Everyday Items With Brilliant Secret Uses That Most People Fail To Notice

You know those little plastic things that keep your bread bags tied up and your loaves fresh? Well, they have a second function: the color of the tag indicates what day the bread was baked.

The little hole at the tip of the cap wasn't added just so it could be used as a makeshift whistle. According to The Independent in 2016, as many as 100 Americans died every year after swallowing and subsequently choking on pen caps.

Have you ever wondered whether there was a better way to eat out of a Chinese takeout container? By just doing a little bit of crafty folding and unfolding, these containers can act as plates, too.

Doing that weird tongue thing to try and corral a straw that's bobbing up and down in a can of soda might make you the butt of a few jokes and stares.

Ever pack applesauce for lunch and forget utensils? And then, when you realized your mistake, you probably poured it into your mouth, making weird slurping sounds all the while, didn't you?

When jeans first became fashionable, that tiny pocket had a simple function: to hold a man's pocket watch. It was pretty necessary, considering those accessories were all the rage back then.

In some ovens, there's a little drawer that's the perfect size for trays, pots, and pans. So of course, that would be storage space, right? Yes and no. You could also use the space for something else.

What's the deal with the little grooves or bumps on the F and J keys on your computer keyboard? If you're a classically trained typist who doesn't look at the keyboard, those marks indicate "home keys," or where your index fingers rest.

At a fast food joint or diner, little paper cups serve as containers for your condiments. But when you dip a fat nugget into them, the sauce has nowhere left to run — apart from all over the table.

At the end of the handle of your typical frying pan or pot, there's often a little hole or slot. The primary function of this is so that you can hang your cookware up somewhere to keep it out of the way.

When an elevator gets stuck with the door locked shut, a maintenance or rescue person needs some way to operate the thing manually. And in some elevators, a small keyhole at the top corner allows them this opportunity.

It's a common dilemma. You've just nabbed a sofa from your favorite fast food chain, but you're afraid of putting it down on your freshly cleaned coffee table. After all, it might leave a soda ring!

When you pull into a gas station, you almost always suffer the slight panic that you've forgotten which side of the car your gas tank is on... But don't worry: There's normally a way you can tell without getting out of the vehicle. On the typical gas gauge, you'll see a little picture of a gas tank.

We can't imagine this being useful for too many people, but it is a hack nonetheless. So in the rare event that you want to offer someone one single Tic Tac, the container itself has you covered.

While plungers have been removing any number of vile things stuck deep inside your sewage pipes since the dawn of time, their purpose doesn't have to be so singular. If you open your mind to the cup plunger, the possibilities are endless.

Warm beer can be a total drag and ruin just about any drinking experience. And wouldn't you know it, your own hand might be the beer-warming culprit. The next time you're handed an ice-cold bottle, then, be careful how you hold it.

You know those weird spoons meant for scooping out pasta from boiling hot water? The holes in their bottoms are incredibly useful for letting water drain out, sure, but as luck would have it, they have another use.

The never-ending dilemma when using a measuring tape is this: How do you measure a large space without having to stretch your arms to their limits or ask another person for help?

Near the arch of your foot in a pair of Converse sneakers, you'll find a hole for laces that might seem totally unnecessary. You know the ones: They're parallel to the ground and positioned where no one has ever tried to tie their laces before.

When you look closely into a microwave, you see the remains of weeks-old food everywhere. But if you clean that away and look again, you'll see thousands of tiny black holes covering the door. It turns out those are not just for decoration.

Back in the day, libraries and homes seemingly had a major rat problem. And if the creatures infested homes, they'd reportedly gnaw away at reams of paper that were being stored there. This apparently led to lots of lost work — and an often overlooked invention.

At some point in your life, you've probably yanked the headrests in your car out of their holders. Normally, this is so you can fit a child's car seat or make more room for a ladder you're trying to fit into the trunk. But, some believe, that's not why detachable headrests were invented.

The raised number 57 on a glass ketchup bottle is "the sweet spot." That's where you should tap if you want to get the condiment flowing — don't smack the bottom of the bottle! Otherwise, your fries will be cold by the time you get any ketchup on them.

Ever notice the notches covering the sides of spare change? The reason behind these ridges dates back to a time when coins were stamped in different weights. But evidently, the authorities hadn't counted on the ingenuity of forgers.

Many people believe those extra bits of fabric in clothing are for sewing patches in the event of a hole. But while there is no denying that this is certainly helpful, it is perhaps not the primary usage.

Internet lore has many people believing that the colored squares on toothpaste tubes indicate the ingredients in the toothpaste. For example, someone might tell you that a green mark means that the toothpaste is made from natural ingredients. But that is completely false.

Okay, so it seems pretty obvious these bits of fabric are used for hanging up your shirts. But where did they originate? Well, Navy sailors used the loops to hang their shirts because there wasn't enough room for hangers in the closets of submarines.

Why on Earth do some types of erasers have blue sections on one end, and then pink ones on the other? To the layman, it would seem that both ends work perfectly well as an eraser.

Underneath every twist-off bottle cap is a thin blue disc that can be removed. Most likely, you would just remove these small discs and throw them in the trash. But those bits of plastic are really doing us a huge favor.

The little dimples on a golf ball do more than just make them easier to pick up. We're sure that you've never given them much thought before, but the reason for their existence is clear.

The diamond-shaped patch on some backpacks will, for the most part, be left unused. But when we tell you that these patches are also known as "lashing squares" or "pig snouts," we're pretty sure you can guess their primary purpose.

The flaps on each side of a juice box may seem useless, or just a side effect of the folding used to create the box in the first place. But it turns out that the flaps can come in very handy for parents with small children.

If you don't have a toddler with you, the loop at the top of the grocery cart child seat can double as a hook. It could even provide an overlooked helping hand when your cart is full and you'd like to keep your delicate groceries separated.

Aluminum foil is tricky to section cleanly at the best of times. But it is especially frustrating when the loose tube tries to jump out of the box when you try to pull some off!

This factoid might help comfort any nervous flyers out there. It would be easy for a first-time flyer to spot the tiny holes in airplane windows and get understandably worried about the fate of the plane.

The shocking rise in the cost of living has everybody looking for ways to reuse their past-their-best items. But there is a frugal hack just at your fingertips. In short: Stop throwing away nail files when they lose their ruggedness!

Chances are that you don't need much storage for CDs in this day and age. And if you do, ask yourself: When was the last time I listened to a CD?

It's so easy to look at a limp tube of toothpaste and think there is nothing left inside. And really, is it worth wrestling with the tube for the last couple of drops? But with this hack, you'll never waste time or toothpaste again.

If you don't have access to an outside tap, chances are you've often faced the struggle of trying to fill up a watering can from the kitchen faucet. Well, here's a solid gold solution to filling up a container that's too large for the sink.

The next time you need to drill into a wall at home, try this tip to avoid destroying any wires hiding on the other side. Of course, this is only handy if you don't have the proper tool but you do have a microphone!