Spice Up Your Wardrobe This Weekend (Without Spending a Dime) [Video]

Just because you aren't Tim Gunn doesn't mean you have an excuse for looking like a slob. Whether you're closet's feeling a little dull or like a full-out disaster, here are a few tricks that will give your existing clothes a new lease on life.

Step one is, obviously, making sure your clothes are clean. We all hate laundry, but there are a lot of things you can do to speed it up, not to mention make it even more effective. Try adding a dash of pepper to your laundry to keep those colors bright, or washing those dry-clean-only clothes at home on the cheap. And when you're done, make sure you know how to properly iron them—though if you hate ironing that much, you can always cheat and get rid of wrinkles with a damp towel or a spray bottle—it'll still look better than a wrinkled mess. Give your shoes a nice run through the washing machine, too—or, if they're leather, learn how to polish them (or just give them a quick buff with a banana).

 It's some law of the universe that the only time you stain your clothes is when you're wearing your favorite shirt. Luckily, you don't need to throw in the towel just yet. We've featured countless ways to remove stains with household items (including underarm stains), thus saving you a sad trip to the wastebasket. You can also revive old, dirty shoes with baking soda and laundry detergent (though I've found a quick scrub with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works wonders), and de-stink them with cat litter or a dryer sheet. Stick them in the freezer if they have gum on them, and fix scuff marks with a pencil eraser. When you're done, it'll be like you have a brand new pair of shoes.

Stains aren't the only thing that can ruin your clothes, of course. If you've lost a button or two, you don't need to wait for your next trip to mom's house to sew new ones on—it's really easy to do. You can also fix any size issues yourself, so long as you know the basics of sewing—which we'd argue everyone should know. If a drawstring is your issue, you can re-thread it with a straw. You can also fix sweater snags with nail polish, fix a stuck zipper with Windex, or fix a loose zipper with a key ring. And, if your clothes are a little itchy, you can get rid of their labels without scissors, or de-itch wool items with vinegar or hair conditioner.

If some of your clothes just don't have the luster they used to, take some of those DIY skills and turn them into something new. Old t-shirts can be sun bleached or given new patterns with a tracing box, and those old ties from the 70s can be slimmed down with those sewing skills we mentioned earlier. You can even turn a pair of laced shoes into slip-ons, if you just can't stand tying your shoes anymore (though you could always just learn how to do it in two seconds, too). If, in the end, you need to get rid of a few things, learn how to weed out your old clothes effectively, and see if you can host a clothing swap to get a new wardrobe for free.

 Once you've got your newly-cleaned, revived, and repurposed wardrobe, learning a new style trick or two can tie everything together and make your clothes feel brand new. Keep your collars crisp by storing them all buttoned up, and if you wear a lot of ties, make sure you know how to properly match them to your shirt. You might also try learning a new tie knot, whether it be one of the basics or something a bit more offbeat like the Merovingian knot (or, dress your blazer down with a pocket square instead). In the end, just remember: only experiment with one item of clothing at a time to keep yourself looking like an adult.

There's nothing wrong with buying new clothes, of course—we've shared numerous tips on that front, too, from buying a suit online to buying shoes in the afternoon and even finding the perfect-fitting shirt. But, if you don't have the money to plop down on a host of new clothes, you'd be surprised how far a bit of attention to detail can go. If you have any of your own tips to share, be sure to do so in the comments below.

This Weekend: Brush Up on Biology and World History

Do you remember the ins and outs of AP Biology still? How about AP World History?

Now, while you might not want to be reminded about high school- having a strong foundation in some core courses, like biology and history, can be immensely helpful in your life: from future classes you’ll take in college to dinner conversation you’ll have with your friends.

This weekend, head over to Crash Course, a YouTube channel where two brothers (from the famous Vlogbrother channel) take turns covering the fundimentals of both of these subjects. From episodes about ATP to Alexander the Great, they break things down and make it easy to catch back up on a few topics you might have missed in high school.

It’ll be worth spending an hour to catch up to where they are now, and then subscribe to their channel for their future, weekly updates.

Add a Rain Gutter to a Picnic Table for a Built-In Drink Cooler [Weekend Project]

Spring is here in many parts of the country and if you have a picnic table and plan on doing a lot of outdoor entertaining you can keep drinks cold and accessible by replacing one of the center boards of the table with a standard metal rain gutter as suggested by Tumblr user prepinthemidwest.

Since the planks used in picnic tables can vary, make sure to measure before acquiring a rain cutter and cutting your table.

Picnic table with a drink chiller built in... | Tumblr

Related Stories

View the original article here

Set Up an Awe-Inducing Media Center This Weekend [Video]

So you've set up an awesome home theater, but you're still using outdated DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. If you're tired of hearing all the talk about PC-based media centers, take some time this weekend and set one up for yourself—you won't be disappointed with the results.

While you could always just grab something like the Boxee Box (or wait for Google's upcoming media center), there's nothing quite like putting together one for yourself. Whether you build a new computer from scratch, buying a cheap nettop or customize a jailbroken Apple TV, it's easy to see why a DIY HTPC won most popular set-top box in our Hive Five—heck, even two of our writers said they'd rather spend money on an HTPC than a new iPad. We've run down the pros and cons of each set up before, so check out out Ask Lifehacker on the subject for more information.

Once you've got the basic hardware down, you have a few add-ons you can build in to beef it up even more. If you want live TV on your media center, you can get an internal or external TV tuner that will work with your cable or antenna. You can also get a remote that works out of the box with your media center software of choice (see below), or get any remote you want and use something like LIRC to link the two together. Your iPhone or Android device makes a handy remote, too.

As you're perusing your hardware options, it's a good idea to keep in mind what software you'll use as well. We're pretty partial to XBMC around here: it has a huge community, tons of great add-ons that expand its functionality, and you can customize it to the nines. Plus it's open source, which means there are a lot of neat variations out there, like OpenELEC, that offer other features. Of course, you could also try something like Plex, which has great streaming features, or Windows Media Center, which is especially easy to use for non-geeks. Most of this software is free, too, so you can try a few things out before you settle down on one.

Next, it's time to decide how you'll get your media (and where you'll store it). Obviously, you can rip those DVDs and Blu-Ray discs yourself, which gives you complete control over the process—but takes a long time. Alternatively, you can set your computer to automatically download new TV shows as soon as they've aired, essentially turning it into an internet DVR. Couple this with a self-built NAS and you've got a nice streaming setup going. Alternatively, you could stream those videos over UPnP from any computer in the house, or, if you want to get really traditional on is, just stick a really big hard drive in your HTPC and store your videos there instead.

Okay, so now you have a box that looks awesome and plays all your digital movies. But if you really want to go the distance, we've covered a few ways to really power up your HTPC. If you want to enable Blu-Ray playback for those discs you haven't ripped, you can do so with a simple XBMC add-on. You can also turn your media center into a video game console so you have all your media in one place. And, if you have more than one HTPC in the house, you can synchronize them all together so you can pause a movie in one room and resume it from that same spot in another. Lastly, don't forget to add streaming capabilities to everything so you can get your media anywhere you want, and make everything wireless for a truly clean setup.

We've talked a lot about DIY media centers over the years, and while it can feel like we've exhausted the topic, we know there's so much more out there you can do. If you've built a media center for yourself and have any tips we didn't mention, be sure to share them in the comments below.

Add an Inexpensive Sliding Door to Your Home [Weekend Project]

Is there a spot in your home where you could use a sliding door but you don't want to go through the expense or hassle of ripping out a wall to put in a pocket door? Take a look at this track solution.

The Lettered Cottage shares this DIY project from a reader named Brier, whose husband built the sliding door using a closet sliding door track mounted to a 2x6 above the door frame. The door was about $200 from Home Depot (in Canada) and the hardware parts about $20 from Menards. Rubber stops screwed to the floor keep the door from sliding out into the rest of the room.

It's a (relatively) inexpensive alternative to pricy pocket doors or barn door hardware and something you could do yourself if you're handy with home projects like this.

Hit up the link below for more photos and details. (One commenter on the article, by the way, suggests that if you don't like the look of the exposed hardware at the top, you could use a simple cornice of sorts to cover the hardware from the front to make it just look like cool molding.)

Upgrade Your Home Network This Weekend [Weekendhacker]

Home networks can be great or they can be a huge pain in the butt. Set aside some time this weekend to fix your annoying network issues, boost your Wi-Fi reception, and add some great new features. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Before we get started, it's important to have a good grasp on basic networking skills like how your router works and what you can do with it. If you need to brush up your knowledge, check out our Know Your Network Night School lessons. It'll help you pick out a great new router (if you need one) and teach you how to use its basic functions or even go as far as installing custom firmware to do even more.

Wireless isn't all it's cracked up to be. Networking with Ethernet cables is still a lot faster, so going completely wired in your home is a great way to improve network efficiency and speed. Most people like to avoid additional cables running throughout their house because it involves a mess or the difficult work of fishing those cables through their walls. That doesn't have to be the case, however, as you can often hide your cables alone the edges of the wall, cover them with tape, and then paint over that tape to make them appear flush. Alternatively, you can buy FlatWire and just paint over the wire that will lay flush on any surface. Alternatively, don't hide your cables at all and create an attractive design instead.

When you've got a bad wireless signal, there's only so much you can do but we have a few suggestions. In general, placement is paramount. If you're router is in a drawer, under a table, or obscured by anything you are hurting your signal. Your goal needs to be to place your router as high up in the room as possible and ensure its antennae are unobstructed. For an added bonus, you can build this Windsurfer signal booster that's compatible with pretty much any router that has external antennae. If you have a lot of ground to cover and happen to have an extra router lying around, try turning it into a repeater. (Just don't use a repeater in a smaller space because it can often hurt your signal rather than help it.) You also want to make sure you're using the wireless channel with the least interference. You can do this by using Wi-Fi Stumbler, a Java web applet that'll survey your network and help you find the best channel for you. Finally, you can actually boost your router's transmit power. Some standard firmware will allow you to do this, but in many cases you'll need to install something custom. Just read on for information on how to do just that.

If you want to put custom firmware on your router to get more out of it, you have two popular choices: Tomato, a powerful but very user-friendly option, and DD-WRT, a powerful and extremely comprehensive upgrade. But why would you even want to mess around with your firmware? Well, routers are not particularly easy to use in general, so if your focus is simplicity then Tomato is a good choice. It offers a no-nonsense interface to help you manage your network and, in the case of some routers, even offers some useful additional features. DD-WRT, on the other hand, is not particularly user-friendly but provides you with near-total control over your router. If you have any features missing from your router's admin panel, such as tools that help you easily serve media from home, bandwidth statistics, in-depth access restrictions, additional security options, the ability to boost your signal's transmit power, and much more, DD-WRT can add them. Both custom firmwares only support so many routers, so be sure to check compatibility on their respective pages before you attempt to install. If you need additional assistance, be sure to read our DD-WRT and Tomato start-to-finish setup guides.

One of the best things you can do with your home network is easily share media from computer to computer and other devices. If you enable port forwarding you can even share that media outside of your home. One of the best ways to do this is to turn an old computer into a network-attached storage device and media server. If you don't have an old machine, you can always build one from scratch. If you plan to create a server running OS X or Windows, Plex is a great option for serving up your media at home or on the go. It can send movies and music to pretty much any OS X or Windows computer and mobile devices as well. In the event your media is too big to stream or just won't play on the mobile device you're using (here's looking at you, iOS), Plex will convert it for you in real time. (This, of course, will require a reasonably powerful machine.) However you go about it, media and file servers can be the best part of your home network.