Lifehacker

Flowers give us vibrant pops of color in our garden and beautiful centerpieces for special occasions—but it’s easy to forget that they can provide us sustenance, too. Flowers are plants, and some plants are edible—even delicious. That’s why horticulturists like Alexis Nikole, known as the Black Forager, are showing us…Read more...

With COVID-19 making a resurgence in Tokyo, the Olympics are currently coming apart at the seams, including an announcement on Thursday from Japan’s Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa that the Games would proceed without fans. If watching the world’s most prestigious athletic competition take place in deserted venues…Read more...

It’s officially a post-vax slutty summer, which means people are out and about. Everyone is going on dates and having fun, and that includes your ex. (Sorry!) But what happens if you run into them? Well, here’s what you should do.Read more...

If you’re like me, then you have consciously made the decision to avoid all people under the age of 25. However, sometimes you get stuck in a room with a tiny baby that just wants to cry and drool and who can sense that your biggest fear is them pooping on you.Read more...

I’ve tested the global youth-culture internet and the results have come back positive: Everything is looking up this week. We’re even talking about colonizing Venus, which is cool...if not impossible.

I can’t be the only one who blinked hard at the calendar in July, wondering where the hell the first half of 2021 had gone. After spending the better part of 2020 wanting the whole year to vanish off the space-time continuum, it’s a little surreal to watch time speed up again as life around us normalizes. Even so,…Read more...

Increasingly, companies include unlimited paid time off as part of their job offers, as it’s an enticement popular with millennials and Gen Z workers. But you’ll want to think twice about whether it’s really all that great—studies show that workers often take less time off with unlimited vacation days. Why would that…Read more...

With the exception of salt, pepper is the most common and ubiquitous seasoning in American cooking. The berries themselves vary wildly in both color and flavor, but when and how you grind and cook them also has a big impact on their flavor. (Growing up, my sister called pre-ground black pepper “hot salt,” though it…Read more...

An outdoor space is a bonus wherever you live, especially if you have the room to create some outdoor seating. Structures like a pergola provide protection from the sun and lend a certain bit of style to your yard—but they can bring more of both if you cover them in creeping vines.

We’re only halfway into the year, but there’s been a lot to talk about in the fitness world. Whether you’re returning to the gym, getting serious for the first time, or just chugging along with a consistent routine, we’ve had plenty of fitness advice for you. Here’s a highlight reel of the best of it this year—so far.Read more...

I never look to the sky for advice, or thought that planetary alignment on my birthday—July 5, 1989—helps explain why I struggle with anxiety and like wrestling and playing the drums. I don’t think those things are preordained by the cosmos, but you might be led to believe otherwise if you are really into astrology.Read more...

With millions of homeowners behind on their mortgage payments, and a looming foreclosure moratorium that expires July 31, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has added some new protections to help borrowers keep their homes. However, since lenders don’t always follow the rules, you’ll want to know what…Read more...

One of the first rites of passage for any traveler is getting your passport. And while some people have been traveling internationally since they were little, plenty of others have never had a passport and don’t know how to get the process started. This information is for them. (Please note: The procedures described…Read more...

Microsoft recently released emergency patches to fix a major zero-day security flaw in Windows’ Print Spooler code dubbed “PrintNightmare,” but they didn’t fix the problem. Security researchers discovered the vulnerability is still present on several versions of Windows even after the patch (via TechRadar), leaving…Read more...

There is something very alluring about the large, plastic-domed containers of croissants you see at the grocery store and Costco, but I rarely give in to their buttery siren song. It’s just too stressful! But last week, I saw a 12-pack on sale for a mere three (3) American dollars, and I could resist no longer. I…Read more...

Paper coffee filters are exclusively sold in packs by the thousand for less than $2. This is a universal fact.Read more...

Every time you need to upload documents online, you’ll find yourself looking for a good scanner app. For those with Androids, here are some of the best you can find. Some of these apps support optical character recognition (OCR)—a cool piece of technology that lets you copy and paste text from photos or scanned…Read more...

One of the hard parts about transitioning from being a student to the real world (whatever that means, anyway) is the lack of opportunities for competing in organized sports. In a school setting, the opportunities are built right in, with teams, daily practices, and competitions.Read more...

TikTok is a creator’s paradise, and these days, more than just fashion influencers and aspiring comedians are clogging the platform. A new community has blossomed on the app, and it’s made up of users, many of them teens, plugging books—a pretty unlikely product, as far as social media boosterism goes.

Living in an older home presents all sorts of challenges. The layouts may be more closed in, the wiring could need updating, the closet space is lacking—and the heating systems might be outdated. Older homes will often use a boiler and radiator system to heat the home, which involves steam rising through the pipe…Read more...

It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through 2021, since it feels like we just crawled out of the smoking crater that was 2020. In terms of personal finance, the pandemic was worse than the 2008 financial crisis for most Americans, affecting everything including employment, retirement savings, and the cost of…Read more...

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Prix Fixed, Lifehacker’s menu-planning advice column.

Social media is a vital tool for promoting your work online, but almost every social media app shares a major flaw: You can only paste one “website” link to your profile. For most people, that’s not enough—most of us have multiple profiles, projects, and portfolios to promote, sometimes to different audiences—which is…Read more...

If you’re the type of person to wear underwear with everything—a very normal type of person to be, in my opinion—you might start to wonder what’s going on with running shorts and workout leggings. Sometimes loose men’s shorts will have a snug-fitting liner, or certain women’s styles will have a crotch gusset made of a…Read more...

The process of interviewing for a job can feel like a job in itself, particularly when it is stretched out over weeks or months and requires you to devote your attention to fulfilling countless tasks you hope will prove your worth.

If you’ve gotten used to monitoring your “cardio fitness” score on your Fitbit, Garmin, Apple Health, or any other activity tracker or app, you may have noticed that the score has dropped recently—or perhaps not gone up as much as you would have expected. But if you’ve been keeping up your training, the dip may not…Read more...

When you first bring home a baby plant, you have all kinds of hopes and dreams for it. You can see its full, lush future potential—but in order to get there, it’s going to require a little training. The act of “training” plants—also known as husbandry—is the care and strengthening of plants. Certain techniques (wires,…Read more...

Unlike commercially produced, processed food and beverages, eggs can vary in appearance and composition quite a bit. They come out of a chicken, not a factory, which means these variations are to be expected, not only from chicken to chicken, but from egg to egg. I once bought a carton of eggs that had 11 double…Read more...

The Biden administration has amended some rules, making it easier to get funeral costs reimbursed for people who have lost family members due to COVID-19. This means if your application was already rejected, you still have a chance to get up to $9,000 in funeral costs paid for by Federal Emergency Management Agency…Read more...

Running injuries are common. So common, in fact, that an estimated 50 percent of runners get injured every year, with some experts thinking the actual number may be even higher than that. Common injuries include stress fractures, IT band injuries, and runner’s knee. And in the past year, a lot of people have changed…Read more...

My mind is constantly chirping—and closing my eyes and breathing deeply doesn’t lead to tranquility, let alone anything nearing bliss. Rather, this is when all the bad thoughts start bubbling up to the surface, inducing what I can only imagine is the sheer opposite of nirvana.

We’re already halfway through 2021, and this year, we’ve really leaned in on how to better operate our households. We’re learning to be better gardeners, better cleaners of all the things, and better users of foil, paper towels, and dryer sheets. As we enter the back half of the year, let’s revisit the best household…Read more...

Depending on your job, chances are you’re spending hours on Slack. It’s become “where work happens,” like their tagline says. But you might not feel at home with the stock Slack configuration, and there are plenty of ways to make it your own? Here’s how to personalize your Slack account, from adding custom emojis, to…Read more...

Of all the peer-to-peer rental platforms out there, Airbnb and Vrbo are two of the biggest names, and they share a lot of similarities. But while they both have deals cheaper than most hotel room rates, there are differences between the two worth knowing about, too. Here’s a look at how they compare.Read more...

Tomato paste is a kitchen staple that adds incidentally vegan umami and depth to sauces, rice dishes, braises, and any condiment or dressing you happen to stir it into. And, whether you buy your paste in a can or a tube, there is always that little last annoying bit of paste that isn’t quite enough for use in a full…Read more...

Counting is hard. Yeah, it was easy enough when we were in kindergarten, but fast forward a little and suddenly you’re an adult who can’t manage to count past 10 when there’s a weight in your hand. You’re not alone! Especially if you’re doing anything for higher reps or for more than a few sets, it’s normal to lose…Read more...

When you’re planning a family trip to the beach, you probably pack with kids in mind. But an adult beach day requires a different set of items. It’s time to trade in your kids’ toys for card games, beach sports, music, liquor, and more. Here’s how to pack for a grown-up day by the water.Read more...

Safari is a perfectly good browser in its own right, but its default settings can understandably frustrate those switching over from Chrome and Firefox. Basic features—such as the showing expanded URLs in the status bar, for example—are disabled, which is less than ideal. Here’s how to fix some of those annoyances,…Read more...

To forge a career is to accept a life of constant learning, which means always being open to soaking up the wisdom of those with greater insight. Though we’re only halfway through 2021, we’ve encountered and shared so much potentially life-changing career advice this year—a year during which the continuing pandemic…Read more...

When I was about six years old, my mother, sisters, and I moved from Aberdeen, Mississippi to Los Angeles, California. My dad stayed in the South, and the twins and I would visit him during the summer. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to northern Mississippi in July, but it is very hot, humid, and full of bugs.Read more...

The past year has been rough on all of us, including our kids. Many of our kids are still too young to be vaccinated and yet they will be expected to return to in-person school in the fall, where in addition to the normal stressors of school, there will be the added stress of processing the events of the last year.…Read more...

Spotify has finally delivered what we once called the “Holy Grail of smartphone streaming”—the ability to download songs to your watch, so you can listen to them even when your phone is at home and you’re jogging through the woods without a data connection. The feature is rolling out now, although you’ll need a…Read more...

Orchids are known for being tricky: They’re delicate, require watering and misting, and they need proper drainage and just the right amount of light. That level of plant care can be overwhelming, but once you’ve got a routine, you’ll knock it out of the park. Here’s how to care for an orchid in your home.Read more...

How do you know when you’re officially an adult? When is it okay to quit a job, and when should you stick it out? How the heck do you figure out what you want to do with your life?Read more...

Most potatoes need a little knife work before you cook and eat them; unless you are baking whole spuds to consume alongside a juicy steak, slicing and dicing is just part of the process. The premise behind chopping a potato is simple: Steady the potato on a cutting board and push or drag your knife through it. Repeat…Read more...

If you didn’t know it already, today is National Fried Chicken Day, and a bunch of restaurant chains are offering discounts and freebies on their fried chicken menu items. Considering that there’s chicken shortages amidst a raging “chicken sandwich war,” it’s not clear that Americans need more incentives to eat…Read more...

Audacity has been the go-to free audio editing app for years, but its recent privacy policy changes mention invasive data collection practices that are (rightfully) making a lot of people very uncomfortable.

Spotlight Search is Mac’s built-in search feature. It shows up when you use the Command + Space keyboard shortcut, or when you click the Search icon in the menu bar to hunt for a file somewhere on your machine.

Imagine this: You’re out with your friends at a park or a beer garden when one of them suggests going into a bar. Two summers ago, that’d be no big deal, but after such a long time away from crowds during the pandemic, you might be a little nervous.