Things often have more uses than you could ever imagine. Some common things found around your house can almost perform magic when you know how to use them. Take warm water, for example. You can use it to wash your face, or you can add some salt to warm water and then gargle with it to soothe your sore throat.

However, most people don't know that there's another thing warm water can do-make a tangerine taste less sour! It is very easy to impress your friends with this little trick. Just prepare some warm water that is around 40 degrees Celsius, and put a sour tangerine into it for a few minutes. The tangerine will soon become much sweeter, as if by magic.

How easy it is to improve the taste! If your friends are surprised, show them how it works. The tangerine tastes better than it did before because the warmth of the water makes it seem less sour. The fruit becomes sweeter not because it produces more sugar, it tastes sweeter because it contains a lower level of sourness.

If your friends are still not impressed by the little tip on making a tangerine more delicious, try this one: use a banana peel to polish your leather shoes. Just imagine that you were busy getting dressed for an important party, but found that your shoes looked dirty. What's worse, you didn't have any shoe polish on hand. What could you do in such a situation? Get a banana!

What an easy solution! However, you are not going to get a pair of bright, shiny leather shoes simply by eating a banana. Well, if you are hungry, go ahead and eat it. Just remember to keep the peel, so you can use it to shine your shoes. Rub the inside of the peel all over the shoes before using a piece of dry cloth to polish them. The secret is the high level of tannin in the banana peel. Tannin is a special chemical usually used to tan animal hides into leather. When it is rubbed on your shoes, you'll discover that your shoes will shine more brightly than ever before.