Mid-20s Adult Life Hacks You Should Know

As 2021 rears its head, I’m looking back at this year and thinking about how, as crazy as it has been, I also just so happened to turn 25 years old – a quarter of a century – and man! There are some things I wish I had received the memo on when I finally reached this milestone in my young adult life.

Alas, I am here now and I’ve come to realise that there are life hacks for just about EVERYTHING! From learning how to live more in the present and working with my skin to cater to what it needs to rocking the same pair of pants in 3 different ways and understanding the props that will enhance flatlays, life has a hack for quite a number of things that I wish I had known about as I was navigating the first 5 years of my 20s.

But hey, now that I’m 25 and have learned some adult hacks, I thought I’d also share some of the shortcuts that life has been generous enough to show me that I should use. You’re going to find some obvious ones and others that (I hope) give you a little “Ahhhhh!” moment. Enjoy this list of adulting hacks.

• Unclog your inbox. Seriously, take the time to unsubscribe to all the newsletters that you really don’t need. It was nice to sign up for that one competition with your email, but now you’re getting overwhelmed by the number of unnecessary emails filling your inbox. Girl, hit that unsubscribe button! I personally go through my inbox every two weeks to unclog it – from unsubscribing to emptying my spam and clearing anything still in draft-form but won’t actually be sent.
• In this digital age, make sure you have your signature saved on your computer. I have both a PDF and JPG version of it and it has been so handy, especially for signing contracts and lease agreements. I usually use an online PDF editor and document signing platform called DocHub to add my signature to any documents that may require it. It’s incredibly quick and useful for contracts that you receive via email. You can add your signature in 4 different ways – via your phone, drawing it, uploading an image of it or simply typing your name. Either way, this has been a life saver of a hack for when your signature is needed.
• Speaking of signatures, make sure you sort out your email signature (the little graphic or text that you can add at the end of your email). It just adds a professionalism to you while also giving you the freedom to be creative in how you sign yourself off. Plus, its good to have your contact details in your email signature; you never know who may reach out to you.

• Moving from home to a dorm room, or a dorm room to a new apartment? Try get your boxes from your local store (be it an alcohol store, your local supermarket and or clothing store in a mall). More likely than not, these places have plenty of emply boxes to go around. This can often be a money-saving exercise (especially when moving can actually be quite pricey sometimes).
• If you find yourself in one of those enormous parking lots, take a photo of where you parked with the level and number included. Trust me, this works.
• Buy those plastic covers for when you need to warm up your food in the microwave
• Learn about credit, debit and investments from an early age. I wanted to open my won investment account when I was 21. This didn’t happen but took me lots of learning and 3 years later to finally make it happen; and I’m genuinely glad I did.
• Save up for an international trip. Because the world is too big to not go see it at such a young age. Go create memories and have a story to tell by travelling the world. When you do, see if your bank doesn’t provide travel insurance (mine did, and it was such a life saver for my trip to Bali and Hong Kong this year).

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• If you don’t want to wait to chill your bottle of white vino in the fridge, but also don’t relish in the idea of watering down your glasses with ice cubes, use frozen fruit (in particular, frozen grapes). These don’t look sexy but can help chill glasses without the water that will slightly dilute the wine.
• Want to know if your eggs are still fresh to use? Place them in a bowl of water and watch how they respond in the water. Fresh eggs will usually lie at the bottom of the water fully on their sides. One-week-old eggs tend to sit at an angle on the bottom of the bowl while stale eggs that are two to three weeks old will rest on the bottom of the bowl with their rounded ends towards the surface. Very old or rotten eggs will float.
• If you’re cooking with a can of tomatoes, remember to boil some water and add about 1/4 cup of boiling water to the can. Give it a swirl and add this to your tomato-based sauces to reduce down and intensify flavours.
• To avoid crying over your onions when cooking, peel and chop the ends of the onion off. Soak what’s left in cold water for 30 seconds. Then boom! You’ll have no tears left to cry.

Adulting may not always be easy, but I certainly hope that these few hacks help you out in your early adulthood phase. What are some of the hacks that have helped you so far in your twenties (or even beyond)? Let me know in the comments:)