Unclog a slow bathroom sink
A bathroom sink that drains slowly is almost always a hair-and-soap plug sitting just below the stopper. Here is the ten-minute fix, animated, using a £2 plastic tool instead of drain cleaner.
5 animated steps
11 guides
Every loop we've made
Ordinary problems that come back every few months. Each one is an animation you can pause on the step you're stuck at, plus the same instructions in writing.
Fix a toilet that keeps running
A toilet that hisses all night is wasting hundreds of litres a day, and the cause is one of only two parts. Here is the dye test and the fix, animated, in under fifteen minutes.
5 animated steps
Get a stuck ring off
The string-wrap method removes a ring that will not come off past a swollen knuckle — without cutting it. Here is the technique, animated, plus the signs that mean you should go straight to a clinic instead.
5 animated steps
Hang a picture level, first try
Stop guessing where the nail goes. The paper template trick transfers the hanger position exactly, so you drill once, in the right place, and the frame hangs straight.
5 animated steps
Fix slow Wi-Fi at home
Most home Wi-Fi problems are placement problems, not speed problems. Move the router, split the bands, and the dead corner of the house usually comes back — animated, in five steps.
5 animated steps
Free up phone storage
Your phone says storage full, but the biggest space users are usually invisible: a deleted-photos album still holding everything, apps you never open, and streaming downloads you forgot about.
5 animated steps
Bleed a cold radiator
A radiator that is hot at the bottom and cold at the top has air trapped inside. Five minutes with a small key gets the heat back — and here is the step nearly everyone forgets afterwards.
5 animated steps
Reset a tripped breaker
Half the lights are out and one switch in the box is out of line. Resetting it takes ten seconds — but resetting it the wrong way is why it trips again, and why you never find the cause.
5 animated steps
Stop a door hinge squeaking
Spraying oil at the outside of a hinge quietens it for a week. The squeak comes from the pin inside the knuckles — reach that, and it stays quiet for years.
5 animated steps
Descale a kettle
The white crust on the element is not dirt — it is rock, and it is why your kettle takes longer and longer. Vinegar dissolves it in half an hour for almost nothing.
5 animated steps
Clean a phone charging port
If the cable has to be held at an angle, or falls out on its own, the port is almost certainly packed with compacted lint — not broken. Here is how to get it out without wrecking the contacts.
5 animated steps