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That old electrician who showed me the twist method
About 12 years ago I was helping my uncle redo his home office, and this older electrician named Frank came by to move an outlet. He saw my pile of tangled cables and just laughed, then grabbed a zip tie and showed me how to twist each wire into a loop before plugging it in. He said "you leave them straight, they'll always find a way to fight each other." I still do that trick today behind my TV stand and it's cut my cleanup time by half. Has anyone else got a weird tip from a tradesperson that stuck with you?
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the_lisa6d ago
Oh man, Frank sounds like a gem! That twisting trick is genius (I can already picture how much neater my own cable mess would be). I had a plumber once tell me to always put a bucket under the shut-off valves before touching them, even if they look dry. I thought he was being dramatic, but then I tried it and saved myself a flood under the sink. It's funny how those little old-school tips just stick with you forever.
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masondixon6d agoMost Upvoted
Bring up the flip side of this though @the_lisa - those same old-school tips can be a real pain when they get passed down wrong. My dad swore by using a penny to bypass a broken fuse, and I had to unlearn that one quick before I blew something up. The bucket trick is solid for sure, but half the time people forget to check if the bucket's actually clean first. Nothing worse than grabbing a bucket with dried paint flakes in it and then having that land in your fresh work area.
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