How do I teach a skill to someone else?
Working out what you have forgotten you know, showing before explaining, and letting them do it badly.
beginner30 min4 min read
Lifestyle
Organisation, routines and everyday practical skills. The test applied to everything here is whether it still works on a bad week, not whether it looks good in a photograph.
812 guides
How do I use a foam roller sensibly?
What it does and does not do, where it is safe to use, and the technique that makes it tolerable.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I use bike gears properly?
What each shifter does, spinning rather than grinding, changing before the hill, and the cross-chaining to avoid.
beginner25 min4 min readHow do I wash curtains?
Curtains hold years of dust and smell, and the usual disaster is shrinkage — lined curtains have two fabrics that shrink at different rates.
beginner1 hr 30 min3 min readHow do I work with soft pastels without it turning into dust?
Pastel is pure pigment with almost no binder, so the paper does all the work. The right surface, a light touch early and heavy pressure only at the end are what make it behave.
intermediate30 min4 min readShould I go tubeless on my bike?
What tubeless actually changes, what it costs in faff, and the specific kinds of riding where it is clearly worth it — and where it plainly is not.
intermediate1 hr4 min readShould I shoot RAW or JPEG?
RAW is the sensor data with the decisions left open; JPEG is a finished picture with those decisions baked in. Which is right depends entirely on whether you intend to edit.
beginner14 min3 min readWhat are my rights if the tour operator cancels my holiday?
Package holidays carry statutory obligations that a set of separately booked components does not — a refund within a fixed period, an alternative of equivalent quality, and compensation in defined circumstances.
beginner16 min3 min readWhat do I do if the weather turns while I am out walking?
Recognising it early, the decision to descend, navigating in cloud, and what to do if someone is getting cold.
beginner20 min4 min readWhat does the spin speed on a washing machine do?
Spin speed decides how much water is left in the load, which decides drying time — and it is also the main thing that creases and wears clothes.
beginner10 min3 min readWhat is the difference between a running stitch, a backstitch and a slip stitch?
Four hand stitches compared on strength, visibility and what each is actually for, so you pick the right one for a repair.
beginner15 min3 min readWhat travel insurance do I need when I am pregnant?
Pregnancy is not usually a declared condition, but complications are underwritten, gestation limits apply, and cover for a baby born abroad is a separate question with an enormous price tag.
beginner12 min3 min readWhich bike should I buy for commuting?
Matching the bike type to the route, the accessories that are not optional, and why the cheapest bikes cost more over time.
beginner30 min3 min readWhich sewing machine should I buy as a beginner?
The handful of features that matter, why weight is a useful proxy for quality, and the case for a serviced second-hand machine.
beginner30 min3 min readWhy do my phone photos look grainy and smeared at night?
How night mode actually works, why holding still matters more than any setting, and when to give up and add light.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy does my machine stitching pucker or come out uneven?
Telling a puckered seam from a shifted one, why the bottom layer always travels further than the top, and the four settings that cause rippling on light fabric.
beginner25 min4 min readWhy does my sewing machine bunch thread underneath?
The nest of loops under the fabric is almost always a top threading fault, not a bobbin fault — and the order to check things in.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy does portrait mode cut out bits of hair and glasses?
Portrait mode guesses at depth and then blurs everything it decided is background. Where the guess is hard — hair, glasses, gaps, thin objects — the cut-out fails visibly.
beginner12 min3 min readHow do I declutter a child's things without a battle?
Why clearing toys behind their back backfires, how to reduce volume with a child rather than against them, and the rotation system that does most of the work invisibly.
beginner1 hr 30 min4 min readHow do I do gesture drawing and what is it actually for?
A gesture drawing records the action of a pose in thirty seconds to two minutes. It is not a fast sketch of the outline — it is a drawing of what the body is doing.
intermediate25 min3 min readHow do I read guitar tab?
Six lines, six strings, and one orientation that everybody gets backwards at first. What every number and letter on a tab staff means, and the one thing tab deliberately does not tell you.
beginner20 min5 min readHow do I thin acrylic paint for an airbrush?
The milk-consistency rule and what it actually means, why the right thinner is not always water, and the ratio-and-pressure relationship that decides whether a coat lands smooth.
intermediate15 min5 min readHow do I use alcohol markers without streaks and bleed-through?
Streaks come from letting an area dry before you have finished covering it. Bleed-through is the paper, and no technique fixes the wrong paper.
intermediate25 min5 min readHow do I use casting resin safely?
The sensitisation risk people are not told about, the mixing method that prevents a batch that never cures, and how deep pour and thickness limits actually work.
intermediate1 hr6 min read