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How To: 11 Clever Things You Can Use an Ordinary Bar of Soap For
Hate the feeling of dirt beneath your fingernails after gardening? Rather than digging out the dirt afterwards, take a preventive measure by digging your fingernails into a bar of soap, which will keep them clean and wash out easily afterwards.
How To: 12 Non-Cooking Uses for Butter
Though it may seem like sacrilege for some to use butter for something other than to flavor your food with delicious buttery goodness, butter has many other surprisingly practical uses, like keeping your hard cheeses mold-free or helping you swallow your pills.
How To: 13 Cool and Clean Uses for Mouthwash
Mouthwash, the liquid concoction commonly used for giving the inside of your mouth a thorough cleaning after brushing, is also not surprisingly useful for making things clean and bacteria-free. Like minor cuts and wounds. Or your toilet bowl. Or your toothbrush. Or your garbage disposal. Or your super-smelly gym socks.
How To: 6 Unexpected Beauty, Health, & Home Uses for Rice Water
Rice water refers to the cloudy water that is leftover after washing rice in a bowl, or the excess water drained from a pot used for cooking rice in boiling water. Whichever method you prefer, rice water can be saved in a separate container once cooled, then used for a number of beauty, health, and home uses.
How To: 6 Clever Ways to Hide Your Spare Keys Outdoors
If you're ever paranoid about locking yourself out of your house, the worst thing you can do is to hide your spare key in an obvious spot, like under the doormat, under a planter, or anywhere near the front door.
How To: 15 Home Remedies for Hiccups
Most bouts of hiccups tend to go away on their own, but every so often there's that stubborn hiccuping fit that seems to last for hours. In these cases, you have to get creative and nip them in the bud by trying a few simple home remedies.
How To: 8 Amazing Non-Edible Uses for Rice Grains
In their cooked form, rice is great for making spam musubi, sushi, and other amazing meals. In their uncooked form, dry rice grains are unexpectedly useful for preventing your salt from clumping in your salt shaker, cleaning out the insides of weirdly-shaped, hard-to-wash containers, weighing down your unbaked pie crust, cleaning out your coffee grinder, and—if you act quickly enough—saving your wet cell phone from cell phone death.
How To: 10 Ways to Use Exam Gloves in the Kitchen
While medical exam gloves are commonly associated with hospitals and not the kitchen, they actually are unexpectedly useful for a number of cooking and cleaning uses that require handling extremely messy things.
How To: 18 Ingenious Uses for Binder Clips
Office binder clips, commonly used for binding together thick stacks of computer paper, can also be used as a bookmark, money clip, picture hanger, boots hanger, cable organizer, and more.
How To: 10 Super-Practical Uses for Dishwashing Soap
Bored of using your bottle of dishwashing soap for just washing dishes? You're in luck. Not surprisingly, the soapy liquid commonly used for removing stubborn food build-up from your eating utensils can also be used as a general cleaner for washing windows, removing clothing and carpet stains, and cleaning your blender without taking it apart. For more unusual uses, dishwashing liquid is surprisingly useful for prepping your nails before a manicure and can even be used to kill fleas.
How To: Make Candied Bacon (For True Baconphiliacs Only)
If eating bacon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner isn't enough to satiate your love for rashers, then how about eating it for dessert too? It's what a true baconphiliac would do.
How To: Live with Only 100 Things or Less
So is it possible to live with only 100 things or less? Blogger David Bruno has created sort of an online meme dare called "100 thing challenge" for people to live on 100 things or less. If you Google "100 thing challenge," you can see how other people who have taken on the challenge have whittled down their personal belongings to just 100 things.
How To: Make Your Own Temporary Tattoo
Whether you need very temporary skin art for a costume or simply want to test-run a potential tattoo design before it gets permanent, making your own temporary tattoo only requires wax paper, a printout or drawing of your desired design, black eyeliner, rubbing alcohol, baby powder, liquid bandage, and a lot of patience.
DIY Eye Makeup Remover: 11 Natural Substitutes You Probably Already Have at Home
Makeup can get expensive, but removing it from your eyes shouldn't have to be. Thankfully, some DIY eye makeup remover probably already exists in your refrigerator, kitchen pantry, or medicine cabinet.
How To: Read Your Own Palm Lines
Palmistry is the art of characterizing or foretelling the future through the reading of palm lines. Though there are certainly many variations and techniques when it comes to interpreting the meaning of palm lines, you can brush up on Palmistry 101 by getting acquainted with your four major palm lines: the heart line, head line, life line, and fate line.
How To: Chill a Lukewarm Can of Soda in Less Than 5 Minutes
A lukewarm can of soda placed in a refrigerator can take about 45 minutes to chill. On the other hand, a lukewarm can of soda placed in a bowl of ice, water, and table salt can take less than 5 minutes.
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: Make the Perfect Cup of Hot Chocolate Using Real Chocolate Bars
Though making hot chocolate out of instant mix is pretty easy, there is no comparison when it comes to making your own homemade hot chocolate out of quality dark chocolate bars, whole milk, brown sugar, and your own favorite fresh spices.
How To: 4 DIY Methods for Removing Burned-On Food from Pots & Pans
Even the most seasoned kitchen cooks experience the annoyance of accidentally burning food on their pots, pans, and casserole dishes. When dishwashing soap and water doesn't work, what is the best way to remove burned-on gunk from your cookware?
How To: 7 DIY Cures for Headaches
What can you do when you're suffering from a pounding headache and you're in too much pain to drive to the nearest drugstore? Fill a large plastic bowl with hot water, add one tablespoon of dry mustard powder, and soak your feet for twenty minutes.
How To: Make & Grow Your Own Chia Pet
If you missed out on the Chia Pet craze from the '80s and '90s, don't worry—it's never too late to build and make your own weirdly head-shaped thing with grass hair growing on top.
How To: 8 Awesome Uses for Chalk That You've Probably Never Heard Of
Commonly associated with classroom blackboards and sidewalk art, chalk can also be used to repel ants from invading your home, lift grease stains from clothes, prevent your tools from rusting, and hide your wall scrapes and nicks in a pinch.
How To: 10 Weird Ways to De-Stress
We've all heard that deep breathing exercises, calming music and a good night's sleep help relieve stress, but what are some other unconventional tips to help you feel more calm and relaxed during hectic times?
How To: 10 Alternative Uses for Your Old Oatmeal
Oatmeal may not be the most exciting breakfast option in the world, but in uncooked form the oats can be used to neutralize odors in your refrigerator, relieve your dog's itchy skin, soak up kitchen oil spills and treat your poison ivy or chicken pox itch.
How To: 14 Weirdly Useful (And Non-Drinkable) Uses for Soda Pop
If you just gave up drinking soda and you don't know what to do with the six-pack of Coke gathering dust in your garage, then this article is perfect for you. The acidity, sugar content and carbonated nature of most soda drinks are perfect for a number of surprisingly practical uses for DIY home projects, garden work, kitchen cleanup, car maintenance, cooking and more.
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: 11 Easy DIY Techniques for Opening a Super-Tight Jar
Have a hard-to-open jar? If it's never been opened, the air pressure inside the jar is making it harder to break the seal. If it's been in the fridge, it's possible that the lid shrunk slightly—just enough to be extremely frustrating.
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: Do a Very Basic Ikebana Flower Arrangement
Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, dates back to over 500 years ago and is still practiced as a highly respected cultural art form in modern-day Japan.
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: 9 More DIY Ways to Painlessly Remove Splinters from Your Skin
Got a stubborn splinter lodged into your finger? There are a number of ways you can remove it easily using materials found around your home. Elmer's glue, banana peels, eggshells, potatoes, and baking soda are all great at painlessly extracting those tiny pieces of wood, glass, or other material.
How To: 12 Laundry Hacks for Washing & Drying Your Dirty Clothes
Is your favorite black T-shirt starting to look a little old? To restore a faded black fabric color to its former glory, add two cups of brewed coffee or black tea to your washer's rinse cycle.
How To: Cut Glass Bottles in Half Using Fire and Glass Cutters or Acetone-Soaked String
Want to make your own glass drinking cups? You don't need to be a glassworker to get creative. Just recycle some of your old beer, soda, or wine bottles into stylish toothbrush holders or glass cups.
How To: Fold a Chopsticks Rest from Its Paper Wrapper
The next time you go out for sushi with friends, impress your company by fashioning your own chopstick rest using the paper wrapper the wooden chopsticks come in. Keeping the ends of your chopstick off the table surface makes for good hygiene (who knows when was the last time the table was really wiped clean?), and there is no awkward moment of getting your chopsticks off your plate when your server whisks your finished plate away mid-meal. Gotta love functional origami.
Tell If It's Ripe or Not: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Tricky Fruits
How can you tell if a coconut is ready to eat? The entire fruit is covered by a rock-hard exterior, so you can't really squeeze them to test their ripeness. Instead, feel the three "eyes" at the bottom of the coconut. If they feel slightly soft and dry, that's a good sign that the fruit is mature.
How To: 9 DIY Tricks for Cleaning Your Car
Ever see those cars so covered in dirt, dust, and grime that someone writes "Wash me" on it using their finger? Well, for those cars' sakes, as well as cases less extreme, a word of advice: procrastination is not a solution — it can only compound the problem. Self-cleaning cars are the stuff of the future, not the present, and your car needs attention now.
How To: 9 DIY Home Remedies for Treating Cracked, Dry Heels
Now that we are in the thick of flip-flop and sandal weather, it is important to make sure that you are taking good care of your feet. Specifically, to treat the bottom of your heels if they are starting to get cracked and dry.
How To: 8 Practical Ways to Use Bacon Grease
Need to get a painful splinter out of your skin? Apply some bacon grease onto the affected area and place a band-aid on it overnight. The bacon grease will soften the skin tissue and draw out the splinter, making it easier to remove with tweezers the next day.
How To: 11 Crazy Useful Things You Can Do with a Candle
Originally made using whale fat, candles first appeared over 2,200 years ago as a means of illumination. From the 1st century up until the 19th century, candles were primarily made using beeswax or tallow, and aside from providing light, were used as a method of keeping time.
How To: 6 Easy DIY Ways to Clean & Polish Tarnished Silverware & Jewelry
Is your beloved silver bracelet looking a little worn? Stick it in a bowl of tomato ketchup to remove the tarnish. The acid in the tomatoes oxidizes with tarnished silver, which helps make your silver items look newer than ever before.