Lifehacker

I understand autumn anxiety and depression on a molecular level. I grew up in an East Coast tourist town, where the end of summer meant the boardwalk arcades closed and almost everyone drove away. We talked endless shit about the “shoobies”—our word for clueless summer visitors from Philly and North Jersey who could…Read more...

This summer did not go how I wanted it to go. A broken fridge (and oppressive summer heat) makes it hard to keep fresh produce in the house, and traveling (and even more oppressive summer heat) makes it hard to keep the garden in good shape. All of this resulted in me eating far less sweet corn than I usually do,…Read more...

There are some childhood dinners that stand out in your memory, permanently crystallized as “the tastiest food that can turn a hot-mess-day into an OK day.” I guess that’s what comfort food is, huh? For me, it’s Kai Yad Sai over jasmine rice. This Thai dish has all the features of an exceptionally satisfying meal, and…Read more...

In-app browsers are bunk compared to full-featured browsing apps, but they’re also a major privacy and security risk. Many apps sneak data trackers onto websites you visit through their in-app browser using a method called Javascript injection, which adds extra code to a page as it loads. These trackers can scoop up…Read more...

Earlier this month, Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek announced that come December, the Disney+ streaming service—launched with an aim to be the cheapest major streaming offering—will hike its monthly subscription price by $3, or more than 37%. Inflation strikes again—or is it a new corporate strategy…Read more...

Pizza is ubiquitous, especially in the U.S. where it might just be the unofficial official food of Americans everywhere. The magical phrase “let’s order a pizza” can change the vibe of any evening, and many of us have fond childhood memories of ordering a box of cheesy goodness or piling into the car to head for Pizza…Read more...

September’s full moon, called the “Harvest Moon,” will be at its fullest and brightest on the morning of Sept. 10, despite rising on the night of Sept. 9. The Harvest Moon reaches its peak illumination just before dawn, at 5:58 a.m. Eastern Time on the 10th, right before it sinks below the horizon.

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For some reason, every single microwave-cleaning how-to we’ve published includes the use of a lemon, or lemon juice. This isn’t all that shocking; the citric acid in lemons has anti-microbial properties, and lemons make things smell good. Somewhat paradoxically, they’re also loved by the “chemical-free” crowd (even…Read more...

No one likes mopping up the overflow caused by a clogged toilet, and the prospect of a big bill from a plumber is one of the least exciting things about being an adult. If you own a home, you’ll eventually suffer both of these cruel fates, but you can stave them off for a big longer by being more careful about what…Read more...

Snapchat, like most messaging apps, will instantly let you know when someone opens one of your snaps, and vice versa. This means the second you open a snap, you might feel the pressure to respond, even if you don’t know what to say. If you’re in a heated conversation or you’re sent a particularly spicy snap, it’d be…Read more...

Being at the top of your game as a party host means you know how to make the big picture come to life, and every fine detail is sorted out. Whether it’s the food, the coat room, or having back-up ice, your guests should be able to have fun and instinctively do everything exactly how you planned. Which is why you…Read more...

Physical activity is important for health, and you’re probably sick of hearing that we should all be doing at least 150 minutes per week of “moderate” exercise like walking, or 75 minutes of “vigorous” exercise like running. But there are more ways to stay active than just these, and you may be doing some of them…Read more...

Ads might be annoying, but they’re the reason Google doesn’t charge you every time you search for something. Occasionally, they’re even helpful: If you search for a particular product, and a Google ad serves you up its website as a first result, you’re quickly where you need to be. Lately, however, you might be better…Read more...

If exercise came in pill form, literally everyone would have it prescribed to them. The benefits of even a moderate amount of physical activity done routinely are too many to list—but it’s hard to get back into it, and even harder to make the habit stick longterm. If you, like many of us, have fallen into sedentary…Read more...

Like literally everything else right now, school supplies are expensive. The average family will spend $864 on back-to-school items this fall (compare that to just under $700 in 2019), an amount that’s unreasonable at best and out of reach for many.

Like all things with a fairly high fat content, nuts are prone to going rancid. Rancidity isn’t life threatening, and spoiled nuts won’t make you sick, but they do taste bad—and feel bad—in your mouth. (And I want nuts to taste and feel good in my mouth.)Read more...

When I was a kid, there were essentially two kinds of hot dogs in my life: The plastic-wrapped pack in the refrigerator that could be boiled, grilled, or pan-fried, then slapped in a bun, and served as a quick lunch, and the Sabrette hot dogs my father would buy me on the way home from Little League games, even if (as…Read more...

In addition to favoring mattress of a certain firmness, and sheets made from some materials but not others, most people also have a preference when it comes to how a bed is made. To put it in Seinfeldian terms: A “tuck” or a “no tuck.”

Air conditioners make life much easier when the weather is hot. But if your AC unit isn’t well-maintained or functioning properly, or hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it can provide the ideal environment for mold to grow.Read more...

When it comes to your hard-earned vacation, a rental property can make or break the trip. For example, you might get lucky, and end up booking a place that is even nicer in real life than it is in the listing photos.Read more...

After a summer of scorching temperatures across the country, some cool, crisp fall weather sounds especially refreshing this year. And with the days getting shorter and the season inching closer, you may be wondering when, exactly, sweater weather (and stink bugs) will arrive.Read more...

Generally speaking, there are two types of vacuuming: A few quick sweeps to pick up crumbs, spilled snacks, and visible dirty; and a more thorough sweep of the entire room while cleaning. Of course, a lot depends on the kind of flooring in the space, and when it comes to carpet, slower is better. In fact, even when…Read more...

The official start of fall is only about a month away, which means cooler temperatures, changing leaves, and, for people in 47 states, the arrival of brown marmorated stink bugs.Read more...

Owning physical media has its perks, especially in this era of streaming and digital distribution, but it comes with risks as well, like getting lost, damaged, or stolen. That’s why it’s wise to keep a detailed record of your collection in case something bad happens. The easiest method is photographing an item’s…Read more...

Security deposits are one of the many annoying things about renting a home or apartment. You have to fork over a lot of extra money upfront before you can move in—on top of the initial month’s rent, plus the last month’s rent they may demand—with the idea it will be used for major repairs to fix any damage you may…Read more...

If you’re rocking an older MacBook, you probably don’t expect it to keep up with the latest and greatest—an Apple silicon machine is obviously going to outperform that 5-year-old Intel Mac any day. However, your aging laptop probably still has some life left in it. If yours gets too hot and the battery dies too fast,…Read more...

Seems we can’t go more than a few days without an alarming headline about the climate crisis—from an impending “megastorm” in California, to an “environmental nuclear bomb” brewing in Utah, to data suggesting that extreme temperatures (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit) are likely to occur more frequently, for longer…Read more...

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If a relative uses a wheelchair and wants to come for a visit or someone in your family finds themselves suddenly needing to use one, even temporarily, you may begin looking around your home with a fresh set of eyes. Is the place accessible? Is everything the person will need within reach? While you may not have time…Read more...

Need some advice? Sure, we all do. And where we could once turn to the newspaper columnists of yore (from Abby, to Ann, to Amy) to tell us how to live better, these days, advice-givers are all about podcasts.

Anne Heche, the film, television, and Broadway actor, died last week at the age of 53. The media made a great deal of the tragic circumstances surrounding her death, and many were quick to point out her own culpability for the circumstances. Which is true, but hardly kind, and Anne Heche’s health struggles have been…Read more...

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (and similar recommendations from other countries) call for healthy adults to get 150 minutes of moderate exercise, like walking, per week. Vigorous exercise counts double, so if you’re a runner, you can meet the minimum guidelines with 75 minutes. But what if you have…Read more...

In the trailer for his new film Beast, opening today, Idris Elba punches a lion. It sounds like the stuff of pulp trash, but the survival thriller/animal attack genre is wide-ranging, encompassing prestigious Oscar bait movies, extreme gore-fests, and lots of low-rent trash (both good and bad).Read more...

This week’s happenings in young people culture might give you whiplash. We’re going from extremely great internet things—hilariously stupid memes, positive YouTubers—to extremely terrible ones—manfluencer Andrew Tate, Meta’s horrifying VR platform Horizon Worlds. The falcon cannot hear the falconer; things fall apart;…Read more...

Over the past few months, it’s occurred to me that at my ripe old age of 30, I’ve lost some dexterity in my hands. I used to be able to hold my iced coffee and phone securely in my hand, but these days, my mitts are limited to one function at a time—and I don’t like what that says about my mortality, frankly. Luckily,…Read more...

Going on vacation, as enjoyable as it is, can also be exhausting. There’s the jet lag, the fatigue that comes after a packed vacation schedule, on top of which, if you are traveling with kids, there’s bound to be at least a couple of meltdowns. The same also applies to traveling with extended family, as there’s…Read more...

According to a demographic survey I just made up, seventy-nine percent of Lifehacker’s readers are doing hard time in our nation’s correctional facilities. So if you’re reading this on a purloined cell phone smuggled into your cell, remember: They can’t imprison your mind, and you can help free your consciousness with…Read more...

Earlier this week, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. The federal government will be spending $370 billion over the next decade to fight climate change. It’s a sprawling initiative that covers incentivizing green energy production, industry efficiency, expansion of the Affordable Care Act,…Read more...

Back at the beginning of the pandemic, beverage writer David Wondrich did us all a huge favor by tweeting a “Drink of the Day,” live from his kitchen with “who-gives-a-shit home photography and old-person threading skills.” The series is delightful, but I had largely forgotten about it because I don’t drink all that…Read more...

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West Nile virus has been found in a record number of mosquitoes in the New York City area, with at least two cases known to have occurred in humans. If you weren’t around for the last big West Nile panic about 20 years ago, you might be wondering just what this disease is and whether you should be worried about it.

In a former life, I was a lab technician in a chemistry lab, where I used a very small portion of the knowledge I had gained studying chemistry for four years. I left that industry over a decade ago, but little habits have stuck with me, particularly when it comes to glassware.Read more...

It’s a fact of living in a work-obsessed world: You may find yourself with more than one job at some point. Hell, I haven’t had just one job since high school. For 14 years, I’ve had multiple income sources at all times, which has been great for survival in a financial sense, but not always as great for survival in a…Read more...

You’re working diligently on an Excel spreadsheet, making sure all the figures are accurate and everything looks great. You’re a machine: There’s nothing that can stop you from acing this task and impressing your boss. Except, however, for a power outage that shuts your PC down before you had a chance to save. Now you…Read more...

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If you rent your home, there’s a good chance one of your biggest pain points is laundry. If there’s no laundry in your unit or building, you’re stuck heading to a laundromat (or your parents’ house) on a regular basis. But there might be another solution: Just like the countertop dishwasher, you can buy yourself a …Read more...

If you recently bought a new Mac, you don’t have to spend days setting it up to your liking. Whether it’s for work, school, or a little of everything, following these eight tips will make your new laptop is ready for whatever you throw at it.

While official app stores are the safest way to find and download new software on your smartphone, they aren’t without faults. The Google Play Store has protections in place to weed out malicious apps, but occasionally, some manage to sneak through undetected. Thirty-five such apps were just discovered hiding on the…Read more...

Raw nuts are an acquired taste. One that, for some, shall never be acquired. Even though I snack on the occasional raw almond, they lead with their bitter flavors, and the texture isn’t so much snappy as it is mealy. For anyone kicking themselves because they bought a pound of raw nuts, when you were looking for…Read more...