Aussie shares hilarious reason she keeps $1.75 tongs from Kmart in her car

"This is actually genius," one commenter wrote on the viral clip, while another said it was, "a lifesaver for short-armed gals."

We've all been there - you're in a car park and driving up to the boom gates... you're ready to grab your parking ticket, and then you realise you're *just* too far away.

Then comes the awkward lean, or worse, the 'reverse and try again' maneuver. 

Melbourne TikToker, Brittany Nash, however, has a hilarious solution to avoid this all-too-common scenario. 

She always keeps a handy pair of $1.75 tongs from Kmart in her car. 

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Image: TikTok

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The $1.75 tong hack for "bad drivers"

Taking to her account (from her car, no less) she says, "Whenever someone new comes into my car, they’re always like, 'Brit, why do you have tongs in your car?'

"Okay, great question, but I have an even better answer."

"You know, when you come up to those boom gates for the car park and they’ve got a little ticket machine, I can never get close enough to the ticket machine without my handy dandy little tongs," she continues to explain.

She then demonstrates reaching out of the window with her tongs to snag the ticket. 

The self-proclaimed "bad driver" says the people behind her always laugh at her when they see her do this, but she doesn't care.

"You know what?" she says. "I’d rather be that weirdo with the tongs who’s lowkey kind of smart than that person who’s like unbuckling and opening the door — how embarrassing.

"Okay, tongs for life... You need these for your car."

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"My short arms just can't anymore"

Her unique hack struck a chord, resonating with countless drivers who've faced the same dilemma. 

The clip has now been viewed over 200k times, with many describing the trick as "brilliant" and "genius."

"OMG, I need people to do this at my work. Always accidents and broken boom gates because of people leaning out to reach and they then hit accelerate," one user wrote.

Another person said, "I am so taking this idea. My short arm just can't anymore."

Someone else agreed, saying, "I have short arms, so always have to unbuckle or half open the door. This is the best idea ever."

Trying the hack at Maccas. Image: TikTok

Would this work at Maccas drive-thru? Brit finds out

Then several users recommended she use her tongs at Maccas drive-thru, and in a follow-up video she gave it a go.

After ordering, she grabs her credit card with her tongs and reaches out of her window to tap it on the EFTPOS machine. 

Unfortunately, it proved too fiddly and she ended up dropping her card out of the window. 

"This couldn't have gone more wrong," she admitted while "internally crying" (there was a staff member there watching the whole thing unfold.)

Guess we should just stick to using this at boom gates then!

Originally published as Aussie shares hilarious reason she keeps $1.75 tongs from Kmart in her car