The Latest on Housekeeping

Stop Dryer Fires Before They Start: Your Complete 15-Minute Safety Routine

Difficulty: Novice to Moderate (varies by model) Time: 15-45 minutes per session Cost: $100-$600 depending on power source and features

Difficulty: Novice Time: 5-30 minutes per area Cost: Under $10 using household supplies

How Often Should You Vacuum to Reduce Microplastics? The 2025 Schedule

Difficulty: Novice Time: 10 minutes Cost: ~$5 for materials

Here's a great homemade remedy to fix that pesky scratched CD, DVD, or game disc. Who knows when that old Rush album you found between the couch cushions might come in handy...

What's better? A Star Wars strip show or a steamy-hot Slave Leia car wash?

Whites are the hardest color to keep looking bright and new after just a few months' time. Your sweat and oils quickly become stains, and colors from other clothes will eventually bleed into the fabric, discoloring your bright whites into something merely whitish. But before you reach for the bleach, the ultimate chemical cleaner, try some a few of these safer, less-toxic DIY solutions out instead.

Mealybugs are snowy-colored insects, soft in body. They mostly inhabit warm climates, clinging closely to plants grown indoors and outdoors. With their cotton like soft body, they inject a stylet (long sucking mouthpart) into plants to suck-up the sap from plant tissues. At base level, Mealybugs do seem harmless. However, when an infestation increases in number, the consequences include a weak plant, curling and yellowing of leaves. To elude the effects of an all out attack on plants, here are...

Remove oil stains from fabric. Oil and grease stains in fabric can cause ugly marks. Fortunately, they don't need to be very difficult to get out of your clothes. Oils respond well to most soaps and can often be easily lifted if you catch them in time. First, try dabbing at the stain with some liquid laundry or dish detergent.

Your freezer is no one-trick pony. While it does excel at keeping your food fresh for as long as possible, it has a few secret talents it doesn't want you to know about. Like making soda slushies and pyro-friendly smoke mix, as well as reviving dead hard drives. Even better—it can help you do laundry.

Everyone knows how fantastic olive oil is as a salad dressing. But did you know that this healthy and superbly tasting oil pressed from full-grown olives can be used in so many other ways than flavouring those greens? I will tell you 20 other uses and benefits that can be done with olive oil.

Presented by Apartments.com

Do you need some help with getting rid of little black ants in your bathroom? There are many different species of ants that could be invading this sacred area. Pharaoh ants are the most common type found in bathrooms. Little black Argentine and odorous house ants can also come in from the outside and make a nest in your walls. It is usually helpful to know which species you are dealing with to formulate the proper extermination strategy. However, unless you have an entomologist on speed dial,...

How often do you fight with your shower doors? Maybe not literally (although my elbow has smacked the hard glass many times), but when it's time to clean the bathroom, getting a few weeks' worth of soap scum and grime off the shiny, clear surface becomes an insurmountable task. Whether you use a special cleaner and squeegee or a carefully selected wipe, chances are you still battle the streaks and grit left behind.

Did you know germs can travel pretty far? If you store your toothbrush in the bathroom like almost everyone does, you may need to give it a good wash now and again. In this tutorial, learn how to remove germs from your toothbrush, and stay healthier. This video will show you how to use common, natural household items to clean your brush instead of harmful chemicals.

This post is brought to you by TOMCAT.

Fruit flies are an incredible nuisance, as anyone in any warm climate knows all too well. In this video, with Chef Keith Snow of HarvestEating.com, we learn a simple but effective countermeasure against these aggravating little pests. Most successful, he says, is the use of vinegar.