Lifehacker

Creating a backyard retreat has been essential for many people during the pandemic. Being able to escape outside or even invite a few friends over to more safely socialize has felt more important than ever before—but if your backyard still feels less than hospitable for you or your guests, a few small, inexpensive…Read more...

Sometimes large Zoom calls can get a bit rowdy, especially when children are involved. But Zoom realizes this and, in response, has launched a new “Focus” mode—which disables everyone else’s video feed—to help you maintain control over large or especially fidgety groups.

Status messages are one early internet quirk that didn’t really keep up with the times, even though they totally should. They’re fun, but they’re also informative, allowing you to let your contact list know what you’re up to, and why you really can’t respond to every message right now, Dave. Thankfully, Google is…Read more...

Fannie Mae will include rent-payment history as part of their underwriting process, making it easier for borrowers to qualify for mortgages—starting Sept. 18. With the rule change, 17% of borrowers who were previously rejected would now be approved, based on their rental history alone. Here’s a look at how you might…Read more...

Air-fried hard-boiled eggs are a pedant’s nightmare. They are neither fried nor boiled, and yet it would be very hard to pick them out of hard-boiled egg lineup as the thing that is “not like the others.” They are, for all intents and purposes, a hard-boiled egg, and you can make them in your air fryer (which, again,…Read more...

With many parts of the country experiencing uncomfortably high levels of humidity, you may have noticed the impact both outdoors and indoors. Sure, having the air conditioning on, or a dehumidifier running helps, but not everyone has access to those options.Read more...

Sunscreen is a summertime necessity, but sometimes it can end up on places other than your skin. Whether you squeeze the bottle too hard—resulting in lotion exploding all over your favorite carpet—or someone in your household sits down on the couch covered in a fresh coat of head-to-toe sunblock, sunscreen stains can…Read more...

Hot tubs are great when it’s chilly out, but when the outdoor temperatures and humidity begin to rise, stewing in bubbling hot water may not seem very appealing. Fortunately, there’s something you can do about that. In an article for Hunker, Michelle Miley explains how to cool and then maintain your chilled hot…Read more...

In a perfect world, we’d decide who—and what—we share our home with. Unfortunately, real life doesn’t always play out like that, and it’s entirely possible that we’ll end up with some unwelcome roommates from time-to-time.Read more...

Whether you usually wash your car (or SUV, truck, van, etc) at home yourself, or take it to a carwash, you probably don’t get around to doing it as often as you’d like. A DIY wash job saves money, but not necessarily time—especially when you factor in all the hosing.Read more...

Let’s say you’re out for a late summer stroll, and you come across a patch of familiar-looking flowers with long, thin stems and tiny white flowers that grow together in round bunches. They appear to be Queen Anne’s lace—a flowering plant you’ve seen in floral arrangements and may have made crowns out of as a child.Read more...

So, you and your partner have decided to have kids. (Or maybe you didn’t “decide” so much as you felt nauseous for days before figuring it out.) Either way, congrats and welcome to a different stage of adulthood, when your life takes a backseat to the needs of a tiny, ever-sharting baby without neck strength or bowel…Read more...

We might not realize it, but many of the words and phrases we use throughout the day can casually disparage others. Plenty of our idioms and common clichés of speech could accurately be described as ableist, or discriminatory against people with disabilities. Some of these phrases have become less common as more…Read more...

You might recognize her from a brief cameo appearance on ABC’s The Goldbergs earlier this year (in which she plays herself), but Nancy Glass is more than an on-camera host. Across decades in the media business—weathering the seismic changes in how organizations make money and stay relevant—Glass has done it all: She…Read more...

To clear your head and get some easy exercise, the only thing that beats walking is getting out on the water. I’m lucky to live close enough to a lake that I can go for a sunset kayak a few days each week, where I watch birds and sometimes just bring a snack, drop an anchor, and float for a little bit.

In his popular—albeit questionable and somewhat callow—1980 novel Still Life With Woodpecker, Tom Robbins prescribes the following three ways one can employ to Make Love Stay:

Not to go all “we live in a society” on you, but modern American culture promotes two main goals: Get married and get money…lots of money. From there, you might move on to secondary, related goals like having kids and buying a house. And though a successful career can buy you that nice house, help you afford those…Read more...

Most of the time, you’re probably skimming the web instead of actually reading it. And that’s okay for quick news updates and browsing social media. But when you’ve opened up a long article that you actually want to read, things start to get difficult.

I moved into my home in the winter, when the yard was freshly sodded and a few decorative shrub-like plants dotted the perimeters of my yard. Owning a house in the winter is different than owning a house in the spring—things grow in the spring, and a lot grew around my house. Once the weather warmed, I was delighted…Read more...

Staying fit during and after pregnancy is an important part of that whole “giving birth” thing. Regular exercise during pregnancy can help reduce the risk of gestational diabetes as well as the potential you’ll need a C-section, while also mitigating some of the more uncomfortable aspects of growing a tiny human, such…Read more...

Just like the hidden symbols on an iPhone’s keyboard, there are plenty of useful keys buried under one long-press on your Android. Before we share these tips, it’s good to clarify that these hidden symbols can be accessed using Google’s own Gboard keyboard app, the default keyboard for the Google Pixel lineup and…Read more...

When you land a good job, you feel grown up and self-assured. When your boss turns out to be one of those, constantly checking on you and monitoring your work, you can easily feel like a child.Read more...

There’s some new foolishness in the wind, you might not be surprised to learn, in the form of a, er, viral meme suggesting it was a vaccination program gone awry that created the “zombies” in the film I Am Legend. This is, apparently, a reason to be cautious of the real-life COVID vaccines.Read more...

This week is all about forbidden knowledge, so read on for a look inside the hidden worlds of YouTube celebrity, superhero sexuality, fast-food fries, and the White House itself.Read more...

Headspace and Calm are the juggernauts in the meditation apps sphere. They have done a great job bringing mindfulness-based meditation to the masses. Their apps make it easier for anyone to pick up the skills to help relax, and even deal with issues like anxiety and depression.

Given the volume of things we forget to clean around the house, we probably aren’t paying enough attention to our appliance filters either. An unchanged filter can reduce indoor air quality, stop a vacuum from sucking up dirt, and sabotage a dishwasher from cleaning our dishes. Here are the filters you should be…Read more...

When you install a beta on your device, you’re gaining access to new features and changes before almost everyone else on the platform. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and most other tech companies keep an open beta for their users to opt into if desired. But installing a beta on your phone, laptop, or tablet isn’t…Read more...

A dedicated web browser app is one of the few PlayStation 4 features Sony did not carry over to the PlayStation 5—at least, not officially.

I was in a sales call once and, at a pivotal moment, a senior salesperson asked the client if our service fit their needs. There was only silence on the other end of the line. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. Nothing. Maybe the client didn’t hear the question? Four Mississippi. Five Mississippi.

If you want to lift weights, walking into the gym (or moseying over to your dumbbells at home) is a good start. But if you want to get stronger over time, you need to give it a bit more thought than that. And that’s why you need a weightlifting program.

Keeping your yard healthy is especially hard when an unexpected plant is beating it for resources. Many invasive plants need little to no light, and don’t mind too much sun either. They’re adaptable, which is why they spread so easily through your yard, moving so fast that it seems next to impossible to stop them.Read more...

There are other universes that exist alongside ours, and the people in them also really like TV. Entertainment options can seem endless as it is; now multiply that by infinite parallel worlds and you’ll understand the daunting task of keeping up with all the maybe shows and could-be movies.

In America’s “linear economy,” one where products are designed to be used once before being discarded, getting to “zero-waste” is nearly impossible without dedicating your life to the cause. It’s an especially tricky proposition for busy parents who don’t have time to make bespoke yogurt for picky children who will…Read more...

Despite our nation’s confusing, confusingly slow embrace of legal cannabis, recreational weed use has been a thing for millennia. While once it grew wild in parking lots in New York City, it now costs a pretty penny—especially when laced with all the taxes legal sales add in—so searching for ways to enhance the…Read more...

Before you commit to a mortgage, consider the 28/36 rule to make sure you’re not getting in over your head. How does the rule work? It’s a common-sense way of measuring your debt load before you apply, and most lenders already use it to approve loans, so you might as well run the numbers to see how you stack up.…Read more...

Andre Rush, also known as the Ripped Chef, doesn’t blend easily into a crowd. A military veteran who has worked as a White House chef though four presidential administrations, Rush first captured our attention in 2018, when a photo of him working at the White House went viral. Everyone wanted to know: Who was the chef…Read more...

The COVID vaccines have always been an option for anyone who is pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, as well as those who are breastfeeding. But at first, data was lacking, and pregnant people were kind of on their own to make a decision whether to get the shot or not. Now, multiple studies make it clear the…Read more...

When you’ve been with your partner long enough that marriage is on the table, you might think you know everything there is to know about them. Chances are, though, you might not. You may know their favorite music and political views, but do you know how they feel about dividing domestic chores? What exactly counts as…Read more...

If you misplace your Android phone, there are a few things you can quickly do to locate it, so take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and follow these steps as we show you how to find your lost Android.

As a new owner of a fine leather sofa, I am constantly worried about keeping it in pristine condition. Should I sit on it? What if I spill something? How can I keep it from flaking? So, here are the tips I’ve learned to take care of leather that would make Tobias Fünke proud.Read more...

I’ve heard fall is coming, though I must say it does not feel like it. (The high here today is supposed to be 106℉! In Portland, Oregon!) This shift in seasons means a shift in food content, and I’ve already seen a couple of articles and ads promoting “moving your grilling indoors” with a grill pan. Don’t do it. Grill…Read more...

We all have accounts we no longer use, but some apps and websites make deleting your profile a pain. In those cases, simply ignoring them is an easier option. However, unused accounts are a major security threat—all it takes is one successful data break or credential-stuffing attack to potentially compromise your…Read more...

During stressful times, people tend to react in one of two ways: Either by over-functioning, and kicking into high gear to solve all of the problems; or by under-functioning, and freezing up to the point they can’t handle what is going on. Neither of these responses is ideal, as an over-functioner is prone to burnout,…Read more...

TikTok is flooded with cleaning hacks, but not all of them are tried and true. One viral hack, for example, is about boiling your wooden spoons to keep them clean...but you really shouldn’t bother. Here’s why you shouldn’t boil your wooden spoons.

People can go to great lengths to avoid speaking with each other. On the train, in a museum, or waiting in line at the grocery store, we often retreat inward, keeping our faces buried in books or screens. As a result, many people tend to drift through their solitary days unaware of the benefits that random—and even…Read more...

Making iPhones and Android devices work together isn’t quite the challenge it used to be, but it can still be frustrating. Apple’s ecosystem is locked; FaceTime, iMessage, and weird file formats make iPhone-to-iPhone communication a breeze, and iPhone-to-Android communication a chore. That said, it doesn’t always have…Read more...

Due to compound interest over time, a dollar saved in your early twenties is worth $10 at retirement. Therefore, with consistent saving early in adulthood, it’s more than possible to become a millionaire when you retire, even if you make an average salary. Here’s a look at how to make it happen.Read more...

The microwave is a useful little appliance that you can make many fine things with, including lemon curd, mashed potatoes, prosciutto crisps, or an entire croquembouche. You can also use it to cook a wide variety of eggs, but some styles turn out a little better than others.Read more...

Ultra-short exercise protocols tend to have a life cycle like this: First, a researcher comes up with a question to which an unbelievably short workout might be an answer. Then, they do a study that shows people improved some aspect of fitness while doing it. Next, the New York Times writes about it. And last of all,…Read more...

Housekeepers and pro cleaners know the best tricks when it comes to cleaning hard-to-reach places, and sometimes they use platforms like TikTok to help the rest of us. But the best hacks get mixed in with a lot of bad ones that don’t actually work, so we sorted through and found some of our favorites. Here are some of…Read more...