Guests arriving at 6pm. Quick! Get the main course in the oven and start on dessert. Grab all your baking equipment and -- oh darn it, those glass mixing bowls are stuck together again! Always when you're in a hurry, right?

Don't fret: there's an easy way to separate nesting bowls or stacked glasses that have become wedged together: drip a few drops of vegetable oil between the items in question and wiggle very gently. If they still won't budge, add a bit of warm water to mix things up. They should pop apart without a problem.

No luck? Here are some other suggestions worth trying:

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and I know you clever DIYers just refuse to settle for run-of-the-mill chocolates or flowers for your loved ones. So this week's Links We Love is devoted solely to DIY Valentine's Day gifts. Make your gift as unique as your love!

Check out the "DIY Sweet Love Garden," a guest post for Mint by SucculentLOVE's Kelly. This adorable and slightly retro-style Valentine's gift is refreshingly free of candy and the color pink, don't you think? You'll need to choose some pretty rope, yarn or piping. Other required items: a hot glue gun, a cute container, some baby succulents and cactus soil. – Mint

This love heart pincushion is sure to delight fellow craftsters. It's handmade. It's adorable. It's practical. Do we really need any additional reasons to love this how-to? Downloadable pattern templates are included in the tutorial. You provide sewing skills, time, and cute fabric pieces. – Happy Together [via Craftzine

Now, guys: Before you feel left out by the domestic crafts in this post, take your cue from Eric Wilhem, president of Instructables. He proudly presents (on Popular Mechanics) his site's top 10 manmade (and I do mean man-made) Valentine's gifts. Make your love swoon with a duct tape rose, or break out your woodworking tools and craft a heart-shaped block of ice with a romantic message inside (pictured). This stellar selection dates from last year, but it's so funny it totally deserves a second look. – Popular Mechanics

If you start shivering when your indoor temperature hits 65 degrees, brace yourself; this news will be a shock to your system. According to the New York Times, some Americans are living without any heat at all -- and they're doing it by choice.

One of these people, Maine resident Daniel F., lives in a house with no thermostat, no heating system, no radiator, and no furnace. The house's average indoor temperature lingers around 52 degrees.

Daniel explains, "It all started in October '08 as just a few pals goading each other to see who could wait the longest to turn on their furnace." After the friends made it past Thanksgiving without heat, Daniel grew accustomed to the colder temperatures and decided to launch Cold House Journal, a blog in which he chronicles his controversial lifestyle. He notes, "It [the blog] was a way to focus my thoughts and maybe inspire a few others. Also, as long as I was posting things, my parents knew that I wasn't in a hypothermic coma."

Of course, you're probably wondering why anyone would choose to live in such conditions. Although Daniel would like to think that conserving energy, minimizing CO2 emissions, and saving money are enough to make his heat-free life worth considering, he personally sees his lifestyle choice as an experiment in answering the more basic questions of human happiness and adaptability.

The last time my sink clogged up, I tried muscle power and the force of a plunger to unclog the drain. When that failed, I switched to liquid drain cleaner, then graduated to crystal drain cleaner and finally moved up to a thick gel. Nothing helped. At all. Finally, I called the plumber to come over and snake it.

We all know, clogged drains are the pits. Why can't they just not clog, right? Well, a company called PF WaterWorks claims to have a drain that does just that: it NEVER clogs! The see-through self-cleaning drain is called PermaFlow. It costs only about $40 (less than I spent on the drain cleaner alone), and it's apparently it's a cinch to install yourself.

Here's how it works:

Have a staircase that would make for a great horror movie? If your steps are creaking, squeaking and screeching, it may be time to silence those suckers for good. Although quieting your stairs is more than just your average quick fix, it's much easier than it sounds -- and anything sounds better than those stairs, right?!

Squeaky steps are generally a problem for older homes, but newer homes can also suffer a creaky staircase if wood has dried and shrunk over time. Usually caused by a loose tread rubbing against a riser, squeaky stairs aren't as problematic as they sound. But seriously, they can be a major annoyance -- especially if you love to raid the fridge at midnight!

Here's how to silence those squeaky stairs and sleep soundly:

After we bought our new high-efficiency washing machine, I was warned by a few different people not to use too much detergent. High-efficiency washers use less water and require less detergent to do their job (hence, the efficiency.) I didn't give it too much thought, though. What's the worst that could happen?

Then one day I was caught in a torrential rainstorm. When I got home my jeans were drenched, and I noticed something curious: a row of white suds had formed above each knee. I realized that my walking action had agitated the denim and brought trapped, excess detergent to the surface. I had to wash my clothes with no detergent just to get rid of the embedded soap.

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal confirms I'm not alone in my detergent overkill tendencies. Loads of Americans are overdosing their high-efficiency machines, either because the measuring lines in detergent caps are too hard to read or because they're simply used to traditional washers. And the consequences go beyond sudsy jeans. According to Consumer Reports, detergent build-up can lead to mold, odors, and bacteria in the machine, which is exactly what you don't want. Too much soap can clog filters and ports, causing the machine to break down eventually. Plus, some detergents cost 65 cents per load; using too much adds up.

This year, I'm planning a nice, relaxing dinner at home with my husband to celebrate Valentine's Day. After all, V-Day reservations are a pain, and what man doesn't love a home-cooked meal? Because spring is right around the corner, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to craft a DIY Valentine's Day gift.

Inspired by a sweet grassy centerpiece from 1-800-Flowers, I knew exactly what I wanted to make -- a winter-white centerpiece for our Valentine's dinner, complete with our handcarved initials, teenage lovebird-style!

Wanna make a centerpiece for your sweetheart too? I documented the process every step of the way. Here goes:

Isn't it infuriating when a screw just won't budge? Whatever you do, don't lose your cool and resort to brute force. Yes, I know it's tempting, but you could easily make matters worse by stripping the head of your screw. That little mishap will leave your screwdriver bit spinning uselessly in the now-hollow end of the (still stuck) screw. Now that's infuriating!

So how did your screw get stuck in the first place? Odds are, it got wedged firmly in position over time, or it was overly tightened. Whatever the cause, here's a clever trick worth trying: heat the screw up. The sudden expansion of the hot metal screw can loosen things up enough to get that stubborn metal moving. Here's how to do it safely: