There's been a lot of trash talk lately in the Consumer Reports labs, specifically trash bag talk. Our testers wanted to know which tall kitchen garbage bags, the top-selling type, can do the heavy lifting and which can't. Two top brands hoisted 50 pounds of barbell weights before stretching and breaking but one weakling failed at 35 pounds.

At Consumer Reports we test lots of big things like cars, refrigerators and wide-screen TVs. But there's a team whose job it is to find "small stuff" to test. So when we saw the commercial for Flex Seal in which the pitchman applies Flex Seal to a screen in the bottom of a boat and floats away, we just knew we had to check the claims.

Choosing a replacement lightbulb got a little more complicated with the arrival of energy-saving bulbs. The Lighting Facts label on the back of most packages is meant to help you find the right bulb for the task, but to diffuse any chaos in the lightbulb aisle, GE has color coded its packaging.

Starting in May, ads for French's mustard will encourage you to not only slather the condiment on your food but to put it in your recipes as well. The series of print and television ads feature foods other than picnic fare with the tagline, "Friends. Family. French's." When Consumer Reports tasted 11 mustards it judged French's Classic yellow mustard to be very good. We also found some tasty Dijons, a type often called for in recipes.

That salmon color you painted the bathroom came out a screaming orange and the taupe in the dining room is edging too close to brown. What's a homeowner to do? Valspar thinks it has the answer with its "Love your color guarantee." For the next six months Valspar, Lowe's house brand, is offering a free replacement paint color to anyone who does not "absolutely love" their first color choice. "Choosing the right paint color can be an emotional journey for many people," said a Lowe's rep. Indeed.

Charmin, maker of the famously squeezable toilet paper, wants to tell you where to go. In a campaign with the charmless name "Sit or squat" the toilet paper maker is asking consumers to rate public restrooms, "so the next time you've got to go on the go, you'll know where to go." Using the Charmin website or one of its new mobile apps, participants can find or rate a restroom. A clean one is rated a "sit" and a dirty one a "squat." Our ratings at Consumer Reports are a bit closer to home. We don't review restrooms but we do have new Ratings of toilets and toilet paper, including Charmin.

The number of Americans willing to pay more for an environmentally friendly product has declined over the past five years by 13 percent, according to the "Survey of the American Consumer" by GfK MRI. And even fewer are willing to trade convenience for a product that's environmentally safe. Of those U.S. adults who did buy green in the last year, the top four purchases were lightbulbs, paper towels, laundry detergent and toilet paper. In Consumer Reports tests of these products, some have performed better than others. Here's what we found.

Got peeling paint or a weather-beaten deck? You want the exterior paint or stain that offers the best protection. Consumer Reports just tested 76 products under tough conditions that accelerate the effects of the elements, from spring showers to summer sun to the sleet and snow that can torment siding and decks in colder months. Sherwin-Williams won big among paints, while Behr took home top honors among stains. But we also found other brands that are worth a look, especially if you're dealing with special conditions or have a tight budget.

Nobody tests toilet paper like Consumer Reports. To measure strength, we call in the Instron, a device that slowly pushes a steel ball through stacked sheets. Sensory panelists judge softness by gently caressing the individual sheets. Our number crunchers determine cost, looking past claims about jumbo rolls and wider sheets. At the end of our latest review, five toilet papers rose above the class of 25.

It starts small. First you ignore the advice on the package of the compact fluorescent lightbulb.. You move on to using a CFL in what can only be described as a bad situation, and before you know it, the bulbs are goners. Sure, CFLs save energy and money—they use about 75 percent less electricity than standard incandescent bulbs and can last seven to 10 times longer. But using them in the wrong way or wrong place can shorten their lifespans. Here are some common misdemeanors.

If you're a dog owner, the greening up of your lawn this spring will likely coincide with the emergence of burn spots where your four-legged friend relieves itself. In extreme cases, these spots, which are caused by the nitrogen in urine, can grow large enough to require reseeding. That's resulted in a cottage industry of dietary doggie supplements designed to neutralize nitrogen and prevent burns. Do they do the trick?

Recent tornadoes that raked parts of the South and Midwest have left many people without a place to live. The luckier ones survived with their home mostly intact aside from some damage to the roof or siding. Although a homeowner’s first instinct may be to get the damage fixed as soon as possible, making a hasty decision can lead to a substandard job or substandard materials. Even a homeowner in crisis should to take care to find an honest contractor who will rebuild the home with the best materials at the best price.

You wouldn’t expect to run a 10-mile race after spending all winter on the couch drinking beer and eating potato chips. Likewise, too many of us neglect the health of our gas-powered lawn mowers then curse them come spring when they just say no. Here are six ways guaranteed to shorten the life of your mower from Consumer Reports' mowing expert Peter Sawchuk who is just back from conducting our mower tests in Florida.

If there's one thing contractors love, it's when customers tell them how to do their job. Kidding. That's actually right behind not getting paid on their list of pet peeves. Unfortunately, when it comes to painting projects, customer and contractor are often at loggerheads since the best paints for pros are not always the best paints for homeowners. So how do you navigate the divide?

Step inside Consumer Reports’ lightbulb lab and you’ll see rows of CFLs, LEDs, and halogen bulbs cycling on and off every two minutes. Over time this test shows our experts which bulbs can better withstand more frequent on/off cycles. But look above the lab’s sink and you’ll see a different test—two LEDs that have been on, day and night, for more than 13,500 hours and counting.