Tausi Insider

Photo : Jelena Stanojkovic ( Shutterstock ) Some people are pristine packers who dutifully Ziplock their toiletries, fold outfits together, and arrive at their destination with everything they need organized conveniently. Others are more haphazard, to say the least. If you’re in that second category, you’re surely familiar with the experience of getting somewhere, opening your bag, and finding that your clothes are covered in conditioner, moisturizer , or god-knows-what-else, thanks to the jostling of your bag and air pressure changes on the airplane. You don’t have to completely overhaul your personality to find the kind of security pristine packers have. All you need to avoid a big mess on your next vacation is a common household item: p lastic wrap. Plastic wrap your toiletries When packing your travel-sized bottles for a trip, grab some plastic wrap from the kitchen, Life Savvy suggests . Cut a small piece of cling wrap, unscrew the top of your bottle, wrap the plastic sheet a...

Photo : New Africa ( Shutterstock ) We usually don’t think too hard about toilets, that utilitarian appliance in our bathrooms that accepts all of our waste, mistakes, and regrets without complaint. Although you can certainly spend a lot of money on some seriously fancy toilets , for most of us, a toilet is a largely anonymous part of our home’s infrastructure. We only pay attention to our toilets when they stop working properly—when they run constantly , or get clogged up . But toilets, like everything else in this world, have a lifespan. There’s no clear consensus on how long your toilet will last; estimates range from about 10 years to longer than 50 years —some folks will even tell you that the toilet itself, the porcelain shell, can last forever if properly cared for, and that it’s really only the inner workings in the tank that need to be replaced. Unless you’ve splashed out for a fancy model, your toilet is a pretty simple appliance and it may well last you decades. But...

Photo : Aleksei Lazukov ( Shutterstock ) What artificial Christmas trees lack in fresh evergreen scent, they make up for with ease of maintenance. Unlike the live versions, faux firs don’t shed, or need to be watered, then disposed of at the end of the holiday season. But that doesn’t mean that they’re completely maintenance-free. Given that artificial Christmas trees spend a few weeks living with us in our home, and rest of the year tucked away in storage, they do accumulate some dirt and dust, and would benefit from an annual cleaning. Here’s what to do. How to clean an artificial Christmas tree To prolong the life of your artificial tree, experts recommend cleaning it before putting it away , and then again when it comes out of storage at the beginning of the holiday season, before you decorate it. Even if you don’t care about the tree itself, those prickly fake branches are dust magnets, so if anyone in your household has dust mite allergies, it’s a good idea to clean the tr...

Photo : ben bryant ( Shutterstock ) If you have noticed a wobble in your toilet seat, you might think you need to have a lot of experience to fix it, but it’s easier than you might think to do it yourself. All you’ll need is a few simple tools and some elbow grease. All you need is a screwdriver, an adjustable wrench, and some gloves. To start, t ake off the plastic caps on the hinge part of the seat that cover the hardware that attaches the hinges to the toilet. Some of these caps will have tabs that push in to release them, while others will come free with a firm tug. Once these are removed, you might need to clean underneath them before getting to work on the bolts—and if you notice corrosion, it might be time to swap hardware. How to t ighten or replace a toilet seat’s hardware The primary reason a toilet seat will wobble is because the bolts holding it onto the toilet have become loose. To fix this, use the screwdriver on the top side and your adjustable wrench on the ...

Photo : New Africa ( Shutterstock ) Whether you rent or own your home , a good plunger is essential: You don’t want to be stuck in the middle of the night waiting for a plumber to fix an overflowing toilet or unclog a drain, whether you’re responsible for the repair or not . But you can’t just grab any old plunger off the shelf—there are actually different plungers for different bathroom jobs, and using the right one will get things flowing more quickly and with a lot less effort on your part. There are d ifferent plungers for drains and toilets I never thought much about the shape of my plunger until dealing with a clogged tub drain a few months ago. (Did you know it’s possible for an entire washcloth to slip down the drain? It happened to me.) I watched a lot of YouTube videos telling me to fill the tub with a few inches of water, cover the drain with the plunger, and start pumping away. But my plunger didn’t have a flat bottom like the ones in the video—it had an extra, f...

Photo : evrymmnt ( Shutterstock ) Wool is a pretty incredible fabric : It’s antimicrobial, breathable, odor-resistant, and extremely durable. It can also be tricky to wash and dry. While some wool is machine washable, other garments should be hand-washed,   spot-treated, or dry-cleaned . Here are some mistakes to avoid when washing wool, to ensure yours stays in good condition (and doesn’t shrink). Mistakes to avoid when washing wool Washing wool isn’t especially difficult—it’s just a matter of doing it the right way. Here are some examples of doing it the wrong way: Not reading the care label Look, we get it: Laundry care labels can be confusing. This is why we have an entire post dedicated to decoding them. But taking the extra few seconds to read the care label on an item of clothing made of wool may mean the difference between preserving the piece, and potentially harming it. So before anything else, find out how to wash the wool. Letting stains set in Spill something on a...

Photo : VGstockstudio ( Shutterstock ) The past year saw a number of cleaning trends, hacks, and tips come from a cross TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, and, of course, us . Some were wack, but others turned out to be great. Here are ten of our favorites, for the next time you need to do a massive clean-up. https://www.tausiinsider.com/our-10-favorite-cleaning-hacks-of-2022/?feed_id=327210&_unique_id=6412a709a2e0d

No one likes cleaning a toilet. First, there’s the dust that clings to the porcelain with surprising tenacity, especially if the porcelain happens to be damp. (I think it should be illegal for bathrooms to get dusty. It’s just not right.) But the bigger problem is the toilet brush. It’s not the scrubbing part—that’s easy—but the way the brush drips on the way back to its stand, and the resulting puddle that pools therein. I take care of the dust issue by running a Swiffer cloth over the outside of the toilet before applying any spray-on cleaning products, so that the dust doesn’t have a chance to cling. But a solution to the dripping issue has always evaded me. Flinging excess water off the brush is a no-go, as that would mean flinging toilet water around the bathroom; taking a hair dryer to it also doesn’t work (for similar reasons). Luckily, TikTok user neat.caroline has an elegant solution: Set the brush under the toilet seat and let it drip dry over the bowl. Screenshot : Clai...