DIY (Page 14)

PopSci's curated collection of life skills, tech tips, and hands-on projects we think you'll love.

Latest in DIY

Cannabis plant under purple weed grow light

On 420, learn more about weed with these carefully cultivated science stories

By Jamie Helmick

The main Jellyfin interface on a web browser.

How to use Jellyfin to stream movies, music, and more right from your hard drive

Different images from Popular Science Spring 2023 issue on a purple background. From left: a soapy poop emoji, a pill with multiple tools popping out, a group of Roman builders with Poseidon, beech mushrooms. At the center is a mug with a pink frosted donut in place of its handle with the text "Make It Work."

PopSci has been making it work for 150 years—and we’re not stopping now

By Purbita Saha

Meteorites fall during a meteor shower.

Get ready to watch the Lyrid meteor shower peak this weekend

By Laura Baisas

Hand holding a joint,

A step-by-step guide to rolling a joint

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

Baby with brown eyes and brown hair laying on their back. The baby is sleeping in a crib, not a bed, to prevent SIDS.

This is the safest way to sleep with your baby

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Person in a dark room watering a houseplant with a beam of light. Illustrated.

How to grow plants in the dark

By Ellen Airhart

A group of people outside their cars along a closed road, wearing eclipse glasses to watch a solar eclipse.

Watch this week’s rare solar eclipse from anywhere in the world

By Briley Lewis

Two women using one laptop at a wooden table. One woman is wearing a black hat.

Use email aliases to organize your inbox—and stay private

A woman wearing a baggy black shirt lounging on a couch, eating a bowl of popcorn, while holding a TV remote with popcorn all over her chest.

Hidden Netflix codes and 5 other streaming tools to make TV simpler, smarter, and more fun

An Xbox One S with a controller sitting on a white table.

Control your Xbox by using your voice

iPad Pro showing a Freeform canvas on screen

5 ways to get started with Freeform, Apple’s app for creative thinkers

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

The Apple Music iPhone app icon, red.

Right on cue, Apple Music Classical is here to liven up your music library

Teen in green sweatshirt with long brown hair against a bright yellow background scrolling through TikTok on a smartphone

How to break your toxic infinite scroll habit on TikTok

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A person sitting in front of a desktop computer in an office, using a laptop. She should learn to schedule a shutdown on Windows.

Set your computer to turn on and off on a schedule

A carpenter bee on a white flower. If you're trying to figure out how to get rid of carpenter bees, it's best not to kill these crucial pollinators.

Easy ways to stop carpenter bees from remodeling your home

By Julia Rittenberg

Amazon Luna controller hovering in front of a purple background.

7 things to know about Amazon’s new gaming service, Luna

Narcan naloxone nasal spray vending machine in Illinois to fight opioid overdoses

4 common myths about Narcan, the ‘antidote’ to opioid overdose

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A person with red nail polish scrolling through their Instagram feed in chronological order.

The button that will put your Instagram feed in chronological order

By John Kennedy

Pile of print photos

How to move your photos to and from any cloud service

Person holding phone to their ear in a phone call

Tweak these settings for better-sounding phone calls

A Macbook laptop with Gmail loading in a browser. If you're lucky, you'll reach Inbox Zero in Gmail.

4 tips to help you achieve ‘Inbox Zero’ in Gmail

A wooden serving tray with a variety of dehydrated fruit and herbs on it, along with fresh fruit and herbs.

Dehydrating food can save you money and reduce waste

By Bridget Reed Morawski

Car dashboard screen showing Android Auto's new interface with Google Maps.

Take advantage of all of Android Auto’s new customizations

A total solar eclipse, a bright ring of sunlight around a dark moon on July 2, 2019.

April’s skies boast the full pink moon, Lyrid meteor shower, and a total solar eclipse

By Laura Baisas

A man sitting in a study cubicle, holding his head in frustration as he looks at his laptop, which has a lot of stickers on it.

The easiest ways to recover deleted files

Hands putting bandage on a hiker's foot outdoors

How to save your feet from painful blisters

By Alisha McDarris

backlit laptop keyboard

How to clear your web history in any browser

An iPhone screen showing the Apple Mail app with 129 unread emails.

The easiest way to move your emails from Google to iCloud

It's easy to take back control of your data with this smartphone security checklist.

Your checklist for maximum smartphone security

Two people, silhouetted, looking up at a clear night sky.

Catch 5 planets (including Uranus) in an ultra-rare planetary alignment

By Briley Lewis

A Mount Sinai ambulance with its lights on in New York City.

These smartphone settings could save your life

By John Kennedy

A white clothes dryer with a clean dryer vent behind a white curtain, in front of a tall window with sunlight shining through.

How to clean your dryer vent so it doesn’t catch on fire

By John Kennedy

A pile of pills of various shapes and colors on an orange background. Some of these may be allergy medications.

The right way to use seasonal allergy medications

By Kate Baggaley

a person plugs in a usb drive

Don’t plug in mysterious USB drives

By Harry Guinness

A Canada goose opening its mouth and spreading its wings to protect its nest and its mate behind it at the edge of a marshy area.

Read this if you’re too scared to walk past a goose

By Alisha McDarris

A Macbook laptop on a white desk with the browser notifications settings visible for Google Chrome.

How to block or allow browser notifications from any website

A Black person reaching their hands into a zeer pot—a type of DIY refrigerator—full of green beans, tomatoes, and other produce.

The coolest way to keep food cold without electricity

By Ilana E. Strauss

A man in a blue t-shirt and jeans working with a DIY router sled in a woodshop.

Build your own router sled to flatten wood without buying big, expensive tools

By Jean Levasseur

Foods that make you feel full on a beige background, including kale, raspberry, whole wheat pasta, salmon, green apple, steak, crackers, chocolates, popcorn, pink frosted donut, peas in a pod, and a basil leaf

How to feel full just by eating good food

By Betsy Andrews/Saveur

A Black woman with orange, braided hair sitting in front of a silver Surface laptop, possibly using Microsoft PowerToys.

Paste text without ugly formatting, and other ways Microsoft’s PowerToys can help you

By David Nield, Justin Pot

A person holding an unlocked iPhone, with apps on the screen.

5 ways you can use the iPhone Shortcuts app to improve your life

Black Mercedes Benz sedan hydroplaning in rain when speeding down highway

A driver’s guide to hydroplaning and how to handle it

By Tony Markovich/The Drive

Two hands with fingerless gloves on a laptop with Microsoft Word open.

10 Microsoft Word tips you need to learn right now

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

Screenshot of an image showing a cat opened on macOS with overlayed and selected text.

How to copy text from an image on any device

Colon cancer shown in abdominal X-ray in red, blue, and green

Colon cancer cases in younger generations are rising. When should you get screened?

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A person using the Apple Notes app on an iPhone.

Write these down: the best note-taking apps for your phone

Person on a New York City subway train texting on their phone.

7 secure messaging apps you should be using

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

A man with short, brown hair, wearing a white t-shirt and hanging a white cabinet door in a white kitchen.

A simple guide to hanging cabinet doors

By Jean Levasseur

Start your garden early with the help of the best seedling starter trays.

The best seedling starter trays

By Timothy Dale

A man sitting in a cubicle, frustrated with a slow computer. He's probably wondering, "Why is my computer so slow?"

5 easy ways to troubleshoot a slow computer

The best Bissell carpet cleaners composited

The best Bissell carpet cleaners

By Terri Williams

Hand holding a pen placing sticky note on planner, a good way to track your period without an app.

How to track your own period—without an app

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

An Elgato Stream Deck under a wall-mounted TV, in a room with blue lighting.

7 ways to use the Elgato Stream Deck beyond livestreaming

Yellow, red, and white roses left at a memorial for the victims of the Half Moon Bay mass shooting. A white sign behind the bouquets says "as a community we grieve."

How to cope with collective grief—and even turn it into action

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

4 reasons you should be using WhatsApp Web

A set of hand soaps and shampoo bars over organic cotton covers and other wooden-made toiletries.

Travel more sustainably with a DIY zero-waste toiletry kit

By Alisha McDarris

Anycubic 3D Printer deal at Amazon

Get up to 50% off ANYCUBIC 3D printers at Amazon right now

By Stan Horaczek

Beech mushrooms growing on a substrate against a gold background

How to use the power of mushrooms to improve your life

By Julia Craven

Person cleaning the screen of a laptop with a cloth as part of their digital spring cleaning.

A complete guide to digital spring cleaning

A cedar DIY planter box on the concrete front steps of a gray house with a red door.

Liven up your yard by building this cedar planter box

By Jean Levasseur

Screenshot of AppCleaner on MacOS deleting apps.

This is how to completely delete apps and any residual data off your Mac

best paint spray gun

The best paint spray guns

By PopSci Commerce Team

Person putting Chromebook into a bag.

You should back up your Chromebook. Here’s how.