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All DIYers know the struggle. You’re in the middle of a project and need to quickly secure something. But when you search for your clamps, they’re nowhere to be found. I finally decided it was time to come up with a clamp storage solution. They were too bulky for my toolbox, and leaving them in random corners of the garage clearly wasn’t working. A Clamp Storage Solution I cut a scrap 1×4 to the right length and attached it with brad nails to two exposed studs in my garage....

Before you go shopping for new cleaning supplies, check your own kitchen! You might be surprised to find out that many of your common grocery staples can double as cleaners. Here are our favorite ways to clean with items straight out of the fridge or pantry. Clean the Microwave with Lemon To clean the interior of your microwave, look no further than the bowl of citrus sitting on your counter. Slice up a lemon and put the slices in a bowl along with a cup of water....

This is the easy way to get tight-fitting joints on inside corners. Discover how to create perfect, tight-fitting inside joints on chair rail molding. The same techniques work for crown and base molding. Learn how to use a coping saw and you can make difficult-looking trim joints with ease. Tackle any trim project with the skills you’ll learn in this video. What is a Coping Saw? A coping saw is a type of bow saw that can create intricate cuts in woodworking....

JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock If only you could sit back and relax on the couch and online shop one of your favorite retail chains: Marshalls. Well, the time has finally come when that desire has turned into reality! Earlier this year, the TJX Company, that owns T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods, announced that Marshall’s would be launching an online shopping site. Prior to the announcement, T.J. Maxx had been the only one of the three to offer online shopping....

Family Handyman Approved: Sea Foam Motor Treatment If you own gasoline-powered vehicles or tools — a lawnmower, snowblower or even a fleet of limousines — Sea Foam is a fuel stabilizer and oil additive you absolutely need to keep all your motors running smoothly. On This Page What is Sea Foam Motor Treatment? Sea Foam is a petroleum-based cleaner and lubricator that’s safe in all types of two- and four-stroke gasoline and diesel engines....

Labeled the world’s deadliest animal by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mosquitoes were out in record numbers across the U.S. this year due to increased rain and warmer weather. In northern Minnesota, where I spend many of my weekends, I can’t remember a year when the mosquitoes were this terrible. All summer long we’ve experimented with new and different insect repellents, fogging methods and anything else to limit my family’s itchy bites....

With talk of fuel shortages this winter, volatile prices and climate change concerns, making our homes more energy efficient feels more pressing than ever. The good news is, a few easy and affordable ways can make a big difference, along with a new set of federal tax credits and rebates to help offset the cost. “The climate-related measures in the Inflation Reduction Act aim to lower homeowners’ energy consumption and increase our homes’ efficiency,” says Mallory Micetich, a home expert at Angi....

l i g h t p o e t/Shutterstock If you love crowds, there’s a good chance you’d love visiting IKEA on a Saturday afternoon. But for most of us, the store on a Saturday afternoon doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun. IKEA has just about everything — furniture, kitchen gadgets, patio chairs and tables and even holiday decorations, toys and food. But if you need to get in and out as quickly as possible, there are certain times to visit and other times to stay away....

Walnut is one of the most popular domestic woods for woodworkers of all skill levels. Widely available in the U.S. and considered a premium domestic hardwood, its very presence seems to elevate the perceived value of your woodworking projects. A real delight to work with hand tools, it also machines easily and finishes beautifully. I will walk you through everything you need to know about walnut so you have the confidence to use it in your next woodworking project....

The attic is a vital part of your healthy, functioning home. Certified home inspector Brian Cooper, owner of Cooper Inspection Services, LLC, says that an attic inspection can help head off pest problems, spot money-sucking heating and cooling inefficiencies and more. He recommends setting aside about an hour for an attic walk-through twice a year, ideally in the spring and fall. Whether you do it yourself or call in a pro, these are the main items that should be addressed during an attic inspection....

Family Handyman Over time, the hard water in our area leaves deposits in the moving parts of the plumbing. When our tub spout diverter clogs, I use WD-40 with its spray nozzle curved up the spout to the diverter valve. A couple of sprays gets things loosened up and working again.— Jackson Tutt New Nozzle in Town Did you know WD-40 has a new flexible nozzle option that would make this handy hint even easier?...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has dramatically increased the number of potentially toxic hand sanitizers consumers need to avoid. The agency first took action on June 19, 2020, when it advised consumers to avoid nine products manufactured by Mexico-based Eskbiochem SA de CV due to risk of methanol contamination. Further warnings followed on June 29 about another product by that manufacturer, hand sanitizer packaged in one-liter bottles from Saniderm Products for the same reason....

Shutterstock/ SeventyFour It’s not exactly a well-guarded secret — the construction industry is slowly but surely running out of workers. The labor shortage in the construction industry has been widely reported and analyzed by industry experts and economists, and the trends are always the same. In March of 2019, there were more openings for construction jobs than any time since just after the Great Recession. The average age of construction workers in the U....

The HVAC trade offers a route to stable employment and opportunities that can grow in many directions. With projected growth that outpaces other trades, becoming an HVAC technician can lead to a rewarding career. What Is HVAC? HVAC, shorthand for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, also includes a fourth area: refrigeration. According to Eric Weiss, technical trainer for Trane Residential, based in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Tex., “HVAC encompasses quite a few of the technical trades — maybe not as in-depth as specialized [tradespeople], but the cool feature about the HVAC industry, since it is so vast, there’s no redundancy in what you do from one day to another....

Lightbulbs are the unsung heroes of home interiors. They can quietly enhance the mood, make rooms seem larger or more intimate, or highlight a special piece of art or statement furniture, all while saving you money on your energy bill. Many first-time homeowners don’t give much thought to their lighting. But replacing the lightbulbs in your newly purchased house can easily and quickly create a space that feels like home while cutting utility costs....

The dishes are piling up in the kitchen sink. Should you grab the sponge or load them in the dishwasher? When it comes to washing dishes—believe it or not—as long as you have a newer model dishwasher, it’s better to run the dishwasher than to hand wash. There’s a good chance you’re making at least one of these seven dishwashing mistakes. Hot, Hot, Hot Even if you use hot water to hand wash those dishes, the water is nowhere near hot enough to make dishes truly bacteria free....

aSuruwataRi/Shutterstock Public toilets aren’t anyone’s favorite place to go. Your imagination can conjure up some disturbing thoughts when you consider the germs that could be floating about. Consequently, many people lay down toilet paper on a public toilet seat in an attempt to distance themselves from the germs. But, creating this barrier between your skin and the seat isn’t actually helpful, in fact, it could be exposing you to more germs!...

This FH series introduces readers to a few of the women who make up 11 percent of the construction workforce in the U.S., spotlighting stories of their careers in the field. Know someone we should feature? Email us here. Ally Childress loves to learn. In her 20s, she had a blast earning her degree in English literature. Twenty years later, she equally enjoyed going back to school to study electricity....

Modern engines depend on spark plugs to start and run. Spark plugs benefit from many design refinements since their invention in the late 1800s by Belgian engineer Jean J. Lenoir. Today, spark plugs are small, cheap, and for the most part, extremely reliable. That said, all the design refinements made to spark plugs over the years haven’t made them absolutely foolproof. A number of things can cause them to fail, and one of the most common in two-stroke engines is oil on the spark plug....

Trisodium phosphate, or TSP, is an exceptional cleaner for an array of uses including removing grease and paint from concrete and brick, prepping walls for painting and preparing walls for wallpapering. But there are some issues with it, so finding a good TSP substitute What’s the issue with trisodium phosphate? Despite TSP’s cleaning power, it is not without its issues. For starters, TSP is both an eye and skin irritant and is therefore classified as a hazard by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)....