If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate predicament of being stranded outdoors in the snow, don't eat snow off the ground. Eating solid snow will sap your body of precious internal heat (since the heat will be used to melt the consumed ice), so it is best to melt the snow completely before drinking to stay hydrated.
Want to wrap your Christmas gifts in a memorable way? Give your gift recipient a DIY super-secret book safe, and while you are at it, hide a small gift inside the the secret safe. Or, if you plan on giving a gift card, create a snow globe out of a mason jar and water and glitter, and insert the gift card at the bottom of the jar so that it is held upright by superglue.
It may sound complicated, but making your own flavor-infused vodka is effortlessly easy with delicious results, and it makes for a great last-minute holiday gift. All you need are some fresh fruit and herbs, a quart-sized mason jar, a bottle of vodka (make sure it isn't the super-cheap kind), and a few days of waiting time.
Need to bike around in cold weather to get to places? Winterize your bike by adding plastic zip ties around your tires to add more traction when you are biking through ice and snow.
Just like it's hard to fall asleep when it's too hot in bed, it's difficult for some to fall asleep when it's really cold. Avoid this unpleasant scenario by investing in a heated mattress pad so that by the time you are ready to check out for bedtime, your bed and blankets are already toasty.
Are you expecting a lot of guests for an upcoming holiday party? To make your home smell like the holiday season, simmer orange peels, cinnamon sticks, cranberries, and cloves with water on a stovetop for several hours to make your indoor space smell really good.
Over time, it is easy to accumulate a bunch of empty pill bottles once you are done with your prescription medications. Other than storing small objects such as parking meter quarters, matches, flossers, toothpicks, and small arts and crafts supplies, what are some other unexpected ways to use an empty pill bottle?
Gift-giving to your loved ones shouldn't be too time-consuming or strain your savings. Immortalize your special Instagram moments with family and friends by turning them into refrigerator magnets.
This holiday season, get yourself a bunch of mason jars. With a little crafty effort and inexpensive supplies, you can transform an empty glass jar into an endless possibility of DIY gifts catered to your gift recipient's personality and interests.
If you're tired of using the same old ornaments on your Christmas tree year after year, then it's time to experiment with borax snowflakes. It's not only a fun decoration to make, it's a great science project to try out with family and friends. All you need for to make DIY crystal snowflakes at home are pipe cleaners, borax, a wide-mouth jar, string, a pencil, and boiling water.
Other than the expected task of removing lint from clothing, lint rollers are a great tool to have around the house for a wide variety of cleaning and non-cleaning uses.
Eczema, which affects about 35 million adults living in the United States, is a chronic allergic condition in which the skin develops extremely itchy, scaly rashes and most commonly occurs on the face, scalp, inside of elbows, knees, ankles and hands.
Do you get tired easily in the mid-afternoon? Though it may seem tempting to get a quick fix in the form of an energy drink or a sugary snack from the vending machine, preventing an energy slump from occurring in the first place starts with a full night of quality sleep and a healthy breakfast in the morning.
If you are like most people, you will probably be traveling a lot over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. While holiday air travel is hardly the most fun or relaxing activity in the world, you can prepare yourself with the following tips and strategies to make long flights as bearable and comfortable as possible.
Need to keep your favorite feline entertained at home? Using common household items lying around your bathroom or kitchen, you can craft together DIY cat toys that cost nothing to make and will provide endless entertainment for your favorite cat.
Got chapped lips? If you don't have any chapstick, you can use a variety of household or kitchen items to alleviate dry, flaky lips. Simply apply castor oil, almond oil, mango butter, beeswax, or milk cream onto lips as needed.
Feeling the winter blues? While it is common to experience a little bit of a letdown when the daylight hours get shorter in the fall and winter months, for some people it becomes a persistent depression that lasts for days, with symptoms that include fatigue, crying spells, body aches, irritability, loss of interest in activities, and more.
With the abundance of colorful fall leaves in the autumn season, it would be a shame not to do something about it before it all disappears into the dead of winter.
In addition to turning boring sheets of cookie dough into fun and whimsical shapes, cookie cutters can be used to make fruits, vegetables, cheeses, sandwiches, and popsicles look more interesting, to name just a few.
Probiotics are microorganisms in the form of bacteria or yeast that live in your gut and help your body absorb beneficial vitamins and minerals. When consumed live, they help boost your immune system and maintain your overall body health.
Now that it's easier than ever to take pictures using a digital camera or smartphone, more people should brush up on basic composition tips for taking a good photograph.
Are you bored of draping a scarf around your neck in a single loop like everybody else? Tie both ends of a long scarf to form a large loop, then loop the scarf around your neck twice to create a DIY infinity scarf.
An emotional vampire is somebody who sucks the positive energy out of your life, in turn leaving you feeling drained afterwards. They can come in the form of a family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor. Unlike real vampires who are out of sight during the daytime, emotional vampires can come into your life at any hour of the day to ruin your mood and undermine the parts of your life that make you you.
You don't have to be a body language expert to know when a person is displeased or uninterested, even if the person is smiling and nodding at everything you're saying. Subtle clues like slight downward grimaces in the lips or hunched shoulders are immediate giveaways of a person's current mood or intent.
Using copper pennies (be sure they are older than 1983), lemon juice, paper towels and sandpaper, you can construct your own DIY battery that generates enough juice to light up an LED.
Are you tempted to splurge over your budget on an expensive restaurant meal or cool new jacket? Before you make an impulse purchase, imagine how much that indulgence costs in terms of hours of work based on your current salary.
You may be surprised to know that the wildly popular and seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks actually does not contain any pumpkin in its ingredients. That, and making your own pumpkin spice latte at home is actually not very difficult at all.
Are your paper clips, pushpins, and other metallic objects always in a disarray on your work desk or drawer? To organize them more efficiently and in a visually cool way, paint over medium-sized rocks with magnetic paint and then use its magnetic surface to keep clips and other metallic items in place.
Instant ramen noodles are hardly gourmet dining, but with a little extra time, effort, and ingredients, this humble staple of college dormitory dining can be elevated at least a little bit to resemble a more hearty and appetizing meal.
While making your own cup of tea may seem as simple as adding a tea bag to a mug of boiling water, the best flavor for every tea type requires a specific temperature point for the hot water and a specific time frame for steeping the tea before removing it.
With all the kitchen sink debris that goes down the drain, it should be no surprise that your garbage disposal sometimes gets a little smelly and needs some extra cleaning. Using common household items from your kitchen or medicine cabinet, you can easily clean your garbage disposal in ten minutes or less using one of the following six DIY methods listed below.
Feet sore after a long day? Treat your feet to a DIY massage by rolling tennis balls under the soles of your feet for about ten to twenty minutes. If your feet are still feeling beat (and smell a little bad), you can also indulge your feet in a foot soak using common household ingredients such as tea bags, Epsom salt, and apple cider vinegar.
If your smile is looking less pearly white than usual, rub the inside of a banana peel on your teeth every morning before you brush your teeth on a daily basis to brighten them to a whiter spectrum.
Though summer is almost over, that doesn't mean you should ever be lax when it comes to protecting your skin from sun overexposure. However, should you find yourself with red and burning skin after a last-minute weekend trip to the beach, listed below are 9 simple and cheap home remedies for relieving symptoms of sunburn.
Originally discovered in dry lake beds in Tibet, borax is a mineral and a salt of boric acid, and is usually sold in white powder form in drugstores. Like baking soda, borax has many household cleaning uses, and can also be used to get rid of insects and pests from your living space.
If you wake up in the middle of the night, avoid reaching for your laptop to check emails, or your TV remote to catch a few late-night shows. Instead, keep the light in your bedroom dim and do something relaxing like de-stressing breathing exercises, meditation, light yoga, or going to another room and solving a jigsaw puzzle or listening to relaxing music.
While breathing is a simple and automatic physical act we take for granted every moment of our lives, consciously breathing in a particular way for five to ten minutes can greatly reduce your stress, clear your head, and bring more energy to your body. Think of it as meditation through breathing.
In addition to unclogging your toilet using common household items, you can also clean and disinfect your toilet for cheap without ever having to use expensive and chemically-toxic toilet cleaners ever again.
Turmeric, the vibrant yellow spice commonly used in Southeast Asian cooking, can also be used outside of the kitchen to disinfect wounds, relieve burns, add an extra golden glow to facial moisturizer, and more.
Commonly found in the medicine aisle in grocery stores near the bandages, hydrogen peroxide is best known for disinfecting wounds, but it's also extremely useful for a number of cleaning and health uses, such as removing sweat and blood stains from clothes, disinfecting cutting boards, removing bacteria from your produce before consumption, and more.
