If you're ever paranoid about locking yourself out of your house, the worst thing you can do is to hide your spare key in an obvious spot, like under the doormat, under a planter, or anywhere near the front door.
If your newly purchased shoes are feeling too tight, you can use a hair dryer to add more wiggle room for your feet. Simply wear your shoes with socks, and then direct the warm currents of a hair dryer at your feet, focusing on the areas that feel pinched.
If you always carry earbuds with you in your purse or backpack, you can use simple household objects to prevent the cords from tangling up into knots.
Rice water refers to the cloudy water that is leftover after washing rice in a bowl, or the excess water drained from a pot used for cooking rice in boiling water. Whichever method you prefer, rice water can be saved in a separate container once cooled, then used for a number of beauty, health, and home uses.
On days when it's too hot to even drive to the convenience store in an air-conditioned car to get an iced Slurpee, it's better to stay indoors and make your own summer Slurpee at home.
Tin cans have resin linings that contain bisphenol-A (BPA), which has been linked in animal lab testings to a number of ailments that include reproductive problems, heart disease, and obesity. Tomatoes are high in acidity, which means that the content of canned tomatoes eats away at the resin lining, which causes BPA to leach into what you eat. Long story short: avoid canned tomatoes at all costs.
While it is common sense to toss empty water bottles into the recycle bin, most people do not know that it is also important to remove the plastic bottle cap before recycling. Plastic bottle caps and plastic bottles are made up of different plastics, and the plastic found in bottle caps are not as useful for recycling centers as the plastic found in bottles.
Clove oil, an essential oil extracted from the clove plant found in India, is truly an essential addition to your medicine cabinet and home. One of its most popular uses is for relieving a toothache, which can be done by adding a few drops of clove oil to a cotton ball and applying it directly to the affected area.
While it is convenient to buy avocados from the local supermarket, you can also start investing in the long-term goal of having free avocados coming from your own backyard by growing an avocado tree straight from the pit.
If you are like most people and spend most of your day hunched over a computer, you may be experiencing soreness and pain in your neck muscles. Before you schedule an appointment with a chiropractor or massage therapist, try some of the DIY home remedies below to alleviate the pain.
Whether you want to prevent your cat from scratching up the couch or deter stray cats from using your front yard as their personal litter box, a DIY cat repellent spray can go a long way in keeping unwanted furry guests away.
High blood pressure (hypertension) is a common medical condition that can eventually cause serious health problems such as heart disease, kidney failure, vision problems, stroke, heart attack, and more.
While you can go to the doctor to have an unsightly mole professionally removed, there is a good chance that a DIY home remedy can reduce or completely eliminate the appearance of your mole using items found in your kitchen or medicine cabinet for a much cheaper price.
Whether you want to avoid the cliche of expressing love through red roses or simply want to engage in a fun and simple DIY experiment, making your own rainbow roses using white roses and food coloring is a very simple project that will result in beautiful and unique floral eye candy in a matter of days.
To prevent mosquitos from bombing your next outdoor summer party, make your own DIY citronella candles using soy wax, glass mason jars, citronella oil, candle wicks, and a little superglue.
If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation of nursing a painful toothache, you can easily find many DIY home remedies in your kitchen or medicine cabinet before your next scheduled dentist appointment.
If you can't stand the idea of using multiple pots and pans for preparing meals because of all the dishwashing that would be required, check out the one-pot recipes below that require minimal cooking equipment and use only five ingredients or less (excluding cooking oil, water, salt, and pepper).
Add new life to your old light bulbs by transforming them into a DIY light bulb aquarium. Using needle-nose pliers, a screwdriver, and a small hammer, you can remove the copper connector and other inner components from the light bulb to create a clear opening from the stem to within the bulb.
While many of us have general fears and anxieties about public speaking or sitting in a plane during a turbulent flight, having a full-blown phobia for a specific object or situation can be detrimental to your career, relationships, social life, or day-to-day well-being.
If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation of dropping greasy strips of bacon onto your pants, you can remedy the oil stain right away with a paper towel and blue Dawn dishwashing soap.
Detoxing with natural drinks made out of organic fruits, vegetables, and spices is a great way to help your body eliminate toxins and absorb vital nutrients that will help you feel healthier and more energized throughout the day. Making them yourself at home will save you both a trip to your local health smoothie bar and money in your wallet.
If you suspect that you have some sort of food sensitivity or allergy that is giving your body negative symptoms (such as skin breakouts) or bringing down your overall well-being, you should, try going on an elimination diet.
Need a remedy for your sore muscles after going the gym? Rather than spending money on expensive warming rubs, you can whip up your own DIY, all-natural warming rub concoction in the comfort of your own kitchen using a double boiler, olive oil, beeswax, and various spices.
With summer officially starting in less than two weeks, now might be a good time to brush up on your sunglasses game. Specifically, what is the best style of sunglasses for your unique face shape?
Commonly associated with cleaning and disinfecting items around the home, bleach can also be used as a water sterilization method in an emergency situation when you do not have access to clean, running water. Simply add 6 drops of bleach to a gallon of water and wait for 30 minutes before drinking.
Hosting your friends or traveling family members for an overnight stay may as straightforward as providing a bed or a spare couch for them to sleep on. But to be a truly hospitable host, prepare and plan ahead with the tips below to make your guests feel extra-comfortable in your living space.
Whether you are camping for the first time or you find yourself stranded somewhere due to a natural disaster or zombie apocalypse, it is important to know how to purify water in the wild if you don't have immediate access to store-bought water bottles.
Besides your car insurance information and a spare tire, what are some other essential items you should always keep inside your vehicle?
With tick-borne diseases on the rise, it is especially important to protect yourself from the prevalence of ticks in the outdoors, especially if you live in a high-risk region like New England, the mid-Atlantic states, and the upper Midwest.
Have you ever put together a basic survival kit for your home in case of an earthquake or natural disaster? If not, you should, because you'll want to be prepared should the worst happen.
Want to mix up the flavor profile of the food you are feeding your dog? Show your pooch some extra love with homemade dog treats recipes that are healthy, organic, and do not use any weird, overly processed chemicals in the ingredients.
While medical exam gloves are commonly associated with hospitals and not the kitchen, they actually are unexpectedly useful for a number of cooking and cleaning uses that require handling extremely messy things.
Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the United States, and how much or how little you properly consume iron on a daily basis can be the difference between feeling constantly tired or feeling like you are energized enough to seize the day.
While crockpots are commonly used for making soups and stews or for slow-cooking meats, they are also surprisingly useful for making other foods that you may not associate with a slow cooker, such as brownies, bread, cheesecake, fruit butters, and even yogurt.
Castile soap is named for Castile, Spain, and is traditionally made from locally produced olive oil from the region. In current times, Castile soap refers to a category of soap that is made from 100 percent plant-based oils and does not include chemical detergents, making it a completely natural, biodegradable, and environmental-friendly product.
Metabolism is the process by which your physical body converts what you eat and drink into energy that your body needs to function.
Need to heal your unsightly acne scars? For a quick and easy treatment, dab a little vitamin E gel onto affected area overnight daily until scars begin to fade. You can also use lemon juice, baking soda, aloe vera, and apple cider vinegar with honey.
If you ever want to try rebooting your car batteries before calling a towing service, make a solution out of 1 ounce of epsom salt dissolved in warm water, and apply the solution to the battery cell before starting your car.
Did you know that one of the most germ-infested items in your home is probably your kitchen sponge? It is full of bacteria and germs that thrive in dark, moist places. To ensure that your sponge is at its maximum cleaning potential, not simply a breeding ground for more germs, zap it in the microwave for two minutes or simply toss it in the dishwasher with your next load of dirty dishes.
Whether you need very temporary skin art for a costume or simply want to test-run a potential tattoo design before it gets permanent, making your own temporary tattoo only requires wax paper, a printout or drawing of your desired design, black eyeliner, rubbing alcohol, baby powder, liquid bandage, and a lot of patience.
