aggregating an aggregator: Peggy Wang (all killer no filler!)

October 1, 2012 4:07 PM

Peggy Wang, a senior editor at Buzzfeed, has recently displayed a pronounced knack for aggregating what feels like some of the best of Pinterest in tips/lifehacks, home decor ideas, and DIY projects shared around the web. Exhibit A: 52 Totally Feasible Ways To Organize Your Entire Home; Exhibit B: 22 Things You're Doing Wrong; Exhibit C: 33 Meticulous Cleaning Tricks

Peggy Wang's Buzzfeed posts page. More highlights from the past few months:

*24 Survival Tips For Living Alone
*31 Insanely Easy And Clever DIY Projects
*24 Incredibly Simple Ways To Make Your Food Taste Awesome
*39 Easy DIY Ways To Create Art For Your Walls
*20 DIY Home Remedies You Had No Idea Existed
*22 Clever Hiding Places To Stash Your Stuff
*41 Easy Things To Do With Mason Jars
*25 Awesome DIY Ideas For Bookshelves
*27 Ways To Rethink Your Bed
*28 Functional And Beautiful Ways To Decorate With Contact Paper
*56 Ways To Decorate With Washi Tape
*21 Easy Ideas For Adorable DIY Terrariums
*13 Healthy And Gluten-Free Ways To Make Pizza
*and bonus for Halloween, 37 Easy DIY No-Carve Pumpkin Ideas


Extra talent flavour: Peggy Wang is also in a NYC indie band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
*interview with Asylum, 2009 (includes embedded video "Everything With You")
*interview with Red Furros, 2010 (includes embedded video for "Higher Than the Stars", which features dancing furries)
*interview with Topshop, 2012


previous Peggy Wang tips: 35 lifechanging ways to use everyday objects
previous Peggy Wang lists: 22 reasons why design was more awesome in the '80s - Morrissey gets a job - alpacas with post-punk hair - smoking smarties - Wikipedia names your band
and Buzzfeed-specific previously: Buzzfeed's strategy and the Internet is eating itself

posted by flex (67 comments total)

Yay for 108 (and more) reasons! I've seen two of the three main links already, but I'm ready to explore the More Inside(s).

Welcome back!
posted by maudlin at 4:16 PM on October 1, 2012 [7 favorites]

That's not how to clean a blender. Whirling soap will remove grease, but not chunks of food impaled/wrapped around the blade and moving parts. You need to do the boring/obvious thing: unscrew the base and wash all the parts with a cloth.

I guess if you're adverse to taking it apart, whirling soap is better than reaching down into the pitcher and doing some half-ass sponge job.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 4:30 PM on October 1, 2012 [5 favorites]

Clean my apartment and organize all the stuff that I've been storing on the floor for 3 years has been the only thing on my weekend To Do List for 5 or 6 months now. I won't do it this weekend either, but damn I wish I would.
posted by Science! at 4:32 PM on October 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

Clean my apartment and organize all the stuff that I've been storing on the floor for 3 years has been the only thing on my weekend To Do List for 5 or 6 months now.

Inspiration: Unfuck Your Habitat. (Thank you to whichever MeFite mentioned this site a few months back. It's been helpful.)
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:35 PM on October 1, 2012 [11 favorites]

This post made me laugh out loud. Which I have needed. So. Bad.

Especially the pomegranate lady.
posted by bilabial at 4:37 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Putting a leaf of lettuce in your hard-shell taco takes the level of Whitey-Mexican food up a notch*.

* Aprox 1.3 Honkeys worth give or take the ground-beef filling
posted by wcfields at 4:41 PM on October 1, 2012 [13 favorites]

Some of those storage ideas that involve hanging items out in the open don't look like such a good idea to me. They'll be extra work to keep clean, especially when they are in the kitchen.
posted by orange swan at 4:44 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is a good follow-up to the "Something is Wrong on the Internet" post.
posted by shortyJBot at 4:45 PM on October 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

"13. Make a Mud Mask With Kitty Litter For Gunky Skin."

No.
posted by scratch at 4:50 PM on October 1, 2012 [6 favorites]

Try this new plan. It worked great for me!
posted by srboisvert at 4:50 PM on October 1, 2012

The Tic Tac dispenser is specifically engineered to allot ONE AT A TIME.

Why was I not told this as a kid! I have been lied to all my life!
posted by Old'n'Busted at 4:56 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

That's not how you eat a taco (you're doing a taco wrong if you have lettuce). The way to eat it is to have a soft tortilla that you can balance in your hand. Also, the right way to eat a pomegranate is not to fuck with getting the pips out, but rather to roll it around, make a hole with your thumb, and suck the juice out. Seriously, watch any old Persian or Armenian dude do it and it'll be baffling that you ever tried anything else.
posted by klangklangston at 5:02 PM on October 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also on buzzfeed - How Pinterest Is Killing Feminism.
posted by doublesix at 5:16 PM on October 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

I like the tea-light landmines around this bed. 20 Ways to make your bedroom a fire hazard!
posted by thylacinthine at 5:19 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Lettuce leaves as a "taco liner"? WTF? All that is missing is someone wearing white pants pouring blue stuff on it and talking about how absorbent Lettuce-Brand Taco Liners For Low Flow Days really are.
posted by Forktine at 5:36 PM on October 1, 2012 [13 favorites]

I liked her guest spots on New York Noise.
posted by subtle-t at 5:38 PM on October 1, 2012

It must be time consuming creating all of these problems.
posted by cmoj at 5:44 PM on October 1, 2012 [8 favorites]

Ok, now I've looked through most of these. Seriously, the range is basically from white bread to obvious to unnecessary to flat out dumb. I'm clearly not the target audience, though I should be -- I do the cooking, I DIY anything I can, and I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make my house nicer to live in.
posted by Forktine at 5:49 PM on October 1, 2012

How Pinterest Is Killing Feminism

Clearly we aren't following the same pinners, because my page is full of Gloria Steinem, Hilary Clinton and Andrea Dworkin. Saying Pinterest is killing Feminism is like saying Facebook is killing the temperance movement, because of all the boozy college party photos. Your frame of reference is a critical part of your experience.

Glad you are back, Flex!
posted by ambrosia at 6:04 PM on October 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

My wife, whose family is Mexican, has Opinions on the proper way to eat a taco. I've never mastered it to her satisfaction, but that picture is not it.
posted by eruonna at 6:05 PM on October 1, 2012

How Pinterest is Killing Feminism

I am very uncomfortable with the idea that a space which is largely used by women, who (of course) often talk about & post about traditionally female interests, is seen as "killing feminism". First off, feminism is not a delicate flower that is so easily blown over by albums of wedding dresses, and women have to navigate their feminism along with the roles we're assigned by society. It feels like privileging traditionally male interests as "okay" but female interests as a "no go" by saying that. As well it feels like "blaming the victims" for, you know, performing what they've been taught to perform, liking what they've been taught to like, instead of where the blame actually lies (hint: not with the oppressed).

Plus, the provocative headline seems at odds with the concluding paragraphs, which I'll quote here:

And the nice thing about Pinterest, unlike women's magazines, is that if your fitness board starts to make you feel like a slacker, you can just delete them and unfollow other fitspiration boards in your feed. That kind of personalized editing is one huge advantage to the site. When you buy Shape from a newsstand, you can flip past pages, but you can't un-see them. You're relying on editors to present you with the best version of a woman's life, rather than taking the initiative to curate that for yourself.

Another advantage of Pinterest is that it omits the advertiser influence prevalent in print magazines. While newsstand titles like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar plug clothes and beauty products made by their advertisers, the average Pinterest user only pins things they truly like or want to try. (And some users do pin ads — Percey says a lot of the viral fitness imagery on Pinterest comes from ads by athletic companies.)

So maybe Pinterest is a natural evolution in online women's media, a place where old print titles and younger outlets like Jezebel intersect. Pinterest might come with airbrushing, but at least it lets you decide just how much of it becomes part of your own user experience. Without drastic changes to the media we're bombarded with daily — on billboards, television, the internet, and newsstands — women seem unlikely to ditch the cauliflower pizza recipes.

It's a user-curated site. Evolution is slow. And extrapolating how some people use Pinterest as the be-all-end-all of what the site is and what it apparently represents seems unfair. I don't have a Pinterest account (don't have the time or interest); I might have issues with certain specific things that people pin, but it doesn't at all mean that women, you're doing it wrong; might as well give up on feminism now, clearly you're not worthy of it - which is definitely the vibe criticisms of that type give off. It's a starting point for thought, for a discussion, not a blanket reason for dismissal.
posted by flex at 6:26 PM on October 1, 2012 [15 favorites]

I guess if you're adverse to taking it apart, whirling soap is better than reaching down into the pitcher and doing some half-ass sponge job.

I have this blendor (not blender) and the carafe is all one piece of glass that you can't take apart.
posted by octothorpe at 6:37 PM on October 1, 2012

that INDEED IS INFACT the correct way to eat a cupcake.
posted by capnsue at 6:42 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Do these things actually work? I see a lot of this stuff on pinterest, and it's hard to tell from a photo and a five word headline whether it's actually a functional and true thing.

For example the tension curtain rods to divide shelves idea -- how does the heavy leaning stuff not just push the tension rods away? Tension rods aren't magic.

Similar is the boots with pants hangers thing. Half the time the pants hangers won't hold my pants. Not to mention, doesn't this make weird little marks at the top of the boot?

The towel rack/"short curtain rod" on the inside of a pantry door idea, if installed as shown, would probably result in a ruined pantry door unless you have a pretty epic pantry door.

Why make a "pressing surface" when you could just buy an ironing board? They're not really "unruly", and if you don't have a lot of space, you can get one of the little table-top models.

(That said, a lot of these are things I've seen in people's homes, or had in my own space -- so I know they're not all bullshit. Also, pegboard really is genius.)
posted by Sara C. at 6:55 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

The correct way to eat a taco is to only eat soft tacos.
posted by cazoo at 6:58 PM on October 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

How Pinterest is Killing Feminism Aesthetics

Seriously, I don't see anything objectively anti-feminist in pinterest, but holy fucking shit is 99% of what people pin hideous.
posted by Sara C. at 6:59 PM on October 1, 2012

Much as I want to tell y'all about my opinions on the Pintrest Kills Feminism (too many years reading about the death of jazz has made me skeptical of X Kills Y articles), I think by talking about it here instead of making it into a regular post is gonna miss a lot of the members who are likely to have interesting stuff to say about it.
posted by klangklangston at 7:07 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Similar is the boots with pants hangers thing. Half the time the pants hangers won't hold my pants. Not to mention, doesn't this make weird little marks at the top of the boot?

I do this - not because I have fifteen pairs in my wardrobe but because I really don't have space anywhere for my shoes at all so they're in the garage. So I have a tiny kid's size pants hanger hooked over a 3M hook on the wall in my garage. It's sort of soft on the inside of the clips so I haven't had issues with screwing up the leather. They're pretty distressed looking anyway.

Also, I have a tabletop ironing board and it fucking sucks. I'm not gonna go out an buy some plywood and batting and quilting cotton, but the stupid thing is rickety because it has legs and it's just annoying. A plain board would be better except when I'm ironing skirts. Or dresses.
posted by geek anachronism at 7:37 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

You know, Mexican-American food doesn't have to be seen as "Fake Mexican." The "hard shell" taco (ground beef, iceberg lettuce, chopped tomatoes and shredded Cheddar) was being served by Vicente and Lucia Montaño at their Mitla Cafe outside Los Angeles in 1937. Years later in 1950, they showed their techniques to Glen Bell, who at the time had a hamburger stand across the street. Bell popularized the hard shell taco but Mexican-Americans invented it. More here.

Also: I store all my hard taco shells by hanging them from an old sled attached with magnetic hooks to my ceiling.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 7:52 PM on October 1, 2012 [18 favorites]

Also on buzzfeed - How Pinterest Is Killing Feminism.

That pinup model from the "50s" is a picture of Aria Giovanni (NSFW) from 2004, turned into black and white. The watermark/URL is right there in the corner.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 7:56 PM on October 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

The method for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the second link is nonsense. It suggests that the way to prevent jelly from getting on you is to create a high pressure pocket of pure jelly.
posted by painquale at 8:20 PM on October 1, 2012 [4 favorites]

the provocative headline seems at odds with the concluding paragraphs

Agreed. It smacks of "editor comes up with provocative headline to generate pageviews" instead of something more accurate. Gee, that never happens.

/hamburger
posted by ambrosia at 8:54 PM on October 1, 2012

I got one for when you just dropped something in the toilet.

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG IF: you're just reaching in there with your hand. Gross!

YOU'RE DOING IT RIGHT IF: you've got some plastic bag action going on, like with picking up dog shit. Right on, champ!
posted by invitapriore at 9:08 PM on October 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

"10. Use peppermint oil to deter mice."

Seriously? 'Cause if this is true I'm gonna spray some all around the kitchen. Maybe the whole house!
posted by Kevin Street at 9:23 PM on October 1, 2012

She knows a thing or two about generating link bait, that's for sure.
posted by chillmost at 10:19 PM on October 1, 2012

What I want to know is where do people get all these freaking pallets we're supposed to make everything from?
posted by Jess the Mess at 10:21 PM on October 1, 2012 [6 favorites]

Go to the alley behind the supermarket, and get a good spot behind a dumpster where no one can see you. When the coast is clear, go in. But watch out for the old security guard!
posted by Kevin Street at 11:07 PM on October 1, 2012

Also a good place to find cardboard boxes and used forklifts.
posted by Kevin Street at 11:08 PM on October 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

Lettuce as a liner for taco shells? What next, just use lettuce leaves and forget about the shell? ;)

I make my own hard taco shells. They don't need no stinkin' liners!
posted by luckynerd at 11:11 PM on October 1, 2012

Wait, what? I'm meant to be cleaning my lightbulbs? And candles?

Life is too short.
posted by lollusc at 2:20 AM on October 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

The method given for preparing a pomegranate using water to separate the arils from the pith is one way to do it, but this is the best way. Learning the six-cut method changed my life, or at least those parts of my life that involve eating delicious pomegranates.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 2:45 AM on October 2, 2012

I have not had success with using bay leaves to scare away roaches.

Mainly they use them in their stews.
posted by wittgenstein at 5:07 AM on October 2, 2012 [7 favorites]

17 Ways to Iron Your Money
posted by blue_beetle at 5:12 AM on October 2, 2012

Go to the alley behind the supermarket, and get a good spot behind a dumpster where no one can see you. When the coast is clear, go in. But watch out for the old security guard!

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but this is what has always disturbed me about all that pinterest pallet furniture.

Do you want a bed made out of something that's been sitting out behind a dumpster for god knows how long?

I considered making a bed out of pallets when I was 22 and living in a crazy artists' community in an old warehouse. And I'm pretty sure it all would have fallen apart when I got behind a dumpster and took a good long look at my choice of pallets.

These people who pin toddler beds built out of pallets are the same ones who pin the quasi-OCD cleaning tips and pictures of closets with their own washer/dryers installed. They're not exactly the type to even go behind a dumpster and look for a pallet.
posted by Sara C. at 5:31 AM on October 2, 2012

Pallets are given away for free by shipping and trucking companies. So, no need for dumpster diving just start driving around industrial warehouse areas. The signs are usually spray painted with "Free" and then it is all you on the pick-up. Surprisingly, the foam pads can be the spendy part if you go to an upholsterer and want something interesting, fabric wise. I was stunned when I had some cushions made for a bench with material that I provided. Hmm, thinking about it, there is a basement in need of a couch.
posted by jadepearl at 5:40 AM on October 2, 2012

As the wikipedia page on pallets notes,

Discarded wooden pallets should not be used for firewood or crafts unless it has been determined that the wood in these pallets has not been treated with wood preservatives, fungicides and/or pesticides. Various pyrethrins and propiconazole are common treatments for wooden pallets. In addition, imported palletized goods are routinely fumigated with highly toxic pesticides. During use, harmful materials or chemicals also may spill on the pallet wood and be absorbed.

posted by Forktine at 6:07 AM on October 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Jadepearl, that's still kind of what I mean. The people who pin that stuff are the people who won't wander around desolate industrial areas looking for cast-off garbage to "upcycle".

I don't mean to be rude, and for the most part I'm not criticizing people who actually build this stuff.

I just get a little misanthropic in the face of the public rorschach test that is pinterest.

(On the opposite end of the spectrum, I'm also driven crazy by the "easy decor tips" that would involve hiring an expert cabinet-maker to completely customize your entire house from top to bottom. Rather than just buying furniture like most non-billionaires do.)
posted by Sara C. at 6:17 AM on October 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, I learned some neat stuff and got some ideas for DIY organization/craft projects. Even the dumb ideas were entertaining (a TODDLER bed out of nasty old pallets? seriously questionable home remedies?) Thanks for posting these links.
posted by arcticwoman at 6:17 AM on October 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

I look at most of the organizational and DIY stuff as a form of wish fulfillment and fantasy on the parts of the pinners and readers. Seriously, walking through IKEA is an exercise in projection and fantasy. You look at the IKEA set piece rooms and think, "why yes, this is the life I want to lead." Fortunately, or unfortunately, my children crawling and jumping on everything dispels that fantasy pronto thus, saving me some money. So, bless those who have the time and energy to do all this stuff because, I am too lazy reading mefi and monster threads to make snowglobe mason jars.

I casually dismissed Pinterest and now am fond of it. It is a more visual way of seeing other people's interests, bookmarks and clippings. It, of course, is premised on the visual eye candy nature of things. In some ways, it is like Delicious, but like Delicious you see the marketing folks making a splash and distorting certain things. We always are looking for curation on the powerful surge tides of electronic information and pinterest, like Mefi and StumbledUpon, serves that without social interaction requirements, thankfully.
posted by jadepearl at 6:34 AM on October 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

37 Easy DIY No-Carve Pumpkin Ideas

One of these better be "plant butternuts in the garden, paint faces on in October after harvest, then make into muffins in the winter".
posted by DU at 7:30 AM on October 2, 2012

I use my trouser hangers for, uh, trousers, so to semi-solve the boot storage issue, I just pin them together at the top with a clothespin, and they stay upright just fine. My wardrobe has a dearth of hanging space as it is; I can't be hanging boots in there...
posted by catch as catch can at 7:49 AM on October 2, 2012

The only one of these household tips ever worth remembering is to put a mini marshmallow in the bottom of your ice cream cone to stop drips.
posted by Kokopuff at 8:56 AM on October 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Finally! more ways to avoid using Chemicals, by using uhm, chemicals.
posted by Dr. Twist at 10:25 AM on October 2, 2012 [4 favorites]

How Pinterest is Killing Feminism

Its almost like women just can't be trusted to like the right things. If Pinterest were filled with exactly the same topics but filled with men liking those same things no one would bat an eye.

It is funny how whenever a large group of women like a thing, that thing becomes instantly considered stupid by men caught in the patriarchy, and then because of that it is considered disempowering by this strange branch of feminism, but in a way that smells awfully similar to just considering whatever things women like to be stupid. Suddenly women are not only getting shat on by both misogynistic men but also misogynistic women, all in the name of feminism.

Fuck that.

Regardless of their gender, someone's appreciation for a well organized house, or cooking, or canning, or home gardening, or fashion, or skin care, or fitness, or healthy diet, or just the right assortment of mismatched bracelets on their wrist is just as valid as an appriciation for woodwork, motorcycle maintenance, or kilt wearing.
posted by Blasdelb at 10:38 AM on October 2, 2012 [5 favorites]

I can't be the only person who really loves this stuff and simultaneously really hates it.
posted by colie at 10:48 AM on October 2, 2012 [6 favorites]

I wasn't being sarcastic, Sara C. Just a bit jokey and lighthearted, thanks to the sudden appearance of this edit function. It's awesome.

But wooden pallets... yeah, probably not very hygienic.

I also read many of the above links and found them quite interesting. Some of the ideas are pretty cool, like cutting up a shoe organizer and gluing it to the back of a cabinet door. Then it can hold all the household cleaning stuff and free up space under the sink. The more ambitious lists like "27 Ways To Rethink Your Bed" is way out of my league.
posted by Kevin Street at 1:41 PM on October 2, 2012

Pallets are given away for free by shipping and trucking companies.

Around here, people pay deposit on pallets. Some places buy pallets. You're not likely to find them laying around unguarded in alleys, any more than you would an empty keg.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 1:57 PM on October 2, 2012

I wonder if there are any keg-related DIY projects on pinterest. Maybe we should come up with some.
posted by Sara C. at 3:02 PM on October 2, 2012

*Building a Keggle (keg conversion project) - If you are not quite ready to invest upwards of one thousand dollars to purchase these heavy duty brewing kettles then building a keggle out of an old beer keg may be your answer... In this project we will be covering a full keg conversion into a fully functional (keggle) brew kettle/ mashing vessel.
*keg into planter
*...into BBQ
*...into cooker
*...into smoker
*...into guitar amp
*...into subwoofer
*...into wheeled cart
*...into a trash can
*keg stools: one & two & three
*recycle a mini-keg into a Xmas tree watering machine
*...into a patio heater
*...into a touch lamp
*recycle mini-kegs into a floating dock
posted by flex at 3:53 PM on October 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

...or into a turkey fryer so you can make your entire city block smell like delicious, delicious deep-fried turkey.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:07 PM on October 2, 2012

This reminds me of sneaking my mom's Good Housekeeping issues in the late 90s. Except where are the sex tips?
posted by kettleoffish at 7:55 PM on October 2, 2012

Is that a... challenge?
posted by flex at 8:12 PM on October 2, 2012

Yes.
posted by kettleoffish at 8:42 PM on October 2, 2012

I'm not sure I want to read Pinterest's sex tips. This list is intimidating enough.
posted by immlass at 8:15 PM on October 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

kettleoffish: This reminds me of sneaking my mom's Good Housekeeping issues in the late 90s

Except I think Good Housekeeping might have (had) a better editorial staff. The problems with BuzzFeed is 1) they lift material from other sites and provide limited credits (see 22 Things You're Doing Wrong, and check the credits for the images and tips: a number of them point not to the article where they could be found, but to where the image is located), and 2) I doubt anyone at BuzzFeed actually tries the tips before listing them. For instance, Nail Polish Key Covers (as seen on BuzzFeed before: 1, 2, 3 [plus glitter!]) don't last long, unless you keep your keys somewhere that they don't bump into each other, chipping off the nail polish. It's cheaper in the long run to buy those little plastic key covers, but that's a boring DIY trick to differentiate your keys.

There are some neat tips and tricks, but the Listmania part of BuzzFeed is the weird modern version of Home Styling/ DIY/ Organize Everything! magazines. At least it's free, vs $8 for a magazine at the grocery store checkout.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:56 AM on October 7, 2012

Plastic key covers suck as well - they break and leave a nasty stick to everything if it's a key you use on a regular basis. I simply have only three keys, all different shapes. If I don't need it, I don't carry it. I have been tempted to do the nail polish thing because it is a lot prettier.

I have been tooling around on pintrest lately and there is a lot to be said for having a good editor. About nine-tenths of pins that I've been looking at go to aggregator sites, often to the wrong page/front page, or to something entirely different, or no longer exist. But thanks to pintrest, the image still works as a pin.
posted by geek anachronism at 2:56 PM on October 7, 2012

PBJ: Use Orowheat potato bread. Put the jelly on the bread first, all the way to the edges and corners, then peanut butter, then a handful of dry or honey roasted peanuts if you like it supercrunchy. Makes wet, more interesting bread, and doesn't drip out everywhere. Dunk in milk. Heaven.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 9:17 PM on October 13, 2012