Olive oil has many known benefits, from the subtle taste it imparts to food to its status as a heart-healthy food. In recent months, due to weather-related shortages, the cost of olive oil has more than doubled. Given the rising prices, and the scarcity of it, you might be wondering when it’s OK to substitute in a…
For years, the internet has insisted that you can use baby oil to polish chrome and faucet fixtures. As someone with disgusting faucets that never seem to be improved by scrubbing, I finally gave in to the pressure. The claims say it will cut through gunk and film, leaving a shiny faucet (or toilet handle or whatever…
It’s pretty much an American tradition that the FDA only bans a controversial ingredient after companies have mostly stopped using it—that’s how it went with trans fats and with BPA in baby bottles. Now, brominated vegetable oil (BVO) stands ready to join the list. The additive was once used in Mountain Dew, and is…
Welcome to Evil Week, our annual dive into all the slightly sketchy hacks we’d usually refrain from recommending. Want to weasel your way into free drinks, play elaborate mind games, or, er, launder some money? We’ve got all the info you need to be successfully unsavory.
Hot water heaters might seem too complicated and intimidating to fix. They have plumbing and electrical components—two things that usually signal that hiring a pro is the best choice when you need help. While this is true for bigger problems, there are some common maintenance and repair tasks that you can do yourself…
Much of the U.S. is entering freeze season—and I’m not talking a light morning frost, but a full-on freeze, which is a transformative event for your garden. While ideally we’d all be planting natives that are well-accustumed to our local climate, it’s not always realistic. We like what we like and are often willing to…
You’re probably familiar with the lint trap on your dryer, and, ideally, clean it after every load of laundry. But did you know that your washing machine has a filter, too? If that’s news to you, that probably means yours has never been cleaned. But don’t worry: Once you know where to find it, it’s a pretty easy job.…
As Halloween approaches with frantic, last-minute wig purchases, and candy binges, you may find yourself overextended and undernourished. You need some real food, but the spooky times don’t have to stop. Get some of your creepy energy back with these unnerving spiderweb eggs.
When they aren’t working perfectly, toilets let you know by hissing, squealing, banging, and moaning loudly. Odd toilet noises have a number of causes—from water-flow issues caused by debris and clogs in your plumbing to failing tubes and valves in and around your toilet—which is why it’s important to identify the…
No matter how careful you are with your DIY paint job, there’s a good chance a few drops will end up where you don’t want them, such as on your tile floor or dripping down a glass window pane. While this can certainly be annoying, and potentially require a few extra hours of labor, with the right knowhow, paint…
Though they’re less common today than in the past, many people still use a box spring between their mattress and bed frame. Back when innerspring mattresses were the norm, box springs were used for support, and to ensure that they didn’t sag or sink over time.
Remember when you were a kid and you repeated the same dumb joke again and again until everyone was annoyed with you? And the annoyance would make the joke even funnier? But only to you? So you’d just say it more? And everyone else was thinking, “will you please shut up already?” Well, kids still do that, but it’s…
Cooking without fat is doable, but not fun. Not only does fat equal flavor, it promotes browning, helps seasonings cling, and keeps food from sticking to the pan. There is an overwhelming number of cooking fats on the market, but the average kitchen doesn’t need all that many.
Spicy food is a lifelong adventure. Even for the wary, the sensitive, the adamantly spice-less, there’s usually a moment when unexpected spice makes its way into the hors d’oeuvres at an event or at a family gathering–and it’s pretty good. Fear strikes, but after that moment passes, you kind of don’t hate what just…
Uggs are ubiquitous in the winter, though they cycle from being actually-trendy to ironic-trendy and back again pretty regularly. Regardless, the sheepskin boots and slippers are a staple—albeit one that gets pretty dirty in all the slush and salt. Uggs sells a cleaning kit, but after dropping all that money on the…
Fall is one of the three times of year you fertilize. When plants are ready to wake up in spring, you surprise them with a brunch of nitrogen-rich plant food to help them grow; in summer, you give them boosts of phosphorus and potassium to give them a brain food they need to make vegetables, flowers, and fruit. And in…
If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Wednesday, October 11, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Beware, there are spoilers below for October 11, NYT Connections #122! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s…
Have you experienced sticker shock at the gas pump recently? The average price of a gallon of gasoline is $3.78 across the country as of October 4, 2023, and it went as high as $5.02 a gallon in June, so it’s hard not to think, “Jesus, that much?” when filling your tank. But despite appearances fanned by self-serving…
You probably use the fan on your range hood all the time without even thinking about its filter. You might not even know there’s one in there, but there likely is—and if this is the first you’re hearing of it, it’s probably long overdue to be changed. Luckily, you can swap out the filter yourself with a few simple…
It’s the end of the season, and we’re all starting to tuck in our garden beds for winter. The soil in your raised garden bed has worked hard all season to impart nutrients to your vegetables and flowers, which leaves the soil depleted. The long winter sleep is a great time to let your soil build back up the supply of…
Part of being an adult is feeling the constant need to replenish basic household supplies. One way to combat this loop is to be more mindful about recycling and re-purposing your stuff. But you can go one step further—there are many things we tend to treat as “single-use” that can, in fact, be used more than once.…
I recently shared the best cheap purchases for your gym bag. Now it’s time to cover the best home workout gear that costs under $100. These are things you can use to fill out your garage gym or start a workout corner in your apartment bedroom. (Speaking of which: Lifehacker also has a whole guide to building a minimal…
The internet says you can and can’t freeze whole raw eggs, so naturally I went and tossed a couple eggs in the freezer. Senior food editor Claire Lower was able to make baby fried eggs with frozen eggs; surely there are other secrets the frozen ovum hides. (Besides the miracle of life.) It turns out there is at least…