DIY Life

It's time to break out the silver and buff out those tarnished serving pieces, but first --- your DIY guide to cleaning silver, using mostly items you already own around the house!

For small items, slightly tarnished:
Use white toothpaste. Dab a bit on your index finger and rub the toothpaste directly onto the tarnish. Wipe clean and presto -- new silver!

For medium-sized, more tarnished items:
Use baking soda and a damp sponge. Mix equal parts baking soda and water, then rub the mixture onto the silver with a clean sponge. Rinse with hot water and polish dry with a soft cloth.

For large or badly tarnished items:
Using the same mixture as above, coat the silver with the baking soda paste and let sit for a few hours. Then, run the silver under hot water and rub with a clean, damp sponge. Repeat if necessary.

You'll silver will look shiny and new -- just like your holiday baubles!

I hate cooking when I've got bandages on my fingers, because, in my opinion, nothing is grosser than a wet Band-Aid... especially when I'm hanging around food. Good thing I learned this awesome tip yesterday:

If you've nicked yourself in the kitchen, clean the wound and disinfect, then let dry. Coat the cut with clear nail polish for a simple waterproof bandage that stays on for days!

Of course, clear nail polish is good for quite a bit of things, including its well-known use for fixing a run in a pair of pantyhose, but did you know DIY Life has ten more awesome uses for nail polish? It's true; read more right here:
-10 Nifty Uses for Nail Polish... One for Each Finger!

My favorite tip? Avoid rust rings from a can of shower cream or shave gel by applying fingernail polish to the bottoms of the metal containers. Genius!

Silver. Beautiful, classic and so easily tarnished. How do you clean it quickly and easily? You can buy liquid cleaner, but that's messy and not all that fast. Creamy polish is also messy and a bit time consuming.

I found this recipe to make your own polishing cloths over at Tipnut. You need to gather a few things for this concoction but it seems fairly easy to me.

Manicured nails make a great impression. For most of us, long nails dazzled with jewels just don't match our DIY'er lifestyle. In this edition of DIY spa treatment, I'll show you how to achieve a spa quality manicure that you can live with and easily maintain.

What you'll need

1. Nail brush
2. Soap
3. Nail clippers
4. Emery board
5. Q-tips
6. Nail polish remover
7. Colored polish
8. Clear top coat polish

After the break I'll give you the step by step for your at home manicure. While I am now painfully aware that I am not a hand model, the gallery pictures illustrate each step along the way.

I don't use many store-purchased products to do my cleaning. I always end up with terrible migraines or my lungs hurt from breathing in the cleaning product. When I take the time and effort to make my own cleaning products, life suddenly gets much better and healthier, at least in the cleaning department.

Baking soda, lemons, vinegar, and salt are four items that can basically clean everything in your house, from countertops to clothing. I love making homemade cleaning wipes, knowing that when I use them, I will not suffer the consequences of cleaning. I also like to make my own homemade furniture polish, since, in my opinion, I get a better clean and a better shine with homemade polish.

Grab a lemon out of your fridge and squeeze the juice out of it. If you don't happen to have a lemon, then grab a container of lemon juice and pour out about four tablespoons into a small spray bottle. Mix the lemon juice with three tablespoons water and two teaspoons olive oil. Put the sprayer in the bottle and shake well. You now have an excellent homemade furniture polish. Anytime you want to polish your furniture, you should make a new batch, as the olive oil may become rancid if you only polish your furniture once a month. When I use homemade furniture polish, I use a soft terry cloth instead of paper towel. The cloth just seems to give a better shine to the furniture.

DIY Maven on Curbly has a bunch of great ideas for alternative ways to use nail polish.

Given that the use of nail polish is "to be painted on things" -- it's a low-toxicity enamel paint -- I don't know if these count as "new" uses per se. My mother has been doing a few of them for years, particularly the "polish on the keys" trick, and she's far from alone. But they're all ideas that are useful, and maybe they're new to you!

Read more about them, as well as a few new nail polish tips from us, after the break.

Just in case you haven't filled your quota this month for things you can do with packing peanuts, here's one more idea that just might do the trick.

My wife has discovered that when it's time to pedicure her toenails, placing packing peanuts in between her toes works better than using cotton balls as toe separators. She finds that while cotton balls tend to fluff out and get in the way of the project, the packing peanuts don't have that fuzz which can get in your way. She also says that the peanuts hold the toes farther apart and that they are easily adjustable, while cotton balls seem to always fall down on the job.

One other measurable advantage to using packing peanuts to wedge apart your toes is that cotton costs money and once you have stuffed it between your toes, you take it out and throw it in the trash. Packing peanuts on the other hand, generally come to us free of charge and in a pinch, you could always wash them after plucking them out from between your toes and reuse them as packing peanuts. I myself, wouldn't recommend that. Not to mention that many varieties of packing peanuts these days are in fact biodegradable.

Olive oil is great. Not only is it heart-healthy in foods, it works well as a light moisturizer for skin and a general lubricant for things like wood. Because it's one of those things I always try to keep around the house, I was glad to see this article by Curbly poster Chrisjob: a list of 25 Alternative Uses for Olive Oil.

One of my favorite tips is #11, Exfoliate your face and hands. Rub your skin with olive oil, then scrub with sugar or coarse salt, and rinse. I've been doing this for years. It always works, and is a good alternative moisturizer for people who don't want to have chapped skin on their hands, but dislike the feel of hand lotion. One caveat: if you're prone to dry skin or hangnails, skip the salt to avoid stinging. Plain granulated sugar works just fine. You can rinse if you'd like to leave a layer of oil on your skin, or wash if you'd prefer your hands to be a little less slick. I usually wash, then dab some oil around my cuticles, as in tip #3.

While a few of these suggestions would work with almost any oil, most are best kept to olive oil; however, since taste isn't an issue, any inexpensive olive oil will work just fine. And in the case of a handful of these ideas, while you can use olive oil, there are other solutions that are probably better. I'd use a plain graphite pencil or a colorless wax candle to unstick a zipper before I'd put oil on it.

What kid doesn't like to go down a slide? Slides are great attractions at water parks, theme parks and just about any fair or carnival you go to. You will find at least one slide in virtually any municipal park or playground which provides play equipment for kids and the slide is still a must have item on back yard swing sets and jungle gyms across the country.

Here's how to help keep the slide fun going, fast and furious, in your back yard playground. After all let's face it, the faster the slide is, the more fun it is. For metal and fiberglass slides, apply a coat of car polish in just the same manner as you would wax the hood of your car. Apply a generous coat of wax, let it dry for a few minutes, and then buff it to a high polish. For composite plastic slides, spraying them down with pure silicon mold release and then wiping off the excess will provide a surface which will send those little butts flying!

In both cases, be very certain to keep the wax or silicon away from the climbing steps and handles. You don't want to reduce the friction factors in those two areas. Additionally, it's always a good idea to have a pad of coarse mulch or at least four inches of sand at the landing end of a slide. Sliders always have a lot more fun when they don't have to worry about bruising their little rear ends!

Ah the Dremel tool, pervasive hobbyist element that does so much. My first college roommate used his Dremel to decorate his dorm room by drilling holes in cinder block and sawing dowel rods. Not really recommended, but it shows you what a Dremel can do! Now's your chance to win one in our 30-day giveaway, Toolstravaganza.

This Dremel rotary tool goes from 5,000 to 25,000 rpm and can be used with all Dremel accessories. Plus, it has a lithium-ion battery for long life and regular use. Set includes a base station and several accessories including: cutters, bristles, cones, polishers, sanders and more. A little bit of everything in a convenient, powerful package.

Leave a comment on this post to enter, and don't forget to validate. Check out our Toolstravaganza page for previous prizes and full rules. Entry period for this prize is from 5AM-11:59PM on July 24. Good luck!