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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: 13 Non-Lip Uses for Chapstick
Now that the weather is colder and drier than usual, you may be using Chapstick more frequently to moisturize your dry lips. Did you know that you can also use Chapstick on dry elbows, dry cuticles, dry knuckles, and even the ends of your hair?
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: Make Realistic-Looking Fake Blood
Store-bought fake blood isn't too expensive, but the consistency and color are always the same. Real blood varies, from bright red when oxygenated (arterial blood) to deep, dark red when deoxygenated (venous blood), and it can be either thick or thin. So to achieve the best special effect, you're better off making a batch of DIY fake blood yourself to get the look and texture you're going for. And it's very simple to do.
How To: 8 Additional Home Remedies for Relieving Common Cold Symptoms
Have you come down with the dreaded common cold during the holiday season? While it is always recommended to rest your body, drink a lot of water and eat chicken soup, some of the less common home remedies listed below may also help expedite the recovery process.
How To: 13 Unexpected Uses for Baking Soda You've Probably Never Heard Of
When it comes to common household items with a million practical uses, baking soda reigns supreme. We all know that baking soda is great for deodorizing stinky things, whitening your teeth, and helping with clean-up around the house, but did you know about the other weirdly unexpected and esoteric uses for baking soda?
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: 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?
Extreme Frugal Living: Tips For Living In Your Car
Whether you really need to pinch pennies for a long road trip or are really at the end of your rope with your financial and living situation, desperate times call for desperate measures--and sometimes that involves living in your car for an extended period of time. It is certainly not easy, but with the right equipment and know-how, making your car your abode is certainly possible if you make the continuous effort to keep things clean, be smart about where you park your car and avoid arousing...
How To: The Best Way to Peel a Hard-Boiled Egg
So, you want to decrease your hard-boiled egg peeling time because you don't want the time- consuming task to cut into your limited lunch break. Or maybe you've somehow been burdened with the task of cooking a lot of homemade deviled eggs for a big family gathering. How do you peel a hard-boiled egg as quickly and efficiently as possible?
How To: 6 DIY Tips for Watering Your Houseplants While Away on Vacation
What can you do if you're about to leave for a big trip and can't find a plant-sitter to regularly water your indoor plants? Just like pets, your indoor ferns and marigolds need attention, too!
Winter Warmth: How to Make a Cheap Microwavable Heat Pack Using a Sock & Dry Beans
Using dry beans and and some scraps of cotton fabric, you can make your own DIY microwavable heat pack which can be used to relieve sore muscles, warm your hands when stepping outside into cold weather, heating up your pillow case on a freezing night, and more.
How To: 6 Easy Recipes for Removing Nasty Stains
What do you do when you accidentally stain your favorite article of clothing with coffee, red wine, or pasta sauce? If you aren't within immediate reach of laundry detergent or commercial stain removers, you can use many common household staples such as baking soda and white vinegar to remove the offending stains right away—sometimes even better than their commercial counterparts.
How To: 21 Cool Ways to Use a Paper Clip
A single paper clip can go a long way. Having just one of these ubiquitous office supplies can make you a smartphone mount, replace your broken zipper tab, scratch your lottery ticket, and eject the CD from your stuck DVD drive.
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: 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.
Street Art 101: How to Make Moss Graffiti
Feeling the need to creatively express yourself in a public space? Make an artistic statement with some DIY moss graffiti using moss, buttermilk, beer, a paintbrush, and some imagination.
How To: 10 Unusual Uses for Discarded Eggshells
Many foods do not come in natural packaging that is as useful and versatile as its content. Eggs are an exception. So, the next time you buy a carton of eggs, be sure to hold onto the eggshells after you are finished cooking with them.
How To: Make Your Own Rainbow Flowers Using White Roses & Food Coloring
Whether you want to avoid the cliche of expressing love through red roses or simply want to engage in a fun and simple DIY experiment, making your own rainbow roses using white roses and food coloring is a very simple project that will result in beautiful and unique floral eye candy in a matter of days.
How To: 12 Painting Hacks for Your Next Home Painting Project
Raw onions are commonly associated with bad breath, but when it comes to wet paint, instead of creating toxic smells they help remove them. If you just painted inside your home, slice a few raw onions in half and place them alongside the walls to absorb noxious fumes. Just make sure to discard onions afterwards, as they would be poisonous.
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: Create Giant, Reusable Bubbles Out of Elmer's Glue & Liquid Starch
Creating giant, reusable bubbles at home is easy, and it's a fun project for children. Just dump a whole bottle of non-toxic Elmer's Clear School Glue into a bowl, add fine glitter and watercolors (or food coloring), and slowly mix together Sta-Flo Liquid Starch to form a pliable concoction.
The Dried Beans Cheat Sheet: Soaking & Cooking Times for 15 Different Beans
While it may be tempting to rely on canned beans to save time, going through the process of preparing dried beans for cooking can actually be better for you in the long run—for both your physical and financial health.
How To: 8 Weird, Non-Food Uses for Your Freezer
Other than keeping your popsicles and frozen veggies frosty, who would have thought that your everyday freezer had so many uses? Just like your dishwasher can be used for many non-cookware items, the freezer can be used in a variety of useful ways that don't involve perishable food.
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: 12 Household Uses for Borax
Originally discovered in dry lake beds in Tibet, borax is a mineral and a salt of boric acid, and is usually sold in white powder form in drugstores. Like baking soda, borax has many household cleaning uses, and can also be used to get rid of insects and pests from your living space.
How To: Three More Ways To Open A Wine Without A Corkscrew
Don't let a missing corkscrew deter you from uncorking your bottle of wine at your next party, picnic or romantic dinner at home. Following up on a previous post on how to open a bottle of wine using just a towel and a flat, vertical surface (a wall or a wide tree trunk), listed below are three more handy ways you can open a bottle of wine using common household objects or tools. And what better way to impress your date than taking off your shoe, placing a wine bottle between your knees, and ...
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: 7 Fabulous Ideas for Making Your Own Drink Coasters
Whether you're a coffee fiend or beer enthusiast, having good coasters is necessary to prevent watermarks from forming on your tables. But instead of going out and buying a set, consider making some custom ones yourself that match you and your home's personality.
How To: 9 Poppin' Uses for Bubble Wrap
If you're like me, you have a secret dream of living in a house completely covered wall-to-wall and carpet-to-carpet in bubble wrap. Until you have enough of that pliable transparent plastic with air-filled bubbles, there are some truly practical things you can do with the little you do have—besides packing fragile objects.
How To: Old Wives' Tale or Science? 20 Snacks That Just Might Make You Sleepy
I'm sure you've heard that binging on turkey will make you sleepy, and there's a reason for that. Turkey contains tryptophan, which some believe is the go-to amino acid for increasing serotonin (a calming neurotransmitter) and/or melatonin (a sleep inducing hormone) in your brain. Some say old wives tale, some say science, but clinical research has shown mixed results in regard to its effectiveness as a sleep aid.
How To: 12 Unconventional Uses for Disposable Chopsticks
If your love for Chinese takeout has left you with a pile of unused disposable chopsticks in your kitchen drawer, then you're in luck. In addition to being a very versatile eating utensil for pretty much any cuisine, chopsticks also come in handy for eating Cheetos without getting cheesy dust all over your fingers, pitting cherries, skewering food, stirring drinks, cleaning out dirt from hard-to-reach spaces, and more.
How To: 29 Unexpected, Non-Food Items You Can Add to Your Compost Heap
Most people know that you can add vegetable peelings and egg shells to your compost heap, but did you know that you can also add nail clippings, human hair and pet hair?
How To: Improve Your Posture with Duct Tape & Invisible Balloons
Good posture is more important than pleasing your mother. A lifetime of bad posture basically ensures spine complications, back pain, muscle aches, and other not-so-pleasant physical health problems.
How To: Make Your Own Sleep Salve
Having trouble falling asleep? Using coconut oil, olive oil, beeswax, and essential oils, you can easily concoct your own DIY, nice-smelling sleep salve that will help you drift off to slumber with minimal effort.
How To: Make the Most of Your Jack-O'-Lantern Leftovers
Planning on carving a pumpkin for Halloween? After you're done scooping and scraping out the inner flesh and pulp from your pumpkin, make the most of your jack-o'-lantern leftovers by using the pumpkin meat and seeds in the kitchen and for your beauty regimen.
How To: 9 More Common Household Items for Relieving a Sunburn
Though summer is almost over, that doesn't mean you should ever be lax when it comes to protecting your skin from sun overexposure. However, should you find yourself with red and burning skin after a last-minute weekend trip to the beach, listed below are 9 simple and cheap home remedies for relieving symptoms of sunburn.
How To: 11 Unexpected Uses for Silica Gel Packets
Though silica gel packets clearly instruct you to throw them away (and not eat them), you can actually keep them for a variety of unexpectedly practical uses around the home. Silica gel is a desiccant, a substance that absorbs moisture, which makes these packets perfect for keeping things extremely dry and moisture-free.
How To: Collect Safe Drinking Water from the Wilderness
Without water, human beings can only survive for a few days. When you are out in the wilderness, knowing how to collect safe drinking water can be a matter of life or death. Large plastic bags are extremely handy for collecting condensation from grass and tree leaves, as well as creating a solar still. Dew water can be collected very easily with a clean towel and a small bowl. Large waterproof vinyl sheets are especially good for keeping your belongings from getting wet—and for collecting cle...
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.