The Latest from WonderHowTo: Page 2

Steam mops are sold as the modern cleaning solution for nearly every surface in the house. The box art shows gleaming tile, sparkling grout, and often enough, hardwood floors. The instruction manual typically backs this up. So, can you steam hardwood floors? Technically, under very specific conditions, maybe. Practically, for most floors in most homes, no, and the gap between those two answers is where expensive damage happens.

Ford CEO Jim Farley made a claim this week that is both accurate and convenient: modern vehicles are so complex that many home repairs are no longer safe without specialty tools and professional-grade equipment. He made it personal. He can tinker with a 1973 Bronco, he said in the Detroit Free Press, but a new one would "put people's lives at risk" if worked on without the right gear, per SlashGear. The comments landed Thursday in the middle of an active legislative debate over who controls the...

Most home cooks treat pickles on burgers as a finishing move: lay a chip on top, leave one on the side, or pick it off entirely. Deep Ellum, a restaurant in Waltham, Massachusetts, takes a different approach on its current menu, pairing comeback sauce with American cheese, grilled onions, iceberg, and spicy mustard on its onion smash burger.

The research gives one hard number: two days. Anything wet for two or more days may already have mold growing on it, even when it looks and smells completely clean, according to Utah State University Extension. That guidance comes from flood-recovery research, not studies on forgotten laundry, but the underlying condition transfers: wet textiles are ideal breeding grounds for mold and mildew, and visible or olfactory cues become unreliable the longer fabric sits wet.

Make-ahead lemon cake can mean two very different desserts, and the one you choose determines your prep schedule, refrigerator space, and serving-day work.

Bleach mistakes usually fall into two categories: safety risks and cleaning failures. Used incorrectly, bleach can produce toxic fumes, irritate your eyes and lungs, or damage surfaces. Used too weak, too old, or on a dirty surface, it may not disinfect the way you expect.

How to cook chicken thighs in a cold pan for crispy skin

A windowless bathroom can look completely transformed and still fail within a few years if the moisture problem wasn't solved before the first tile went up. New tile, layered lighting, fresh finishes — all of it has an expiration date if the ventilation and substrate work were skipped. That's the gap this guide addresses.

Can you unshrink clothes after they come out of the washer two sizes too small? Usually not completely. The conditioner-soak hack that circulates endlessly on social media is not a true reversal of shrinkage. At best, it temporarily lubricates fibers enough to allow modest reshaping of the difference between "unwearable" and "acceptable," not between "shrunken" and "original." Any improvement may disappear the next time the garment gets wet.

Deciding whether a thermostat needs calibration is simpler than most homeowners expect. A thermostat accuracy check is a smart addition to a seasonal HVAC tune-up, especially when there are comfort complaints, recent remodeling, a new thermostat, or a noticeable mismatch between the wall display and the room. An actual calibration or offset adjustment belongs in far fewer situations.

Brown the meatballs first. That's the move everything else depends on. The fond left on the pan bottom becomes the flavor base for the sauce, the sauce becomes the cooking liquid for the orzo, and the orzo absorbs it all, so what arrives at the table is a cohesive skillet dinner rather than a protein sitting in a puddle. One pan, four servings, about 45–50 minutes start to finish.

Spiral cutting a hot dog is a legitimate technique with legitimate results: crisp ridged edges, deeper browning, and grooves that grip condiments instead of shedding them into the bun. Two minutes of prep before the dogs hit the grill and you'll produce something that looks considered rather than thrown on. The part most viral content leaves out is that knowing how to spiral cut hot dogs is only half the job. The other half is knowing which sausages to leave alone.

Dining room walls take regular wear from chair backs, table edges, and everyday traffic. A faux board-and-batten treatment helps protect the lower wall while giving plain drywall a more finished, architectural look.

Most small living room layout ideas start with shopping. Buy a smaller sofa. Get a coffee table with storage. Swap the sectional for something apartment-sized. The better first move costs nothing and takes about ten minutes: fix the walkway, then figure out where the sofa actually belongs.

Downsides of Sealing a Concrete Driveway: Peeling & More

These no-bake root beer float bars taste like the real thing. Graham cracker crust, creamy root beer filling, whipped topping, and a maraschino cherry on top. This recipe serves nine and keeps in the refrigerator for up to four days, which makes it a genuinely practical choice for summer cookouts and gatherings.

Knowing how to grill steak perfectly comes down to two decisions made before the steak hits the grates: which method matches your cut's thickness, and what temperature to pull it at. Remove the guesswork about doneness, and you remove the main way a steak goes wrong. Miss the target temperature by even 5-10 degrees, and no amount of resting or technique recovers it.

By the end of this guide, you'll have made a batch of homemade bacon jam that holds together, tastes right, and keeps safely in your refrigerator for up to a week. You'll also understand exactly why "store it in a jar on the shelf" isn't an option and why that doesn't matter much when a fresh batch takes under an hour.

Most steaks come off the grill with dramatic char lines and pale, under-colored patches in between. A small amount of sugar in a steak marinade or dry rub fixes that: it accelerates browning across the full surface, producing a darker, more evenly developed crust before the interior overcooks. Equal parts granulated sugar and kosher salt applied before cooking doesn't make the meat taste sweet; it produces a caramelized crust that forms faster and tastes more intensely savory than a salt-only...

At Harper's Statuary & Water Gardens in Rockingham County, Virginia, porch goose sales used to top out at around ten per year. Last year the shop sold roughly 40. By early 2025, it had already surpassed that number, per NPR. Concrete artist Barb Foster Funk's batches, meanwhile, sell out within about a week of release, according to the Daily Herald.