| How to Add Vinegar to Laundry Posted: 01 Nov 2021 01:00 AM PDT White distilled vinegar is practically a miracle when it comes to laundry, you can use this inexpensive product to do everything from softening fabric to deodorizing clothing to removing stains. In most cases, all you need to do is pour vinegar or a mixture of vinegar and water directly into your washer as it fills with water. Then add your laundry. Note: Do not pour vinegar directly on fabrics. [Edit]Cleaning Your Clothes - Keep your clothes clean with vinegar. Pour 1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar into your washing machine instead of the detergent you would normally use. This will clean your clothes without the use of the harsh chemicals found in many commercial laundry detergents.[1]
- Use vinegar as a fabric softener. Get 1 cup of white distilled vinegar ready. When a load of laundry reaches its last rinse cycle, pour the vinegar into the washer. This will act as a simple yet effective natural fabric softener.[2]
- Pre-treat stains with vinegar. Dilute 1/2 cup vinegar in a gallon of water. Apply this directly to stains on your fabrics, with a clean cloth, or by pouring the solution right on the stain. Wash your clothes as you normally would.
- Bleach clothes with a vinegar solution. Mix 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1/4 cup of borax, and 1/2 cup of vinegar. Use this as a gentle alternative whenever you would use bleach with your laundry. [3]
- Use vinegar to deodorize clothes. If you have smelly clothes, add 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar straight to the washer during the last rinse cycle. This will remove the smells from your clothes, without making them smell like vinegar.[4]
[Edit]Protecting Fabrics - Stop colors from fading. Pour 1/2 cup of white, distilled vinegar into a load of laundry to protect color from fading. This same technique will prevent dark colors like black and navy blue from becoming dull due to repeated washing.
- You can also re-treat fabrics with vinegar to keep their colors fast. Add 1/2 cup vinegar to one gallon of water. To keep colors from running, dip bright colors in the solution, then wash them.
- Prevent static and lint. Add 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar to the last rinse cycle of a load of laundry. This will prevent the static that can make your clothes annoyingly stick to other clothing or your body. For many fabrics, it can also help prevent the buildup of lint.[5]
- Remove buildup on clothes. Regular detergents can cause soapy residue to accumulate on clothes and cause streaks or roughness. Add 1 cup of vinegar to a gallon of water. Soak your clothes in this solution, and then wash them. The buildup will be removed.[6]
- This residue is particularly noticeable in whites, which can become yellowed over time. Black clothing will also appear to fade over time. Soaking them in a vinegar and water solution can reverse these effects.
- Clean your washing machine. Soapy residue can also build up inside your washing machine, eventually getting on your clothes. Once a month, put 1 cup of vinegar into your washer and run it without loading any clothes. This will remove the residue from the machine's tub.
[Edit]Warnings - Make sure to use only white distilled vinegar for laundry purposes.
- Vinegar solutions are safe to use on most 100% cotton, permanent press cotton, and polyester fabrics.
- If you are not sure how vinegar will affect a certain fabric, apply a small amount of the solution you are using to an inconspicuous spot. If it doesn't appear to damage the fabric, then it should be safe to wash the entire item in the solution.
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| How to Tell Scary Stories Posted: 31 Oct 2021 05:00 PM PDT Before horror movies laced with special effects kept people up at night, people got scared the old-fashioned way: through storytelling. Telling scary stories in a way that really scares people can be tough to master, so it does take some practice. You can come up with the perfect story and build suspense to keep your audience hooked on your every word. [Edit]Coming up with a Story - Read a few classic scary stories to get inspiration. Go to the library or search online for the scariest stories you can find. Pick out 3 to 5 stories that have spooking potential and read them all the way through. Think about how you can make them your own by putting your own twist on them.[1]
- Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Woman in Black are a few classic scary stories that you could read.
- The more realistic and recent the story, the scarier it'll be when you tell it. That way, the listeners can relate.
- Urban legends make excellent scary stories. The danger with using an urban legend, however, is that some of your listeners may have heard variations of it, thus ruining the effect.
- Set the story in a recent time period or place. Change the details so that it seems as though the story took place nearby, and recently. If the story took place in a canning factory, but you know there's a pecan factory in your town, switch out that detail (if you can do so without changing the story too much). If you can tie the story to someone you know, that's even better.[2]
- Add in details to make your story sound realistic. Try to put in as many details as you can so your story sounds real, like where exactly it was, what time of day it was, or what the weather was like. If your story is about you, add in your reactions and what you were feeling. If you're telling it from someone else's perspective, give details on who they are and how you found out about it. For the big climax of your story, put in an actionable detail that's super scary.[3]
- For example, you could tell an urban legend about your hometown from the point of view of your grandpa as a child.
- Or, you could tell a ghost story about how you explored an abandoned building in the countryside.
- You can also tweak your story to add in details of your current surroundings. For example, if you're sitting outside on a foggy night, say that your story happened during a foggy night too.
- End with a frightening climax to your story. The scariest part of a scary story is not knowing what's coming next. Think of a large, expressive action that will make your audience jump or get super scared. Emphasize how scared the person in your story was to give your audience a way to relate.[4]
- If you're telling a story about a monster, the climax could be that it almost caught you as you were running away.
- If your story involves ghosts, you could talk about how you saw a dark figure in the hallway that rushed towards you.
- For stories involving creepy critters, describe the feeling of a snake or a spider crawling up your arm.
- Practice saying the story out loud once or twice. There's nothing worse than realizing you forgot a crucial detail in the setup of your story. Spend a few minutes rehearsing how you're going to tell your story, and make sure you aren't leaving out any important information.[5]
- If you need to, you can write out a few notes to help you keep track of the details. However, try to memorize your story before you actually tell it.
[Edit]Building Suspense - Mention some casual details about your story throughout the day. Way before you tell the story (like the day before, or that morning), find a way to mention a few details that are relevant to the story. If you drive by the pecan factory, for example, ask your friends if they've ever been there. If you're telling a ghost story, ask your friends if they believe in evil spirits.[6]
- This will make your audience curious and set up a little suspense before you even start telling your story.
- Pick a time when you have your audience's full attention. If you're going camping, wait until you're sitting by the bonfire. If you're at a sleepover, time your story for when your friends are all in the living room. Try to make them sit around you so you can look everyone in the face.[7]
- If your audience members are distracted, your story won't be as effective.
- Act nervous about telling the story to build suspense. When the time draws near to tell the story, start pretending to be anxious. Get the chills here and there, and rub your upper arms as if to warm yourself. Look suddenly behind you, or at the distance, as if you just saw something. Keep doing this kind of stuff subtly until someone notices. At first, brush it off as if it's nothing, but keep up the act.[8]
- This will intrigue your audience so that they're dying to know more. It also helps to build suspense, making your story even scarier.
[Edit]Scaring Your Audience - Start telling your story in a slow, quiet voice. Make your voice loud enough so that everyone can hear, but keep your eyes down to make it seem like you're being forced to talk. A quiet voice can make you seem reluctant, like you don't want to tell your story but the audience is twisting your arm.[9]
- This might even force some people to lean in closer to you, giving you more of their attention.
- You could start your story with something like, "When I was 5 years old, my grandpa told me the story of the bloody lagoon."
- Add in body language to make your story more realistic. If you're talking about how scared you were, open your eyes wide to look frightened. If you're talking about how you had to hit or punch at something, swing your arms wildly. Use your body as a storytelling device to drive home the details.[10][11]
- This will help keep your audience engaged and interested in what you have to say.
- If you're sitting right next to someone, use caution when you swing your arms around so you don't hit them.
- Try to stay seated when you tell your story. Standing up or acting out your words can make you seem too eager.
- Use pauses for dramatic effect. As you get closer and closer to the climax of your story, stop talking for 2 to 3 seconds at a time. Act like you can't even bear to tell the rest of the story to engage your audience even more.[12]
- Your audience might even feel bad for making you tell the story, which makes it even more scary.
- For example, you could say, "And then… (dramatic pause) I heard a knock at the door."
- End the story with the dramatic climax. Yell the last sentence of your story while you lunge forward at your listeners and scare the life out of them. This will probably make them jump since they are so frightened. Even if they chuckle afterwards, you'll know that you got them good with your story.[13]
- You can also end your story as quietly and uncomfortably as you started it for a more subtle, disconcerting effect.
- Try to keep your story under 5 minutes long so that your audience doesn't get bored.
- Don't smile or laugh when you're telling the story. You want to establish a somber mood, tinged with anxiety.
- Always be on the lookout for new material. Read horror stories often, and think of ways you can adapt them into the spoken form.
[Edit]Warnings - Make sure your story is appropriate for the audience. Young children, for example, probably don't want to hear about blood and guts.
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| How to Celebrate Halloween Posted: 31 Oct 2021 09:00 AM PDT Halloween (also known as All Hallow's Eve, All Saint's Eve, and Samhain in some parts of the world) falls on the 31st of October every year. For many people who celebrate it, the holiday is a chance to get together with friends and family and have some spooky fun. There are all sorts of exciting ways to get in on the festivities of Halloween, from costume parties and macabre decorations to special seasonal activities like trick-or-treating, pumpkin carving, and hair-raising ghost tours. [Edit]Planning a Halloween Party - Ask your guests to wear costumes. No matter how old you are, dressing up is one of the funnest parts of Halloween. If you decide to host a party, encourage your invited guests to show up in costume. You might select a particular theme, such as vampires or Star Wars characters, or you could simply let everyone show off their creativity in a costume of their choosing.[1]
- For larger parties, you might even hold a contest and have the other partygoers vote on their favorite costumes. Offer prizes for different categories, such as "overall best," "scariest," "funniest," and "most clever idea."[2]
- Keep in mind that not everyone likes playing dress up, and that's okay. If you have guests who would prefer not to wear costumes, don't try to force them to.
- Put together a playlist of spooky tunes. Holiday-appropriate hits like Boris Pickett's "Monster Mash" and "Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood" by Don Hinson and the Rigamorticians have been giving partygoers goosebumps for decades. For a more contemporary twist, you can also queue up some pop favorites like Michael Jackson's "Thriller," The Cranberries' "Zombie," and "Howlin' for You" by The Black Keys.[3]
- Other popular additions to hip Halloween playlists include "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon, "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads, "Disturbia" by Rihanna, and "Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones.
- Pad your playlist with the theme songs from iconic horror movie franchises like "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th."[4]
- Mix up some putrid Halloween punch. Start with a blend of fizzy soda pop and tangy fruit juices—you'll find lots of simple and tasty recipes online. Once you've got your punch tasting the way you want, add a few drops of food coloring to make it resemble blood, yucky green slime, or bubbling purple witches' brew.[5]
- To make a simple yet satisfying Halloween punch, combine of ginger ale with of pineapple juice, of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and a few scoops of lime sherbet. Serve your punch in a plastic cauldron on top of a block of dry ice for added "witchiness"![6]
- For a more gruesome touch, create edible "eyeballs" by stuffing blueberries into larger lychee berries and plop them into your punch so they stare back at your guests from the surface.[7]
- If you're planning on serving alcohol at your party, consider whipping up a second bowl of punch that you can spike with your favorite liquor. Label your punches to indicate which is which, and keep your alcoholic concoctions off-limits to underage guests.
- Offer an assortment of scrumptious Halloween-themed treats. Set out trays piled high with tantalizing sweets like cookies, cupcakes, and chocolates, or keep it simple with a few baskets of candy. If you have a knack for food decoration, this can be a great opportunity to conduct mad science experiments on your own Halloween-themed confections, such as candy apple skulls, vampire fang cookies, and layered candy corn parfaits.[8]
- Don't forget to also provide a few nutritious snacks, like a veggie tray or some homemade granola bars, for your more health-conscious guests.
- Label the various items you put out and list their major ingredients (like the kind of nuts you used to make your brownies) in case any of your guests have food allergies or sensitivities.
- Bob for apples. Bobbing for apples is a beloved Halloween tradition, and a never-ending source of entertainment. Fill a large bucket or wash tub with water, dump in a few apples, and challenge your guests to try to pluck them out using only their mouths. Win or lose, you can bet that there will be no shortage of laughs.[9]
- If apples aren't your thing, you can bob for other items, too, such as pears, marshmallows, or plastic-wrapped candies. Just about any small food or beverage item will work, so long as it floats and won't disintegrate in water.[10]
- Bobbing for apples is good, clean fun, making it a perfect activity for parties with kids and younger guests in attendance.
- Screen a selection of scary movies. Turn your home into a theater of terror with a private showing of some hair-raising fright flicks. Stick with timeless classics like Halloween, Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, or House on Haunted Hill, or scare the living daylights out of your guests with chilling new offerings like IT, Get Out, The Nun, or the Pet Sematary remake.[11]
- Only show movies that are appropriate for the average age of your guests. The last thing you want to do is give some poor child nightmares! If you're looking for some kid-friendly titles, try Beetlejuice, The Adams Family, Hocus Pocus, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Frankenweenie, or Hotel Transylvania.
- If there's going to be alcohol at your party, start a drinking game for of-age guests who want to play along with the movies you're watching. For instance, you might take a drink anytime someone screams or a doomed character splits off from the group.[12]
- Horror movies can make excellent background noise for a Halloween party, even if no one is watching.[13]
- Hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. If you live in a residential area, chances are you'll be visited by at least a couple waves of costumed creepers throughout the night. Keep 1 or 2 bowls of candy or other treats on hand and take turns passing out handfuls to the boys and ghouls who find their way to your door.[14]
- Try to guess what your trick-or-treaters are as you portion out their treats.
- If you'd rather not have to keep running back and forth to the door while you're entertaining your guests, set out an oversized bowl of candy, along with a note instructing trick-or-treaters to take a single piece for themselves. The kids in your neighborhood will be thankful that you did![15]
- Carve jack-o-lanterns. Pick up some plump pumpkins from the supermarket or your local pumpkin patch. Remove the tops from the pumpkins, scoop out the seeds and pulp, and cut frightening faces or other festive designs into one side. When you're happy with your work, place a candle inside each pumpkin and replace the lid to bring your jack-o-lantern to life with an eerie glow.[16]
- There are many premade jack-o-lantern stencils available online if you're not sure what to carve. Just print out a stencil that catches your eye, pin or tape it to the face of your pumpkin, and cut carefully around the dotted lines.[17]
- Give big kids a hand with knives, saws, and other potentially-dangerous carving tools, and keep them away from smaller children entirely.
- Paint pumpkins with small children. Kids and pumpkin-carving tools are a bad mix. If you have young children at home, a safer alternative is to pick out pumpkins in varying shapes and sizes and decorate them with acrylic paint. Afterwards, use your finished pumpkins to adorn your dining table, porch steps, or window sills.[18]
- Have your kids personalize their pumpkins with monsters, animals, or characters from their favorite books, movies, or TV shows.
- Pumpkins patterned with autumn leaves, flowers, or abstract designs can also serve as great seasonal decorations in childless homes.[19]
- Hang fake spider webs to give your home a haunted vibe. Suspend webs from places like long, dark hallways, staircases, light fixtures, and the corners of your ceiling. Use strips of tape for easy removal later on. To make your staging more realistic, stick a couple plastic spiders in each web.[20]
- You'll find packages of fake spider webs at any supermarket, department store, or costume shop around Halloween.
- Ideally, your webs should hang high enough to prevent your guests from getting tangled in them.
- Fill your home with balloon ghosts. Blow up and tie off a cluster of large balloons and insert them into plain white garbage bags. Twist the excess material around the bottoms of the balloons and secure them with rubber bands. Use a permanent marker to draw eyes and other features onto your balloon, then release them to instantly haunt your office, kitchen, or living room.[21]
- Renting a helium tank can save you a considerable amount of time and lung power if you're going to be blowing up a lot of balloons at once. Helium is also a must if you want your balloons to float on their own.
- Turn any door into a cute yet menacing mummy. Wind strips of toilet paper or white crepe paper across your front door or the door that leads to your party space. Cut two hypnotizing eyes out of construction paper and tape them to the door between 2 rows of paper. If you like, you can also place a few overlapping sheets of wrinkled green or yellow tissue paper beneath the bandages to create the effect of gnarled skin straight from the tomb!
- Scribble criss-crossing red lines onto your construction paper eyeballs using a red pen, marker, or crayon to lend them a bloodshot appearance.
- Another fast and easy option is to use giant stick-on googly eyes, which you can buy online or at most major arts and crafts stores.[22]
- Convert an ordinary end table to a ghostly candy stand. Drape a white sheet over the table, then cut out pieces of scrap fabric in the shape of eyes and a mouth and pin them to the lower part of the sheet. Finally, place a large bowl in the center of the table and fill it with candy. The billowing sheet will make the table look like a moaning ghost, offering up tricks and treats.[23]
- Use a plastic bowl, if possible. A glass bowl could easily break if somewhere were to accidentally step on the sheet.
[Edit]Enjoying Other Seasonal Activities - Go trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating is practically synonymous with Halloween. If you have small children, or you're still young enough to get in on the action yourself, venture out in your most impressive costume and go door-to-door in your neighborhood collecting candy. Be sure to bring along a bucket or bag big enough to lug your haul home![24]
- Wear reflective clothing or carry a flashlight to make yourself visible to drivers once it gets dark, and remember to walk, not run.
- Not everyone enjoys receiving trick-or-treaters on Halloween. If you come to a house that has its lights off, it's usually a sign that the person who lives there doesn't wish to participate.
- Test your courage with a trip to a haunted house. Gather a group of adventurous friends and see if you can survive a tour of your most harrowing local haunted house attraction. This can be an exhilarating way to celebrate the holiday's darker themes, especially if you're an adrenaline junkie. Just beware: you're in for a scare![25]
- Run a quick search for "haunted house" plus the name of your city to find a list of haunted house attractions in your area.
- Haunted houses aren't for the faint of heart—literally. You may be better off sitting this one out if you suffer from heart problems, seizures, or another medical condition that might be triggered by lights and loud noises.[26]
- Look for special screenings at the movie theater. Some theaters run special events during the Halloween season, such as costume nights and limited big-screen showings of classic horror flicks. In some cases, they may even offer free or discounted tickets. Check the showtimes online or in your local newspaper to find out if any theaters near you are getting in on the action.[27]
- A group outing to the theater can be fun way to enjoy Halloween if you're not really the partying type, or you just feel like hitting the town.
- While deciding what movie you want to see, remember that you must be at least 17 years old to get into R-rated features without being accompanied by an adult.[28]
- Sign up for a ghost tour to learn about your area's haunted history. Almost all towns and cities offer guided ghost tours to interested residents and tourists alike. One of these tours can give you a fascinating glimpse into local lore and legend while also showing you parts of your neck of the woods that you may have never seen before.[29]
- Most ghost tours take place on foot in the late evening, which means you'll need to wear a pair of comfortable shoes and a light jacket and be prepared to stand and walk for up to 3 hours.[30]
- Be sure to pack a camera or smartphone, as well. If you're lucky, you may capture an image of an actual ghost!
- Ghost tours tend to fill up quickly the closer it gets to Halloween, so be sure to purchase your tickets as far ahead of time as possible.
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