Lifehacker

If you unwrapped a new guitar this Christmas season, or your dad handed you down his old axe, you probably need to get it professionally set up. A proper setup for your guitar can mean the difference between a buzzy, hard-to-play nightmare that kills your both your fingers and ears and a beautiful musical instrument.

No matter how much money you have, you’ll find a way to spend it. The same principle applies to freezer space. And sure, a packed freezer runs more efficiently, but that’s not why I’m staring at an impenetrable wall of frosted mysteries. Like most people, my freezer is the graveyard of my kitchen.

There are a variety of reasons why someone might decide to reduce their intake of caffeine—or cut themselves off completely—that have nothing to do with resolutions. But ‘tis the season for attempting to make changes in our lives that we’ll likely abandon in a few weeks.Read more...

The dock is one of the most distinguishing aspects of macOS. It offers you an easy way to launch your favorite apps quickly without cluttering up your desktop. However, the dock itself can become a bit of eyesore if the icon sizes don’t match up. If you find yourself staring at an extraordinarily large app icon, and…Read more...

Having what you need to respond to an emergency is important, but so are the tools to keep an emergency from happening in the first place. We’re going to cover a little of both: here are some often-forgotten essentials to keep your car and passengers as safe as possible when you’re out on the road.

Seeing some green poking through the snow or cold, winter ground is one of the most visible signs of spring. But seeing how we’re not even a month into winter, it’ll take some time before that happens. Unless, of course, you’ve been growing bulbs inside.Read more...

The Apple Watch is a great companion for your iPhone—but all great things have bad days, and the Apple Watch is no exception. Software bugs can make the watch slow to respond, and when they do, a quick restart is usually a good solution. However, sometimes the Apple Watch stops responding entirely; when that happens,…Read more...

Well, we did it. We made it through the shopping and wrapping, the tree almost falling over, and the antics of 12 Santa-drunk children on the most exciting day of their lives. We said good riddance to 2021, and ushered in a new year. The decorations are down, the baking sheets are stored, and the mood is, well...…Read more...

Having a dog impacts many different aspects of your life—from your travel plans, to your household expenses, to the amount of fur on your clothing. But one of the biggest things that changes after getting a dog (some types more than others) is your home.Read more...

When I think of Paul Thomas Anderson, chill hangout vibes aren’t what generally comes to mind. More like the cocaine-tinged tragic-comic edginess of porno drama Boogie Nights, or the surreal operatic swells of the capitalism-as-apocalypse period piece There Will Be Blood. But here we are, at the tail end of 2021, and…Read more...

We’ll keep this brief.Read more...

For the most part, air travel involves dealing with one hassle after another. From getting to and from the airport, to dealing with unruly or unreasonable fellow passengers on your flight, it tends not to be a very pleasant experience.Read more...

While there seem to be cleaning products formulated for any type of stain, mess, or grime you can think of, some people—for a variety of reasons—prefer to take more of a chemistry-class-approach to household cleaning, working directly with the acids and bases used to make those products.Read more...

The start of a new calendar year has long been viewed as a chance to get a fresh start—including in the kitchen. For nearly two years now, the COVID-19 pandemic has been responsible for millions of illnesses and deaths, in addition to a major spike in the popularity of cooking and baking at home. And not only that,…Read more...

When it comes to window treatments, the terminology can get a little confusing—starting with “window treatment” itself. Is it a protective coating for windows, or a process like treating wood? Is it referring to the ways to fix broken or aging windows? (You get the picture.)

Even though you’re probably not using your outdoor faucet or spigot as much during the winter as you do during the summer (or at all), that doesn’t mean you can just forget about it for the whole season. That’s because if your outdoor faucet, pipes, and the water inside them freezes, it could result in burst pipes,…Read more...

Despite what manufacturers want you to think, buying an expensive, high-end mattress isn’t going to magically solve all of your sleep problems. Sleeping on a mattress that sags or dips in the middle can, however, make it much harder to get a restful night’s sleep.Read more...

Podcasts can be a place to go to stay informed about the...current state of things. Or they can be the place we go for comfort, entertainment, and to forget about the current state of things. This year, the Lifehacker staff turned to podcasts for all of the above. Here’s a list of our favorite episodes, from an…Read more...

It’s always worthwhile to try a new activity, I think. Even if you don’t surprise yourself by falling in love with it, you’ll probably learn something about yourself in the process. Lifehacker staffers have tried a variety of sports, tech, and habits over the past year, and here are some of the top lessons we’ve…Read more...

When you’re taking a few minutes to quickly tidy up your home, you probably focus on what’s most visible—things like floors, countertops, and stuff at eye-level. Even when you’re doing more of a thorough cleaning, you may not think to look up, leaving your ceiling fans (literally) in the dust.Read more...

Talk about a year for the iPhone and iPad—new devices across the board and tons of software updates, including the much-anticipated iOS 15. All that news means a lot of change and plenty of advice to share. Whether you’re an Apple fanatic or just someone who appreciates a good feature for their iPhone, we have…Read more...

A few hours from now, it will be a new year. And we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but as happy as we are to see 2021 come to a close, we’re also realistic about the fact that things won’t magically get better at the stroke of midnight tonight.Read more...

As I reflect back on 2021, I find my TV-watching to be found wanting. It’s not that I didn’t have options. Between my own accounts and those I share with my parents and brother, I have, at any given time, access to Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and Paramount+. And I’m probably forgetting one.…Read more...

We’re all familiar with some of the common mores of gym etiquette. Don’t abuse the equipment (i.e. dropping plates like they’re on fire), re-rack your weights, don’t monopolize machines, stop shamelessly hitting on women, put your equipment back where it belongs. Then there are those under-the-radar rules of the more…Read more...

Fitness etiquette has come a long way this year. We kicked off 2021 with most gyms still closed due to the pandemic. We navigated their gradual reopenings together, with all the ups and downs of safety concerns that entailed. Still, some tenants of fitness etiquette are timeless, like the art of dealing with…Read more...

You can start a new fitness habit right now, if you want. You can come back to your favorite activities after years away. You can even turn your living room into a gym if you want to work out without leaving the house. And here, with some of our favorite fitness posts from 2021, we’re going to help you do that.Read more...

How many New Year’s resolutions have you made over the course of your life? And how many have you kept? We all know that most grand resolutions, unless accompanied by deep commitment and accountability, stay where they began: in our heads. I don’t know about you, but after two years navigating work, family life, and…Read more...

As handy as packaged salads can be—especially during the busy holidays—you may want to rethink using any currently in your fridge. That’s because Dole Fresh Vegetables has issued a voluntary, precautionary recall for all its salads processed at two of their facilities because of a possible health risk from Listeria…Read more...

The end of the year is upon us. ‘Tis a time to blow all our unused FSA benefits on Band-Aids, reduce clutter, resolve to eat less junk and exercise more, and above all—stop doing things that no longer serve us (or our armpits, for that matter). In the spirit of cleaning up your linguistic game, applying deodorant…Read more...

You know what’s the worst? Trying to unpack a string of lights that’s tangled up in a ball at the bottom of a box. Packing up your Christmas decor can be time consuming and you might want to just throw everything into a box, but if you pack things up the right way you can save your future self a lot of headache. Here…Read more...

As Omicron cases continue to surge in the U.S., the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days to five days for anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19—as long as they are asymptomatic. After five days of staying home (or isolating in some way),…Read more...

At Lifehacker, we strive, year after year, to do everything better. It’s kind of our thing, you know? And we find, year after year, that sometimes our smartphones and their many apps help us be more productive—and sometimes they do nothing but distract us. As we reflect on 2021, though, we have to admit that our…Read more...

2021 was a big year for Android. The year brought us new phones, like the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and new software updates, like Android 12. Whether you bought something new, updated your phone with new software, or just kept on trucking with the same old tech, we were here to help you use it all. These are our favorite…Read more...

I have been a dedicated omnivore my entire life, but even I have been trying to eat less meat lately, and I’m not the only one. As A.A. Newton explained in, “How to Become a Vegetarian (or Eat Less Meat),” there are many good reasons for decreasing the amount of animals you consume:Read more...

I’d bomb on Jeopardy. I am a ball and chain at trivia night. My brain does not retain facts or names unrelated to Wham songs. I cry when I land sports in Trivial Pursuit. I watch Wheel of Fortune, mouth agog, unable to complete a phrase missing only a Q. But I’ve always thought that I could excel on The Price is Right…Read more...

Mercifully, 2021 is almost over, and as we look toward the bright future that awaits us next year (when all our problems will certainly be solved), it’s tempting to set some big sweeping resolutions that will position us to come out of 2022 a better person. Too bad the most common resolutions are the ones that are…Read more...

Hacks aren’t everything. Sometimes what you really need to improve your life is a better understanding of the world around you. So let’s take a tour through some of our best explainers of the year year, the things that put an end to your confusion about what an NFT is, or why there’s always a novel in front of every…Read more...

Every January, I pledge to improve my flexibility by stretching consistently. And yet, when it comes to my stretching routine, I’m guilty of cutting some corners. And by “cutting some corners,” I do mean that I’ll go months without properly tending to my sore muscles. Oops.

2021 was a big year for the Mac. First, Apple gave us macOS Monterey, which included a treasure trove of publicized features (and a handful of hidden gems). After this update, the company dropped new MacBook Pros with the improved M1 Pro and M1 Max chipsets. All that news meant plenty of tips and hacks for us to sink…Read more...

The year is 2011; Bethesda has released Skyrim, Nintendo puts out two Zelda titles, and Valve publishes Portal 2. All in all, it was a pretty fantastic year for gaming. Now, in 2021, pretending like its 2011 is not only a fantastic way to forget about this absolutely dreadful year, it’s also a smart gaming strategy.

Here at Lifehacker, we pride ourselves on telling you the real truth about health and fitness—and leaving the bullshit behind. Unfortunately, the fitness world is a bountiful source of confusion, half-truths, and occasional outright lies. So let’s look back on some of the times this year that we set the record…Read more...

People purchase and move into new homes (well, new to them) for many different reasons. And it’s one thing if the idea is to stay in a house for the rest of your life (or at least foreseeable future), but if you think—or know—you’re going to move at some point in the not-so-distant future, it’s another case…Read more...

If your personal library has long since outgrown the bookshelves in your house, it’s probably time to pare things down. Donating old books to your local library, secondhand store, or Little Free Library is a great way to pass them on to a new home, but some books just aren’t appropriate to give away. As a donor, it’s…Read more...

There are plenty of times our devices are out in the cold. Maybe you’re skiing, and you take your iPhone along with you; maybe you ordered a brand-new tablet for the holidays, and the driver left it on your doorstep. Whatever the reason for your chilled devices, we have an important PSA: If your tech has a lithium-ion…Read more...

Buying a Weber Kettle charcoal grill is one of the best decisions I made in 2021. Up until this year, I had been wary of this seemingly dad-dominated community of cookers, but I should have known better: All of my nicest readers are dads.Read more...

Kids are natural-born helpers. If there’s a job to do around the house, chances are good they’re willing to pitch in and help. We’ve got an age-by-age guide to kids’ chores, but they also love to assist on the occasional DIY home improvement project. Here are a few kid-friendly home maintenance projects you can hand…Read more...

Sure, 2021 gifted us with plenty of good new releases, even if we streamed them from home rather than experiencing them in a movie theater. Even so, we saw no reason to limit ourselves only to that which this year has provided—especially now, as omicron wreaks its havoc, we’ve got all the time in the world to dive…Read more...

Even if you live somewhere with central heating, sometimes it’s nice to get an extra boost of warmth from a space heater. And though modern space heaters have features that make them safer than earlier versions, it’s still important to keep safety in mind when dealing with anything that produces such high…Read more...

No matter what we tell ourselves, the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions aren’t made to be kept. The promise that next year will be a little better if you just work hard enough is powerfully attractive—so attractive that we ignore how rarely it actually happens.

For many people—if not most of us—money is mysterious. One second you just got paid and feel like a billionaire, the next moment you feel flat broke and are Googling how to make ketchup soup or how much 22-cent ramen someone can consume before dying of sodium poisoning.