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How to Clean a Bathroom Sink Drain Regular preventative maintenance is the best way to keep your bathroom sink drain clean, which begins with cleaning the bathroom countertop and sink. Avoid using harsh drain cleaners or bleach, which can be harmful to both your pipes and your health. What You Need Drain snakeBiodegradable pipe cleanerHydrogen peroxide (optional) Step 1: Remove Debris from Drain Remove debris from the drain weekly. Remove pop-up stoppers or drain guards and discard any debris that has collected....

Before you start cleaning your brass item, you should also check to see if the brass has been lacquered. Lacquer is a thin, shiny layer that helps to prevent tarnish. Unfortunately, most cleaning methods will damage lacquered brass, so your best option is to take the piece to a professional. You’ll also want to understand what kind of stain, grime, or buildup you’re working with. Always test the cleaning method first in a small, inconspicuous area....

The best ways to clean burnt pots and pans involve additional household ingredients or cleaners that can cut through the grease and lift away stuck-on grime. Most methods also require a bit of scrubbing, so be prepared to do some work to make your pot or pan sparkle again. It’s also important to note that your approach should differ depending on the material of your cookware. Stainless-steel pans can stand up to a certain amount of scouring, but abrasive cleaning methods could damage your nonstick pans....

But your kitchen sink sees a lot of use in a week, from grimy pots and pans to leftover soil from your freshly watered houseplant. And as much as we wish it were different, it doesn’t always smell like roses in your dish disposer. The natural buildup of old food and grime can linger in your kitchen sink and drain and drift to the rest of your home if not cleaned properly or often enough....

Step 1: Prep and Boil Lobsters For two 1- to 1½-pound lobsters, bring 8 quarts of salted water (use about ½ cup of salt) to a boil in a 20-quart or larger pot, such as a canning pot, with a lid. The size of the cooking pot ($25, Target) is key because the lobsters need to fit completely inside with the lid closed. Grasp each lobster just behind the head and rinse under cold running water....

Some gardeners get a little nervous about snipping parts off their plants, but unless you start whacking away, it’s tough to damage or kill a plant just by clipping spent flowers. So when your flowering plants have fading blooms, brown, curled up, or otherwise looking unattractive, that’s your cue to pull out your garden shears and start deadheading. Which Plants to Deadhead? You can often get a clue about which plants to deadhead and which to leave alone just by watching them....

How to Freeze Baked Cookies Homemade cookies will keep at room temperature up to three days. If you don’t think you’ll be able to make those sweets disappear in three days or less, it’s easy to freeze them. Most of your favorite cookies and bar cookies will freeze well, just hold off on the the frosting and decorating until you’re ready to serve them. Allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before placing in freezer-safe bags....

Travel Media Content Rax Suen is a travel writer and host of the Chat with Nomads podcast. He’s seen globetrotters do a lot of things to keep the income flowing while traveling the world, but he recommends reaching out to a reputable travel media company and asking to go on press trips. “Working with established names reduces the chances of getting scammed, and there is a better chance that they have had ample experience organizing these collaborations/partnerships,” says Suen....

Luckily, renovating your kitchen doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to character-rich details. “I find the elegance of a kitchen to be in the simplicity, so while I like to keep it simple and not overdone, I layer different mediums and textures,” says Mackenzie Zwick of Mackenzie Page Interiors. “For example, a smooth stucco vent hood with marble countertops and intricate millwork details.” Her husband, Brian Zwick of Zwick Homes, says both millwork details and simple cabinetry upgrades can totally transform the look of the kitchen....

Monstera Must-Know Care Tips Monsteras might look intimidating to the new houseplant aficionado, but they’re actually pretty low maintenance plants. Regardless of skill level, any plant lover can grow this enticing plant in their home. Light These native tropical plants need lots of light. Aim to give your monstera around 5-8 hours of indirect but bright light. If you own a variegated variety of monstera, the plant will need more light to develop the colors in their leaves....

Where to Grow Venus Flytrap Instead of originating one planet away from Earth, Venus flytraps are perennials native to boggy areas of coastal North and South Carolina. They grow in moist, acidic soils in full sun but only survive winter outdoors in Zones 8-10. Gardeners in colder winter climates should grow Venus flytraps in a moist environment, such as a terrarium that can go indoors during winter. Venus Flytrap Care Tips Light Venus flytraps do best in bright but indirect light....

During Real Simple’s Time for You Weekend in the Rosemary Beach community in northwest Florida, Dayna’s entertaining formula was put into action (and passed with flying colors!) when Etsy hosted a Friday Night Soirée we haven’t stopped talking about since. The key to the party’s success? The event featured personalized decor, it followed a theme, it gave guests a chance to get involved, it was cozy and comfortable, and there was an abundance of delicious foods and drinks....

To do this on your own, buy switch and receptacle boxes that meet local codes and are large enough for the wires they hold. It’s easy to underestimate, so buy extra supplies. At the same time you install boxes, attach fans, lights, or other fixtures that need to be hardwired. Local codes specify where cable should run and at what height to place receptacles and switch boxes. Check codes before you begin....

The homemade ice cream experience starts with the ice cream base, and that base then turns into the frozen dessert we all know and love. Whether the ice cream is milk or water-based, the base will be made up of milk, cream, sugar, and whole eggs or egg yolks. There are different bases to experiment with, and they range from fuss-free to one requiring more attention to detail, yet they’re still incredibly simple....

When it comes to sticky rice, most people will first ask how to make rice sticky. But that’s actually the wrong question to start with. While you can make rice sticky by overcooking it with too much water, that’s not actually how to make sticky rice. That’s not even how to make sticky rice for sushi, which is an entirely different type of rice. What Is Sticky Rice? Sticky rice is actually its own variety, just as long-grain or brown rice fall in wholly different rice categories....

We’re guessing that most of those tens of thousands of cookies are from a bakery or store-bought, but it’s totally doable to master making homemade chocolate chip cookies right in your own kitchen. Ahead, our Test Kitchen’s tips, tricks, variations, and more so you can learn how to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch that are the best ever. How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies from Scratch Our classic chocolate chip cookie recipe holds its shape and has a slight chewiness from the combo of butter (for flavor) and shortening (to keep the cookies from spreading too much while baking)....

Before you panic, we’ve got a few tips and tricks that are sure to get stubborn stripped screws out and your home improvement project back on track. So before you further damage the screw head, take a look at the list below to find a method that works for you. Why Old Screws Always Seem to Strip Why is it that every DIY project seems to involve an untimely battle with a stripped screw that just doesn’t want to loosen?...

Once you know how to sharpen your lawn mower blade, it’ll take you a fraction of the time it takes to mow your lawn. So, just follow this step-by-step guide to give your grass a crisp, clean cut again. Or, if you don’t want to worry about sharpening the blade, you can just remove it and bring it to a lawn mower repair service near you to take care of it....

Whatever your reason, you can use shortening as a substitute for butter in cookies or substitute butter for shortening in your baked goods. Our Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen has tested hundreds of recipes using these baking ingredient substitutions. Fats and oils add flavor and contribute to baked goods’ texture, but they work a bit differently. Here’s what you need to know when using butter instead of shortening when baking....