What comes to mind when you think of Tik Tok? For me, it’s dancing teens. You’ve seen them, or perhaps you parent them, or perhaps you’ve tried, like me, to attempt the dance moves in the most cringe-worthy way possible. We’re all human. You might be surprised to read this, Tik Tok isn’t just for dancing teens.

Other the past few weeks (I blame lockdown) I’ve become moderately obsessed with Tik Tok. Perhaps it’s the voyeuristic side of me, or my love of an easy laugh, but I find myself mindlessly scrolling before bedtime. And it’s not just entertaining, it’s actually educational too. Where else can you find out how to cut a cat’s nails with ease? Tik Tok is the answer.

A recent trend going around Tik Tok, with over 150 billion shares to the hashtag, #LearnOnTikTok, is people sharing hacks they discovered while browsing Tik Tok. See, educational.

Here are 15 of my favourite things I learned on Tik Tok

1. How to turn toilet paper into tissues

I fail at buying tissues, and my kids give me grief for it, so now I plan on showing this hack to stop them complaining. Tik Tok user @anivihan shows us all you have to do is squish a toilet roll, pull out the cardboard roll, and then pull tissue through… and you’ve got tissues!

2. How we’ve been draining pasta wrong all our lives

Are you like me? Do you pour the pasta out into a drainer, splashing hot water everywhere? Wrong, friends. We’re meant to cover the saucepan with the drainer and turn them upside down, keeping the pasta in the pot, like @whoa_naily shows us. Game-changer.

3. How to cut a frozen pizza in half with one swift move

Eating alone and don’t want to eat a whole pizza? You’ll love this idea. Take a frozen pizza from the freezer, whack it on the bench and watch it split in two. Pop the other half back in the freezer and cook the half you want to eat. Winner!

4. How to make home school a heck of a lot easier

Sick of typing? Did you know that by hitting the ‘function’ key twice on a Mac computer it enables dictation, so your computer will type everything that you say?

5. How to store bread without it going stale

I am a bit smitten with this idea. Simply use a container that can hold a piece of bread without squishing it. Keeping the bread in the bread bag, pop it in the container, and pull the bag over the sides of the container. Slide the bag down when you want a piece, and replace the lid when not in use. Winner!

6. How to cut cake at the park mess-free

You head to a party at the park and you, or someone, inevitably forget the knife to cut the cake. Tik Tok has taught us to simply take our drinking glass, place onto the cake and press down and scoop. Then you’ve got yourself a cake cup! Yum!

7. How to get one baby wipe at a time
We’ve all done. Gone to get one baby wipe, but with one hand on bub, and one hand grabbing for wipes, instead of one wipe you can end with a whopping four or twenty-four. Tik Tok users are using a hair elastic to stead the wipes, and it releases one wipe at a time.

8. How to get rid of a sneaky hickey

OK loverd, Tik Tok has your back. Did you know you can remove hickeys with a whisk? You can. Simply twirl a whisk onto your hickey for five minutes and it disappears. Is it painful? Yes. Effective? Also yes.

9. How to bring life back to your elastic

These coil elastics can lose their life quite quickly, especially if you have a lot of hair. Bring them back to life, and tighten them again, by popping them in boiling water for a minute or two.

10. How to cut a cat’s nails

This one is a little bit on the weird side, but I don’t have a cat so I don’t know if this is a normal thing. By holding the scruff of the cat in your mouth, like a mother cat, it will calmly let you cut her nails.

11. How to actually put a liner in the bin

If there’s one job I don’t like, it’s putting the bag into the bin, but now there’s an easier way. If you’re like me, you’ve probably placed you arm into the bag and them put it into the bottom of the bin. Tik Tok tells us the right way place the bag onto the rim of the bin, and then punching through and turning the bag inside out.

12. How we’re meant to clean out our washing machine

Who knew? Down the bottom of a front loader is a little door that we’re meant to be opening, and then open up and clean out. Must do mine this weekend!

13. How to get dirt and bugs out of strawberries

Tik Tok has taught us to fill a bowl with water and a sprinkle of salt, and then place the strawberries in and leave for 30 minutes. Watched the dirt and seeds pop off!

14. How to get pesky stickers off things

Sometimes stickers do not want to come off, and all the picking and unpicking is fruitless in trying to get it off. This Tik Tok user says we can place another big piece of sticky tape over the top, press down and then rip it up and the sticker will come off.

15. How to clean your sink drain This might make your stomach turn! Did you know that we’re meant to clean our sink drains? Tik Tok has revealed that we can unscrew our sinks and give them the proper clean they need.

Which one of these tricks will you try?