Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with indoors

Teach Me To Grow Things!

battlebison — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:33:58 -0800

I want to grow some plants indoors. I don't know anything about gardening. Could any of you green thumbs out there give me a working knowledge of terminology and the basics to success? I have some south-facing window ledge space that gets lots of light. I think it would be perfect for growing plants. My knowledge of plants is just about as close to nothing as it could possibly be.

What are the basics of gardening: What pots should I use? What plants? What soil? How much attention and care does each type of plant need? Where do I buy seeds? If someone could point me to some good resources, I'd be very grateful (the "beginner's" stuff I've googled seems either too advanced or more instructional than informative).

Or if some plant-knowledged mefites could even just throw out some bits of plant knowledge, that would be great too. I'd love to know the why behind gardening, more than the "here's what to do..."

If it matters: I'm thinking that growing herbs or hot peppers or something would be a good use of this space.

Am I Going to Break My Puppy?

duckus — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:52:32 -0800

I just took my ~13 week old pit bull puppy to get spayed. The post-operative say to keep her indoors for 7-10 days . Right now, she's outside during the day with our other dog, and she's crated at night only. Can I expect this to go smoothly? She's been sleeping in the crate since she found us at ~10 weeks old. She's only had a couple of accidents in there, one due to me not waking up fast enough, and nothing over the last week or so.

Normally, she's outside with our other dog (2 year old neutered male beagle/lab mix).

Based on the crate threads I've read, I plan on giving her some activity toys, frozen Kong, etc. But is it unrealistic to expect her to be crated for the same amount of time during the day as at night? Especially when she's used to being outside? And in a single day?

How can I deal with rampant indoor mosquitos?

GilloD — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:51:12 -0800

How can I rid myself of indoor mosquitos? My wife and I live in a small South Korean apartment that faces the street. Right now we can't open our windows- We'll spend the rest of the night swatting mosquitos and scratching bug bites. Even with the windows closed they keep finding a way in and making my sleep miserable. To make matters worse, my bug bites BLOW UP. I've tried snuggling under the covers and jacking the AC, but then they just nibble on my face. Right now I look a bit like I lost a fight.

So, question: What can I do INDOORS to rid myself of/deter mosquitos? I have no idea how they're getting in. I sealed every crack and loose panel I could find and we haven't cracked a window in weeks. I'm a little weirded by DEET and definitley don't want to spray it around indoors. What're my other options?

Bonus Q: What's the life cycle of a mosquito? It's starting to cool down a bit, when is it safe to open the windows again?

Indoor Splen-Dor

Parasite Unseen — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:53:27 -0800

Help me find a good indoor day-trip from the Los Angeles area for this weekend. My lady and I were planning on taking a day trip down to the San Diego Wildlife Park this weekend. Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be raining on Friday and Saturday (the days that we were planning on going). We do not want to spend the day out in the rain, even if it is wussy California rain. I was hoping that the Hivemind could give me some suggestions for some nice places within the same two hour drive radius of Los Angeles that we could visit whilst still staying indoors.

Bringing the outside inside (aka: these spoiled cats)

silkygreenbelly — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:59:20 -0800

Catfilter: My kitties are loving the Christmas tree. How can I extend their joy all year round? The love sitting/sleeping under it. They love drinking water out of the stand (btw is this bad for them?).

Is there a low maintenance bushy plant, not poisonous to cats (one will occasionally nuzzle and lick/gnaw the leaves) that I could keep inside? Big living room window that faces west-by-northwest. Seattle, WA.

The ring is lost inside the house!

Deathalicious — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:57:01 -0800

Okay. Lost a ring, white gold, somewhere in my apartment. How can I find it? Possible co-culprits: cats. I've already gone most of the surfaces where it could be. Looked over and under the couches, under the rugs (my cats love hiding coins under the rug, so I figured the ring might befall the same fate). Checked out all the tables, searched through bags and backpacks and the most likely drawer suspects.

I think it was left on a table and either fell off or got knocked off. There's a good possibility that one of the cats picked it up and played with it (they love playing with coins. I try to grab them [the coins] whenever I see them but I seem to excel at dropping loose change around and then the cats pick the coins up with their mouths, bat them around, etc., but never eat them). I hope neither of them ate the ring! Is something like that even possible? If they did eat it, how could you tell, and would it show up at, um, the other side?

I guess I'm also wondering whether it would be worth renting a metal detector if the place to be scanned is an apartment. Is it possible to tune one to only pick up gold and gold alloys? Otherwise I imagine everything else metal would set it off.

This is an old apartment, the kind where there is a little hollow or hole near every doorframe and underneath all of the floor trim. There are lots of nice gaps in the flooring too, but I'm pretty sure they're all too small for a ring to get through.

So, any ideas?

Why do some people wear shoes indoors?

pravit — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:03:14 -0800

Why do some people wear shoes in the house? I was raised in a (East Asian) household where we took our shoes off after entering the house, so as to avoid tracking dirt and mud around the carpets. I'm aware that South Asians, Middle Easterners, some Europeans (Scandinavians at least) and even some Canadians do this as well.

However, growing up in the American southwest, I noticed that most people don't bother taking off their shoes when they enter their homes, and some even lie on their beds with their shoes on. There were a few people with very tidy homes who insisted that people take off their shoes, but they were exceptions to the norm. As far as I can tell, wearing shoes in the house seems to be mainly an American and British thing.

I'm curious why exactly people do this. I can understand that some people don't care about getting a little dirt on the floor, but from a comfort perspective it seems that it would be a lot nicer to walk around on those carpets and lie on the bed barefoot. I always look foward to taking my shoes off after coming home (and I'm a guy!)

From a convenience point of view, it doesn't take very long to take off shoes. I can see wearing shoes just to run in and grab something, but my question is more about the people who basically don't take off their shoes until bedtime.

But I'm wondering if there is also a cultural reason - do Americans/Brits see wearing shoes as a necessary part of being presentable, like wearing shirts and pants? Is going barefoot akin to walking around shirtless, or walking around with your fly unzipped?

Or is it because I was present - e.g. they might normally take off their shoes, but feel it is weird to take off their shoes in front of a guest (for the cultural reasons I mentioned above)?

I've also heard foot odor suggested, but I honestly don't buy that the vast majority of Americans have foot odor problems (and even if they do, it seems like a chicken-and-egg problem).

I realize there may be a variety of reasons why different people don't take off their shoes, and I'm interested in hearing all of them. I don't mean this to be chatfilter - I've honestly been curious about this for a while, and I'm not trying to promote my own views about it (sorry if my question came off like that).

Help me do some apartment gardening.

bindasj — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:02:20 -0800

Help me with my (potential) indoor apartment garden. First I have some minor experience wwoofing on some organic farms. I'm currently living in Seoul and am a bit frustrated with the lack of greenery and no yard. I don't even have a balcony. I have a big window though and am interested in growing things I can eat near it.

So I'm wondering what would be good to grow inside? Herbs strike me right away as something that is small and manageable, but what else? What do I have to worry about other than sun light issues? I'll probably have a ton more questions once I'm past this visionary stage, but if you've had any experience doing this, I'd really like to hear about it.

The kids are almost alright.

SassHat — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:21:37 -0800

Best (indoor) grade school games of all time? I'm temping for an arts nonprofit, working at a kids daycamp. We have a week left and I need some cool games for us to play in the first 30 minutes, which we use as a warm-up to ease into the day. The kids are 8 - 14 and Duck-Duck-Goose is not going to cut it.

So far we've done some getting-to-know-you and improv-style games, hangman, and some more arty activities, but the games work best to get the more hyperactive kids involved. Physical games are not good, they need to be engaging games with minimal movement, as the goal is to get them to chill out and stop running around and throwing stuff, not amp them up more.

What were the best, most engaging games you played inside in grade school? Think back to playing 7-up during recess on rainy days...

Please save my picnic!

chickletworks — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:53:52 -0800

My plans for a Park and Ride Party (picnic and cycling in Central Park) tomorrow have been rained out. Please save my get-together by suggesting some active, indoor activities in New York! We want to do something more active than museuming or shopping. Ice skating and rock climbing are already under consideration, though if you know of particularly awesome places to do either, please let me know!

Recomendations for good indoor bike trainers?

40 Watt — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 15:40:15 -0800

I want to purchase a bike trainer so I can ride indoors during the winter months. What sorts of things should I look for? What's the difference between a magnetic and fluid trainer? Are there certain brands that are better-built than others? Do I need one that has a remote control cable to switch resistance, or is that unecessary? I want to go into the shop well-informed so as not to get sold something I don't want or need. Any recommendations?