DIY Life

For the last couple of days, the weather has been humid, without much wind to cool it off. It was hot enough outside that I had to split the lawn mowing into two days. I will not complain, though, as I will take the heat, sans humidity, any day of the year.

Unfortunately, it gets pretty hot in my house too, as we don't have much shade or air conditioning. It wasn't enough that I had cold water to drink: I needed something more to help cool down my body temperature. I wasn't prepared, but next time, you can bet I will be with these 6 simple frozen treats I can concoct myself.

Shoe polish is relatively cheap. Besides making our shoes shine, shoe polish can extend the life of shoes. In the event you run out of shoe polish and happen to have a banana laying around, why not use the banana skin to polish your shoes?

Bananas contain potassium, which is also a key ingredient in shoe polish. To polish your shoes, all you need to do is eat the banana, rub the banana peeling on your shoes, buff with a soft cloth, and then sit back and admire your shoe polishing job.

The next time I run out of shoe polish, I need not worry anymore. Who knew bananas had such a great effect on your shoes. Make sure you get all the banana off though, since you don't want the German Shepherd down the street trying to eat your feet!

Question: what's worse than ruining a CD or DVD with a nice, deep scratch? Answer: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Instead of breaking down and sobbing hysterically beneath your cubicle for three hours, like you did last time, check out this DIY disc repair article from Wise Bread. The author did a good job collecting videos for each method of scratch removal, but beware of the second one under the toothpaste version... trust me. So, here's how Wise Bread breaks things down:

Toothpaste - (effectiveness: 3/5) - Squirt some toothpaste on the data side of your disc, gently smear the toothpaste over the entire disc using your fingers to make small circular motions, let the toothpaste sit on the disc for a few minutes, carefully rinse the paste off with lukewarm water, and then gently dry the disc with a soft rag or t-shirt. Wise Bread's take: "The toothpaste did indeed help with some scratches but only very small ones. The deeper scratches were unaffected. On another note, my CDs now smell minty!"

Banana - (effectiveness: 2/5) - Peel a banana, smear it on the data side of your scratched disc, and then wipe it clean. Quick, wasteful, and generally ineffective. Wise Bread's take: "Not quite as good as the toothpaste, but it did help with a few tracks that had skipped. It's a lot more messy though, and a waste of a good banana."