The goal of frugal living is to keep things optimized. It saves you money, and it helps you make the most of things. Here are five ways to coax out a little extra in your life!
1. More Space in Your Luggage
You know how packing can take forever when you try to fill your suitcase or backpack with more things than it can fit? What if we told you there is a way to fit a little extra in there — how? Easy! Just get a set of nylon or polyethylene bags that have one-way air valves to help suck the excess air out. Vacuuming your clothes will shrink them in size without damaging the fabrics. Easy-peasy!
2. More Room in Your Closet: Go Full-On Frugal
It’s all about space usage. What you need to do is employ a technique known as double hanging. Typically the rod inside your closet is installed around 60 inches from the floor. Remove it and reinstall it at 84 inches. Then take a second rod and attach it at 42 inches below the first one. That way, you can hang your pants and skirts on the top, and your shirts and blouses below. If you need more room, just get skinny hangers to increase the capacity of your closet. Who said living a frugal life was hard?
3. More Energy Out of a Nap
Stanley Coren, PhD, has long studied sleep patterns in dogs and humans. He says there is a lot we can learn from canines. The trick is to try and lie flat when you’re taking a nap. If you’re propped up, this will prevent you from entering the deepest, most restorative stages of your sleep as your subconscious mind will be preoccupied with preventing you from falling over.
4. More Range Out of Your Wi-Fi
Much like people, Wi-Fi tends to be unable to pass through walls and ceilings. So, if your router is in the basement, hidden in a closet somewhere, or on a floor you don’t use as much, change that. Your router needs to be at the center of your house to ensure minimum obstacles to the signal. Also, make sure to change the channel. Most routers are set at No.6 (out of 11) by default, which means most of your neighbors are on the same frequency.
5. More Repetitions Out of a Workout Set
When it comes to a repetitive action that we count, it’s all about psychology. Fitness trainer Joe Vennare suggests we should count down instead of up when we’re doing our workout. When we’re counting up, it reminds us of all the reps we’ve just done, which can be tiring, while doing it the other way (down) puts the emphasis on how much we have left, which is more motivating.