eHow: How to do absolutely anything!

Ever wondered how to hypnotise yourself? Or buy a jellyfish? Thanks to a new website, eHow.com, you can now find the solution in seconds. Thousands of topics are covered, from establishing whether your house is haunted to whitening your teeth with strawberries. So if you have a niggling modern dilemma, log on and see if someone's already come up with a solution.

In the meantime, here are some of our favourites:

How to make a grilled cheese sandwich with an iron

1. Turn your iron to the highest setting — the same setting you would use to press linen or cotton.
2. Roll out a piece of foil, long enough to cover an entire sandwich. Don't worry about the foil ruining your iron — it won't!
3. Butter two pieces of bread. Place buttered slices on the foil, buttered side down.
4. Now put the cheese between the bread slices.
5. Fold the foil over the bread so it covers the entire sandwich.
6. Press the iron to the foil and let it sit — for about 30 seconds. Flip the sandwich over and repeat.

How to hypnotise yourself

1. Find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Sit down and make yourself comfortable. Close your eyes and take three deep breaths, holding each breath for at least ten seconds before slowly exhaling. Focus only on the sound of your breathing.
2. Imagine you are in a peaceful, relaxing place. Imagine how that place smells, looks, sounds, tastes and even how it feels. This should relax your whole body — from your eyelids, head and neck, all the way down to your back, stomach, legs, feet and toes.
3. Next, imagine you are standing at the top of a staircase. There are ten steps, each covered in your favourite colour. Imagine walking down the stairs very slowly. Count each stair, from 10-0. With each step, you should feel more and more relaxed.
4. When you touch the floor, you will have reached your "place of deep hypnosis". Now focus on what you want — would you like to be destressed, overcome a particular fear or improve self-confidence? Tell your unconscious mind what you want.
5. Now you're ready to come out of your trance. Do this by slowly and silently counting to five. With each number, you will feel more aware and alert. By No 5, you are fully awake.

How to disentangle gloopy pasta

1. Fill a large pot or pan with water. Bring to the boil on a hob. Remove it from the heat when it's bubbling.
2. Take your clumped pasta and gently drop it into the hot water. Using a large, wooden spoon, gently loosen the gloopy, tangled pasta. Be very gentle with your prodding — you don't want to break the pasta altogether.
3. When you've loosened it as much as you can, drain it.
4. Rinse pasta in cold water (to stop it cooking further), drain it again and toss it in oil — ideally, olive oil.
5. When you're ready to serve the pasta, you might want to stir the sauce straight into it, then heat it in a dry pan on the hob.

How to start a fire using sticks

1. Find a thick stick. Use a knife to whittle one end of the stick to a point.
2. Take a long, flat piece of wood and cut a small hole in the middle with a knife.
3. Place dry leaves and wood chips inside the hole.
4. Place the pointed end of the sharpened stick on the small hole and start twisting it into the hole with your hands. You need to twist it quickly enough to create friction between the stick and the other piece of wood.
5. Watch for black dust to form where you are rubbing — this indicates you are doing it correctly. Keep twisting the stick into the hole until the friction creates heat. Eventually, this will create a spark, which will ignite the tinder in the hole. Bingo.

How to lie

1. Never give much information. Keep it simple and short. A long, waffling story might raise suspicions.
2. Believe your own lie, as it will make it more natural to tell.
3. Look the person in the eye — but be careful not to stare. People in the act of telling lies usually tend to do things in extremes.
   Either they try to avoid eye contact as much as possible or they never break eye contact. In a normal conversation, your eyes will move and you will look away to think now and then. Practise in the mirror if you need to.
4. Never forget your lie. Treat it like it really did happen and think about questions your "victim" might ask. Before you've even told the lie, come up with plausible answers they might ask. Some prolific liars even keep a "liar's handbook".
5. If you get caught, be offensive instead of defensive. (Most liars become defensive.) And if you really can't get out of it, just act dumb and, if the situation is right, pretend you don't know what they are talking about.

 How to tell your house is haunted

1. Look out for temperature differences in a room. Ghosts are associated with cold spots.
2. Sometimes, ghosts become fixated on a particular item and will move that item repeatedly. Draw a chalk outline around this item so you have clear, visual evidence.
3. Use a tape recorder to record background noises in your home. The latest discovery in scientific ghost detection is Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). This is background noise that sounds like static or radio transmissions but is believed to have been caused by ghosts. Even if you can't hear the noises at the time, if you record them and play them back, you should be able to.
4. Ghostly activity is often associated with fluctuations in the electromagnetic field — often causing lights to turn on and off. Use a special EMF detector (sold by paranormal societies or online "ghosthunting" shops such as Theghosthunterstore.com), to gauge the electromagnetic frequencies (EMF). If you can't afford one, use a compass instead. Dramatic disturbances in the position of magnetic north indicate ghosts might be present.
5. If all signs point to a ghost and you just aren't sure what to do, call in a professional.

How to iron your hair

1. Wash hair with mild shampoo and strong conditioner. Towel dry. Massage a straightening gel through it and then blow-dry it on a medium setting.
2. Plug in the iron and set it to a medium-high non-steam setting.
3. Separate hair into two segments parted down the middle. Pin one side up (out of the way). Select a small section of the remaining hair and clip the rest back.
4. Wrap a towel around your palm. Place the palm underneath the top of the loose section of hair. Press the clothes iron to the outer surface of the hair. In one long, smooth motion, move the iron and hand down the length of the hair and through the ends. One pass of the iron should be enough to straighten it.
5. Repeat with other segments of hair until the entire side is straightened, then repeat with the second side. After all sections have been straightened, brush hair to blend the sections together.

 How to draw an eagle

1. Start by drawing an egg shape sideways across the paper. This will be the head of the eagle. The egg should be fairly large and long.
2. Sketch a light criss-cross slightly off centre to the left of the egg. After the bird is complete, you will erase this but it's the best way to space the eye correctly.
3. Draw an eye in the centre of the cross. Above the eye, draw a short diagonal line pointing upward towards the top right of the paper. This gives the eye a predatory look.
4. To make the beak, follow the curve of the egg on the lower left side. The beak should be about the same length as the eagle's head.
5. Finish your eagle by zigzagging feathers down from the beak and head.

 How to make cheese

1. Take 4.5 litres of milk at room temperature. (Whole milk works best.) Pour into a stainless-steel pan and heat it to 190°C, using a thermometer. Stir constantly.
2. Add 60ml apple cider vinegar. Keep stirring.
3. Take pan from the hob, cover it and let sit for 10-15 minutes or until the curd separates from the whey. The curd is the curdled lump of milk and the whey is the leftover, pale-white liquid. The whey is no longer needed, so you can either dispose of it or use it to make a tangy whey cream (check eHow.com for the recipe).
4. Pour or scoop the curd into a colander lined with a cheesecloth. Let it drain for five minutes. Tie the four corners together and hang the bag for one or two hours.
5. Remove the cheese from the bag and place in a container and then cover it. Store in the refrigerator.

 How to orienteer (without a compass or an iPhone)

1. Draw a picture of an analogue watch on a piece of paper. Draw in the correct time (with hour and minute hands).
2. Point the hour hand at the Sun. Notice that the hour hand and the 12 on the clock face form an angle.
3. Draw a line through the middle of the angle, so that you get two equal halves. Now you have the north-south line.
4. Determine north by remembering that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In the morning, the Sun is in the east, at noon it is pointing due south and in the afternoon it is in the west.
5. Find the direction you want to go using your paper compass.

 How to make a paper aeroplane

1. Take a letter-sized sheet of paper. Fold it in half, lengthwise.
2. Unfold it. Fold the lower corners up to meet the centre line. Try to do this neatly, so it forms a nice point.
3. Maintaining those folds, fold each side up to meet the centre line, again trying to keep a nice point at the bottom.
4. Maintain that fold, try for one final time to fold each side up to meet the centre line. Press down on all the creases that you have made and try to shape the point as best you can.
5. Bend your almost-finished paper flying machine back along the centre crease and press down to sharpen all creases. Pull the wings out and bend them back a bit so they are level. Congratulations — you've made it!

 How to clean a fish

1. Find a clean, solid surface to work on. Place a fish on it and with a dull knife, scrape off the scales. Start at the tail and work upwards toward the gills in quick, short strokes. The scales should fly off. Be careful around the fins. They are sharp.
2. After scaling, rinse the fish.
3. Place the fish on a clean surface, belly up. Find the hole at the fish's rear and cut it out using a V-shaped notch. Insert your knife into the cut and draw the knife upward towards the head to split the fish.
4. Spread the fish's abdominal cavity open with your fingers and dig out the insides. After it is free of entrails, remove the fish head and rinse the fish out.
5. Wash the fish and keep it as cold as possible until it's time to cook it. Don't forget to clean your work surface.

 Whiten your teeth with strawberries

1. Mash strawberry to a pulp and mix with half a teaspoon of baking soda. This forms the basis of the whitening toothpaste. Strawberry contains malic acid, which helps budge stains.
2. Use a toothbrush and gently spread the mixture over your teeth, paying attention to the heavily stained areas.
3. Leave mixture on for five minutes, then brush with your usual toothpaste to remove strawberry/baking soda mixture and clean the loosened stains off your teeth.
4. Repeat the process once a week. In four or five weeks, you should notice a difference.