How to Avoid Spilling

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Last Updated: March 4, 2022

It's embarrassing to spill your drink, but sometimes it can seem unavoidable. You may have a hand tremor so it is difficult to hold a cup or glass without spilling, or perhaps you've just had too many accidents lately. We'll show how to walk with a cup, glass or plate without spilling.

Steps

Scientists have found that a cup of coffee just happens to be the right size to set up waves when we walk.^{[1]
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Research source} The faster one walks, the quicker and stronger the waves. You know what happens next—flying coffee! By walking slower, the sympathetic resonances are decreased, and your drink stays where it belongs.
Keep your eye on your drink, not your feet. This not only helps you walk slower, by focusing on your drink you are constantly aware and making adjustments for any sloshing that's going on.
The slower you start moving, the less the drink in your cup will start sloshing. By not dashing from here to there, you make it easier to keep your drink in the cup, and not on the ground. Be alert for others in the area, since a bump or even a close call can result in an accident.
This makes it easier to control. Make several trips instead of trying to carry a plate in one hand and a glass in the other.
Have a snack, or drink some juice and eat some fruit if you are going to an event where you're to have food. Holding anything on an empty stomach can be extra difficult.
If you're using one hand to carry a beverage, use your steady hand. If you're using two hands, use the steady hand to control the sloshing, and the other hand as support.^{[2]
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Trustworthy Source

Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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Soup is nearly impossible to carry on a cafeteria tray if you have a hand tremor. Avoid it or soak a piece of bread in it.
Your forearm can be much steadier than your hands. Also, either avoid putting tall drinks on a cafeteria tray or hold both the tray and the drink with one of your hands.

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Tips

Try out various techniques at home, before trying these with others.

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Don't fill your glass to the rim. Leave room for the inevitable sloshing.

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Use a cup with a lid, especially when carrying coffee. Spilling a soda on yourself—messy. Spilling hot coffee on yourself—dangerous.

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