Wisdom from the world's best homemaking hackers

Amanda Ahlenius, left, with her wise-tipster Grandma,
Marcia Clupper. (Amanda Ahlenius photo via WaPo)

Scratchy towels, stubborn stains, and tomato paste dilemmas all have handy hacks. But who are the best homemaking hackers? Grandmas! And other wise women who have been sharing their ingenious solutions long before hacking was a thing, writes Cathy Free of The Washington Post.

Mother and professional dietitian Amanda Ahlenius, "was feeling overwhelmed with her responsibilities when she began thinking about her grandmother, and how easily and seamlessly she seemed to tackle household chores. . . . Ahlenius has gotten dozens of life tips from her grandmother to make household tasks easier."

“I remember watching her do these things as a little girl, and she’s still doing them now," Ahlenius told Free. "I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could all start sharing the advice we’d learned from the older women in our lives, like our moms, grandmas and aunts?’” Free reports,"In February, Ahlenius decided to post a quick video on TikTok, asking, 'How much could we learn from each other if we all shared the random things that the women in our lives have taught us?'"

Her video's theme had broad resonance. "That first video has been viewed more than 865,000 times, and another video with a tip about how to scrape tomato paste from a can has more than 9.3 million views. In another video, she said her grandmother has a solid set of tools and expertly knows how to use them all," Free adds. "She now regularly posts life hacks contributed by her 330,000 followers from their own grandmas."

"She said that as a child she would sit at her grandmother Marcia Clupper’s kitchen table in the farm town of South Whitley, Ind., population 1,800, and watch her flawlessly move from one household task to another," Free writes. Ahlenius told her: “She was born in the 1930s, so she knows how to save money. One thing she taught me is that when the price of milk is high, you can buy a gallon of milk, mix it half and half with powdered milk, and it will be cheaper and taste the same. . . What I’m really hoping for now is a solid tip on how to fold a fitted sheet. I’ve watched all the videos, and I still can’t do it.”