Lifehacker

As rewarding as it is to care for a houseplant and watch it change and grow, there’s something special about how a bouquet of fresh flowers brightens a room. And while arrangements of cut flowers are typically given for special occasions, sometimes it’s nice to treat yourself to one with some of your favorite blooms.…Read more...

One of the best parts of traveling is getting to discover new places. Sure, there are the well-known attractions you’ll find at the top of TripAdvisor’s “Things to Do” section, but there is plenty more out there—if you know where to look—and beaches are no exception.

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report says the U.S. added 850,000 jobs in June, and who knows—one of those could be your dream job! Or your dream job could be one that hasn’t been made up yet, but might be, if the decision-makers at the right company only knew about you, your skills, and your goals.Read more...

When people make the switch to reusable straws, it is usually with the best intentions—specifically, cutting down on the amount of landfill garbage they produce everyday. They’re great the first time you use them, but before long, the entire set is sitting at bottom of the sink, and you’re out of clean straws.Read more...

Gaming on the Xbox Series X|S is a hoot and a half, but there is one thing about the console that’s made me want to tear my hair out: It doesn’t let you quickly take screenshots outside of gameplay. If you want to show off your home screen or take a few screenshots of your settings pages, the Xbox just doesn’t make it…Read more...

If your iPhone or iPad is frozen or not recognizing touchscreen inputs, a forced restart may be necessary to get it working again. The force restart method allows you to shut down and reboot the iPhone without using the touchscreen.

With the rise of glamping and other high-end, not-at-all-roughing-it experiences, our concept of camping has changed a lot. But there are some people who genuinely enjoy going through all the hassle of setting up a tent for the night (or a few nights), unrolling a sleeping bag, and sleeping on the ground. If you fall…Read more...

Fully cooked, ready-to-eat chicken may be a convenient way to add some protein to a meal, but if you have any in your fridge right now, you’re going to want to check the label.Read more...

There is a moment (or several moments) in every parent’s life they wish they could take back. It could be as simple as the first time you ever raised your voice and caused your child to cry, the thoughtless thing you said that hurt their feelings, or the preventable accident that resulted in a trip to the emergency…Read more...

Video games offer a wide range of genres and gameplay styles, and there’s probably a game out there for everyone. But despite the variety of experiences, jumping into console or PC gaming can be daunting, especially if you didn’t grow up playing games. Luckily, there are plenty of great video games out there for…Read more...

We recently posted about the many ways aluminum foil is helpful around the house and quickly found that mentioning “tin foil” was scientifically incorrect (and I’m always willing to admit my mistakes). Depending where you’re from, it might be a natural reflex to say “tin foil” when wrapping up leftovers or cooking on…Read more...

Trying out a new credit card is like driving a new car for the first time: In the same way you might adjust the seat and mirrors, locate the emergency brake, or fiddle around with the air conditioner controls, you’ll want to fine-tune the settings for your new card before you start spending. Here’s a checklist of…Read more...

Thanks to a very detailed and helpful explainer that was recently published on this very site, I have started brewing my own kombucha. As a former brewer of beer, I have to say that brewing ‘booch is a much easier, more relaxed endeavor, and the end product does not make me sneeze. (Beer started making me sneeze in my…Read more...

The cosmos is in constant motion, and during the month of July, the movements of celestial bodies are an especially welcome treat for those on the ground. The two planets situated on either side of Earth—Mars and Venus—are poised to drift within a relatively close distance of each other, at least in the grand scheme…Read more...

We don’t know how long protection from the COVID-19 vaccines will last, which has led to speculation that we might all need to get booster shots—perhaps yearly, as with flu shots—to stay protected. Pfizer recently announced they plan to seek FDA authorization soon for a booster dose of their vaccine.Read more...

The garbage disposal may be one of the miracles of modern life, but it’s also a source for foul odors to build up. Once the odors are there, it can be a challenge to get rid of them completely—rather than just covering them up. But a few lemons and limes (plus vinegar) can go a long way—if you keep them on hand and…Read more...

It only took Marvel 20-ish movies to give Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow her own solo film, but that wasn’t her first, nor even her second comic book movie character. We’ve just reached the point where most popular actors will have played at least a few comics-based characters before they retire. But we come here to…Read more...

TikTok is a fantastic place to discover new things to worry about, or new ways to worry about old things. The latest is the “dehydration check,” in which you pinch the skin on your knuckle. If the skin stays wrinkled for a few seconds, that’s (supposedly) your sign to grab a glass of water.Read more...

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.