Life lessons learned, laundered

When you are thrust into living on your own away from your parents who, in many ways, you come to depend on throughout childhood, you soon learn to improvise; to innovate; and generally, to hack life.

The quirks people find, like using a wet paper towel wrapped around a drink in a freezer to cool it rapidly, are things we stumble upon or indeed search for in the pursuit of an easier life on our own, in the big and daunting world more commonly known as student life.

I got thinking about this concept of "life hacking" when I shrank my jerseys. I decided to wash three of my favourite woollen jerseys a few days ago. I was certain that they had to be put in a separate wash from the rest of my clothes - which one was another question altogether.

I decided to think back to Year 10 science. Heat makes particles more widely dispersed whereas coldness causes them to contract, so it must be a cold wash that would shrink my jerseys, leaving a hot wash as the correct option.

Well, how wrong one can be.

Either I put on a huge amount of weight within the space of two hours (certainly possible given the carb-dominated hostel meals we are given), or I shrank my jerseys in the wash.

I quickly set about finding a solution and, following a short time Googling, I began soaking the first jumper in a sink full of cold water and hair conditioner. Then I stretched the jumper out on my pinboard and left it to dry.

I soon realised this was a) an incredibly slow process; and b) was leading to a huge amount of water (mixed with conditioner) dripping slowly down my wall. I then chose to stretch the jumper out over my clothes airer for a night, using pieces of an old hotel card to hold pins on to the edges of the jersey to hold it to the ends of the airer.

I woke up in the morning to bright sun beaming through my blinds, which clearly symbolised a new dawn and, I soon realised, great success for my experiment. I had, it dawned on me, completed my first improvised and partly self-created life hack.

I began thinking about where, as a student, I had actually created these in less-dramatic circumstances.

Indeed, I had created my own life hacks to get extra cookies at the hall lunch (Alliance Catering abhorrently set a limit of one per person), by visiting the buffet bar in a hat, without a hat, and then finally with the look of someone getting his friend a cookie.

I've also figured out that reading ahead on the dinner menu to the nights where fries are part of the meal is ideal, as it provides information on which are the best nights to go to lunch late and enjoy the virtues of end-of-dinner second-helpings privileges - a real coup when the plan comes off.

Another habit I've created for myself is purposefully leaving my wallet at home so as to prevent impulse purchases. I've hacked life by keeping a plastic bowl with a lid my mum sent me with cookies in it - it's become clear that this is literally all that's necessary to eat any meal on as the lid acts both as a lid and a plate!

These are the life hacks, the small moments of innovation that keep us treading the treacherous waters of university life. I encourage future students to learn them quickly, so that they aren't left with an overstretched jersey when trying to make amends for poor washing abilities.