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“Always read the reviews when shopping online. [An item may seem great], but reading the reviews and looking at pictures is so important,” said Lindsay Roberts Schey, creator of the gift recommendation website The Gift Insider. Quality is another vital aspect to consider, even more so when working with smaller budgets. To ensure you’ve picked out one of the best cheap Christmas gifts, you’ll want to research it beforehand. “Holiday shopping isn’t the time to test out a [brand or retailer] you’ve never used before,” Schey says....

If your shower water contains high levels of certain minerals, namely calcium and magnesium, it’s considered hard water—and it can have an impact on your skin and hair. Studies have shown showering in hard water can decrease your hair’s thickness and strength, increasing breakage—something to keep in mind if you already have fine hair or hair that’s damaged or dyed. It’s also a potential risk factor for eczema, a key consideration for those with sensitive skin....

“While ‘drip coffee’ and ‘brewed coffee’ are often used synonymously, it is a half-truth,” says Bob Fish, co-founder and co-CEO at Biggby Coffee. “In short, any coffee beverage is ‘brewed coffee,’ but there are many different brewing methods like French press, pour over, and even espresso—but the drip brew method is a standard in most households.” We researched and tested dozens of drip coffee makers to determine the best of the best, evaluating each on design, performance, features, and ease of use....

“While I have both glass and plastic containers, I always reach for the glass,” says Carolyn Truett, the founder and recipe developer behind Caramel and Cashews. “Not only can I microwave leftovers right in the container, but I also don’t have to worry about chemicals leaching into my food.” With so many glass food container choices out there, it can be challenging to choose the best glass food containers for your home....

To find out which styles are the best, we purchased 22 office chairs and put them to the test at our lab in Des Moines, Iowa. Over the course of two days, testers evaluated each option based on seven categories: setup, comfort, lumbar support, adjustability, design, durability, and overall value. We also consulted Dr. Matthew Devoe, DC, owner of Empire City Chiropractic. Overall, we recommend the Duramont Ergonomic Adjustable Office Chair....

Before you race to the local lumberyard or home improvement store, attend to the following details first. You need to make some decisions before you even pull out the tape measure. Where will I locate my deck? Most decks are attached to the rear or side of the house, often just off the kitchen or dining area. For a small house or a first deck, this location makes the most sense because it extends your eating and entertaining area....

Foods High in Iron There are two types of iron found in foods: heme and non-heme iron. Heme iron (found in meat, fish, and poultry) is most readily absorbed by our bodies. However, there are plenty of plant-based (non-heme) sources for vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians to obtain iron—the only difference is making sure you’re also adding proper vitamins (more on this later) to help your body absorb the iron. Animal-Based Iron Food Sources Animal sources with the highest amount of iron include:...

The homemade version is also more environmentally friendly. You’ll save bottles from the landfill as well as the fuel that would’ve been used to get those bottles to the store. Plus, a glass cleaner made with natural ingredients, such as distilled white vinegar, is much gentler on the earth than most premixed cleaners. Another benefit comes from the ability to adjust the recipe as needed. You have total control over the quality and ratios of ingredients in a homemade window cleaning solution....

BH&G Test Kitchen Tip: This technique works best with small potatoes that can be cooked whole in boiling water; large potatoes are best cut into pieces before boiling to reduce the time it takes to cook them. How to Peel Potatoes Boiled with the Skin On Step 1: Score Potatoes Around the Middle Gather small Yukon Gold Potatoes, Fingerling Potatoes, or New Potatoes. Rinse and brush away any dirt and blemishes, then use a knife to carefully slice through the peel around the circumference of each potato....

The drawer is a nifty, adjustable bin that readily hooks onto your fridge’s existing shelf to create more usable space underneath it, and a pack of two costs just $35. The kitchen organizer is made with BPA-free food-grade plastic, and it will fit shelves that measure in at 0.6 inches thick or less. They are 11.8 inches long, 7.4 inches wide, and 3 inches deep, and the rails can extend up to 16....

The Nisaku Hori Hori Weeding and Digging Knife is a multi-purpose gardening tool with a near-perfect rating from more than 5,600 shoppers. The knife can be used for weeding, digging, seeding, transferring bulbs, and even cutting branches. Thanks to its sharp stainless steel blade, the knife can dive deep into the soil to pull weeds from their roots. In fact, the blade has a sharp edge for slicing through soil and a serrated edge to cut through wood....

The coffee chain teased the launch on Monday by posting a Pumpkin Love O’ Meter quiz on Instagram and then confirmed speculations in a news release the same day. The company even sent out an email revealing the news to certain rewards members, according to the Starbucks Facebook fan page, Leaf Rakers Society. The email called each recipient a Pumpkin Pal thanks to the number of pumpkin drinks the individual ordered in the past year....

Made of acacia hardwood, the stylish loveseat has a beautiful grained appearance with a classic slatted wood design. Not only do the slats look nice, but they’re also highly functional, allowing a breeze to filter through on warmer days. Additionally, the solid wood frame is weather-resistant, so it won’t rot after a drizzle, making it perfect for a porch or front entryway. Reviewers say the bench is “easy on the eyes,” with a slightly arched back and curved armrests that make it extremely comfortable to sit on....

The Spruce by iDesign collection offers a simple, stylish approach to kitchen organizing, and you can ease your environmental conscience knowing that each product saves 50 water bottles from a landfill. And since the containers are BPA-free, they’re great for storing ready-to-eat fruits and veggies in the fridge. The recycled plastic organizers are shatter-resistant and highly durable, so they can last through years of bumps and drops without breaking. The lidded bins are also completely transparent, making it easy to see exactly what’s inside....

The most controversial example of misclassified produce is the tomato—is it a fruit or a vegetable? It has seeds and a structure like an apple, but it doesn’t have the same sweet taste as most fruits. Most of us would call tomatoes a vegetable because you grow them in a vegetable garden with potatoes, lettuce, and carrots (which are vegetables). Legally in the United States, since a court ruling in 1893, tomatoes are considered to be vegetables....

The lyrics to his ditty are, “When you buy a little plant, and it’s doing great, you break off a piece, and you propagate. You make another plant. Oh, yeah, a baby brother plant.” The fun video has garnered more than 635,000 views, 107,000 likes, and hundreds of comments. (Not to mention others using the audio on their own propagation videos.) Many of the comments praised both the gardening technique and the lovely voice....

“The color has a lot of historical reference, so it fit with the 1879 house,” she says. Plus, it distracted from the reddish-brown patches in the granite countertops. “I realized I needed to think of it like makeup,” she says. “If you’re trying to hide red spots, you use concealer with green in it.” Other updates included hardware from her Nest Studio collection and a graphic pattern she stenciled and painted right onto the existing tile floor....

Ili Hidalgo-Nilsson and Kirstin Moehlig at Terracotta Design Build Co. had some ideas. “We needed to rethink the space to create as much storage as possible,” Moehlig says. She and the Terracotta team tore out existing oak cabinets and designed custom perimeter cabinets that stretch to the 12-foot ceiling. A furniture-style island offers storage, a sink, and prep space. “Dara is petite, so we earmarked the top portion of upper cabinets (reached by a step stool) for seldom-used items and maximized function in lower cabinets,” Hidalgo-Nilsson says....

Vermont’s bucolic countryside without farmhouses would be like Ben without Jerry. The charming homes, most neighbors to equally enchanting barns, are threads in a landscape that becomes entwined in people’s hearts—people like Kevin and Heidi Naughton. “We looked at renovating a house, but my husband has a thing about long views,” Heidi says. “When we hiked through knee-deep snow to look at this property and saw its views of the Green Mountains, we knew this was it....

Sometimes the road home finds us rather than the other way around. Longtime clients of Atlanta-based design luminary Suzanne Kasler had long imagined a second home: a place where they could savor long weekends and vacations in tranquil bliss. But the question was: Where? Truett, who also owns a home there, understands the vernacular of Sea Island architecture. He set out to design a house that adheres to the style seen in many of the island’s historic homes, all built in the 1920s....