Welcome to February, and a month of Home Hacks: Smart How Tos for Great Homes. We're going to be focusing on How To all month. What do you want to learn this month? What would you like to get done around the home, and how can we help?
We would love your input on tutorials and How To posts. When it comes to green and sustainable projects, and creating a happier, healthier home, is there anything you would like learn? Small or big, simple or complex, tell us here, and we'll do our best to give you great tutorials on those topics this month.
If you have an excellent How To tutorial that you've done yourself and would like to share, then feel free to send that along as well!
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
Soda Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
As someone who's often dealing with constractors for larger jobs, I'd love to have a "how-to" for the non-diy things: how to ensure you're not getting ripped off, how to find sustainable contractors, how to manage the projects to keep them moving (even when you're not doing the work yourself).
Maybe a series on basic essential tools and what you can accomplish with them? I have a few little projects in mind but wouldn't know where to start.
getting stains out of clothes and upholstery without resorting to scary machines or the dry cleaner.
I have tried using a combination of a scrubber, a hot vinegar cleaning solution, and a lot of elbow grease to degrease areas in my kitchen (when I moved into my current rental there were areas on the walls above the stove hood and under the hood that were completely stuck with dust and grease), but I can't seem to get the job done effectively. Is there any way to completely degrease areas without the use of harsh chemicals, such as the Magic Eraser? P.S. What are the chemicals in Magic Erasers, as it is a little scary that they are not listed on the packages?
remidema, we had to remove more than 40 years of grease around gas stoves in an apartment building we renovated last year. The most effective solution was to spray on a mixture of very hot water and dishwashing detergent, and let it sit for a while. Then we used sponges (and in really tough areas, a paint scraper) to remove the grease. If it's really built up, you might have to remove it in layers, respraying with the hot water and dish detergent after each scrubbing/scraping.
Thank you for the quick response heather77! I will take your advice and give it a try, as it sounds like you have some great experience with grease, unfortunately for you!
After trying to figure out just how to tackle a fresh, gutted whole fish I received from a friend's seafood CSA share, http://how2heroes.com/ was recommended to me. They have clear instructional how-to videos on everything related to food. The one for filleting a cod was great.
Oops - that was a general how-to, not home-specific, sorry! (although it DID help "create a happier, healthier home" in the broader sense!)
remidema, there are no cleaning chemicals in Magic Erasers -- they're microabrasives.