One of the reasons I enjoy writing this column is because I truly believe I'm helping people. I suppose that sharing another duct tape tip may not radically change a person's life. However, I've found that it's the little improvements that you make in your life and the lives of others that over time leads to great happiness. I'd like to defer to the patron saint of tips, Benjamin Franklin, and what he had to say on the subject...

"Human felicity (happiness) is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day." Words to live by ...

There's a right way and a wrong way to crack eggs. The right way is to hit the egg on a hard flat surface. The wrong way is to hit it against the edge of a frying pan. When you hit an egg in this fashion you're pushing small pieces of the shell into the egg. You're also pushing germs into it as well.

Here's a great travel tip. Put a couple of carabiners (or D-rings) on your luggage before you leave home. Why? You can use the carabiners to attach cameras, shopping bags, etc., to your luggage rather than having to hold them when walking around the airport.

Speaking of traveling, it's always a good idea to carry a couple of plastic trash bags in your luggage. Besides using them to store dirty or wet clothes, you can also cover your luggage with them if it starts raining.

It doesn't take long to get dirty when working outside. Take a bar of soap and put it in the leg of an old pair of panty hose. Attach the hose to an outside spigot. Now, whenever you've been working in the garden or in the yard, you can easily wash your hands before going into the house.

Remember this tip the next time your child has a birthday party. Instead of having your child write thank-you notes, (and try to remember who gave them what), take a picture of your child with every gift and the respective gift-giver. When the pictures are developed, simply put a stamp on the back of them, and have your child mail them with a thank-you written on the back.

Tim Thompson lives in Gainesville. E-mail Tim your ideas for tips, tools or tricks.