Hot MacGyverisms Posts
How To: Fix the Worn Out Heel Linings in Your Ragged Shoes & Sneakers—MacGyver Style!
The worst thing about running shoes is that they're expensive, but you're supposed to abuse them. Even if you're not a runner, everyday wear and tear takes its toll. No matter how well you take care of them, if you use them enough, they're eventually going to wind up looking like this: And it's not just running shoes. I have a pair of Vans that I've worn for almost four years, and the heels are just about ripped all the way through.
How To: Silence Your Obnoxiously Squeaky Bed with 4 Easy MacGyver Style Fixes
Any living creature will die if deprived of sleep for long enough. The longest documented occurrence of a person not fully sleeping and surviving is only 11 days. There is a rare disease where deep sleep is never achieved, affecting roughly 100 people worldwide. Patients usually only survive between 6 to 18 months after the onset of chronic insomnia, and only 3 to 9 months in a parasomnia state without any real REM sleep.
How To: Make a Homemade Bee & Wasp Trap (Kill or No-Kill)
Bees are the key to pollination and healthy vegetation, and wasps may help by assisting in pest control, but despite their benefits in the world, they're still a real pain in the ass if they're in your face.
How To: Make Sticky or Stubborn Wooden Drawers Slide More Smoothly
When I was moving into my current apartment, I had to store some of my things in my ex-roommate's garage for over a month while I was getting settled. One of those things was my dresser. Upon moving it into my new place, I realized something was horribly, horribly wrong—none of the drawers seemed to fit quite right anymore (if they fit at all). The combination of the differences in temperature and humidity in the garage caused them to swell and change shape. Several months later, they fit bet...
How To: 7 Ways to Make Your Own Cold Packs at Home
Having a store-bought cold pack on the ready is the perfect solution for minor bumps, bruises, sprains, and strains, but why spend money on bright blue ice packs when you can make your own right at home?
How To: Recycle an Empty Wipes Canister into a Neat & Tidy Plastic Bag Dispenser
Plastic bags may be banned from retail stores in some cities, like Santa Monica, Seattle, and San Fransisco, and will be banned in Los Angeles shortly, but we still use billions of them every year. What else are we going to use for throwing away cat litter or picking up dog poop?
How To: 5 Clever Ways to Make a Simple No-Kill Trap for Mice & Rats
Once when I was a kid, my dad used a glue trap to catch a mouse in our basement. The result was so awful for the mouse that my mom and I made him promise to never use that kind of trap again. Call me a softy, but I'm a firm believer that you don't have to kill pests to get rid of them.
How To: Build a $20 Super Antenna for Better Signal Strength & More Free Broadcast TV Channels
If you've recently joined the ever-growing ranks of the cable cutters, you're far from alone. More and more people (myself included) are getting fed up with service providers' outdated subscription models and absurd pricing—and canceling their service.
How To: Remove Scratches & Scuff Marks in Your Car's Paint Job with Toothpaste
Whether you drive a new or used car, discovering a new dent, scratch, or scuff mark can send you into a frustration spiral. While there are many DIY ways to deal with dents, scratches and scuff marks are trickier because using the wrong stuff could make your car's paint job look even worse.
How To: If You've Run Out of Shaving Cream, Give These 10 Household Items a Try
Running out of any shower necessity is just a temporary annoyance, but it always seems worse when it's an empty can of shaving cream or gel. Sure, you could dry shave or use whatever liquid toiletry item is in hands reach, but if you want a truly smooth shave without irritation, you'll want to try one of the following alternatives. Some of them might even work better than your can of Barbasol or Skintimate.
How To: Dry Your Soaking Wet Shoes Faster — Without Shrinking Them in the Dryer
Wet shoes are uncomfortable, no one can deny that. Just think about walking around with soaking wet footwear ... and each squishy step you take. Makes you cringe, doesn't it? It can happen in heavy rain, at the beach, or from an unforeseen puddle on the street. And while you can't always avoid soggy shoes, you can rest easy knowing that the next time this happens to you, you know the secret trick to drying your shoes faster without damaging them with excessive heat.
How To: Inflate Any Ball Without a Pump or Needle
What happens when you find your ball deflated and there's no pump or needle in sight? You could always cancel your plans of kicking around the soccer ball or starting that pickup football game in the park. Better yet, you could be terribly clever and find another way to get air into the ball. From a pen to a balloon to a gas station, there are ways to inflate it.
DIY Gets Sexy: 3 Simple Concoctions for Making Your Own (All Natural) Lube
While a big brain and confident craftsmanship have always been attractive qualities, today I'm going to show you the sexiest DIY project I've ever used ingredients for.
How To: 8 Easy Ways to Remove Cigarette Smoke Smells from Your Car
The lingering smell of cigarette smoke can bother just about anyone, including smokers themselves. Unfortunately, it can be quite difficult to mask or completely get rid of the smell altogether. While you can go through extremes like washing and even repainting the walls in your home, those options don't exist when the odor is in your car.
How To: Make Long-Lasting, Wax-Free Candles for Your Home
Scented candles tend to magically turn a house into a home. The light flicker of the flame gives a relaxed or romantic tone to the atmosphere, and keeps the space smelling fragrant for hours. The only problem? Wax melts, and the candle becomes worthless after the wax is all gone. So how do you keep the flame going for more than a few hours? Simple, just remove the problematic ingredient—don't use wax!
How To: Turn Your Charcoal Grill into a Tandoori Oven Using a Flowerpot
Indian food is amazing. One of the things that makes it so great and exotic is the cooking methods used. Among the best of these methods is the use of the tandoori oven, a cylindrical oven used to primarily cook skewered meat and various flatbreads with heats upwards of 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Regrettably, such heat and taste is hard to replicate in the average home kitchen.
How To: Build a Low-Cost Shoe Rack Using PVC Pipes
I actually have a lot of shoes, and putting them on the floor in my closet just makes for a very large mess, and makes it harder to find a matching pair. So, this simple yet cool DIY shoe storage is actually something I could benefit from doing. This project shouldn't be too difficult to complete. You can get PVC pipe from your local hardware store and either have them cut it, or you can do it at home if you have a table saw. You can also opt to buy concrete forming tubes, which may be a litt...
How To: Turn Your Smokes into an iPad Stylus, Plus 4 More Super Simple DIY Styli
Fingers are very useful for many things in life—but fingers get dirty. With most smartphone and tablets using touchscreen technology, our fingers have become our greatest technological asset. But if you want to keep your phone or tablet from looking like this: Then you can try some of these awesome and easy DIY styluses.
How To: Make a Tiki Torch from a Bottle of Jack Daniels
There are tons of ways to make simple DIY lamps out of things you have lying around at home. If you've got an empty container, (even an orange or tuna can), there's probably a way to upcycle it into a lamp of some sort, and they can come in handy if you ever lose power.
How To: Make an Elegant No-Gas, No-Electricity Heater for the Winter
The weather outside might be frightful, but heating bills are downright scary this time of year. Heat is absolutely essential during the winter season, but it's also really expensive. If you aren't blessed with a fireplace or unlimited disposable income, fear not, because you can still heat your home on the cheap using flower pots and tea lights—even if the power goes out.
How To: This Hack Makes It Easy to Inflate an Air Mattress Without a Pump
Air mattresses are great when you have guests sleeping over or want to camp in total comfort, but air mattress pumps are a different story. An electric one is loud and doesn't do much good at the campsite, while a manual one is easily broken or forgotten about. Luckily, there is an alternative to inflating an air mattress using your own breath, and it's easy.
How To: Ceiling Fan Not Cooling? It Might Be Spinning Backwards
Sometimes, ceiling fans just don't cut it. They spin meekly, barely generating any air flow to cool down your sweltering room. Or, when turned up high, they can wobble wildly, shaking and vibrating as if the ceiling is about to come crashing down. If this sounds like your ceiling fan, chances are the solution is a simple as flipping a switch.
How To: Make a 40 Watt Electrical Generator from Common Household Items
There's no charge for this electricity! All you'll need for this project is... Now, watch and learn how to make your own emergency power if you find yourself in a bind.
How To: Fix Your Broken Vertical Blind Slats MacGyver-Style
Most of you probably have a set of blinds at home, the most popular being horizontal or vertical. They're great for keeping the sun out of your eyes and maintaining privacy, but unfortunately, each comes with its own set of problems.
How To: Use Vinegar & Baking Soda to Fluff Up Worn-Out Bath Towels
It feels great to wrap up in a big, fluffy towel after a steamy shower, but it's frustrating when that towel isn't quite up to the job. Over time, towels lose their ability to hold water and dry as needed thanks to daily use and the biggest culprit—laundry detergent.
How To: 3 Easy In-Flight Hacks for Hands-Free Movie Watching on Your Smartphone or Tablet
The closest I've ever been to first class was when I was a young kid running up and down the aisles on a long international flight. I remember being in awe of how big the seats were and how much food was available. Ever since that moment, I've made it my life goal to earn enough money to make first-class flights a regular occasion.
How To: Make a DIY Home Theater Projector and 50" Screen for Only $5 (Great for March Madness!)
Today's project will show how you can convert your laptop, smartphone, or tablet computer into a makeshift projector—just in time for March Madness! It's super cheap to build, and can add a little bit of creative fun to your next sports party.
How To: 20 Simple Solutions to Life's Most Irritating First World Problems
Just because a problem is small or superficial doesn't mean it can't annoy the living crap out of you. Others may think you're overreacting, or even have the audacity to roll their eyes, but you're in your own personal hell.
How To: Make a Soda-Box Soda Cooler
For some reason, there's only ever one person in a group of friends that has a cooler. Every time there is a hangout or BBQ, that friend is called and has to lug his expensive, huge plastic cooler around for everyone. Not really fair, is it?
How To: Keep Cool Outside with This Overhead DIY Water Misting Rack
Summer is here, and with the season comes more freedom and searing heat. It's the ultimate between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place situation. You want to be outside and enjoy the sun, but you don't want to be over-powered by it. Thankfully, you can create makeshift misters on the cheap to enjoy the summer heat right on your deck.
How To: Charge a Cell Phone on Train Tracks
If you're ever lost or hurt out in the middle of nowhere with a dead cell phone, you might be able to "flag" down help as long as you're near some railroad tracks.
How To: EnLIGHTening Home Hack! How to Change Hard-to-Reach Light Bulbs Without a Ladder
Unless you're living in some weird parallel universe where plug-in light bulbs are the norm for household lighting, chances are you've had to unscrew a light bulb every now and then.
How To: Extend Your Wi-Fi Signal with This Super Cheap and Easy-to-Make Directional Biquad Antenna
There are plenty of ways to speed up your wireless network at home, some as simple as changing the placement of your router. While you can always buy equipment to boost your signal, there are plenty of cheap or free DIY solutions you can try as well.
How To: Make a Personalized Home Bulletin Board for Cheap
One thing that's always important to have in your home office is a bulletin board, because they let you quickly display papers that you need to see every day, such as schedules, notes and memos.
How To: Remove Water Rings on Wood Furniture with Toothpaste
Most wood furniture is long-lasting, durable, and resistant to great wear and tear over the years. However, set a single sweaty, wet cup or bottle on the surface of your favorite wood dining table, or your prominently placed wooden coffee table, and you'll end up with a round water ring stain that is difficult to get rid of.
How To: How You Should Really “Fold” Socks to Prevent Stretching Them Out
I don’t buy socks—I get a pack from my parents on Christmas Day, so I’ve got to make sure they last all year. Other than losing them mysteriously in the dryer, the biggest threat to my limited sock collection is a stretched out cuff. Nothing's more frustrating than a loose sock sliding down into your shoe.
How To: Turn Leftover Cardboard Boxes into Sturdy Chairs and Stylish Nightstands
Contrary to popular belief, IKEA can get pretty expensive. You find something that comes pretty cheap, but then, you decide that your GORF will look good with the BLERGH, and you really need the SPLOOF to tie it all together. Pretty soon, your living room looks like an IKEA magazine ad, and your bank account has seen better days. Instead of spending so much money at IKEA, why not build your own pieces of furniture?
How To: Make a Simple No-Sew Workout Armband for Your Phone or MP3 Player (No Sock Required)
I've never been much of a runner. I've tried running alone, with a partner, on busy sidewalks, and back country roads, but I just never got it. There are a few other forms of exercise I genuinely enjoy, but have yet to experience that "natural high" that avid runners are always talking about.
How To: Save Money on Your Home Theater with This Pro-Looking DIY Projector Screen
Projector screens can be pretty expensive, depending on the size and quality you're looking for. If you're thinking of installing one and want to save some money, you can build a pretty decent one yourself with just a few simple materials. Redditor dodgeboy made this 128" DIY projector screen for only $200, and I have to say it looks pretty impressive. Poplar 1x4s make up the frame, with pine 1x3s as supports. Once the frame was assembled and painted black, he installed mounting blocks on bot...
How To: Hack Your Spray Bottles to Spray at Any Angle—Even Upside Down!
There's nothing more annoying than that last little bit of Windex that won't come. Most spray bottles are horribly designed, with the suction tube usually the culprit, but you can replace it and have a spray bottle that works in any position in about five minutes.
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