Lifehacker

COVID relief checks totaling up to $600 per individual will be mailed today, while payments via direct deposit began yesterday, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who made the announcement in a couple of tweets yesterday.

Christmas is behind us, the new year is mercifully just ahead, and you may now find yourself wondering: Did my friend ever receive my gift or what? It was a thoughtful gift; you’re sure she’d like it, and she always thanks you, so it’s unusual that you haven’t heard from her yet. Should you ask if she received it?…Read more...

In a year when the outside world became a literal threat, television provided more of an escape—or, perhaps, an essential outlet for emotional release—than ever before.

There are many words one could choose to describe this shit show of a year (oh look, I just chose a couple), but I’m sure we can all agree that it was...weird. Just epically strange and bizarre. As I reflect back on some of the parenting hacks I wrote this year, I realized they, too, were—at times—weird.

Our homes have been through a lot in 2020. From constant sanitizing, to higher energy bills, to all the dirty dishes, we’ve spent so much more time cleaning, maintaining, and improving everything around us. To help with all the time spent at home, here are our best household hacks of 2020—the tips that made cleaning…Read more...

Pandemic or not, people have mixed feelings about celebrating New Year’s Eve. It’s one of those nights when there’s so much pressure to have fun, do something memorable, and “set the tone” for the rest of the year (whatever that means), but sometimes—like right now—a certain year coming to a close is reason enough to…Read more...

New Year’s Eve is usually one of my favorite eves. I get to drink drinks, eat snacks, and dance with my friends, but this year is (obviously) different—no one should be partaking in that last activity (the dancing one), so I’m recommending that everyone go hard with the snacks. This may sound like I’m telling you to…Read more...

Price hikes for streaming TV has become a new holiday tradition, as Netflix, Disney+ and Hulu have increased their subscription prices ahead of 2021. For that reason, year-end is a good time to confirm how much you’re paying for subscriptions, and cancel those that you’re barely using.Read more...

Can you remember the last time you wiped your MacBook and reinstalled everything? I’d guess somewhere around “never,” but there are plenty of reasons you might want to Exterminatus your system, ranging from the serious (a major error with macOS) to the so-so (your system feels sluggish after all the crap you’ve put on…Read more...

Jealousy and envy are two of the most common—yet negative and useless—emotions many of us have. For a long time, I let both of these destructive feelings overwhelm and poison me. Here’s how I finally gained control over them.

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If you have been sexually assaulted, you may know that you can go to a hospital emergency room for a forensic examination, sometimes known as a rape kit, to collect DNA evidence and make sure you receive appropriate care. But not every hospital has people trained to provide this service, so NBC News has compiled a map…Read more...

Dogs who are past their puppy years may be set in their ways—but that doesn’t mean that training them is a lost cause. Whether you adopt or foster an adult dog, depending on their background, socializing them might be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Signs that your dog is not socialized can be over-excitement…Read more...

New Year’s resolutions typically fail when they’re sweepingly ambitious—which can really hurt you when you’re focused on managing your money. Instead, focus on quick, easy-to-manage personal finance tasks that will put you in good shape for 2021—like the ones you’ll find below.Read more...

If you were one of those nerd kids who always found filling in Scantrons satisfying, you’ll love this printable habit tracker. Created by reddit user u/Propelissa, it’s a complete 2021 calendar in fill-in-the-bubble format.Read more...

The stress and upheaval of 2020 has sent all of us searching for different ways to cope. And while there is merit in seeking therapy, or striving to get outside more, or taking up a new hobby, many of have also turned to our devices to help ease the pressure.

I don’t know when it happened, but at some point we—as a society—decided that it was indecent to consume a carbohydrate on or in another carbohydrate. There are some exceptions, such as Taco Bell’s now retired spicy potato soft taco and the UK’s chip butty, but in most circles, carb-on-carb is a fairly rare…Read more...

Some holiday waste can be recycled, but others are actually harmful to the recycling process. For the most part, wrapping paper is recyclable; paper with glitter, foil, or plastics is unfortunately not recyclable and would need to go out with the garbage.Read more...

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the games that saved our sanity in 2020, but not everyone plays it every day. Maybe you found something else to play on your Switch or just got tired of the daily grind—and that’s okay! But you may notice your island looks a bit different when you come back.Read more...

This week’s look at kidz’ pop-culture features an overload of useless web-celebs, a fight over Wonder Woman, and even a talking dog. So dig in—I promise I won’t mention COVID-19 at all! (Except there, where I just did.) Thank Odin the holidays are over and our lives can go back to normal, eh?

If you didn’t get an Instant Pot as a gift this holiday season, it’s probably because you already have one (or you because you don’t cook that much and didn’t ask for one). The tabletop pressure cooker has been quite popular for several years now, which means the internet is full of related recipes, but I’d like to…Read more...

Netflix is currently testing out a special audio-only mode for its mobile apps—Android, specifically. While that’s no guarantee that the ever-so useful feature will see the light of day in a stable release, it’s promising, and if you’re lucky, you can test out the feature right now.Read more...

I wish I had a way of quantifying the sheer volume of LEGO bricks that have taken up residence in my home the past several years. After each and every birthday or holiday, I think to myself that we can’t possibly absorb the weight of one more set. The sets cover my son’s dresser, bookshelf, and LEGO table; they live…Read more...

I received a hand-addressed letter in the mail last week—pretty rare these days. The return address was my church’s, so I assumed Brooklyn’s Unitarians were trying to drum up some end-of-year contributions, but what floated out of the envelope instead was a single sheet of crisply folded typing paper bearing a message…Read more...

In theory, New Year’s resolutions should make your life less stressful, or at least give you a means to address things about your life you’d like to change. In reality, however, a lofty New Year’s resolution can often loom over you, forming a nagging reminder of your supposed failure to reinvent yourself just because…Read more...

Let’s say you used a credit card to buy framed wall art from Urban Outfitters, and it turns out to be a little too store-bought for your spouse’s taste (this may or may not be a true story). What happens to your card’s rewards points if you ask for a refund? Are store credits a better option?Read more...

Working out at home has always been a hack, but this is the year home workouts really shone. We bought the equipment we could, improvised what we couldn’t, and learned how to turn our living room or driveway into the next best thing to a fitness center. Here are our best tips for fitness from this year.Read more...

Whether you’re lazy or in a panicked state because you need to make an Amazon return and you (or someone in your household) threw away your item’s packaging, fret not: You have plenty of options for returning your Amazon purchases, and you might not even need the original shipping box to send an unwanted item back.Read more...

The immersion circulator is no longer the “it girl” she once was. Her status as the most buzzed-about and sought-after appliance has faltered, and some might say she’s been replaced by the Instant Pot and air fryer (even though they do completely different things). But I’d bet more than a few foodies (sorry) received…Read more...

We all want to know who’s lurking on our social media profiles, but the truth is that none of the major social media platforms will let you access this information—not even if you’re a verified user.

There are many things about owning a cat that are easy and stress-free. Cats are solitary creatures, and don’t generally require the same levels of constant attention and emotional support as dogs. They’re wanderers whose nocturnal sleep cycles give them obscene bursts of energy very late at night. They poop in a box…Read more...

If you’re one of the growing number of people choosing to not enroll in college, you might be wondering about alternative options for spending your 529 fund. Can you use 529s for less-expensive trade schools, coding bootcamps, or even to pay down existing student loans? Here’s a look at 529-qualified expenses.Read more...

Earlier this year, my neighbors and I all had some weird quarantine-induced scheme where we decided we would all gift each other gaming chairs. The idea was that we’d all be in lockdown working from home, so we might as well upgrade our chairs with some lumbar support. We kept describing this as a “Gift of the Magi”…Read more...

Whether you have a brand-new Windows laptop or you’re giving your PC a little TLC in the form of a new reinstallation of Windows 10, setting up your operating system correctly is easy. There are a bunch of variables you might not know about, sure, but this isn’t rocket science. It doesn’t take very long to get Windows…Read more...

If you woke up last week and found a drone under your tree (or more likely, in a cardboard box wherever you receive package deliveries) you probably can’t wait to try it out. But unlike other new gadgets, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like drones take a little more effort to get up off the ground. Specifically, you…Read more...

This was a year of many “firsts,” as it seems an isolating pandemic has a way of spurring us on to try new things, to find little glimpses of joy wherever we can. (Remember all that bread we baked in March?) For many families, being stuck at home for the holidays was the perfect excuse to finally buy a real tree to…Read more...

I don’t know about your cat, but mine is all about trash. She loves eating trash. She loves playing with trash. She loves being trash. No matter how many cute, not-cheap cat toys I purchase for her with my hard-earned money, she will always have a preference for bits of refuse that fall to floor. (What does she do if…Read more...

Every year, Jezebel compiles a list of the most inspiring women, femmes, and nonbinary people who have shifted our perspectives over the last 12 months, motivating us to joy and mirth and in some cases activism and cooking.Read more...

Resolutions are overrated, and we all know it. Even if you enjoy making lofty goals for the new year, simply declaring a resolution is not the same as making a plan to get there. But you know what? You don’t have to do that, either. This year, make a resolution that is small and boring as hell.Read more...

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Podcasts used to define my commute. But now that I don’t have a commute anymore, I have to fit them in where I can. This means I have sadly been forced to ditch many of the shows I used to listen to regularly and focus on only the best of them—the ones I simply can’t miss.

Home maintenance is one of those things that’s easy to forget or put off, because many tasks only need to be done once in a while or a few times a year. If you’re not careful, though, you can end up being that house in the neighborhood with the overgrown yard, peeling paint, and a list of expensive, but possibly…Read more...

At a glance, it’s easy to assume that frozen vegetables aren’t as healthy as their fresh counterparts, but that’s not always the case. In fact, frozen vegetables are often just as full of nutrients. In some cases they even retain nutrients better.

We’ve learned a lot this year, don’t you think? We know more about respiratory droplets than we ever cared to know, we have a more thorough understanding of the nuances of our electoral process, and we’ve learned that apparently we can work from home and our kids can learn from home for months on end even if we…Read more...

You can now use Google Assistant for voice searches in Google Chrome on Android, and not a moment too soon. The move saves Chrome users from the lackluster voice recognition you were forced to deal with previously.Read more...

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Though it sounds like some type of superhero—specifically the unlicensed off-brand kind that hangs in Times Square—the “green flash” is actually a real thing that you can see in the sky with your own eyes. And while we know the green flash exists (there is plenty of photographic evidence), it has reached more of a…Read more...

If you’ve found yourself with a few days off for the holidays, and have already caught up on all your shows and your brain is open to looking at things, but not reading reading, we have a suggestion we think you might enjoy. Yes, it’s 70 years’ worth of IKEA catalogues.Read more...

When a car’s heat is working, it can feel glorious on a cold day—thawing you out so efficiently that you might have to take your coat off to keep from overheating. (Just make sure you don’t do that while you’re driving.) And if you’re lucky enough to have heated seats? Basically a trip to the spa. (Although instead of…Read more...