If you park a pressure washer against the wall of your garage after a weekend cleaning job, you probably assume it stays off until you touch it again. Federal regulators say that assumption doesn’t hold for thousands of Generac and DR Power electric-start pressure washers now under an expanded recall, because a faulty start/stop button … Read more
A pool drain cover looks like the least interesting part of your backyard, right up until it isn’t. Federal safety regulators have pulled at least eight different pool and spa drain covers off the market in 2026 alone for violating the same federal entrapment-protection law, and several were sold almost exclusively through one place: Amazon. … Read more
Most squatting disputes people hear about involve a lockout, a locksmith, and months in housing court. A case out of Long Beach, California, shows how much further the problem can go once the people occupying a home start treating it as leverage instead of shelter, allegedly filing a fraudulent deed to claim ownership and then … Read more
Fifty years ago, a household where both parents worked full time was the exception. Now it’s closer to the default, and a new Pew Research Center analysis lays out just how much ground has shifted underneath American families, along with how differently that shift has landed depending on your race and your degree. Photo: Ketut … Read more
A real Christmas tree is projected to cost about $83.87 on average this season, according to survey data compiled from National Christmas Tree Association figures, up roughly $4.50 from last year. An entry-level artificial tree at most big-box retailers runs somewhere in that same neighborhood, which means the gap between “buy fresh every year” … Read more
About 90 percent of the energy your washing machine uses doesn’t go to spinning or cleaning at all. It goes to heating the water. That single number, cited by both ENERGY STAR and the American Cleaning Institute, is the first sign that the hot-water habit a lot of households never questioned is costing more than … Read more
Sixty-seven percent of people say they feel disorganized “always” or “frequently,” according to a national survey from the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. Almost 43 percent say clutter fills most or all of their home. You’ve probably bought a bin system at some point to fix this — the labeled totes, the drawer … Read more
Ten to fifteen years. That’s the typical working life of a garage door opener before its motor, gears, or circuit board start giving out, according to repair-industry estimates, and most homeowners have no idea where they fall in that window. Nobody replaces a garage door opener on a schedule. They replace it after it fails, … Read more
A professional sprinkler blowout runs about $90 on average, and skipping it can leave you facing a repair bill running into the thousands once the first hard freeze hits. Angi’s national cost data puts the typical winterization visit between $56 and $137, averaging around $93 for a standard residential system, while HomeGuide’s cost guide lands … Read more
Fewer than 5% of the spiders you find inside your own house have ever set foot outdoors, according to arachnologist Rod Crawford at Seattle’s Burke Museum. That number tends to stop people mid-scream. If the eight-legged visitor crossing your bathroom floor this month isn’t a recent arrival from the yard, then the sudden fall “spider … Read more