millimeters, AND square feet. You like to confuse both sides of the ocean, nice."

- mikehit

Don't DTR with Your Hiccups Just Yet

"The whole 'hold your breath to get rid of hiccups' trick."

"The thing is, most people just don't know the proper way to do it or why it works."

"It's got nothing to do with simply holding your breath. It's got to do with using your lungs to hold down the diaphragm and stop it from spasming."

"You breathe in until you cannot fit literally anything else into your lungs. When your chest is as full as humanly possible then you hold it and within about 15 seconds the hiccups are gone."

- shlam16

"So THAT's why it works sometimes and not others."

- tomtomclubthumb

"I've never had success until I held it until my lungs burnt. That 'oh my god, we're suffocating' feeling is a legit life hack for making your body stop acting stupid."

"It also works for stuffy noses. If you exhale all your breath, then nod your head repeatedly until your lungs burn, and then breathe back in normally, your nose will magically unclog."

"If you have really bad congestion because of allergies or a head cold you sometimes have to do this several more times (the most I've had to do is five times)."

- b0w3n

Impossibly Clean Windows

"Vinegar and newspaper to clean windows."

"I thought the ink would come off and make an even bigger mess."

"Almost turns the window invisible."

- ShadowWolfKane

Magical Mystical Magnesium

"Taking magnesium. It really can cure some joint, nerve, muscle, heart, and breathing problems."

"Of course, the only ones it can cure are ones that are caused by a magnesium deficiency which a surprising number of people have."

"Some life events that can rapidly use up magnesium in the body are pregnancy, surgery, viral illness, and major periods of stress."

- Easy_Independent_313

Not Just for Painting Toinails

"I was suffering with plantar fasciitis for over six months. I tried new shoes, new insoles, pills, and physical therapy, but none of those things fixed it."

"A friend kept suggesting I try these gel toe separator things like they wear when painting toenails. I thought it was silly, but they were only $10 on Amazon, so what did I have to lose?"

"I wore the neon blue gel thing at night feeling very silly. After the first night, my foot hurt like h**l, but after the second, it felt a whole lot better. I wore it for two weeks straight and plantar fasciitis was gone. Those things were like magic."

- J-Frog3

"The toe spacers are stretching out your tendons in the feet, therefore reducing the tightness that causes plantar fasciitis! Another thing that should help is putting something like a tennis ball underneath your foot and rolling it around."

- SPOOKSVILLE

"Sitting on your deck in summer or are you having a nice picnic when suddenly you're being accosted by the h**lspawn known as wasps? Get rid of them with this one easy solution: burn some coffee!"

"'Burn coffee?' I hear you say incredulously. Yes, burn coffee! Take a little saucer, pour a little pyramid of ground coffee on in, and use a lighter to light the top."

"It will smolder slowly and give off a smoke that smells, well, like burnt coffee. It will also instantly get rid of any wasps that are bothering you. No idea why, they absolutely hate the smell."

"Some people also dislike the smell of the burning coffee, I understand this. But ask yourself this important question while the smell is annoying you: what do you dislike more; wasps or the smell of burning coffee? I know what I would pick."

- ilikedmatrixiv

"I keep coffee grounds in a short jar on the deck for burning and put the lid on when we are going inside. It keeps the wasps away, and also, it repels mosquitoes."

- AuntieLaLa420

The Indoor Sunrise

"Daylight lamps."

"Someone mentioned melatonin, so it reminded me of the opposite. I bought a daylight lamp last winter because I get depressed when it’s dark outside for long periods of time."

"I got one off Amazon for 40 euros, and now I can’t live without it in the winter."

"I thought it was a sham initially, but the light basically imitates the wavelengths of light emitted by the sun (bar the UVs) and inhibits the production of melatonin. Not only that, but it also boosts my mood and morale. You just have to be careful because it’s difficult to fall asleep for a couple of hours after using it."

- Outside-Ad5864

"There's a subset of these types of lights that also work like alarm clocks. Wakeup Lights."

"The slightly more expensive ones even fake a sunrise for you. It actually slowly increases in brightness from a dull red, all the way to that bright white/yellow, and THEN starts making noises."

"I used to be such a heavy sleeper before I got mine, and now I can pretty easily get up even at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning even in the dead of winter. I could not imagine living without one going forward, HUGE quality of life improvement for myself."

"And I have not managed for a single family member to try it, not even outright borrowing mine for a week or two. Because they think it sounds dumb and pointless."

- LordOfDorkness42

Pain-Free Posture

"Good posture."

"I had chronic back pain for years. Then, just a few years ago I slept on my neck wrong and had neck pain that wouldn’t resolve."

"I saw a physical therapist and the first thing she did was look at how I sat and how I stood and walked. She told me nicely but essentially that my posture was horrible, affected by years of slumping in my seat and also being told continually by my mom to 'suck in that tummy!' when I stood or walked, which led to me thinking a pelvic tilt was necessary for good posture."

"The therapist showed me how to sit and stand with a straight back, my chest up and forward, and my back keeping a healthy lumbar curvature."

"Let me tell you, it was HARD. My shoulder/back muscles were not used to it and I had to train them like any muscle is trained, with a posture bra and also using a long sheet tied like a strap around my neck, arms, and waist. It also felt so unnatural at first to be sticking my chest and butt out, like I was looking for attention, which is part of the reason people have such terrible posture; we feel that’s 'immodest.'"

"No lie, three weeks later, all my back pain symptoms were gone and haven’t returned. I can do some slumping when I sit with no great penalty now, but when I walk, or when have to stand for a duration, or sit on something backless, I use my good posture and I am pain-free."

"I'm trying to spread the word on this makes me feel like a 1950s health movie ('Posture Pals!') but it’s so effective, I can’t stop sharing. Years of chronic back pain completely eliminated by just a few weeks of good posture training."

- amantiana

The Power of Meditation

"Meditation. When I was an alcoholic and drug abuser, my friend used to tell me about meditation to help with anxiety and stress."

"I thought, 'B***h, we use Xanax around here, no one’s got time to meditate.'"

"We no longer use Xanax and have the time to meditate."

- ManyAd9810

Water in the Ear

"Hopping on the opposite leg when you have water in your ear after swimming. It works every d**n time."

- rutharr1

"I need to try this. BRB (Be Right Back), gonna get water stuck in my ear..."

- pabloesceebruhhh

Magic Mouthwash

"Saltwater swish and gargle for toothache and sore throat (as long as it’s not something like strep). Source: currently have strep and ain’t nothing working."

"Otherwise, even the dentist tells me to salt water swish if I get tooth pain or something stuck. Total relief."

- allflourr

"I’m a once-a-year strep throat sufferer. For a severe sore throat, my doctor told me to mix a one-half cup Mylanta (kept in the fridge) with a tablespoon of Benadryl. Gargle every few hours. The cold Mylanta cools and soothes and the Benadryl reduces inflammation."

"She said saltwater only dries the throat out more and creates more pain. It works wonderfully."

- RealityIntruder

"A few jobs ago, I worked as a pharmacy tech. There was a doctor out there who would call in 'Magic Mouthwash,' a one-to-one-to-one ratio mixture of Mylanta, Benadryl, and Lidocaine."

"It's great for strep, as well as mouth sores often caused by radiation and chemotherapy. Sounds like you got the over-the-counter recipe."

- hunnythebadger

The Importance of Vitamin D

"Vitamin D supplements. it's much more important than any of us realized."

- pinkwardremoval

"I started doing this a few years ago and it's not straight-up noticeable right away but hot d**n, even a couple months into that first winter, I was like, 'Huh, I don't have that soul-crushing gloom like I usually do this time of year.'"

- High_Speed_Id**t

The Truth About Yoga

​"Yoga. I have severe upper back pain and went through months of physical therapy. I couldn't keep up with the millions of appointments and started doing yoga as a way to stretch my upper back instead. I was doing it for 30 minutes each day and forgot that I had pain."

"It's so annoying that it does what people say it does because this whole time, I thought they were just being annoying but they're one hundred percent right."

"There's an app I like that's called 'Down Dog Yoga.' It's a blue dog as the logo, that's the app I really enjoy! You can customize the time and focus area so you can fit things in when you have time."

- Initial_Savings8733

Something For Our Four-Legged Friends

"Does a dog thundershirt count?"

"I had an anxious dog with storms and loud noises, so I got him one, and while not perfect, he did seem to calm down with it on more often than not!"

- tenacious-g

Whether it's mocking back-and-forth conversations in the comments section on social media about, 'But have you tried yoga?!' or laughing at an informercial about Dog Thunder Shirts or Wakeup Lights from the comfort of our couches, we've surely all questioned at least one of the items or hacks on this list.

But it's humbling to know that every once in a while, the thing that seems too good to be true... will actually deliver on its promises.

Fortunately, for most of these hacks, trying them for a week or two wouldn't be a serious feat, and who knows, maybe they would work for us, too!