Tausi Insider

Photo : Happy Lenses ( Shutterstock ) If you have a houseful of guests, or are engaged in a holiday baking marathon, a clogged dishwasher can really slow down your operation. Hand washing all your dishes uses more time and water than using your appliance— but g etting a professional out to look at your dishwasher during the holidays can be hard to schedule, not to mention expensive. L uckily there are some things you can do yourself to deal with a clog. First, c heck the kitchen sink drain If the drain to your sink is also not working, there’s a possibility that the drain for your kitchen is clogged, and that the dishwasher isn’t the source of the problem. Try using a snake , also known as a drain auger, to clear the drain from the kitchen sink before doing anything to the dishwasher. If the sink and dishwasher begin to drain after that, chances are that the dishwasher doesn’t need any special maintenance. If not, there are some dishwasher-specific steps to try. First, turn off th...

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...

A neon Twitter bird for $35,000, anyone? How about a used industrial kitchen mixer for a good price? Going once .... When Elon Musk wants to make a point, it can be pretty blunt. On the day he took over Twitter last fall, he walked in to the San Francisco company’s headquarters carrying a sink. He tweeted “let that sink in.” Get it? After slashing the company’s workforce, falling behind on rent and contract obligations, Twitter under the mercurial billionaire is now auctioning off memorabilia, fancy office furniture and professional kitchen equipment from its San Francisco offices, where large swaths now sit empty and free meals are a relic of the past. With the auction, Musk’s message is twofold: call attention to the perceived excesses of Twitter’s previous administration while signaling that cost cutting – at all costs – is a top priority. The items fetching the highest bids, besides the neon bird, include a plain Twitter bird statue at over $30,000 and a planter sculpture of the ...

Photo : volodimir bazyuk ( Shutterstock ) There are many things that can smell gross in your home, but a stinky sink drain is one of the worst. It lingers at the corner of your consciousness, always there, vaguely bothering you. How did it come to this, and how do you fix it There are a few common ways that your drain may have gotten smelly, but that’s between you and your sink. For now, let’s focus on the ways to fix it. Try hot water first The first thing you want to try is hot water— very hot water. According to Rakeman Plumbing , this could be all it takes to dislodge whatever food, hair, or other gunk is causing the stink. (It’s true that boiling water can actually do wonders for you around the house.) Once you’ve dumped a few quarts down there, give it a few minutes, then follow up with some cold water. Repeat the process two or three times and see if the smell improves. One thing you probably don’t want to do is try a chemical cleaner designed for smelly drains. They conta...