Over the Back Fence
Helpful Hints for Home
Makers
HOME MAKERS AND SURVIVAL IN THE hOME- Help for ladies who guard the home while the man is away. Self-defense, Defending the Home, Personal Strength, Home Making hints, and Child Raising Suggestions Abound
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Over the Back Fence |
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piano coversnings for Home Makers
A note to our readers:
If you try one of these methods and find that it does not work, please notify
us!
We do not take responsibility for any damage
that may be incurred by using any of these tips.
Cleaning
Laundry
In the Kitchen
updated
Baby Sense
I Don't Have Any...
It's a Messy
Situation
Where Shall We Put It?
1. Do you have old socks that aren't all rough and "grungy," or totally ruined? Use them for dusting. Slip one on your hand, or your kid's hand, spray with "Endust," and away you go. :-) Skip the "Endust" and use a dampened sock on each hand to dust large-leaf house plants.
2. If you have a large oil spill on the counter or a hard surface floor, try sprinkling it with corn starch and letting it sit a few minutes. Wipe up with paper towel and then clean the remaining oil up with piano coversm water and dish soap.
3. Try using nail polish remover on a cotton ball to clean scuffs off of shoes. Do a sample on an small area that isn't visible (like inside the shoe if the edge folds over) to make sure that it won't take the color off.
[NOTE: It is a common myth that baking soda and vinegar or lemon juice can be mixed for a good cleaning agent. This is not true. Baking soda is a base while vinegar and lemon juice are both acids. Anyone who has some knowledge of chemistry will know that mixing a base and an acid will cause them to neutralize each other. This means that you are actually getting less cleaning power when you mix then than if you use them separately.]
4. Try a paste made of equal parts piano coversm water and baking soda to clean tarnished silverpiano coverse. (Do not use on aluminum as it will react and turn black.)
5. Try sprinkling baking soda on a damp sponge to use for wiping scuff marks, stains, and crayon off of painted walls, tile, laminated countertops, and appliances. (When using on painted walls, be sure that you are not scrubbing the paint off too!)
6. For removing smells from carpet or upholstery: sprinkle a little baking soda on an out-of-sight spot of the carpet or fabric. Leave for 15-20 minutes and then brush or vacuum it off. If the color has not been affected by the baking soda, then use it on the place that needs deoderizing in the same manner.
7. Use vinegar to remove mineral build-up from sinks and tubs, and the like. Saturate a paper towel or rag with vinegar till it is soggy and place it over the affected area. Leave it for awhile and then remove it and wipe the area. If it does not all come off, reapply the vinegar saturated rag/paper towel. Repeat till the minerals deposits are gone or reduced enough to be invisible.
1. For the large family it may be helpful to have a laundry basket for clean clothes for each member. The ones that are old enough can pick up their own basket at the laundry room and be taught to fold their own clothes.
2. If your family is large or has lots of dirty clothes, you may want to use a large plastic garbage can for your dirty clothes "hamper."
3. Protect delicate items by placing in a pillow case and closing the end with a rubber band before washing.
4. Help remove odors from clothing by adding 1/3 cup of baking soda to your washer.
5. Cover the top edge of your plastic laundry basket with a strong cloth tape before it cracks. This way it will last longer.
6. Never wash protein stains with hot water, since heat sets them and makes removal later very difficult. If you are ironing something and come across a stain and are not sure what it is, do not iron it. Try removing it first. Protein stains would include: blood, milk/milk products, baby formula, egg, and so on. To remove a protein stain, try rubbing in a paste of water and meat tenderizer. Allow to sit a few minutes and then wash it out. Do not put the item in the dryer till the stain is removed to your satisfaction as the dryer is hot and can set the stain.
7. Used fabric softener sheets can be used as an ironing cloth.
8. Sprinkle baking soda in the bottom of the clothes hamper to keep mild dew away.
9. When washing your shower curtain put several old bath towels in the washing machine with it to help scrub off the scum.
10. Try aerosol hair spray for removing ball point ink stains. Spray spot and sop with and paper towel. Be sure to hold a paper towel on the opposite side also as ink will bleed through. After removing as much as possible, wash as usual. Check stain before drying in the drier. If it is still there, repeat hair spray treatment.
11. Save sorting time when on vacation by repacking all the dirty clothes in one suitcase and the clean ones in another bag.
12. Try adding a cup of white vinegar to your washing machine when it's in the final rinse cycle. This is supposed to remove degergant residue from the clothes. This may help anyone in your family that is allergic to commerblipl soaps.
13. Try pretreating food stains with ordinary shampoo.
14. Add a cup of salt when washing new towels for the first time. It will set the color and keep them from fading so quickly.
15. "...Pour a little amonia in with the laundry detergent and it'd work like an activator. I was a fan of bleach and didn't really believe this until recently. I tried it and noticed that the water got really brown during the wash cycle. It convinced me! Try amonia and forget axion and other products. It really will "lift" dirt out of soiled garments and towels. You can even soak badly soiled items in amonia. Just remember this -- never, ever, mix amonia and bleach together -- it creates a poisonous gas." J. Lawson
16. "Another laundry tip I learned from my mother -- mix equal parts of amonia, dishwashing liquid, and water in a spray bottle. It works beautifully as a spot remover for pre-wash. Again, I don't think it'd be wise to spray a soiled area with this mixture and then use bleach in the water. I think bleach and amonia must be used separately." J. Lawson
17. "The best bleach, of course, is bluing. If you can't find bluing, try laying white items on the grass and letting the sun bleach them the old fashioned way." J. Lawson
Baby Sense
1. Save your bread bags to put in your diaper bag. Use them to put used disposable diapers in till you get home or can throw them away. (You can bag them at home this way also if you want to.) Use this method for cloth diapers to transport them home to be washed.
2. Have a friend that's having a baby but already has everything that she needs so you're at a loss for gift ideas? Give items that get used up -- formula, disposable diapers (or cloth), baby wipes, baby oil, baby powder, etc.
3. If you don't like to use rough, line-dried towels on your babies and small kids, try letting them line dry till just damp and then finishing in the dryer. If time gets away from you and they end up dry, spray lightly with water using a spray bottle and then dry, or put in with some other damp things that you are drying in the dryer.
4. If your baby has constant diaper rash no matter how much you fight it and you hang the diapers out on the line to dry, you might try either ironing the diapers or drying them in the dryer. My mom found she had to do this when my brother was a baby and we were in Ethiopia. Apparently something was getting in the diapers as they hung on the line. She had to iron them as she had no dryer. It may be possible that your baby has an allergy to some pollen or something that is cannot be killed with an iron also, and that you will need to dry them in the dryer or hang them in the house somewhere.
5. When you plan a baby shower for someone and they have already received or purchased most of what they need, ask your guests to bring a frozen meal for the family along with the preparation instructions. Be sure to have a cooler on hand for the mother-to-be to take the food home in.
6. I've found that if baby has bad diaper rash, putting a little Mylanta on it with a cotton ball helps sooth the irritated skin bringing on instant relief. Also, Mylanta can be mixed with Desitin and makes a great diaper rash ointment! -- Jill; Tennessee
New 7. To make your own economical diaper wipes, mix 3 cups of water, 3 tablespoons of baby lotion, and 1 tablespoon of baby shampoo thoroughly in a container with a tight fitting lid. Cut a roll of paper towels (Bounty Big Roll is best, I've tried them all) in half, remove the cardboard core and place half in the container. Put on the lid and tip upside-down until all the liquid is absorbed. Keep out of direct sunlight. Anonymous
I Don't Have Any...
1. Self-rising flour. To make self-rising flour add 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. salt per cup of flour. ( Four cups of flour = 1 pound.)
2. Brown sugar. In the work bowl of your food processor pour in 2 C. of white sugar. Run processor and drizzle in dark molasses through the opening in the top. Stop and scrape the sides, if necessary. Run till blended. Add more molasses by the same procedure if you want darker sugar.
3. Powdered sugar. Buzz 1 C. of sugar and 1 Tbl. of cornstarch on high in the blender until smooth. Makes about one cup. (Contributed by Melinda M.)
1. To help stop the mess when kids are eating popsicles or ice cream on stick, try poking a whole in a small or large size paper plate and putting the stick through the whole. This makes a collar that drips have to get around to get to the floor and clothes. :-)
2. When kids want to help in the kitchen have them wear an old, adult-size shirt backpiano coversd like you would for an art project or painting.
3. Before handling Styrofoam "popcorn" packing, rub your hands with a fabric softener sheet.
4. If you plan to work on a painting job for several days, wrap your paint brush in some aluminum foil or plastic wrap for overnight to keep the brush and paint wet. This saves having to rinse things out every night.
5. Remove pet hair from upholstery by putting on latex gloves and rubbing it over the "haired" area.
6. When you're moving use paper towels to pack the fragile stuff in. The paper toweling can be used as it normally would be when you arrive at your destination and you don't risk getting black from newspapers on your things. Another useful thing is to pack as much of your fragile stuff as you can in your towels, sheets, quilting fabrics and the like. Be careful of espebliplly nice fabrics that you do not pack something in them that may damage them.
7. Try keeping one or two pieces of charcoal in your tool box to keep house tools and garden tools from rusting.
8. Touch up a blemish on your wall paint with a cotton ball instead on of a paint brush. No wasted paint or clean up.
9. Keep the tops of clothes clean in storage on in your closet. Use an old sheet to cover the whole rod of clothes, or use old pillow cases with a small whole cut in the center of the end to cover individual garments.
10. Keep hair pins, clips, rubber bands, etc. organized in the bathroom drawer by using a plastic silverpiano coverse tray.
11. Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips.
1. Listen to preaching tapes, good music, or "learn-a-language" tapes while you're doing your housework.
Where Shall We Put It?
The Perrenial Storage Problem
1. I take cereal boxes, cut the top 1/3 off at an angle, cover them with the Sunday Morning Comics, or leftover wrapping paper, and use them to store my magazines. -- Libby M
You might also try covering them with contact paper or with some of the wall paper that you have left from papering.
2. An old clothes hamper with a hinged lid can be used for a storage place for overshoes, rubber boots, etc. Paint it to match your porch or hall decor if you want. It is ventilated so the things can dry.
3. A hanging pocket-style shoe bag in a hallway or enterance for wtoring winter gloves, mittens, scarves, caps, etc. Hang it low enough for children to store their things in the lower pockets.
4. Place whole cloves in the pockets of woolen coats, jackets and in sweater bags when you're storing them. They prevent moth damage and leave a pleasant, spicy smell. They can also be used in drawers with socks and everyday work clothes.
spchk mt/se
background & graphics by mary vannattan