Work & Life « The Secret Yumiverse

How To: 6 DIY Ideas for Keeping Your Earbuds Tangle-Free

If you always carry earbuds with you in your purse or backpack, you can use simple household objects to prevent the cords from tangling up into knots.

How To: Unshrink Jeans & Other Clothes That Shrunk in the Dryer

Is your cotton tank top or beloved pair of jeans feeling a bit tighter than usual? If you need to un-shrink an article of clothing that has been left in the dryer for too long, then you can use baby shampoo, hair conditioner, or simply water to gently stretch and pull the fabric back into its original shape.

How To: Wash Your 'Dry Clean Only' Clothes at Home for Cheap

Dry cleaning can be a pain the butt, not to mention super expensive, especially if you're wearing a lot of wool sweaters during the cold winter season. Thankfully, with a little time and effort, you can wash most of your "dry clean" or "dry clean only" clothing at home.

How To: 6 Ways to Remove Ghastly Scuff Marks from Shoes Using Common Household Items

It'd be a financial burden to have to buy new shoes every time a current pair gets scuffed up, but thankfully there are some easy DIY tricks for saving us that trip to the shoe store. Scuff marks can easily be remove from shoes and sneakers using common household items found in your medicine cabinet or in your desk.

How To: 10 Easy DIY Methods for Removing Ink Stains with Household Items

Need to remove an ink stain from your carpet, clothing, wooden furniture, or new pair of jeans? Thankfully, as with most DIY stain removal techniques, you can probably concoct your own stain-removing solution from common household items in your bathroom or kitchen. Some examples include white vinegar, corn starch, toothpaste, WD-40 spray, dishwashing soap, hair spray, and even milk. Yes, milk.

How To: Remove Wrinkles from Clothing Without Ironing

Need to remove wrinkles from your shirt but don't want to bust out the iron and ironing board (or don't even have one)? Well, with a little bit of do-it-yourself ingenuity, you can "iron out" that wrinkly top in no time.

How To: 16 Tips for Staying Awake When You're Tired

While there's an art to surviving the all-nighter, there's also an art to staying awake throughout the day when you're operating on little to no sleep. In 1964, the record for sleep deprivation was set by 17-year-old Randy Gardner, who stayed awake for an incredible 264 hours and 12 minutes. Now while we're not out to challenge Randy for his title, we can certainly look to him for inspiration in beating back our own fatigue.

How To: Fall Back Asleep After Waking Up in the Middle of the Night

If you wake up in the middle of the night, avoid reaching for your laptop to check emails, or your TV remote to catch a few late-night shows. Instead, keep the light in your bedroom dim and do something relaxing like de-stressing breathing exercises, meditation, light yoga, or going to another room and solving a jigsaw puzzle or listening to relaxing music.

How To: 7 Easy Mnemonic Tricks for Remembering Numbers

Whether it's your credit card, your parents' new zip code, or a new work phone number, number sequences are everywhere. Sometimes it's important to actually remember them instead of always relying on a smartphone or the internet to remind you.

How To: 9 DIY Ways to Eliminate Static Cling Without Using Dryer Sheets

If you ever need to get rid of static cling quickly while on the go, simply run the article of clothing through a metal hanger to dispel the static. You could also place lotion on your skin underneath the clothes you are wearing to get rid of the dryness that is causing the static cling.

How To: 9 DIY Ways to Remove Sweat Stains from Clothes

Got a bad sweat stain on the underarms of your light-colored clothing? You probably have something in your kitchen or medicine cabinet that will help get rid of the stain immediately. Aspirin, table salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, baking soda, and even meat tenderizer (make sure it is unseasoned!) are some of the many common household ingredients you can use to make your sweaty clothes look brand new again.

How To: Increase Your Alcohol Tolerance

Whether you're embarking on an epic wine tour with friends or simply want to last an entire night of socializing and drinking with important people, there are times when good alcohol tolerance comes in handy. If you're a lightweight who would probably be labeled as a "cheap date" when it comes to drinking, you can actually increase your alcohol tolerance gradually by drinking more on a regular basis. Who would have thought?

How To: 9 Tips for Overcoming Jet Lag

Jet lag is inevitable when you're traveling long distances by plane, and it can leave you feeling completely wrecked for several days to a week after you arrive at your destination.

How To: 9 Surprisingly Toxic Foods

Tin cans have resin linings that contain bisphenol-A (BPA), which has been linked in animal lab testings to a number of ailments that include reproductive problems, heart disease, and obesity. Tomatoes are high in acidity, which means that the content of canned tomatoes eats away at the resin lining, which causes BPA to leach into what you eat. Long story short: avoid canned tomatoes at all costs.

How To: Lower High Blood Pressure (& Keep It Low)

High blood pressure (hypertension) is a common medical condition that can eventually cause serious health problems such as heart disease, kidney failure, vision problems, stroke, heart attack, and more.

Overcome Fears & Phobias: 4 Effective Cognitive Therapy Techniques

While many of us have general fears and anxieties about public speaking or sitting in a plane during a turbulent flight, having a full-blown phobia for a specific object or situation can be detrimental to your career, relationships, social life, or day-to-day well-being.

How To: 27 Essential Items You Should Always Have Inside Your Car

Besides your car insurance information and a spare tire, what are some other essential items you should always keep inside your vehicle?

How To: 18 Ways to Add More Iron to Your Diet

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the United States, and how much or how little you properly consume iron on a daily basis can be the difference between feeling constantly tired or feeling like you are energized enough to seize the day.

How To: 11 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism

Metabolism is the process by which your physical body converts what you eat and drink into energy that your body needs to function.

How To: Treat Chronic Inflammation

Inflammation in your body is not a bad thing if it is localized and temporary, as it is your body's natural healing response to an injury or illness. When the inflammatory response does not turn off and becomes chronic, that is when your body's healthy cells and tissues are in danger of long-term damage.

How To: Hide & Reduce Ugly Cable Clutter

While having multiple cable cords in your home is basically unavoidable in this day and age, having to deal with the eyesore of looking at them doesn't have to be.

How to Quit Smoking: An Illustrated Guide

Was it your New Year's resolution to quit smoking this year? Whether you are a first-time quitter or a chronic relapser, this is the year to kick this unhealthy habit for good.

How To: 10 More Awesome Organizing Hacks for Your Living Space

Need to add more space in your small closet? For a simple organizational hack, simply connect two clothes hangers with a metal soda tab so that you can hang two articles of clothing on a closet rod slot instead of just one.

How To: 9 Mind Hacks for Avoiding Procrastination

Are you dreading a big, tedious task on your to-do list? Commit to only doing 10 minutes of it or only the very first minimal step. By lowering the hurdle for getting the task started, it is very likely that once you start doing it, you won't feel so bad about getting the rest of the task completed.

How To: 15 Tips to Get You Through Your Mid-Afternoon Energy Slump

Do you get tired easily in the mid-afternoon? Though it may seem tempting to get a quick fix in the form of an energy drink or a sugary snack from the vending machine, preventing an energy slump from occurring in the first place starts with a full night of quality sleep and a healthy breakfast in the morning.

How To: Make Long Holiday Flights More Comfortable

If you are like most people, you will probably be traveling a lot over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. While holiday air travel is hardly the most fun or relaxing activity in the world, you can prepare yourself with the following tips and strategies to make long flights as bearable and comfortable as possible.

How To: 9 Probiotic-Rich Foods You Should Be Eating

Probiotics are microorganisms in the form of bacteria or yeast that live in your gut and help your body absorb beneficial vitamins and minerals. When consumed live, they help boost your immune system and maintain your overall body health.

How To: 10 Simple Composition Tips for Taking a Good Photograph

Now that it's easier than ever to take pictures using a digital camera or smartphone, more people should brush up on basic composition tips for taking a good photograph.

How To: 8 Super Cool Ways to Wear a Scarf

Are you bored of draping a scarf around your neck in a single loop like everybody else? Tie both ends of a long scarf to form a large loop, then loop the scarf around your neck twice to create a DIY infinity scarf.

How To: 6 Tips for Eliminating & Organizing Your Paper Clutter

Are your mountains of receipts, billing statements, and junk mail getting out of control? For the sake of your own sanity, and to open up more space in your home, follow the six tips below to eliminate unnecessary paper clutter and organize important documents efficiently for easy future reference.

How To: Get Rid of Emotional Vampires & Toxic Friends from Your Life

An emotional vampire is somebody who sucks the positive energy out of your life, in turn leaving you feeling drained afterwards. They can come in the form of a family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor. Unlike real vampires who are out of sight during the daytime, emotional vampires can come into your life at any hour of the day to ruin your mood and undermine the parts of your life that make you you.

Decode Body Language, Part 2: Interpreting People's Moods & Intents

You don't have to be a body language expert to know when a person is displeased or uninterested, even if the person is smiling and nodding at everything you're saying. Subtle clues like slight downward grimaces in the lips or hunched shoulders are immediate giveaways of a person's current mood or intent.

Small Talk 101: How to Have Less Awkward Conversations with Strangers

If you are like most people, going to a party or mixer full of complete strangers probably does not sound like your idea of a fun night.

How To: 7 Ways to Make Sure You're Staying Hydrated All Day Long

To optimize your day, chug down 16 ounces of water first thing in the morning. Your body is already dehydrated after a full night's sleep, and studies have shown that drinking water immediately after you wake up increases your metabolism by a significant amount for the first 90 minutes of the day.

How to Turn #FOMO into #JOMO: A 7-Step Program for Managing Your Social Anxiety

Do you experience a pang of envy when you scroll through your Facebook news feed, Instagram home, or Twitter timeline and see all your friends doing super-awesome things that you weren't a part of? If you are like most people, then the answer is probably yes.

How To: 7 Tips for Booking a Cheap Hotel Room

If you know where you need to book a hotel for traveling but aren't too picky about the hotel brand or exact neighborhood, book a hotel room for a discounted rate at Hotwire.com or Priceline.com. Once you book the hotel, then the exact hotel name and location is revealed to you.