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Make a home inventory the easy way

Every homeowner dreads coming home to the scene of a burglary. Whether you’ve gone on a two-week vacation or a 15-minute errand, it could happen to anyone.

Your first instinct after calling the police may be to lock your house down like Fort Knox for the rest of your life, but what are you going to do about what was stolen?

Most insurance companies won’t help you recover your valuables unless they’re already on file. And taking stock of your possessions after your house has been vandalized is like closing the barn door after the horse is out.

If your valuables aren’t already listed with your insurance company, then you’ll be stuck paying to replace those things with your own money. The best thing to do is to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

Here is the perfect app to help you with the recovery of your valuables in case of a break-in.

Don’t waste another minute; check out the Encircle: Home Inventory app. This comprehensive and easy-to-use app makes it a snap to catalog the valuables in your house.

To use Encircle, start from the outside of your house and work your way in by taking pictures of the outside of your house and the inside of every room. Once you have the basics established, simply take pictures of the valuables in your house like your oven, refrigerator, major appliances, antiques and, obviously, your tech gadgets.

Encircle has no limit to the amount of pictures you can take, and you can add notes to each picture. There is also a very helpful option to add information about valuables like your computer serial number, purchase information and other important data to help you recover or replace your valuables faster.

But Encircle doesn’t just help you in the event of a burglary. If there’s a natural disaster or a fire that destroys your home, your insurance company will need to know what you lost to help recover or replace them.

Download for iOS – Free

Download for Android – Free

5 ways to fix an Android phone that won't charge

It always happens at the wrong time, right? You’re on your way to an important meeting or you’re running late to pick up the kids. Your boss is waiting for you to dial into a conference call or you need to email a time-sensitive contract to a client.

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The replacements

Some items need to be replaced more often than most of us actually do. I’ve got you covered! Even better, these household items are on sale now:

Replace your toothbrush every three months or after you’re sick. Bacteria sits in the bristles. Grab a four-pack for 13% off now.
Dishwashing sponges should be replaced every couple of weeks. Set yourself up for six months to a year with a 24-pack for under $10.
You’re supposed to replace your pillow every year or so. Get a four-pack of quality down-alternative pillows to update your household ($29.99, 32% off).
Spices lose their flavor fast, but whole spices can last for three to four years. Now you just need a spice grinder. This Ninja model is 28% off.
At least once a year, replace your shower curtain liner to keep mold and mildew at bay. This bestselling liner is 29% off now and $11.99.

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Mac shortcut: You have a folder full of photos all named “IMG_2348” or some nonsense. Open the folder, hit Cmd + A to select all the files, then right-click and select Rename. Replace “IMG” with something like “Hawaii.” Bam! Done.

How to change an AirTag battery

Open/download audio

Is your tracker running low on juice? No need to buy a new one for $29 — just replace the battery for a few bucks!

310 miles

Of conveyor belt could replace 25,000 cargo trucks in Japan. The zero-emissions solution could connect Tokyo and Osaka by 2034. Why? Japan’s population is shrinking so quickly that they’re running out of truck drivers to deliver packages.

Every last bit

I hate waste and wasting money. These items help you get every last little drop of the stuff you paid for.

For bottles: This bottle-emptying kit ($9.86) has a base cap and three adapters you can use to replace the top on your bottle. Get every last drop of shampoo, dish soap or ketchup.
For jars: These skinny spatulas ($4.99) are made of food-grade silicone so you can use them to get the last of your swanky eye cream or fancy truffle hot sauce.
For tubes: A good-lookin’ and good-workin’ squeezer ($12.97) to get the last bit of toothpaste, sunscreen and any other tube-based product.

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Sorry I missed your call: Hackers can use your “voice fingerprint” to access voice-protected financial records or rip off your relatives. Pro tip: Delete your outgoing voicemail message if it uses your voice, and replace it with a generic robot-voiced default.

No more “password1”: Move random characters at the beginning or end of your password into the password itself. Ideas: Replace the letter “O” with a zero, like this: k0mand0_scholar. Or sub in a character for a letter it resembles (e.g., f@nt@syFormer).

41% of managers want to replace employees with AI this year

Another 45% see AI as an opportunity to lower the salaries of employees on their payroll. I think AI has huge potential to optimize our work … but yet again, greedy humans are ruining it for the rest of us. Pretty bleak.