Household hints and helpers
Household Helpers This section is for little helpful hints that might get you out of a Big Household Disaster. Here are a few of my favorites: *WHO KNEW? When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest? So did you "squeeze" for softness to determine freshness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different colored twist tie. They are: M - Blue, Tu - Green, Th - Red, F -White, S -Yellow. So if today were Thursday, you would want red twist tie, not white which is Friday's (almost a week old)! The colors go alphabetically by color Blue - Green - Red - White -Yellow, Monday through Saturday. *Minor burn -- Colgate or Crest toothpaste *Budweiser Beer will condition your hair. *Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish. *Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 min. *Mayonnaise will KILL LICE. It will also condition your hair. *Elmer's Glue -- paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads. *Shiny Hair - rinse in brewed Lipton Tea. *Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it! *Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in; kills insect sting pain, too. *Paper cut -- crazy glue or Chapstick (glue is used instead of sutures at most hospitals). *Stinky feet -- Jello!! *Kool Aid to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet. *Kool Aid in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint. Your kids will love it, and it won't hurt them if they eat it! *Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands! Keep a can in your garage and shop. *Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls. * To keep FRESH FLOWERS longer, add a little Clorox or 2 Bayer aspirin in the water. Or just use 7-up instead of water. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Keep your whites extremely WHITE with no rubbing. Remove those yellow underarm stains. Spray prewash stain remover on the inside and let soak for at least 15 minutes. Soak with regular detergent at the warmest temp allowable for at least 30 minutes. Then wash as usual. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Nothing works better at removing eye make-up for me than vaseline! Just a little bit does the trick! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *For stuck on grease or burned on food just add a little water to the bottom to cover and add dish detergent then heat! Works great! Time saver too! *For stuck on grease or burned on food just add a little water to the bottom to cover and add dish detergent then heat! Works great! Time saver too! *Kids Boredom Buster! Make up some Homemade Playdough, or a Jar of Bubbles and create some wands out of household things, and spend some quality time cleaning your house uninterupted! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Did you ever put an ink mark on your favorite skirt, shirt or even your sofa cushions? I use hairspray to get ink out of fabric. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Red Wine on White Carpet? Use one part Dawn dish detergent and two parts "fresh" hydrogen peroxide. Apply to stain and work with a small cleaning brush. (old toothbrush works) Use white towel or paper towels to soak up excess fluid. Watch the stain disappear! You may want to use a damp cloth after scrubbing stain away to remove excess soap from carpet. This works wonders. You may want to -*test*-('") a small section of carpet to -*test*-('") if carpet is off white and not snow white. It worked great on my beige carpet, but if not careful I can see how it could "bleach" some colors of carpet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *A great way to clean your microwave is to add water to a microwave-safe bowl, heat it in the microwave until it boils, then let the steam loosen up all the stuck on splatters! But you can ALSO go one step further! Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda per 8 oz (1 cup) of the water! It helps the steaming process, PLUS it cuts right through grease, AND deodorizes the whole microwave! Just remove the bowl, and wipe clean with paper towels after about 2 minutes of steaming! (Be careful when removing the bowl from the microwave; it may be very hot on the outside!) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Use Tea Tree Oil and put it in your shampoo to relieve dry itchy scalp. Also, add it to your children's shampoo or place it on their neck line to help deter lice. Good for pets and detering fleas :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Flour and water mixed just right will create glue. This may be a forgotten tip, but was used many years ago to put up wall paper. Comes in handy for small jobs, especially when you are out of glue! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *I use waterproof mascara, and always hated the oily removers. Baby oil was just as bad. They'd always get in my eyes no matter how careful I was. I can't even remember what prompted me to try this, but I found that using shortening such as Crisco (or even any generic brand) works BEAUTIFULLY! As you rub it into your eyelashes it liquifies, and yet does not get into the eyes. It also wipes off very cleanly. And talk about INEXPENSIVE! I just fill a tiny, lidded plastic container to keep with my makeup supplies, and it lasts forever! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Add a drop or two of your favorite extract, flavoring or a dash of cinnamon to ground coffee before brewing to make your own gourmet flavored coffee! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have your candles ever overflowed onto your carpet? A great way to get candle wax from carpet is to get a brown paper bag and put it over the wax on the carpet then start ironing over it and the wax and color of the wax goes away completely! It's amazing~!
Household Helpers This section is for little helpful hints that might get you out of a Big Household Disaster. Here are a few of my favorites: *WHO KNEW? When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest? So did you "squeeze" for softness to determine freshness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different colored twist tie. They are: M - Blue, Tu - Green, Th - Red, F -White, S -Yellow. So if today were Thursday, you would want red twist tie, not white which is Friday's (almost a week old)! The colors go alphabetically by color Blue - Green - Red - White -Yellow, Monday through Saturday. *Minor burn -- Colgate or Crest toothpaste *Budweiser Beer will condition your hair. *Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish. *Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 min. *Mayonnaise will KILL LICE. It will also condition your hair. *Elmer's Glue -- paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads. *Shiny Hair - rinse in brewed Lipton Tea. *Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it! *Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in; kills insect sting pain, too. *Paper cut -- crazy glue or Chapstick (glue is used instead of sutures at most hospitals). *Stinky feet -- Jello!! *Kool Aid to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet. *Kool Aid in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint. Your kids will love it, and it won't hurt them if they eat it! *Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands! Keep a can in your garage and shop. *Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls. * To keep FRESH FLOWERS longer, add a little Clorox or 2 Bayer aspirin in the water. Or just use 7-up instead of water. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Keep your whites extremely WHITE with no rubbing. Remove those yellow underarm stains. Spray prewash stain remover on the inside and let soak for at least 15 minutes. Soak with regular detergent at the warmest temp allowable for at least 30 minutes. Then wash as usual. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Nothing works better at removing eye make-up for me than vaseline! Just a little bit does the trick! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *For stuck on grease or burned on food just add a little water to the bottom to cover and add dish detergent then heat! Works great! Time saver too! *For stuck on grease or burned on food just add a little water to the bottom to cover and add dish detergent then heat! Works great! Time saver too! *Kids Boredom Buster! Make up some Homemade Playdough, or a Jar of Bubbles and create some wands out of household things, and spend some quality time cleaning your house uninterupted! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Did you ever put an ink mark on your favorite skirt, shirt or even your sofa cushions? I use hairspray to get ink out of fabric. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Red Wine on White Carpet? Use one part Dawn dish detergent and two parts "fresh" hydrogen peroxide. Apply to stain and work with a small cleaning brush. (old toothbrush works) Use white towel or paper towels to soak up excess fluid. Watch the stain disappear! You may want to use a damp cloth after scrubbing stain away to remove excess soap from carpet. This works wonders. You may want to -*test*-('") a small section of carpet to -*test*-('") if carpet is off white and not snow white. It worked great on my beige carpet, but if not careful I can see how it could "bleach" some colors of carpet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *A great way to clean your microwave is to add water to a microwave-safe bowl, heat it in the microwave until it boils, then let the steam loosen up all the stuck on splatters! But you can ALSO go one step further! Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda per 8 oz (1 cup) of the water! It helps the steaming process, PLUS it cuts right through grease, AND deodorizes the whole microwave! Just remove the bowl, and wipe clean with paper towels after about 2 minutes of steaming! (Be careful when removing the bowl from the microwave; it may be very hot on the outside!) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Use Tea Tree Oil and put it in your shampoo to relieve dry itchy scalp. Also, add it to your children's shampoo or place it on their neck line to help deter lice. Good for pets and detering fleas :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Flour and water mixed just right will create glue. This may be a forgotten tip, but was used many years ago to put up wall paper. Comes in handy for small jobs, especially when you are out of glue! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *I use waterproof mascara, and always hated the oily removers. Baby oil was just as bad. They'd always get in my eyes no matter how careful I was. I can't even remember what prompted me to try this, but I found that using shortening such as Crisco (or even any generic brand) works BEAUTIFULLY! As you rub it into your eyelashes it liquifies, and yet does not get into the eyes. It also wipes off very cleanly. And talk about INEXPENSIVE! I just fill a tiny, lidded plastic container to keep with my makeup supplies, and it lasts forever! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Add a drop or two of your favorite extract, flavoring or a dash of cinnamon to ground coffee before brewing to make your own gourmet flavored coffee! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have your candles ever overflowed onto your carpet? A great way to get candle wax from carpet is to get a brown paper bag and put it over the wax on the carpet then start ironing over it and the wax and color of the wax goes away completely! It's amazing~!