People Describe The Weirdest Household 'Hacks' Their Family Did Growing Up

Every family is different, and let's face it, some of them practice some pretty unusual traditions.

But sometimes we don't realize just how strange a practice in our home is until we either have friends over or grow up and start a life of our own.

Curious, Redditor kaiablu asked:

"What's a household 'hack' you thought everyone did... until you found out it's just your weird family?"

RIP, Dry Pancakes

"For pancakes, I get the stack and butter them. Then cut a plus sign in the middle. Then I let the syrup seep into the plus sign and saturate through the cake stack in the middle."

"I got tired of pouring over the top and having dry pancakes except the top one."

- mrkrurk

Taco Sauce, Ish

"My paternal grandparents have war-crimes levels of weird food preferences. Like, whole pearl onions in spaghetti sauce weird. Or cracking eggs into a can of creamed corn, shaking it, and baking it weird. American cheese, chunky salsa, on rye, sandwiches for dinner weird."

"We all knew they were weird, and my father was insanely happy the first time my mom cooked for him. It was more than half the reason he married her."

"Anyway, we put ketchup on tacos. Guess where that came from?"

"Now my kids put 'pink sauce' on their tacos. It's a combination of sour cream and ketchup."

"The generational trauma continues."

- SeguroMacks

Savory Storage Solutions

"We used empty butter tubs as Tupperware. I learned the hard way when I tried to make toast with leftover spaghetti sauce."

- girl_fresh

"My sister and I were talking about the mystery country crock tubs the other day. Never knew if you were opening margarine or three-day-old mashed potatoes."

- CatastrophicCraxy

Hot Jell-O

"When one of us is sick/has a sore throat, we always make sure to have Jell-O on hand. But instead of putting the liquid Jell-O in the fridge to set, we drink it hot from a mug. It’s sooooo soothing on a scratchy throat, and it made being sick a little less terrible."

- KKmmaarriiee

"My daughter is 22 and still asks me to make her 'Jell-O juice' when she's home from school and feeling under the weather."

"My mom did it for my sister and me, and I swear the nostalgia of it is every bit as soothing as the gelatin itself. No one I've ever mentioned it to has heard of it!"

- nonpame

Hallway Ironing

"My mum did this absolutely wild thing where she would put washed wool clothes under the rugs in the house (sandwiched by pieces of newspaper so they would stay clean), and the weight of the rug and people constantly walking over the rug would press them flat."

"Basically, it was like 'ironing' knitwear. Every time you walked over the rug, you could feel something under it. She acted like this was completely normal behaviour, but when I googled it, nothing even comes up about it, and I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this!"

- Splungetastic

Cord Holders

"Maybe not a hack, but we used empty TP rolls as cord holders. Still do it to this day, as do my kids. First time I traveled with my high school team and took out my curling iron, everyone was all, 'What is that?'"

"They half mocked and were half amazed. This happened every time I would travel with someone. I do wonder if any of those people implemented the idea."

- L0st-137

Just In Case!

"Hanger underwear. Essentially, you keep one pair of underwear on a hanger in your closet, and when you get behind on laundry and run out of underwear, you have that lifeline and know you absolutely have to do laundry."

- Blu3Eskimo

Duvet Cover With Ease

"Putting the duvet cover on by turning it inside out, sticking your hands in and grabbing the corners of the duvet, then giving it a shake so it turns right side out with the duvet inside..."

"I never understood why people said they couldn't put the cover on without help..."

- ChrisRiley_42

"I do the same with pillowcases. So much easier. My husband was amazed the first time he saw me do it, no more struggling!"

- Generation18

Learning To Save

"My parents took 40% of my paycheck as 'home tax' while I lived with them, secretly invested it, and later gave it all back with profits to teach me how to save."

"I don’t know if this counts as a 'household hack,' but my parents charged me and my siblings a 40% 'home tax' on every paycheck we earned while living at home. I started gardening at 13 years old (through a summer municipal program), and they explained to me the cost of living, etc. They said this was just something they did to get by."

"I moved out for three years and then moved back in to save up for my own place. The same rules still applied, but now the 40% was quite a significant amount. When I made a bid for my apartment, my parents came to me with a piece of paper from the bank showing a pretty substantial amount of money, probably around two to three years’ worth of salary, and told me it was mine."

"They had never spent any of the money I paid them; instead, they invested my 'home tax' into funds that had done quite well. They basically taught me how to save by 'taxing' me. They did the same for each of my siblings, but made the older ones swear not to tell the younger ones because they believed it would ruin the learning opportunity."

- BrickForBannerman

Cheaper Soda

"My parents would always dilute the soda we had. They’d open up a 12-ounce can, pour an equal amount into five cups, and then add tap water to fill the cups the rest of the way up. Thought this was the norm until I tried a full-strength can, and it was too sweet and fizzy."

"I think they were being super frugal. They’d also cut a tall stack of paper napkins in half while sitting in front of the TV to make them last longer."

- Tcloud

A Special Signal

"After my sister graduated and my Dad moved out, my Mom created a very thoughtful system that worked well for us."

"We both really liked certain foods, and we never withheld food from one another, but let’s say my favorite pizza only had one piece left. I’d put it in a plastic bag or Tupperware and then put a rubber band around it. That was our silent signal to one another that we were saving it for lunch the next day, etc."

"My Mom and I are incredibly close, and that might sound kind of odd, but it was a good way to respect one another and to make sure we had some of our favorites left when we got home."

"My friends would come over sometimes and wonder why there was a rubber band on a certain can of pop, and only then would I realize that not every family did this."

- kteerin

The Fear Of Fat

"My mother would cook ground beef in a pan, pour out the grease into an old margarine tub, and then put the ground beef in a conical sieve, and we'd mash it with a wooden tool to squeeze every drop of grease out. Finally, she'd run it under tap water."

"I always wondered why it tasted better everywhere else until I cooked for myself."

- danfish_77

"My mom was terrified of fat and would rinse our ground beef with hot water, too. Diet culture is a heartless, tasteless beast."

- BoozelsTherapyRight

The Kitchen Night Light

"My dad used the range hood light as a night light."

- vivi_dreams

"I do this. I have almost died several times in the dark. Not bc of any type of threat. I am the threat, and have fallen badly several times."

- hallanddopes

"This comment made me miss my dad. I can feel the coziness of this comment."

- Woopsies00dl3

Frequent Reminders

"Placing something in a very inconvenient or weird place to remind you to do something important."

"I've legit found my mom's keys in the fridge and learned to just leave them there. They're there to remind her to grab something important, probably her lunch, before she goes to work (and I'll make sure to text her to let her know I saw them in there, just in case she did it by accident)."

"Why is there a ladder by the door? A random fork on the kitchen countertop? A bottle of medicine balanced precariously on the alarm panel? No f**king clue, but it's there for a reason and I need to leave it there."

- Disastrous-Text-1057

Library Time

"I had a lot of siblings, and my mom would bring us to the library after school for a few hours to do homework, read, and play under their big oak tree outside."

"I even learned how to crochet at the library from a sweet older librarian. I would check out books on knitting and crocheting, too."

"Anyway, I thought it was pretty normal. I asked my mom about it recently, and she said that we only had ine car and my dad worked within walking distance from the library, but didn't always get off work at the same time, so the library would give us a safe, air-conditioned, clean, enriching place to wait until he was done."

"I think back, and I remember we'd always pick Dad up on the way home from the library (or sometimes he'd show up there and surprise us). What a great set of parents we had."

- spikerwebz

While some of these hacks might seem strange, there were enough people commenting to confirm that weirdness loves company!

Most of these were great examples of either saving money or making at-home life easier, and honestly, what's so weird about that?