Cmore | Tuesday, December 17, 2002 - 12:54 am     Do you know of a tip,or helpful hint that may make someones life a little easier? Perhaps you know a trick that may amaze your friends or put a smile on someones face. Post them here and share with everyone. To get things started....... Tip... Do you have an old car, boat or motorcycle with dull faded paint? Give it a 5 minute wax job with lemon pledge. Just apply it with a soft cloth as you would your furniture. You will be suprised how that old dull paint will shine again. Trick..... For this trick you will need a glass coke bottle ( or some other like glass bottle) and a (unlit) paper match from a paper match book. Fill the coke bottle completely to the top with water and then put in the paper match. Now using either a finger or a thumb (whichever will make a tight seal on the bottle top) apply pressure to the water inside the bottle. The match will fall to the bottom. causing a suction to the bottle with your finger will cause the match to rise. Now cover the top of the bottle with the other hand, so people can not see exatly what you are doing and bet your friends that you can make the match rise and fall in the water on your command. They will be amazed when you can in fact make the match rise and fall and will be scratching their heads to figure out how you do it. There are tons of hints and tricks out there, lets here em. |
Sadiesmom | Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 09:16 pm     cream of tarter - this man was discussing how to clean things on PBS Cream of tarter + hydrogen peroxide cleans the hard water marks on tubs and sinks Cream of tarter + Vinegar cleans off burned on broiler pans and pots Clean silver easily Tin plate, water softner powder and salt and cold water dip and rinse |
Kristylovesbb | Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 09:28 pm     When making deviled eggs, cool them down in cold water, crack the shells against another egg all the way around and then, applying pressure, roll the egg between both palms of your hands. Make sure you roll the sides and tops around and the shell should slip right off. |
Jo_5329 | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 07:24 am     To get more juice out of a lemon or orange, roll it around on a flat service before cutting to juice. |
Dahli | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 08:28 am     sorry... what's water softener powder? I'd like to try that one. |
Pamy | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 08:48 am     Great idea!! I love this kind of stuff!! |
Twinkie | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 08:52 am     Before putting a candle in a votive holder add a couple of drops of water. When the candle burns all the way down you can pop it out with your finger. No more scraping wax out. |
Lumbele | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 10:03 am     Great idea, Csmore! Sadie, I think the man's name is Bailey (or something similar). He also had some mixture for soaking stove vent filters. You wouldn't happen to have jotted that one down, would you? Mine are starting to look ugggggggly. |
Djgirl5235 | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 10:06 am     Twinkie - here's another trick, if you don't put the water in (or forget) and there's wax stuck on the bottom, stick the holder into the freezer for about 1/2 an hour, and it will just pop right out.. |
Crazydog | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 10:33 am     Sadie, thanks. I have pots with copper bottoms that have gotten blackened by my gas stove. I wonder if the cream of tartar/vinegar solution will work on that. |
Conejo | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 10:58 am     Crazydog, try using the hot chili seasoning packets from Wendy's just pour it on your copper bottom pans and let it soak for a little bit and then wash it off. Makes any copper look like new. If you can't get any of the hot sauce try using A-1 steak sauce - this will also work! |
Calamity | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 11:35 am     To get dog or cat fur off carpeting, upholstry, or car interiors, lightly go over the surface with a shedding blade. |
Juju2bigdog | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 03:54 pm     Errrrrrr ... shedding blade? Couldn't you just shoo them off the couch?
 |
Rabbit | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 03:56 pm     Agreed Juju, those things hurt! |
Cyn | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 04:39 pm     Easy to Clean Microwave Directions take a bowl of water and fill it with a box of baking soda and nuke it till it boils for 5-10 minutes, then take a rag and wipe off the walls of the nuke. This will clean a microwave that is no longer white almost like wiping steam off of a mirror. Baking Soda is the best for ovens, sinks, bathtubs. |
Twinkie | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 05:44 pm     Baking soda and water are also great for heartburn. |
Sadiesmom | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 06:04 pm     Baking soda is also great for getting pagetti sauce off of plastic container and coffee and tea spots off cups - Credit that to Mom, she used baking soda for everything. Bailey also said the best pet hair remover is not those costly masking tape rollers, but a yellow cleaning glove. I tried it and that worked best of all of them. I now have these gloves hidden in 3 rooms, so I can clean the furniture or rugs. LOL I have no idea what water softener powder is, but it is upposed to be readily available in your super market - Right. |
Julieboo | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 06:22 pm     Water softener powder is Borax. You can find it near the laundry detergent. (20 mule borax.) Lestoil gets out a lot of stains that you'd think were unremovable. But Lestoil is hard to find. At least around here. Rub shaving cream into your bathroom mirrors (not too much) and then they won't steam up from the shower. Lasts a good number of weeks too. |
Abbynormal | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 06:28 pm     Plain white vinegar in your laundry instead of bleach or fabric softener will make them sparkling white and very soft. There is no vinegar smell. |
Jmm | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 06:31 pm     WD-40 will take crayon off painted walls. |
Kady | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 08:24 pm     My Mom gave me these hints.... Mix 1 part liquid fabric softner with 4 parts water, soak an old washrag in it. When drying clothes, toss in your washrag. Cheaper than using those fabric sheets. If you have dry cracking feet. Rub them over generously with vaseline. Slip on a pair of socks and sleep in them. She said the difference in one day was amazing. |
Dahli | Friday, January 10, 2003 - 08:39 pm     Thanks Julieboo - I did not know that! These are all great. |
Jo_5329 | Saturday, January 11, 2003 - 04:53 am     Jmm .. and I know this works first hand No, as most of you know by now, I don't have kids. I had a neighbor with an artistic child, but only when NOT using paper ... she called me freaking out, as the house was a rental. This tip is on the crayola website. I watched her do this with the daughter's art work. We did have to use a degreaser on it afterward though -- Grease Lightning worked well afterward. Did you know that powdered clothes washing and dishwashing detergent can not all dissolve while being used? A lot of the powder can stick to the insides of the washer and dishwasher, eventually "gunking" the whole works up. Use liquid washing and dishwashing detergent instead. No powder to dissolve and gunk up the works. No matter how well your septic tank works --- it was recommended to us by the roto rooter guy (hint, we had to call him out for this) not to put toliet paper down in it. He said even though the tank would eventually dispose of the paper, sometimes it gets jammed up in the pipes. We started putting the paper in the trash instead of down the tank and we have had no need for the roto rooter guy since Jo |
Sadiesmom | Saturday, January 11, 2003 - 09:49 pm     I still have not succeeded in talking my family into this, but give presents for New Years rather than Christmas. That way, you can enjoy the lights and relax with family on Christmas and get your presents at half price so you really have something to celebrate. LOL, maybe next year. |
Cyn | Sunday, January 12, 2003 - 03:29 am     Great Facial 1 spoon of baking soda 2 small or 1 large organic peach crushed 2 spoons of organic plain yogurt mix this together pull your hair back brush it or pat it on your face leave for 10-15 minutes. within in 2-3 minutes you will begin to feel the dirt and dead skin lifting from the baking soda and the peach and yogurt have vitamins and antitoxins to sooth and heal. this is a great facial. |
Calamity | Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 10:46 am     Juju2bigdog: I'm not sure if you were kidding or not, but shooing my dog off the carpet isn't an option. He hasn't yet mastered levitating and since he's at least 12 years old, well, you know what they say about teaching an old dog new tricks. I also hope you understand that I said to lightly use the shedding blade on the carpeting, upholstry. etc to scrape up the fur. |
Juju2bigdog | Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 12:01 pm     Just kidding, Clamser. Some folks seem to think I am very dawg-like, and well, a dawg would think very literally and think you meant the shedding blade was to be used on the dawg, which would not be good. At least from the dawg's point of view. |
Abby7 | Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 12:36 pm     The guy's name is Haley Graham. I've seen him on two shows. I've tried 2 of his hints. For pet hair on clothes, use rubber gloves (like the ones used for cleaning)....worked okay. For cleaning (forget the name) silver-tone, stove protectors (the 4 on top of the stove that get so dirty)....didn't work well at all. The burned on stuff was still there even though I followed his instructions. Even tried leaving the mixture on overnight after his instructions didn't work. The mixture was cream of tarter, vinegar and maybe on more ingredient (tried it a couple of years ago so forget now. Was disappointed with the results. Saw him recently on PBS and his hints looked really good though....will have to try some others. Lumbele: sorry, can't remember the one for the stove vent filters either. but it did look like it worked well. I'll try a Google search for it for you though. |
Bigd | Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 12:39 pm     The best way to remove ANY stain: 1 gallon water 1/2 cup bleach 1 cup powdered dishwasher detergent Mix together very well in plastic container and soak the garmet at least 15 minutes. Of course this is only for bleachable clothes. This saved many of my childrens clothes from the trash bin. I get rid of odor on my hands after onion, shrimp, cleaning supplies, etc by rubbing them on the stainless steel faucet at my kitchen sink as I am washing them. |
Abby7 | Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 12:45 pm     Any suggestion for ring around the collar when only the collar is white? (rugby tops for instance). White cotton collar, black sweatshirt material. Always afraid of trying bleach on just the white collar because it may get on to the black. |
Abbynormal | Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 01:24 pm     What in the spain is a shedding blade?  |
Abby7 | Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 01:31 pm     Abbynormal: lol...i didn't have a clue either. looked it up. something about a blade for long-haired animals. one side for hair and the other for wiping the sweat off. (glad it didn't say wiping the sweat of humans..yuk). So, we both learn something new today (although I don't know if my definition is totally accurate). |
Sabbatia | Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 06:31 pm     Buy some permanent markers in different colors. When you get a new package of socks, put a small mark of one color on each of the toes. This helps with that terrible job of sorting socks. Just match the colors. I know, it's still work, but it beats the heck out of trying to train your family to safety pin their socks together when they take them off. |
Scorpiomoon | Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 07:46 pm     CYN! I just tried your microwave trick! IT WORKS!!! Thank you! I love this thread! |