Guides and articles
Practical guides written alongside the apps. Newest first within each app.
Firm Ground
Fall prevention checklist for seniors, room by room
Start with the bathroom and the stairs, then the night path from bed to toilet. Those three places account for the most serious home falls, and most fixes there cost less than a dinner out.
Read →Grab bar height: toilet, shower and tub
Mount horizontal grab bars so the top of the bar is 33–36 inches (84–91 cm) above the floor. Beside a toilet use a bar at least 24 inches (60 cm) long; in a shower add a vertical bar at the entry.
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Negatone
How to scan film negatives with your phone at home
Put a sheet of paper on a bright tablet screen, lay the negative on top, hold the phone 8–12 cm above and lock exposure on the blank film edge. Then remove the orange mask before inverting.
Read →Why colour negatives are orange, and how to remove the mask
The orange tint is a built-in mask that corrects impure cyan and magenta dyes. To scan a colour negative, divide out the colour of the blank film edge first, then invert; otherwise the orange becomes a blue cast.
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Kinfile
What to put in an emergency binder
An emergency binder should answer eleven questions for your family: who to call, where the documents are, where the money is, what is insured, what to cancel, your health, your home and car, your digital life, who depends on you, your work and pension, and what you want. Here is the checklist, chapter by chapter.
Read →In case of death binder: where to keep it and who gets it
Keep the in-case-of-death binder as a printed copy in a place one or two trusted people know about, and if you also share it as a file, protect it with a password and tell the recipient the password separately. Never put passwords inside the binder itself.
Read →Legacy drawer checklist: the digital-life chapter
Apple Legacy Contact gives one person access to your Apple Account photos, messages, notes and backups after your death, but not to iCloud Keychain passwords, purchased media or anything outside Apple. A complete legacy drawer adds a map to your password manager, email, finances and social accounts, without writing down a single password.
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Orbita
How to measure your ring size at home
The most reliable way is to measure the inside diameter of a ring that already fits the right finger and look it up on a chart. If you have no ring, wrap a strip of paper around the base of the finger, measure the length in millimetres and convert; measure in the afternoon, not first thing in the morning.
Read →Ring size chart: US, UK, EU, Japan and millimetres
US size 7 is about 17.3 mm inside diameter, which is UK N to N½, EU 54 to 54.5 and Japanese 14 to 15. The chart below converts every half millimetre from 14 to 23 mm into all four systems; when charts disagree, compare millimetres, not size labels.
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Lamina
What to put on an emergency information sheet for the fridge
An emergency sheet on the fridge should list your parent's full name, date of birth, address, allergies, current medicines, important conditions, doctor, insurance and two or three people to call. Keep it to one page, in large print, and update it whenever a medicine or a phone number changes.
Read →How to make a medication chart an elderly parent can actually use
A good medication chart lists each medicine on its own row with the dose and a short note, then gives seven days of tick boxes for morning, midday, evening and night. Print it large, keep it next to the pills, and redo it every time the doctor changes something.
Read →How to teach an elderly parent to video call, step by step
Pick one app your family already uses, set the device up yourself, write the steps on a large-print card with numbers and pictures, and rehearse a short call together. Agree on an ordinary phone number to fall back on when the video does not work.
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Nightkit
CPAP supply replacement schedule: what Medicare covers and when
Medicare covers nasal cushions and disposable filters twice a month, full-face cushions monthly, mask frames and tubing every 3 months, and headgear, chin straps, reusable filters and water chambers every 6 months.
Read →How often to replace CPAP filters
Replace disposable CPAP filters about every two weeks, or as soon as they look grey (Medicare covers two per month), and replace reusable foam or pollen filters about every six months, rinsing them regularly in between.
Read →How to clean a CPAP mask, tubing and water chamber
Wipe the mask cushion daily and empty the water chamber every morning; once a week, wash the mask, headgear, tubing and chamber in warm water with mild soap, rinse well and let everything air dry out of direct sunlight.
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Wink
Contact lens replacement schedule: how often to change each type
Replace daily lenses after one wear, two-week lenses after 14 days and monthly lenses after 30 days, counted from the day you open the pack, not from the number of days worn. Your eye doctor's prescription and the lens instructions always come first.
Read →How many hours a day can you wear contact lenses?
Most people can wear soft contact lenses for about 8 to 16 hours a day, and many eye doctors suggest aiming for 10 to 12. Your personal limit is the one your eye care professional sets, and daily wear lenses should not be slept in.
Read →How often should you replace your contact lens case?
Replace your contact lens case at least every 3 months, or right away if it cracks or gets damaged. That is the recommendation from the FDA, CDC and American Academy of Ophthalmology, and many eye doctors suggest doing it with every new bottle of solution.
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PoolDose
How much chlorine to add to your pool: the formula
Millilitres of liquid chlorine = ppm increase × pool litres ÷ (10 × strength in %). For 10,000 US gallons that is about 12.8 fl oz of 10 % liquid chlorine per 1 ppm, and your target should come from your CYA level.
Read →The FC/CYA ratio: how stabilizer sets your chlorine level
Keep free chlorine at least 7.5 % of your CYA, aim for about 11.5 % or a little above, and shock at 40 %. At 40 ppm stabilizer that means a minimum of 3 ppm, a 5–7 ppm target and 16 ppm for SLAM.
Read →How to lower (and raise) pH and alkalinity in a pool
Acid lowers both pH and total alkalinity; to lower alkalinity alone, add acid to pH 7.0–7.2 and then aerate until pH climbs back to 7.4–7.6. To raise them, use baking soda for TA and aeration, borax or soda ash for pH.
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Siphon Aqua
How often to change aquarium water, and how much to change
For most freshwater tanks, change about 25% of the water once a week. Small or heavily stocked tanks may need more, lightly stocked planted tanks less, and a nitrate test tells you which applies to yours.
Read →How to do an aquarium water change, step by step
Switch off the heater and filter, siphon out 20–30% of the water while vacuuming the gravel, then refill with dechlorinated tap water at the same temperature and switch everything back on.
Read →How often to clean an aquarium filter without crashing the tank
Rinse the filter sponge about once a month, or as soon as the flow drops noticeably, and always in water taken out of the tank during a water change, never under the tap.
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iSimpleLoop
How to make a loop on iPhone: a beginner's guide to looping
To make a loop on iPhone, set a tempo, record one to four bars after a count-in, stop exactly on the next downbeat, then overdub new layers while it repeats. Use wired headphones and a looper with latency compensation so the layers stay in time.
Read →The best way to record song ideas on your iPhone
For a quick hum or lyric line, Voice Memos is enough. For a riff you want to develop, loop it at a fixed tempo, sing over it and keep the lyrics in the same project. A looper app does that in minutes, and a DAW is for finishing.
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Sin Tracker
The seven deadly sins: the full list and what each one means
The seven deadly sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. The list comes from early Christian monks and was fixed by Pope Gregory the Great in AD 590; it does not appear in the Bible itself.
Read →How to track bad habits without giving up after a week
Pick one or two specific habits, make logging take seconds, count every slip rather than only streaks, and review the pattern once a week. Research shows that simply monitoring a behavior, especially in writing, makes change more likely.
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