Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
In today's video, I discuss 35 essential life hacks for the modern gentleman.
One, use Windex to clean your patent leather shoes.
Let's say you travel for a black tie or white tie event and your patent leather shoes gets
scuffed up, this is ideal.
Simply spray some Windex onto your shoe, take a piece of cotton or a paper towel or a towel
at the hotel and simply rub it.
Because of the mirror finish of the leather, you'll get a nice shine and you remove any
scuffs.
two, tie your shoelaces so they never come undone.
Basically, you want your knot to be horizontal so whenever you walk, your knot becomes tighter
and not looser.
For a step by step tutorial on how to tie your shoelaces the proper way, please take
a look here.
Three, use ice cubes to get wrinkles out of dress shirts.
You put your dryer on high, you throw in your shirt along with a handful of ice cubes.
The steam that is generated from the ice cubes will release the wrinkles and you get a shirt
that's basically wrinkle-free.
It's much better than putting it in plain water because that will just leave puddles
on your shirt.
Four, keep your shirt collar stiff with a belt while travelling, First, you roll up
your belt to the side of your shirt collar.
Second, you simply insert it into the shirt collar like so, that fits snuggly against
the collar.
Now, simply pack it.
When you arrive, your collar will be in a nice shape and ready to wear.
Five, sharpen your cartridge razor blades on a pair of denim, Put one layer of denim
on a flat surface such as a table, then take your cartridge razor and go against the cutting
motion.
Don't go like this, otherwise, you may damage your jeans.
Go against the way you usually shave.
If you're still shaving with one of those, please check out our in-depth shaving guide
so you get better results at a lower price.
Six, open a wine bottle with shoelaces.
If you're in a situation without a bottle opener, you always have shoelaces.
Tie a nut in the shoelace just once, make sure it's thick enough, then take a pointy
object, just a file or a knife, put it here, and then shove it through the cork into the
bottle.
Once it's at the bottom and it's come out, you simply take the shoelace and pull out
the cork.
Seven, it's basically an un-hack because you use a clothes brush.
Most people today use a lint roller to get rid of fuss on their clothes.
Not only is it bad for your garments because it pulls out the fibers inconsistently and
you'll never get rid of the problem, it's also very costly because you have to buy new
glue and it leaves residue on your clothes.
A traditional clothes brush works really well, it takes out the dust, it helps to prevent
any moth bites, and you don't have to bring it to the dry cleaner that often.
Also, a clothes brush is a lot less expensive than a lint roller because you only have to
buy it once.
You don't have any consumable expenses.
Eight, use your neck to figure out if pants will fit.
All you do is you take the pair of pants by the waist, throw it around your neck and make
sure that it touches at the end.
If that's the case, the pair of pants should fit.
Of course, you should always try on your pair of pants before you buy them and it only works
if you're in an absolute hurry and you don't have time.
Nine, use baby powder to remove oil stains.
Let's say you eat a salad and you get an oil stain on your jacket, the best way to soak
up the fat is use baby powder.
Don't rub it into your fabric because otherwise, it won't come out.
The baby powder will absorb it and then you can either dry clean it or use some soap later
on.
Ten, no bottle opener?
no problem!
You can always open your beer with another bottle.
All you have to do is simply take the bottle, take the other one like so, adjust it like
this, push tightly and open the bottle.
Cheers!
Eleven, use clear nail polish to prevent a button from coming off.
Let's say you travel and then you see that your jacket button is about to come off, you
can just use the clear nail polish from your significant other.
Put a dab on the top of the button, over the thread so it won't come off and the next time
you have the chance, you can simply replace it.
Twelve, use stale bread to clean suede shoes.
Normally, you should have a brass brush to clean suede shoes but when you don't have
that, you can use a stale piece of bread.
Simply take the piece of bread and rub it onto your shoes vigorously.
The staler the bread, the better the result.
Of course, you don't want anything moldy on your shoe.
Thirteen, stretch tight shoes in the freezer.
Let's say your finger's swelling or you simply have a pair of shoes that's too tight, take
two-gallon bags, fill them with water, put them in your shoes and put your shoes in the
freezer.
As the ice expands, it will make your shoe bigger.
Of course, you have to be careful because it can damage your shoe so be cautious.
Fourteen, rub deodorant on your feet so you prevent chaffing and blisters and foot odor.
You can either use roll-on deodorant or stick deodorant.
Put it on your feet and it won't smell.
Alternatively, you can use lime juice, it has the same effect but it's natural without
a little more oxide.
Fifteen, remove red wine stains with white wine.Let's say, somebody gets some red wine
onto you, a good idea to take another bottle of white wine, put it on there and it kind
of neutralizes the stain and it will come out.
Sixteen, use lemon juice to prevent sweat stains.
Nobody likes the ugly sweat stains on your shirt so simply squeeze some lemon juice on
a spray bottle, spray it onto your shirt, especially around the armpits, and you won't
see sweat stains anymore.
Seventeen, use a paper clip as a collar stay.
Simply take a paper clip and insert it into the collar.
Voila!
You have a proper collar stay.
Eighteen, add salt to ice to cool things down instantly.
Let's say you have last minute guests or you just need beer that's cold really quickly,
take about a cup of coarse salt per gallon of ice, mix it and the temperature will go
way below freezing cooling down your beer in less than a minute.
Nineteen, use a hair straightener to iron your collar or other things.
Especially when you're travelling and you don't have an iron, or in a hurry, you can
simply heat up the iron and iron your shirt collar.
make sure to take out your plastic collar stays beforehand or use a paperclip otherwise,
it might melt.
Twenty, Stiff socks in your shoes while travelling that way, you save space and you can also
escape the shoe tree because it keeps your shoe in the right shape.
Twenty-one, use a pin or a safety pin on the back of your lapel. if you want to make sure
that the boutonniere does not dangle on the outside of your lapel.
Twenty-two, repurpose old pantyhose to polish your shoes.
Your significant other might have some pantyhose with holes in them, they're perfect to polish
your shoes, especially with quick movements because it creates a certain amount of heat
that leaves a nice shine in no time.
You can also put the pantyhose over a brush and brush very quickly.
It has the same effect and works everytime.
Twenty-four, get rid of smelling shoes with lemon peel.
If you have smelly feet and shoes, simply take a piece of lemon peel or a dryer sheet
or both, and put it in your shoe and leave it there for 48 hours and they will smell
much better.
Twenty-five, use a urinal without any backsplash.
Most men aim to the center of the urinal but if you aim at an angle on the side, you will
experience almost no backsplash.
Twenty-six, protect your goods at the beach.
When you're at the beach, you don't want to take your valuables in the water with you
so you leave them.
That's prime target for thieves.
Instead, either cut open a bottle of sunscreen, put it in there and even better, use some
diapers that are wrapped up so that it looks like a baby just pooed in them and no thief
will ever open them.
Twenty-seven, use soda can tabs to use one hanger after another if you are out of space.
All you do is take your tab, put it on the clothes hanger like so, now you take the other
clothes hanger and hang it in and you can hang your stuff like this. of course, you
can't do it too often because otherwise it will dangle but you can do it with at least
two or three.
It will save space.
Twenty-eight, put in a corkscrew at a slight angle, you get the cork out without any mess
and issues.
most people use a corkscrew and they put it in just through the center, just start on
one edge and try to go diagonally, it just helps to grip the entire cork.
Twenty-nine, use a clothes pin to hold a nail while hammering . If you don't have great
aim or you don't want to hammer on your finger, simply take a nail, put it in between the
Normally, you should have your cigars in a humidor however, if you don't have one available
and you want to protect your cigars, put them in a plastic bag with a somewhat damp sponge
and that will do the trick until you have a humidor.
Thirty-two, pour cheap vodka through your water filter to make it more palatable.
If you have a party coming up and you don't want to spend money on premium vodka, you
can take cheap vodka in big bottles, put it through a water filter and put it back in
the bottle and you get a more premium taste, especially for mixed drinks.
To learn more about premium vodka, please check out our vodka guide here.
Thirty-three, gargle whisky mixed with water to relief a sore throat.
Basically, you take some bourbon, you can also use scotch, mix it one to one with water
and you gargle it.
Ideally, it will kill bacteria and your sore throat should feel less sore after a short
while.
Just make sure don't drive after.
Thirty-four, use drip drop to prevent hangovers.
Drip Drop was developed for babies who couldn't get IVs to keep them hydrated but you can
use it after you partied hard to keep your body hydrated and prevent a hangover the next
day.
You can get it from Amazon or drugstores and it's really a lifesaver especially if you're
not used to partying hard.
Thirty-five, use wine boxes to store your off-season shoes.
Last but not the least, we all like to save space.
If you have a lot of shoes that you don't need for either the winter or summer, you
can put them in wine boxes so they are stored vertically, not horizontally, and so they
take up less space.
if you have any life hacks, please get in touch with us here and if you enjoyed this
video, subscribe to our channel and to our newsletter so you get videos like this right
to your inbox.
Thank you.
Before you ask in the comments, the jacket is tweed and vintage, the shirt is custom-made,
the tie is a brown grenadine by Fort Belvedere and the pocket square is linen by Fort Belvedere.
You can find both of them in the shop, here.