Here in Money4Machines HQ, we’re big fans of stuff like apps that tell us when we need to visit the dentist, where our car keys might be and what exactly Office Cat’s particular meows are demanding.

Contrary to popular belief, we all live lives away from the office doing things like watching telly, gardening, cycling, planning hypothetic trips around the world and cleaning up after Office Cat’s house parties.

In the spirit of Phil Inkley, here are some non-tech-related nuggets of life advice to help us all make it through the gauntlet of daily tasks a little more easily!

1. Newspaper murders weeds

Our SEO girl has a nice big yard with some delightful plots picked out for bedding areas. She tried this tip a few weeks ago and, in place of triffids and strangling vines, she has a nice blank yard canvas upon which to create a garden masterpiece!

Simply clear away as much of the weedy mess as you can and lay sheets of newspaper over the area. Then put a layer of soil on top and plant your lupins, sweetpeas or whatever else you fancy growing.  Weeds are sneaky little critters and will find any hole in plastic sheeting, but drop a bit of newspaper on them and they’re stuffed!

“Ten more minutes on this crossword and I’m going to show those weeds the meaning of pain!”

2. Blackboard erasers for fogged-up windscreens

Driving to work in winter is basically awful for most people. It’s cold, it’s dull, it’s early and we’d all rather be dreaming of iPad trade-ins or kittens or sell for cash UK rates or whatever it is people who don’t work in our office dream of!

This is such a simple and easy tip – just keep a blackboard eraser in your glove box instead of a cloth (and all the old batteries, burger wrappers and petrol receipts!)

3. Cornmeal is death to ants

Ants are an annoying hazard of the summer months, and getting rid of them is about as much fun as a lobotomy. If you’ve got pets and kids to think about, laying a load of ant poison might not seem like the brightest idea!

Leaving a few piles of cornmeal close to whatever cracks in the wall they’re disappearing into makes an attractive food source for the little beasts. They’ll carry heaps of the stuff back to the nest to feed the rest of the colony. But joke’s on you, ants! They can’t digest cornmeal and it’ll kill them. It may take a week or so for it to work, but it’ll keep your home toxin-free!