How to do various things

This page is for beginning new guides that are too short for their own page. For guides that have their own page, see Category:How-to.

How to mop the floor

For most impervious surfaces, a splash of bleach and a tablespoon of dish detergent in a gallon or two of hot water is the best solution.

Lay down a lot of the cleaning solution, let it sit a minute, then soak it back into a wrung mop, ideally disposing of the dirty liquid into a separate bucket.

In most cases, two cycles are necessary. In the dirtiest cases, fresh solution is required for the second cycle.

How to keep knives sharp

Use the back side of the blade to scrape items off a cutting board instead of the sharp side. Thanks to "The Frugal Gourmet" Jeff Smith for this tip.

Wash and dry the blade immediately after cutting.

Don't let the blade touch glass or stone, or even other metal, only food, cutting boards, water, and towels.

Don't leave a wet blade touching anything—Rust will form.

How to ventilate a building

If it's hotter outside than in, and you want to remain cool, blow out from the room you're in—That way air will be cooled by the rest of the building before it gets to your room.

If you have a stinky room, exhaust there.

To get rid of heat through a double-slash window, pull down the top slash and exhaust through the top. To save heat, exhaust through the bottom.