Lifehacker

It’s what every show on HGTV had brainwashed you into believing you wanted: An open floor plan. The appeal was clear. Homes with open floor plans feel bigger, brighter and more airy. Plus, if you’re a parent of little kids, that open concept meant you could keep an eye on the kiddos while making dinner. Every parent’s…Read more...

On March 8, 2020, I stepped inside a mountainside coffee shop in Jay Peak, Vermont. That hastily made 16 oz of steamin’ gas station-quality sludge was the last stranger-made cup of coffee I’d drink for over a year.

The etiquette of virtual hangouts always keeps me on my toes. If I’m the host of a Zoom meeting, for example, I find it’s best to sign on early in case anyone else wants to sign on early. But then I have to actually pay attention to my screen so it’s not just a photo of my empty room. In other words, I don’t want to…Read more...

Top Pick: Tokaido | $50 | Amazon

When you think of St. Patrick’s Day, you might think of green beer, shot glass necklaces that say “Kiss Me, I’m Irish,” and everyone suddenly talking about how Irish they are. That’s all well and good, but you might not know much about the holiday’s origins or the saint it celebrates. Well, take off that stupid hat,…Read more...

For most people, predicting the NCAA’s March Madness tournament results with any degree of accuracy is a fool’s errand. The single elimination tournament, comprised of 64 teams, one of which must win six straight games to be crowned champions, is notoriously unpredictable, with unknown Davids upsetting legacy Goliaths…Read more...

Chrome OS 89 is rolling out now, adding tons of features for Chromebooks and tablets that run on Google’s operating system. You’ll probably notice the pretty new app icons first of all, but there’s a lot more new stuff hiding beneath the surface.

Tuesday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

Vaccines are becoming more available and coronavirus cases are dropping nationwide. If you stayed home all winter, you might be wondering if it’s finally okay to take a vacation somewhere. The short answer is: not really. The long answer? Let’s dive in.Read more...

Aira is a service that allows blind and low-vision people to receive audio descriptions of their surroundings from a live operator. It’s like a FaceTime; you dial up the service, point your camera at your surroundings, and a person looking through it becomes your eyes. They’ll tell you what they see—reading the text…Read more...

Due to a quirk in how the most recent relief bill was passed, your $1,400 stimulus checks could be garnished by private debt collectors. There’s talk of follow-up legislation to fix the problem, but it might be too little, too late.Read more...

There is an impulse shared by basically everyone when meeting someone new. In a casual conversation, people are largely more inclined to share their own subjective experiences than to ask follow-up questions about someone else’s interests.

St. Patrick’s Day just doesn’t feel like St. Patrick’s Day without corned beef, cabbage, and lots of beer and/or whiskey. I didn’t feel like sous vide-ing any whiskey—we’d already kind of done that before—but the super moist, low and slow cooking method seemed perfectly suited for the cured, salty slab o’ meat.

Protein is essential when you’re building muscle. Muscle tissue is made of protein, which means it is made of amino acids, and those amino acids have to come from somewhere. But how much does the source of protein matter?Read more...

At the beginning of the pandemic, parents everywhere agreed: A little extra screen time was not going to hurt our kids. In many cases, particularly for older kids, those tablets and smartphones were their lifeline to their friends. My son, who was nine years old when the world shut down, traded in soccer practice and…Read more...

Girl and Boy Scouts’ work looks great on college applications, and the lessons tend to live with you forever. I climbed the Girl Scout ranks for seven years, starting in the fifth grade as a Junior Girl Scout and sticking through my senior year of high school as an Ambassador-level scout. But some girls aren’t looking…Read more...

Hisense TVs and Google Stadia Premiere Edition lead Tuesday’s best deals.

Every house has at least one chair that nobody can sit in because it’s piled with clothes. Eyesore factor aside, the dreaded “Clothes Chair” is completely harmless—yet, for many people, it’s a huge source of shame.Read more...

If you’ve ever seen a “cash for homes” sign posted around your town or a website offering cash for your property, you may have wondered if entertaining the idea is worthwhile. Indeed, many of these cash offers are legit, but pursuing one means it’s also much easier to get scammed, and you’ll probably receive a worse…Read more...

Google Stadia Premiere Edition | $60 | Best BuyRead more...

The recent release of Chrome 89 brought with it one super-useful upgrade for a number of Android users: an official 64-bit version of the browser, which Google claims is “up to 8.5% faster to load pages and 28% smoother when it comes to scrolling and input latency.”Read more...

From the beginning of the pandemic, parents everywhere were concerned about how to keep our kids of all ages physically active while stuck at home. Just like that, their team sports, gym class, recess, playdates, and walks to and from school were all snatched away. Maybe we tried to get them out of the house for…Read more...

Baking soda and baking powder are both chemical leavening agents that give height to baked goods through acid-base reactions that release carbon dioxide, but they do so in slightly different ways. To best understand how to use them, it helps to grasp what they are.Read more...

Newly minted world’s richest man Elon Musk has a new job title befitting his wealth. Though his empire spans multiple industries, he’s ridding himself of the CEO moniker at only one of the companies under his thumb, opting for the title of “Technoking” at the electric car manufacturer Tesla.

Last Friday, I roasted some delicious chicken thighs. By Saturday afternoon, they were gone. My boyfriend and I plucked the last two directly from their roasting pan in the fridge and ate them barefoot in the kitchen without plates or flatware. A couple of hours later, I opened the fridge to find the pan we had left…Read more...

Top Product: Victorinox Paring Knife (3 1/4") | AmazonRead more...

Hydrogen peroxide is a household disinfectant made up of two parts hydrogen and two parts oxygen. The high oxygenation creates a foaming action when it is poured on, jarring loose bacteria and more deeply penetrating porous surfaces, helping to cleanse them. When poured on the skin, all that foam makes us believe the…Read more...

Not all men are guilty of perpetrating sexual harassment against women in the workplace and beyond. But all men have an instrumental role to play in the broader effort to combat the harassment of women, and it starts with simply talking about the issue with other men.

Monday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

With the third round of relief payments being sent out this week, the IRS relaunched its Get My Payment tool over the weekend to help you track yours. The agency is characteristically gnomic in the descriptions of their payment statuses within the tool, so we’ll clarify what they actually mean.Read more...

As Surviving Mars—Paradox Interactive and Haemimont Games’ clever twist on the city-building game—celebrates its three-year anniversary today, it’s getting a new lease on life in the form of a new developer (Abstraction Games), a new expansion coming later this year, and two new updates dropping today (a free tourism…Read more...

They’ve got a few years before they’ll start the timeless childhood tradition of whining about how bored they are, despite the piles of toys they own, the stacks of books they could read, and the beautiful weather outside. But even babies can get bored, in their own way. That’s because they’re curious little explorers…Read more...

A staple of 8- and 16-bit consoles, 2D Beat ‘Em Up games are experiencing a quiet renaissance these last few years thanks to titles like Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls, and Fight’n Rage. There’s even a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brawler on the way. Luckily, you don’t have to shell out full price to get your…Read more...

I love soaking chicken in buttermilk. It is a truly unmatched marinade. The lactic acid tenderizes and flavors the meat, and the proteins accelerate browning, resulting in a beautifully bronzed, yet incredibly tender and juicy bird. The only drawback is that I tend to buy buttermilk intentionally, for specific uses,…Read more...

Homes have a habit of harboring all sorts of nasty odors—cat litter, microwaved salmon, fly traps made from apple cider vinegar—that are blessedly easy to mitigate. Sometimes, though, you come across unpleasant smells that are harder to find and deodorize. Here are some common culprits, along with methods of attack.Read more...

An HP Omen 15 laptop and Elgato HD60 lead Monday’s best deals.

If the Monday after the time change is hitting you hard, you’re not alone. Losing an extra hour of sleep is tough, especially if you’ve already been running on empty due to pandemic stress or garden variety not-getting-to bed-on-time. So here are some strategies for getting through the day.Read more...

Where we go, scammers follow. The latest example exploits our booming post-lockdown interest in travel, as grifters have set up fake travel sites to steal your personal information and money. Here’s how you can avoid the scam.Read more...

The travel industry has been hit hard since the pandemic began, with travel spending declined by 42% in 2020 from 2019. But the introduction of three leading vaccines has created a fervor for booking future travel.

Apple is now forcing companies to use its new privacy labels, introduced in December of 2020, if they’re going to keep offering updated versions of their apps on the App Store. And that includes Apple’s own apps, too.Read more...

If you have more than one child, you have probably noticed that they don’t always get along. Especially now, with both winter weather and a pandemic keeping us largely together at home, the rivalries among siblings may have reached a height that previously seemed unfathomable. The bad news is: Sibling rivalries are…Read more...

Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones | $278 | AmazonRead more...

Welcome to Lodge, Lifehacker’s newest section exploring every aspect of home life—from the big questions (What does it really cost to buy a home?) to the small (What’s the best lightbulb for every room?).Read more...

Save up to 50% on Echo Devices | AmazonRead more...

Last night I did something I’ve never done before: I cleaned out the filters of our window air conditioning units. All of my research says I should have been doing this once a month, and I waited six years, but I’ve decided to be proud of myself anyway.Read more...

Look, we know how many photos of cute bats there are flying around the internet. But unless you’ve been awakened by the flutter of their bony-yet-fuzzy wings hovering directly above your face, you may not truly understand what it’s like to have one in your home. (I’ve also been startled by bats flying through rooms,…Read more...

The humble dryer sheet may seem like the uni-tasker of the laundry room, but in reality, it can improve your life in myriad ways.Read more...

Homeownership has a way of awakening the inner Bob Vila in all of us—even the ones who know nothing about home improvement. Whether you’re tackling huge renovations or tiptoeing your way into the world of DIY, these tips will help you set yourself up for success.Read more...

Renting a home definitely has its advantages, but security isn’t usually one of them. When you own a home, you can install any security system you want, from alarms to cameras—but when you rent, you’re limited to what your landlord will allow.

Moving is always stressful. But it gets worse when you get to your new home, open a box, and find that your printer has shattered all the wine glasses it was packed with.Read more...