Hide Stuff Behind the Curtains—and More Storage Hacks from Our Experts
In this edition of Clean Everything, we talk about how to (creatively) hide bulky items around a small apartment. Plus: a portable kitchen island and a handsome caddy for your cleaning potions.
Step into staff writer and organizing expert Caroline Mullen's 750-square-foot apartment, and you'd hardly suspect she's storing a workshop's worth of tools—including three power saws, a slew of DIY supplies, and gallons upon gallons of paint—around her abode. 'What's a city rat with a passion for DIY to do?' she writes. 'Well, I've had to get creative with how I store things.'
Caroline swears by a few key storage solutions for stashing her bulky tools away so neatly. A few of her favorite tips? Using the furniture she already owns as hiding places, relying on cute baskets for her sewing supplies, and taking advantage of the treasure trove of space behind the couch.
'I may or may not get a secret thrill from knowing that guests don't realize there are gallons of paint and 7-foot boards hidden behind the living room curtains,' she writes.
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New York Times
4 days ago
- New York Times
4 Laundry Detergents That Come in Plastic-Free Packaging (And What We Think of Them)
In this edition of Clean Everything, we're talking about laundry detergent that comes in plastic-free packaging — and why some options out there might not actually be a more sustainable choice. Let's talk detergent. Senior staff writer and laundry expert Andrea Barnes says that reducing plastic packaging is one area in which the laundry industry as a whole is taking steps to minimize waste. But it's complicated — just because a laundry detergent comes in plastic-free packaging doesn't mean it's automatically a more sustainable choice. Andrea anticipates that we're sure to see more and more somewhat experimental detergents enter the scene over the coming years. We'll continue to test them to find the best detergents that don't sacrifice convenience or cleaning power. And in the meantime, here are four laundry detergents that don't come in plastic we've tested so far — and what we think of them: A hyper-concentrated liquid detergent that comes in a metal bottle: In our testing, we've found that this liquid detergent is the best for the sustainability conscious. It's admittedly expensive, yes. But it's free of potentially irritating ingredients, comes in a recyclable aluminum bottle, and is highly effective at removing stains and odors. In our testing, we've found that this liquid detergent is the best for the sustainability conscious. It's admittedly expensive, yes. But it's free of potentially irritating ingredients, comes in a recyclable aluminum bottle, and is highly effective at removing stains and odors. Powder that comes in a cardboard box: This powerful powder detergent outperformed all the other powders we tested, removing some of the toughest stains and odors with ease. Plus, unlike other boxed detergents we've tested, it's easy to open and store long term. This powerful powder detergent outperformed all the other powders we tested, removing some of the toughest stains and odors with ease. Plus, unlike other boxed detergents we've tested, it's easy to open and store long term. Laundry detergent sheets: We're not a fan. Though they claim to cut down on excess packaging and weight, in our tests, we found that laundry detergent sheets are just, well, terrible at cleaning laundry. Says Andrea: 'Simply put: If you use laundry sheets, you're more likely to have to wash stained or smelly laundry multiple times and/or with hot water to get it even tolerably clean. That makes using laundry sheets inconvenient, and it likely negates any positive environmental impact.' We're not a fan. Though they claim to cut down on excess packaging and weight, in our tests, we found that laundry detergent sheets are just, well, terrible at cleaning laundry. Says Andrea: 'Simply put: If you use laundry sheets, you're more likely to have to wash stained or smelly laundry multiple times and/or with hot water to get it even tolerably clean. That makes using laundry sheets inconvenient, and it likely negates any positive environmental impact.' Solid laundry detergent tiles: These sponge-like laundry detergent tiles are easy to toss into the washing machine — and are far better cleaners than sheets. But they aren't perfect. They're not quite as effective on oily stains as traditional detergent is, and they're heavily fragranced (though Andrea is looking forward to testing the soon-to-be released fragrance-free version). The tiles show promise as a potential solid detergent of the future, but in order for them to gain popularity, the formula needs some tweaking. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter Recently, the Trump administration proposed several plans to roll back federal regulation of energy- and water-saving home appliances — including shutting down Energy Star, a popular certification program for high-efficiency products that save more energy and water. This might impact your choices the next time you're shopping for a laundry machine and many other appliances. Here's what to know. A little motivation: There's a thriving ecosystem of dust mites, dead skin cells, and sweat in bed with you. They're nearly unanimously recommended by homeowners and our bug experts. New pressure washers are getting smaller and quieter, with plenty of satisfying scouring power for outdoor surfaces. It tries (and mostly fails) to pick stuff up for you, from socks to dog toys. Dana Davis/NYT Wirecutter; source photos by Michael Murtaugh/NYT Wirecutter, AdobeStock Broadway dresser Michelina Evans comes to work equipped to fix just about any wardrobe malfunction: a stain, a rip, a snapped shoe strap, or a broken heel. One of her go-tos? To manage odors lingering on costumes backstage, she sprays some cheap vodka on them. Though the booze initially smells, it dries scent-free and leaves no discoloration on costumes.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Yahoo
12 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Miley Cyrus, Ty Segall, and More
All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by Pitchfork editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission. Miley Cyrus, February 2025 (Kevin Mazur/Peacock via Getty Images) With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week's batch includes new albums from Miley Cyrus; Ty Segall; Caroline; Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko; Matt Berninger; Shura; Yeule; Aesop Rock; Obongjayar; Qasim Naqvi; Rome Streetz & Conductor Williams; and Photographic Memory. Subscribe to Pitchfork's New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.) After winning the Record of the Year Grammy for 'Flowers' last year, Miley Cyrus took a logical next step that so often eludes pop stars at the highest level: She leaned into her weirdest, most experimental impulses for an album that panders to nobody but herself. Enter Something Beautiful, a wily pop opus with contributions from a diverse array of indie artists. Executive-produced by Cyrus and Shawn Everett, the sprawling album balances its outré intentions by keeping a handle on the most durable pop influences—'the Beatles and Elvis and David Bowie and Prince like Madonna, these are all pop artists,' Cyrus told Apple Music. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Buy at Rough Trade Possession isn't the usual Ty Segall record as of late. The longtime psych-rock staple co-wrote the album with filmmaker Matt Yoka to be a collection of American stories about hopeless kleptomaniacs, urban explorers, and other people who slip through the cracks. Segall sounds looser and sunnier on these songs, harkening back to his older sound while allowing the vibrancy of Yoka's imagination—which previously took shape solely in the visual world of Segall's albums Goodbye Bread, Manipulator, and Emotional Mugger—to lead toward low-heat grooves ('Fantastic Tomb') and Bowie-style classic rock ('Possession') when it may. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Caroline's debut album built an outpost at the intersection between post-rock, emo, and campfire folk. Three years later, the follow-up, Caroline 2, expands outward in every direction, pairing scraggy, strummed chorales with heart-on-sleeve mantras and distorted furore. The London octet enlisted Caroline Polachek for lead single 'Tell Me I Never Knew That,' one of many moments that feels like the work of not just a band but a community. 'The first record was a compilation, but this one is a declaration,' as singer-guitarist Jasper Llewellyn put it in press materials. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Ukrainian composer and avant-garde electronic musician Heinali has spent the past few years contributing to the growing trend of fusing electronic music with medieval folk. On Гільдеґарда, the album recorded from his new show with Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko, he draws from the work of Hildegard von Bingen to explore further the intersection of those genres. The 12th-century abbess, composer, philosopher, and visionary becomes a thrilling subject when backed by modular synths, Ukrainian folk singing, and high medieval music. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp The National's Matt Berninger made his second solo album, Get Sunk, around his move from Los Angeles to Connecticut. After a period of writers' block—and a sense he was 'drowning' in his own voice—he cracked open a new songwriting idiom, before assembling musicians including Booker T. Jones, Hand Habits' Meg Duffy, National touring member Kyle Resnick, and members of the Walkmen, mostly recording with Berninger in a basement. 'Our heart's are like old wells filled with pennies and worms,' he said of the album's themes. 'I can't resist going down to the bottom of mine to see what else is there. But sometimes you can get yourself stuck.' Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Shura glides between rallying and confessional synth-pop on I Got Too Sad for My Friends, the six-years-coming follow-up to Forevher. The British singer-songwriter applies her lithe pop sensibility to topics such as social anxiety, pandemic isolation, and, as ever, the tumult of love on the Luke Smith–produced album, which features guest turns from Cassandra Jenkins, Helado Negro, and Becca Mancari. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade In a shapeshifter career, Evangelic Girl Is a Gun is Yeule's most disarming transformation yet. Having mastered hyperpop heaters and meteoric alt-rock, the singer-producer-songwriter summons trip-hop ooze and industrial sleaze on an album that is both a total reinvention and, on the synth-pop-grunge hybrid of songs like 'Eko,' a consolidation of the adventuring spirit that has made Yeule one of the defining artists of the decade. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade On Black Hole Superette, Aesop Rock presents the late-night convenience store as a symbol of the modern condition. The Long Island veteran—assisted by likeminded rappers Lupe Fiasco, Homeboy Sandman, Open Mike Eagle, billy woods, and Elucid—invites us into surreal lyrical mazes as he stumbles, half-asleep, through a vortex of consumerism and encroaching tech. Watch the hallucinatory 'Checkers' video for a window into the dreamworld. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Paradise Now is a renewed mission statement from Obongjayar, the Nigerian musician whose hyperactive fusion of Afrobeat, soul, and hip-hop has made him a sensation in his adopted hometown of London. The album adds volleys of synth-punk and summery electropop to his eclectic palate, explored with collaborators including producer Kwes Darko, Fontaines D.C.'s Carlos O'Connell, and, on 'Talk Olympics,' Little Simz. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Dawn of Midi drummer Qasim Naqvi flexes his skills as a composer on his latest album for Erased Tapes, Endling. Haunted by a phrase from a dream his wife had one night—'God docks at death harbor'—the Pakistani American artist conceived of a 'tone poem' about, he's said, 'the last human on the planet—an endling, traversing a world centuries into the future. A world decayed and mutated into a strange amalgam of the natural and artificial.' Moor Mother features on the undulating ambient refractions of 'Power Down the Heart.' Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade New York rapper Rome Streetz and superstar producer Conductor Williams unite for their debut collaborative album in Trainspotting. Williams' freewheeling production snips hooks from jazz and gospel while his collaborator knots together dense verses on industry greed on the Tribe-referencing 'Rule 4080,' expanding the vintage style the pair explored on Rome Streetz's 2022 album, Kiss the Ring. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Photographic Memory is the solo project of Los Angeles producer, singer, and songwriter Max Epstein. I Look at Her and Light Goes All Through Me, his third album, shares some of the maximalist sensibilities of collaborators like Militarie Gun and Jane Remover, neutralizing lashings of overdriven excess with oases of introspective, melodic emo and shoegaze. Guests include Winter and Wisp. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
New York Times
29-05-2025
- New York Times
6 Things We Love That Bugs Hate
In this edition of Clean Everything, we dish on how our experts keep bugs out of their homes. Plus: our new favorite mosquito repellent. Nothing ruins an idyllic summer afternoon quite like an ant walking into the kitchen or a fly buzzing in the dining room. After years of testing — involving quite literally thousands of bugs — we're confident these are the best ways to banish summer's least welcome pests from your home and yard: mosquitoes, ants, flies, and the like. The very best fly swatter (and the best swatting technique): This basic fly swatter is the longest one we've tested, and it has just the right amount of flex in the handle to create a satisfying whip. (If you're willing to splurge for an heirloom-quality swatter, we love this swanky leather one, too.) Two tips to swat effectively: Be as invisible and as fast as possible, and get your swatter as close to the fly as you can before making your move. This basic fly swatter is the longest one we've tested, and it has just the right amount of flex in the handle to create a satisfying whip. (If you're willing to splurge for an heirloom-quality swatter, we love this swanky leather one, too.) Two tips to swat effectively: Be as invisible and as fast as possible, and get your swatter as close to the fly as you can before making your move. A tennis racket that kills big swarms of bugs: The Executioner looks like a tennis racket, but it has an electric current to zap any bugs that come in contact with it. It's not the most effective for hunting one single bug, but it shines when you're faced with a swarm: Just hold the button and take a swing, and you're sure to get at least one bug. And compared with a regular fly swatter, the mess is minimal: no blood, no guts, all the glory. The Executioner looks like a tennis racket, but it has an electric current to zap any bugs that come in contact with it. It's not the most effective for hunting one single bug, but it shines when you're faced with a swarm: Just hold the button and take a swing, and you're sure to get at least one bug. And compared with a regular fly swatter, the mess is minimal: no blood, no guts, all the glory. Our solve for fruit flies and fungus gnats: Don't let pests swarm around your glorious summer produce. These sticky fly traps are designed to attract and capture insects that land or crawl onto the surface — catching dozens of pesky bugs at a time. Don't let pests swarm around your glorious summer produce. These sticky fly traps are designed to attract and capture insects that land or crawl onto the surface — catching dozens of pesky bugs at a time. This is, by far, the best way to get rid of an ant problem in your house: These safe, easy-to-use bait traps lure ants with sweet, poisonous syrup. The ants then bring it back to the colony where it's shared, effectively eliminating the infestation at the source. Pro tip: Don't panic when you start seeing more ants for a bit. Word of the sweet syrup may travel … before it starts doing its job. These safe, easy-to-use bait traps lure ants with sweet, poisonous syrup. The ants then bring it back to the colony where it's shared, effectively eliminating the infestation at the source. Pro tip: Don't panic when you start seeing more ants for a bit. Word of the sweet syrup may travel … before it starts doing its job. And a few things to avoid: Bug zappers kill bugs by the thousands. But they kill the wrong bugs. They are ineffective against mosquitoes and other biting flies, and their otherwise indiscriminate killing can disrupt pollination and generally throw the environment out of balance. Also, ditch your citronella candles. In general, we don't recommend essential oils as a form of bug control — even the best one we tested still pales in comparison to what you can expect from a truly effective repellent.
