feature image via shutterstock
Do you have some weird-ass lighting fixtures and you cannot figure out how to change the bulbs in them? Maybe this exhaustive post will help. Unfortunately it does not cover the awful track lighting in my bathroom, the bulbs of which seem designed to bring me pain, but I hope you fare better than me.
Some thoughts on procrastination from Lifehacker.
I am real, real tired of constantly losing socks in the wash and having a growing family of solo socks sitting around in my drawer, so I finally got a smallish mesh laundry bag that zips shut, and now I put all my dirty socks in there and throw the whole bag in the machine when I do laundry. My socks get clean and are contained inside the bag, where they cannot escape or fall in the stairwell as I’m carrying the laundry hamper, never to be seen again. Magic!
A small tip for making your home smell nice in a minimum amount of time is to put a tiny bit of vanilla extract, like maybe a teaspoon, into a coffee mug then put the coffee mug in the oven before turning the oven on to a low heat, like 250. As the vanilla heats up it will get really aromatic in a nice, subtle way; you just have to make sure you remember to turn off the oven.
Here is a tumblr post with a tutorial for making the pockets in women’s jeans larger.
Of the many services Google offers — search! Email! Chat! Phones! — Google Voice, its phone service, sometimes flies under the radar. Which makes sense; you likely already have a phone. It has a few neat tricks, though, which you may be unaware of! The thing I probably use it for most often is that if you set it up associated with your phone number, it can transcribe any voicemails you get and email them to you. The transcription is done by a computer, so isn’t perfect, but is usually enough for me to figure out what the message was and call back without having to open up and listen to my voicemail. It also has more detailed blocking/screening features than your phone likely regularly does; you can block callers with the click of your mouse, set certain numbers to screen so you listen to the voicemail as it’s being left and decide whether you want to pick up, and you can leave different voicemail messages for different numbers, so if you’re on a job search you can leave a formal voicemail prompt for potential employers and a more casual one for friends. Here are a few tips, and here’s a more comprehensive guide.
You have perhaps heard of “4-7-8 breathing,” a breathing technique that claims to relax you and maybe help you fall asleep if you hold the tip of your tongue behind your top teeth and breathe in for four seconds, hold the breath for seven seconds, and breathe out for eight seconds, with your tongue in place the whole time, for a few rounds. Does that work? I don’t really know, I’m not a doctor. What I do know, though, and what is glossed over in most of the headlines about it, is that allegedly for that technique to really be effective (or help you fall asleep in one minute, or whatever the idea is) it has to be practiced every day for at least a month or so. If you’d like an app to help you with that, the best one I’ve found is called Breathe; it will count the breath phases for you, remind you twice a day, and keep track of your streak with practicing.
Some information relevant to all of our interests: the best way to wrap a sandwich.
Wise Senior Editor Yvonne reminded me this week to remind you to clean your glasses. Seriously, if you wear them, they’re almost definitely dirty right now, and cleaning them off will make your day better.
How To Grow the Fuck Up, a great resource which I consult often for this column, posted a job hunting success guide this week. Check it out!
The Kitchn did a seven-day kitchen Spring Refresh; if your kitchen or life generally could use a little refreshing, maybe it is for you.
