HELPFUL HINTS
Cell
Phone: if you drop it in water, bury it
in dry rice in a closed container overnight.
The rice will absorb the moisture.
(this also worked to save an i-pod)
Television: to find the ideal screen size, measure the
distance from the TV to the couch in feet.
Divide by three, then multiply by 12.
This will give you the screen size, in inches.
Grease
spots on clothes: make a paste of baking
soda and water and rub generously into spot.
Let sit an hour, then launder as usual.
The spot SHOULD come right out.
Baking
Soda:
Laundry: ¼ cup added to wash will soften clothes
Grease: see above (laundry, dishes, etc). note:
baking soda + grease = soap!
Mold/Mildew
smell: to remove, soak the item in ½ cup
to 1 cup vinegar to 1 gallon water for about 30 minutes, then launder as
usual. The vinegar will kill the “bugs”
that cause the smell! This works for
other odors as well (urine from baby clothes, for example).
Plants: 2T Epsom salts added to 2 quarts water –
water plants with this once a month to help growth
To
relieve a sore throat: roast ½ a fresh
lemon over the flame on the stove until the peel turns golden brown. Let cool slightly, them mix the juice with
one teaspoon of honey. Drink the
mixture.
Rub
the inside of a chicken or turkey with salt to keep it moist.
Mix
2 teaspoons salt in 1 gallon hot water and rub over the inside of car
windows. Wipe dry – will prevent frost
from accumulating on the inside of the windows.
To
remove red wine stains: stretch the
cloth over a bowl. Cover the stain with
salt and carefully pour boiling water over it.
Us
a coffee filter in the bottom of a planter pot to keep the soil from falling
out of the hole.
In
a savory recipe, use ½ tsp vinegar in place of 1 tsp lemon juice.
Vinegar
is a good degreaser for oily hair – just wash, then pour ¼ cup of vinegar over
hair and rinse well.
Add
a couple of capfuls of vinegar to the final rinse to make sweaters
extra-fluffy.
Spray
vinegar on weeds to kill them (careful for the grass!).
To
prepare a garden: in the fall, mow a
patch of lawn to make room for a new bed.
Cover it with four layers of newspaper, then a four-inch layer of
shredded leaves or bark mulch. In the
spring the compost will have killed the grass and the new garden will be ready
for planting.
Use
dryer sheets to clean the pet hair from furniture. Also, use them to dust (just make sure
they’re used, or they’ll leave a film on everything!).
Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the
little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.
Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them
connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay
fresh much longer and not mold!
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers
with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease
away from the meat while cooking.
To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of
spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double
broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at
the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop
them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in
a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350
for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
Easy Deviled Eggs Put
cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add
remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the
tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy
clean up.
Expanding Frosting When you
buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a
few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes
with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
Newspaper weeds away Start
putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put
layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget
about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through
wet newspapers.
Broken Glass Use a wet
cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
No More Mosquitoes Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will
keep the mosquitoes away.
Squirrel Away! To
keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne
pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come
near it.
Flexible vacuum To get
something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel
roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get
in narrow openings.
Reducing Static Cling Pin a
small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt
or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose.
Place pin in seam of slacks and .... ta da! ... static is gone.
Measuring Cups Before
you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out
the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut
butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
Foggy Windshield? Hate
foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your
car . When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
Reopening envelope? If you seal an envelope and then realize you
forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the
freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It opens easily.
Conditioner Use your hair conditioner
to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really
smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't
like when you tried it in your hair.
Goodbye Fruit Flies To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small
glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing
liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
Get Rid of Ants Put small
piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest
it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it
works? and you don't have the worry
about pets or small children being harmed!
BISCOTTI: bake on roasting rack to dry both sides at
once
BREAD: place in loaf pan, then in air-filled plastic
bag, then in larger loaf pan for rising
BUTTER: make compound butter, roll in log, and freeze
up to 3 months. Ready to slice onto hot
foods
