Vacuuming is by far my most dreaded task -- the moving of the furniture, clearing of surfaces -- and then there's all the dog hair to contend with (and the dog, whose arch nemesis is the vacuum cleaner).

But once I have that vacuum in hand, I've been known to suction whatever's in my path. I admit, I've vacuumed quite a few items that I now regret having sucked up in my haste.

So I've compiled a list of five items you should never run your vacuum over. (No, not even if you "didn't see it.")

I find few household imperfections more annoying than a squeaky cabinet. Yet my pantry door squeaks pretty much every time I open it. I tried lubricants, hinge-replacements and seemingly everything else there is, but nothing seemed to do the trick.

Until now.

These days, my pantry door is entirely squeak-free, and I'm happy to share my secret with you.

Online tutorials, how-to videos, and advice from your handy neighbor are all well and good. But if you're serious about improving your DIY skills, sometimes you've just got to roll up your sleeves and do it. And if you live in or around the San Jose area, you can now enroll in DIY Academy -- a school for students looking to to get an education in home improvement without earning an academic degree.

DIY Academy was founded by California-based general contractors Steve Gross and Jeff Vasek, after the pair began identifying a DIY trend among their clients. Gross says, "In the last few years, particularly with the downturn in the economy, we've noticed [that] many of our clients are interested in doing a segment of the project on their own."

The main reason, of course, is the potential for substantial savings. But, as Gross notes, "there is also the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes when you do it yourself. In general, for most people who have the desire to try a project, the hurdle is the lack of knowledge and confidence to attempt [it]."

Thus, Gross and Vasek have positioned the DIY Academy as a home improvement learning center. The school provides hands-on tutorials for a variety of projects tiling bathroom floors to installing kitchen cabinets.

On the verge of a hernia trying to open that window that's stuck shut? Stop -- there's an easier way!

If you live in an older home, chances are your window frames have begun to warp as a result of changes in moisture and pressure over time. The result: windows that jam when you try to open them.

Another potential cause? Perhaps your paint job last summer has created a sticky situation. Always be sure your paint has fully dried before shutting any windows or doors.

The good news: getting that stuck window to glide smoothly on its tracks is a breeze. Here's what to do:

When's the last time you took a good look at the ingredients on your laundry detergent bottle? Not only is the list incredibly exhaustive, but I'm guessing you can't pronounce a few of the key ingredients, either.

Full of alkyl phenoxy polyethoxy ethanols, diethanolamines and subtilisin, many detergents are incredibly toxic to the environment. (Want to know what's really in your detergent? Check a detergent glossary breakdown here).

According to Consumer Reports, store-bought green cleaners may not be doing the job, so if you're longing for an eco-friendly method, it may be in your best interest to roll up your sleeves and make it yourself.

After the jump, try two of our favorite detergent recipes, and start thinking green when it comes to your whites, darks, and lights!

I'm currently in the throes of a passionate love affair with my new fixer-upper in the Midwest. Although my husband and I have been hard at work planning, designing and contracting the home (we purchased the 3200 square foot ranch in November), we've just officially arrived into demolition territory this week.

Now, I've worked on a house or two in my day and I know that, under normal circumstances, there's nothing more exciting than taking a sledgehammer to an unnecessary wall in order to brighten a space. But this house? This house has more drywall than my patience allows. The process has been slow-going to say the least.

After we determined which walls were load-bearing and which were safe to demolish, turned off the electrical breaker and removed baseboards and trim, we set out to tear down those walls. Although our demolition area was plaster-free and fairly easy to work with, the task was much harder than I anticipated.

If you're in the mid-Atlantic or on the East Coast, experiencing one of the area's biggest blizzards of the year, you'll soon be nursing an aching back from all the shoveling that's in store (unless, of course, you learned the right way to shovel your driveway!). You're probably wondering if you should just invest in a snowblower. The answer is, you could. But what if there were a less expensive device that claimed to pick up snow even faster than a snowblower and produced zero pollution?

Enter The Sno Wovel: The World's Safest Snow Shovel -- and one of Time magazine's Best Inventions of 2006. Designed to reduce the physical strain of shoveling (and related risks of back and heart injuries), the Sno Wovel is equal parts handheld plow, wheelbarrow and shovel. I think it's ingenious. Here's how it works: