Sleep Comfortably During Your Next Road Trip With This Pool Noodle Hack

Pool noodles are a ton of fun for summer vacation shenanigans. You can float on them, have relatively safe lightsaber battles, and bend them to make a floating chair. Of course, because they're made of polyethylene closed cell foam (meaning water can't get in), you can't really recycle the material. That doesn't mean that you have to throw them out when your kids want a new color, or they get dings in them. There are a ton of great ideas out there to give them a second life, from using them to keep a door from slamming or to protect little hands from springs and sharp corners. 

One great road trip hack comes from Five Minute Crafts, and it can help you sleep more comfortably when you're in the car for long periods of time. It's really easy to do, and that isn't the only road trip hack you can pull off with pool noodles. 

This is an easy hack to pull off and doesn't require anything but a box cutter and, of course, a pool noodle. The site says to cut the pool noodle to a shorter length (it suggests "pillow-sized"). Then, slice down one side with the serrated knife, being careful not to cut it in half. Push the split side over your seatbelt and look — instant pillow! You can even put one of these in your luggage, pre-sliced, for a rental car seatbelt. Keep in mind that cutting a pool noodle doesn't keep it from floating, so you can still use it in the pool. Just dry them before putting them back on the seatbelt. 

A pool noodle pillow isn't going to be exactly like napping in your comfy bed with a feather pillow. However, it's certainly going to be more comfortable than bending your neck and developing a mark from the seatbelt on your face. Pool noodles are relatively cheap, so you can make one of these for each seatbelt in your car. They're also easy to remove, so you can take the bright purple noodle off the seatbelt and put it back on later whenever necessary.