My family just returned home after a glorious ten-day vacation which included a few days at a beach just outside of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and then a leisurely drive home along the New England coast with stops to see Salem, Plymouth Rock, and even the Submarine Force Museum.

Get our free mobile app

An over-thinker and over-prepare of all things, I knew that our phones would be safe from water and sand when we took them to the beach because we've got those plastic sleeve things that you can wear around your neck and not have to worry about anything getting wet or sandy that you don't want to.

My bigger concern was how I would enjoy splashing around in the waves with my husband and son without someone snagging our things while we were playing in the water. I mean, just because I was taking my phone to the beach to take photos didn't mean that I wanted it in my hands when I was actually in the ocean.

The simple solution would have been to leave our things in our hotel room but what if we wanted to stop on our way back to our room for ice cream or if there was an emergency and I needed to make a call? I thought and thought about what I could do and then I gave up and turned to the internet which is where I stumbled on the most incredible beach hack to make sure that nobody takes your stuff.

Ready for this? Chances are really good that you never thought of this.

Reddit user TheDanimal8888 suggested that you take a diaper with you, tuck your phone, money, and whatever else into it and then use the little Velcro things to wrap it into a bundle.  He even posted a photo in case there was any question of what exactly he meant. Bottom line (get it, bottom?) it looks like a used diaper.

Equally genius and dumb at the same time because if a person were to leave a diaper randomly sitting on the beach, someone with a conscience would probably pick it up and toss it in a trash can, and then that idea would be worthless. So how could this be done without anyone scooping up what they thought were valuables?

My answer was to wrap our things in an old (unused, obviously) pull-up from before our son was potty trained and then put it in the backpack we took with us to the beach knowing that a diaper would be something someone rifling through our bag would definitely not snatch. And, I was right.

Yes, I know. Again, the easier solution would have been to have left everything in our room but those who know me know that I rarely ever follow the easy path.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

MORE: Some of the Memes & Tweets That Have Made Us Laugh (and Maybe Think)

KEEP READING: Get answers to 51 of the most frequently asked weather questions...

More From 98.1 The Hawk