Lifehacker

The ongoing shortage of affordable housing has some people who planned on buying a home considering renting instead—at least temporarily. And while there are some real estate markets where buying is now actually cheaper than renting, the rest of the country is seeing high levels of competition for reasonably priced…Read more...

The meaning and usage of words often changes over time, but in some situations, words that are used interchangeably can have two (or more) distinctive meanings.Read more...

Some of the first mass-produced laundry detergents were bars of soap that were used with a washboard and washtub. Powders and liquids became the detergents of choice for modern washing machines, which became increasingly popular in the 1950s.Read more...

Unless you have a perfectly functioning exhaust fan and ventilation system, your bathroom is probably a bit on the humid side. It’s obvious after someone showers, but even things like flushing the toilet and using the sink add moisture to the air.Read more...

Given that many people with pets consider their furry (or scaly, feathery, etc.) friends part of their family, it makes sense that they’d include their pet when making future plans—like if they’re moving to a new city. But not all urban areas are equally accommodating. Here are the most and least pet-friendly cities…Read more...

On the beautiful, sunny days of spring, bird poop will suddenly appear on all your patio, railings, and outdoor furniture. Online, there are all kinds of suggestions for what you can use to remove the icky white stain once you’ve scraped away the solid part, but it’s not clear which ones work and which are just…Read more...

When making cookies, you are not beholden to cinnamon, chocolate, or any of the usual “baking spices.” There’s a whole cabinet of seasonings at your disposal, so get a little quirky. It’s easy to think that if your spices aren’t sweet, they’ll taste “off” in a cookie recipe. The fact is that none of them are sweet.…Read more...

You’re blasting your favorite music on your AirPods, when someone decides to call you. The ringtone, matching the volume of the music, plays so loudly you wonder if it’s damaged your hearing. Alas, you have no choice but to prepare your ears whenever you use your AirPods. After all, there’s no way to separately…Read more...

This week’s Out-of-Touch guide is all about dark, hidden corners of the internet—those the secret places that only young people know about about. At least until someone does a treason and the New York Times gets involved.

ChatGPT might be the coolest tech on the block right now, but it’s not immune from the issues all software faces. Bugs and glitches affect anything running code, but the stakes are higher than a crummy user experience: The wrong bug could allow bad actors to compromise the security of OpenAI’s users, which could be …Read more...

Smoothies can be a delicious way to drink your food, and there are a wide variety of ways to flavor your own. You can add any combination of fruit, veggies, dairy, or powders to make a shake that works for your palate and goals. While that’s all fine and good, there’s a bit of dairy that doesn’t get enough attention…Read more...

Every long-term Windows user knows how annoying it is to wait for apps and services to finish loading up, just so you can get on with your work. Granted, recent improvements from Windows and SSDs make things much faster, but the issue cuts deeper than wasted time. Some annoying default or third-party apps are too…Read more...

If you grew up on a farm, participated in 4-H, or went to a land-grant university, you are probably already aware of what a rich resource your county extension office is for pro tips and life skills. On the other hand, if half of that sentence sounded like gibberish, let me introduce you to the Cooperative Extension:…Read more...

Many West Coasters know that citrus season is one of abundant fruit, and while people from other regions may or may not have this wonderful problem, they can get good deals even now as the season comes to a close. While living in Oakland, California, I saw that local hero Samin Nosrat posted about Vin D’orange,…Read more...

Rolling down the windows seems like the most eco-friendly and economical way to cool off when you’re driving. You don’t have to turn on the air conditioning, because you get a nice breeze from nature itself. Right?Read more...

Surprise cleaning requirements, last-minute cancelations, and hidden cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms. These are all complaints Airbnb guests have experienced, as reported by The Bear Cave, an online independent publication. The report illustrates problems guests have been complaining about for some time, leading…Read more...

I eat a lot of eggs and dairy, but not everyone does. Some people, in fact, eat neither, which (traditionally) would seem to put French toast out of their reach. But we live in a golden age of vegan substitutes, and while I’m sure a reasonable French toast could be made with Just Egg and the like, a humble tub of…Read more...

For Sam’s Club’s 4oth birthday, they’re offering deals for both tiers of their memberships for a limited time. You can get the basic the Club membership for $10 (usually $50) and the Plus membership for $60 (usually $110).Read more...

The universe is throwing a meteor party this month, and all of humanity is invited. The annual Lyrid meteor shower will fill the night sky with shooting stars in late April. Lyrid meteors should be visible beginning on April 16 through April 25, but peak viewing is expected on the evening of April 21 through dawn…Read more...

I’m convinced there are two kinds of nerds: word game people and number game people. The same thrill I feel at building letters into words, other people feel by manipulating numbers into different ones. If you’ve been waiting for a math version of Wordle, you’re in luck—and even if you’re a word game person, you might…Read more...

Android 14 is here. Well, at least in beta form. Google dropped the first public beta for the upcoming Android update on Thursday, April 13, following two developer-only previews earlier this year. If you want to experience the new changes Google is bringing to Android, now you can.

I used to laugh when I received an official document that told me to “save a copy for your records.” My “records” were a pile in the living room that was eventually crammed into a filing cabinet with the owner’s manual for my TV and old birthday cards from my Nana. But an unexpected IRS audit taught me the error of my…Read more...

You put a lot of work into your garden, so nothing is quite as frustrating as stepping back to take it all in and realizing you’re not really happy the way it’s all arranged. Whether that has to do with aesthetics or more practical matters, like a certain plant needing to be in a sunnier spot, it’s daunting to imagine…Read more...

When it comes to scams, knowledge is always power; you’re much less likely to fall for a scam if you’re aware of its existence. And for certain scams, you may be more susceptible to being targeted simply by where you live.

Easter is a joyful springtime holiday that tends to leave one with lots of leftover eggs and ham. This glut of protein is usually fine, because families often celebrate together and many tummies make light work, but sometimes you still have too much leftover ham. (These hellfire eggs take care of the egg problem.)…Read more...

This is a safe space where you can admit you don’t wash every article of clothing every time you wear it. In fact, it’s a space where we can celebrate your decision to waste less water and not traumatize your fabric’s delicate fibers. The thing about not washing clothes after every wear, though, is that it can be hard…Read more...

“The ‘swing’ lift is a great favorite in France,” the weightlifter and barbell-maker Alan Calvert wrote in 1911. He described it “rapidly coming into favor in England, along with the ‘snatch’ lift.” But while the snatch grew in popularity, leading eventually to the two-handed barbell lift featured in CrossFit and in …Read more...

Food ennui is real. Some nights I’ll find myself starving, but not inspired by anything in my pantry. I’ll spend an hour surfing Grubhub until every place is closed, and end up eating popcorn for dinner. Not ideal, but there are some ways around it. For whatever reason you’re experiencing the culinary blahs, here are…Read more...

When people want to illustrate how fast technology advances in the modern era, they often reach for the (admittedly astonishing) fact that it only took us 66 years to go from the first manned flight to landing people on the moon. While it’s undeniably incredible to think that a human being could witness both of those…Read more...

Places like airport have USB ports graciously scattered throughout, so you can plug in your phone to charge your battery. Except you really shouldn’t do that, at least according to the FBI.

ChatGPT is everywhere from Bing to niche Chrome extensions, but it’s glaringly absent in the Apple ecosystem. Sure, you can access ChatGPT easily enough, but there’s no AI tools built directly into either iOS or macOS. Apple might be silent on the new wave of AI as of now, but you don’t need to wait on the company to…Read more...

Spirit Airlines is holding a limited-time “status match” for members of certain hotel or airline rewards programs. Those who qualify will be eligible to get entry-level for Silver status or top-tier Gold status in the Free Spirit Program for a year.

I’m of the position that security updates are important to install as soon as possible. When you see one hit your update pane on your smartphone or computer, it’s important to install and patch whatever security issues developers recently discovered. If you have a PC, however, it’s particularly important to install…Read more...

You or your kids may already been familiar with strep throat; I know I had to suffer through lots of throat swabs and pink liquid medicine as a kid. But the medication to treat it is in short supply right now, and the CDC has recently warned that they’re seeing an uptick in cases of the more severe forms of group A…Read more...

According to a recent survey from Empower, only 44% of Americans know when the deadline is for filing your 2022 taxes, so let me set the record straight: Tax day is April 18 this year—if you’re a procrastinator, 2023 is granting you a three-day reprieve.

Sumo citrus season is almost over, and I am a mess. By the end of this month, the lumpy, juicy fruit will have vanished from produce markets and grocery stores alike, leaving me in a state of longing. If you’ve never had the fruit, you should go get some now—but don’t give yourself an ulcer gorging on acidic citrus.…Read more...

For most people, landscaping is a purely decorative act. We design the exteriors of our homes for visual impact more than anything, resulting in immaculate lawns and colorful edgings that look great (unless you’re doing it wrong) and serve absolutely no other purpose. If you pause to think about it for a moment, the…Read more...

Not everyone has the luxury of a spacious outdoor storage shed. If you love to garden but lack the space to store all the necessary tools, one solution might be to turn those large garden planters into their own storage vessel. It’s easier than you think.

For a limited time, you can get an entire year of Peacock Premium for $20, down from its usual $50 price. You just have to give up your soul (or at least some personal information) to Macy’s. With streaming services changing, and many questioning their approach to making money, according to the Wall Street Journal,…Read more...

If you don’t watch YouTube enough, YouTube Premium isn’t worth the monthly $11.99. But for avid watchers, Premium means no ads, and now a new feature called “1080p Premium.” So what exactly is 1080p Premium, and is it worth it?Read more...

Long-term plant-watering hacks are usually marketed toward people who are heading away on vacation, but the reality is that plenty of people with houseplants are just too busy to water them all the time, too. Your best intentions are no match for your most pressing responsibilities, so let’s set up a quick and easy…Read more...

The strangest thing to me about the recent court case on mifepristone is not that a Texas judge ordered a hold on FDA approval of a drug that was already approved 23 years ago, nor that a Washington judge simultaneously ordered the exact opposite (that the FDA may not change the availability of the drug). The weirdest…Read more...

Growing your own food is supposed to be a hedge against inflation, but rising prices are in evidence at the garden center too. The price of vegetable and flower starts is up almost 40% at many spots I’ve visited across the country this spring. When six packs started going for over $7, I knew it was time to bump up my…Read more...

Breakfast sandwich bread is usually substantial, like the English muffin, a bagel, or French toast, but the standard pancake delivers in both flavor and structure. It offers a tender yet flexible composition, and the added benefit of a spongy crumb. The air pockets in the framework allow the pancakes to hug the…Read more...

Last month, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history. News of bank failures naturally fuels concerns for bank customers everywhere, so you might be wondering what would happen if you pulled all your money out of the bank entirely—and what would happen if a bunch of…Read more...

Spam is a block of salty, umami-heavy satisfaction in an average meal scenario, but casserole it with eggs and tater tots, and it rises into an entirely different level. This casserole somehow tastes like a cross between fast food and fancy, but maybe that’s just a state of mind. Regardless, you should absolutely…Read more...

While it might be too early to look for flights, it’s the right time to buy tickets for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Some admissions are as cheap as $26, and for the first time ever, the opening and closing ceremony will take place outside a stadium and be free to the public. Here’s how to make an affordable…Read more...

Not cleaning your grill can be dangerous, but how you clean it is important, too. Even if it’s the easiest option, you shouldn’t use a wire brush. Here’s why you should chuck that bristle brush in the trash, plus what you can replace it with.

McDonald’s is giving out free Big Macs to those who download their app and spend at least a dollar. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the app or already have it, you’ll be able to take advantage of this deal.Read more...

Whenever I melt butter for brushing, drizzling, or dunking (or popcorn), I almost always overestimate the amount of butter I need to melt, and end up with a little extra. Melted butter can never be unmelted. It can re-solidify, but it won’t be the same. Some proteins will have inevitably coagulated and fallen out of…Read more...