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Household Hints

5 Ways to Reuse Newspaper Clean your windows. Don't ask why, but crumpled newspaper makes mirrors and glass shine. Just spray the surface with your favorite glass cleaner and use them as you would regular paper towels. One caveat: Since newspaper isn't terribly absorbent, it's best to use less cleaning spray. You won't need much, anyway. Substitute shredded or crumpled paper for Styrofoam. Instead of using non-recyclable, petroleum-based Styrofoam peanuts to pack items for shipping, run sheets of newspaper through a paper shredder to create stuffing material, or just crumple them into loose balls for extra padding. Store fragile dishware. When putting away fine china, place folded squares of newspaper between plates and bowls to protect them. Wrap the whole stack in another sheet before placing them in fabric cases or boxes. Start a barbecue. Charcoal chimneys (like this one) are inexpensive and make lighting the grill a breeze. But instead of soaking the briquettes in chemical lighter fluid, as many do, try lighting them using newspaper instead. Just crumple a few sheets and stuff them in the bottom section of the chimney, then fill the top portion with charcoal. Light the paper and the briquettes will light themselves. Make "tablecloths." Sloppy meals (in my house, boiled lobster makes a legendary mess) and kids' art projects call for casual table coverings. Just spread out a few sheets of the Sunday comics, set your fixings on top, and feel free to leave your manners behind. Back to the Top

Vinegar Uses Homemade Bug Spray If sprayed regularly, undiluted vinegar applied to window frames, doorframes, and baseboards will discourage flies, ants, silverfish and sow bugs. Extend the Life of Sponges, Cleaning Cloths, and Mop Heads Textiles can be expensive, even those used for cleaning. Disinfect sponges and other cleaning cloths and aids by soaking them overnight in undiluted vinegar.   Remember, a little knowledge and planning will create a safer home, save the environment, and save you pennies that add up over time.

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Alka-Seltzer® Polish jewelry. Drop two Alka-Seltzer® tablets into a glass of water and immerse the jewelry for two minutes. Unclog a drain. Clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka- Seltzer® tablets down the drain followed by a cup of Heinz White Vinegar. Wait a few minutes, then run the hot water. Get short-term relief from nicotine withdrawal symptoms. As long as you're not on a low-sodium diet or have peptic ulcers, drink two Alka-Seltzer® tablets dissolved in a glass of water at every meal. Soothe insect bites. Dissolve two Alka-Seltzer® tablets in a glass of water, dip a cloth into the solution, and place the cloth on the bite for twenty minutes.

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Herbal Household Hints Plant catnip along the house - a sprinkling of it along an ant path will encourage them to turn around and leave. Houseflies don't like basil, clover flowers and sweet bays. A bouquet of green and purple basil, sweet bay and red clover not only looks and smells good in the kitchen, but keeps away the flies as well. Mint repels mice - Long stems of it placed along the eaves in the attic will encourage mice to leave. Anise will attract mice, so a little anise oil or a few anise seeds mixed with peanut butter is far more effective than cheese as bait for a mousetrap. Valerian is also good bait for mice, as well as for rats. Bay leaves will keep weevils out of stored flour, cornmeal, and other grains. Just place a whole bay leaf in the container and don't worry - it will not flavor the food at all. The fungus that infects dried beans and grains can be prevented by placing a small, cheesecloth "sachet" filled with broken cinnamon stick, black peppercorns, coarsely ground black mustard seed, and green garlic into each gallon can or jar. To freshen room air, dampen cotton balls with oil of wintergreen and place out of sight but where air will touch them. For hard to reach spots, slip a sock over the end of a yardstick and secure with a rubber band, then sweep the area. This method works well for cleaning under radiators and refrigerators also.

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General Household Organize your magazines into groups according to Seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter). This way, you have several handy reference guides for the appropriate Season/Holiday! Use of soap wrapper: Don't throw away the wrapper after removing a bar of soap. Place it inside your shoe cabinet or shoe box. It's a cheap way of filling the air with a nice smell. Go to Body, Face & Hand Soaps Are your shoes smelly: Here's a solution. Put some tea leaves into a pair of stockings and stuff each into a shoe. Leave for a day or two and the smell just vanishes! To keep buttons from dropping off: Dab a drop of clear nail polish onto the thread the secures the buttons. This will harden and make it more difficult for thread to break off. If you have problem with slippery shoelaces which refuse to stay tied: Rub them with a candle and make them less slippery so that knots stay put. To keep lint and dust off glass top tables, wash them in a solution of warm water and fabric softener. Add one tablespoon of liquid fabric softener to one quart of warm water. The fabric softener will clean the glass inexpensively and will help keep lint from gathering on the glass. Also great for computer screens and TV's. Don't throw away odd socks or socks with holes in them, use them to make a mop. Tie several socks (10-12 works best) to a mop or broom handle and use just like you would a regular mop. White cotton socks work best for this project and by the time the "sock mop" wears out, you'll probably have plenty more socks to make a new one. To help new or just cleaned drapes stay fresh and crisp looking, spray them with a few coats of unscented hair spay before hanging them up. Allow the hair spray to dry between applications. When you leave the house put any cut flowers into the refrigerator, making the flowers last much longer. To keep cut flowers fresher longer by mixing up a homemade formula. Mix 1 pint warm water, 1 pint lemonade or a lemon-lime soft drink. Pour enough into the vase to cover the lower three to four inches of the stem. Here's how this formula works: the sugar in the mixture supplies energy to the flowers and the citric acid in the lemon helps preserve them. Put an old spatula to good use: An old metal kitchen spatula makes a great scraper when you're trying to remove dried paint spills

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