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We’ve been seeing a lot of amazing innovations coming out of Asia recently, with real-life emoji created in Hong Kong, and the no-spill bento bag invented in Taiwan.

But the latest discovery to take the internet by storm is a simple lifehack: using a straw to clear clogged drains. It may sound disgusting at first, but don’t worry; there’s no sucking up of hair and garbage here. How does it work? Watch the video to find out, as well as a bunch of other uses for straw you never imagined.

The average drinking straw’s life is pretty short. They spend more time in their wrapper or in the bin than they do fulfilling their primary purpose of ferrying liquid from drinking vessel to awaiting mouth, and they’re no friend to the environment either.

But no more! Now straws are worth their weight in gold and will get a second shot at being useful, thanks to this video posted on the Taiwanese CTS (Chinese Television System) YouTube page. In it, they describe how to use a straw to de-clog a drain, as well as several other ingenious ideas.

You can watch the full thing here (in Chinese), with some highlights below:

▼ Oh no! The sink’s clogged again. Really need to find a better place to shave my armpits….

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▼ Okay, okay; no need to show off how manly my pits were.

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▼ No seriously, that second foot of hair isn’t mine.

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▼ Let’s, uh, let’s just move onto the straws.

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▼ Tah dah! Here they are, ready to de-clog even the hairiest of drains. But how?

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▼ Apparently you cut the top of the straw into a V-shape, then continue making diagonal cuts all the way down.

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▼ Once it’s all cut, you stick it in the drain, pull it up, and your straw’s new “teeth” will catch any loose hairs. Not sure if it can pull up several pounds of hair like we saw earlier, but there’s no harm in trying!

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▼ And what do you do with all the leftover straws not busy pulling hairs out of your drain? Cut them up to fasten your chopsticks together!

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▼ You can also cut a hole down the side of a straw to slip notes into… and then somehow fasten the straw to the fridge… probably with a magnet… that you probably could have just used for the note.

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▼ Or you can stick your necklaces through them? I feel like we’re grasping at straws here.

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▼ You too can be the owner of a beautiful straw-ladder to hold your washcloths!

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Who knew that straws had so many uses? We’d love to hear if any of these straw-contraptions actually work as well (or as medicorely!) as in the video, so let us know if you try them out. And if you know any other uses for these miracle tubes, be sure to let us know.

Source/images: YouTube (Zhonghua Dianshi Gongsi)
[ Read in Japanese ]