Archive Category: 'Household Tips'

• How To Clean Stainless Steel Appliances: Tips: Gleaming stainless steel appliances look lovely in the kitchen, but the downside is the ever-present fingerprint marks and smudges (especially around refrigerator and oven door handles). There’s no getting around the extra effort it takes to keep these appliances shining, but here’s how you can get rid of those pesky smudges easily. How To Clean Stainless [...]
• How To Remove Stains From Marble & Granite: Marble and granite countertops are gorgeous but they are porous and will soak in liquids that can leave stains (even sitting water can cause stains!). Here are some poultice recipes & stain removers that can help remove those. Many types of liquids and sauces can stain the stone including fruit juices, wine, coffee, tea, water, [...]
• How To Season Cast Iron Cookware: Here’s how to keep that favorite iron skillet in perfect cooking condition. This tip was originally included with How To Clean Cast Iron Cookware (published August 27, 2007) but moved here to it’s own file. How To Season Cast Iron Cookware ul> Wash and scrub with fine scouring powder to remove its lacquer coating. Rinse and dry it thoroughly [...]
• 10 Cough Remedies & Treatments: Coughing is your body’s way of breaking up mucus, clearing airways and getting rid of irritants. As annoying as coughs are, it’s actually best to let your body take care of itself and do what it needs to do (cough). But when your throat is raw, or you’re trying to sleep, sit in meetings or [...]
• Underarm & Deodorant Stains: Removal Tips: Deodorant & Antiperspirant Stains: Sponge stains with ammonia then rinse. If you’re cleaning clothing that contains wool or silk, first dilute the ammonia with water (50/50 ratio). Yellow Underarm Stains: Treat stains by gently rubbing a bar of laundry soap into the stain area. Spritz the spot with water first, then rub bar of soap into spot. Another method [...]
• 20 DIY & Craft Projects: {Pets}: Lucky Dog! Wrap Pillow: (as seen in picture) Create a homemade pillow for your favorite four-legged friend. How to Make a Raised Dog Feeder: A glue gun, wooden shadow box picture frame, napkin rings and voila! nice little station for your pet’s eating area. Weekend Warriors: Mr. Sambolini’s Solution for a Messy Litter Box: A litter-box enclosure [...]
• Get Rid Of Flies: Traps & Tips: From the first warm weather, every homeowner takes up arms against this most persistent form of pest life. Since houseflies do not bite, many people merely worry about them from the point of view of annoyance. However, it’s important to remember that they are also great disease carriers. Flies breed in and feed on rotting animal [...]
• Homemade Cleaners For The Bathroom {Peppermint}: Homemade Peppermint Shower Scrub 1 cup baking soda 1/4 tsp peppermint essential oil Mix the ingredients then store in a glass mason jar. To use: Sprinkle on a wet sponge and scrub bath and shower walls. Rinse off with water. All-Purpose Cleaner 1 cup distilled water 1/2 cup household vinegar 1/2 tsp liquid castille soap 1/4 tsp Peppermint essential oil Mix ingredients in a spray [...]
• Tips For Cleaning Laminate Floors: We recently had gorgeous laminate flooring installed in our living room and I just had to ask the flooring expert (our installer) what he recommended for cleaning it. Although laminate is much easier to care for than real wood flooring and I’ve had it for years in other parts of the house, I want to [...]
• How To Plant Tulips For Beautiful Spring Blooms: Tulips are a favorite garden plant and well known as harbingers of Spring (they’re one of the first plants of the season to produce blooms). Their beautiful flowers and vibrant colors are a refreshing change after a cold and dreary winter. Tulips are easy to plant and maintain although the digging required can be a bit [...]
• Bed Bugs: Treatment & Tips For Getting Rid Of Them: Bed bugs (bedbugs) are usually brought into the house from the outside, on clothing, baggage, second-hand furniture or in laundry done in an infested home. Social stigma is attached to the bed bug more than to any other insect. This is unfair since the most conscientious homemaker may bring them in on his or her [...]
• How To Stock Home Essentials: Today’s feature is from Martha Stewart with How to Stock Home Essentials: blockquote>A well-stocked pantry is like money in the bank: With the right long-lasting staples, you can take advantage of fresh, seasonal foods and impulse purchases or try a new recipe without having to scout out every last ingredient. You’ll save time, too, by pulling [...]
• 12 Heartburn Remedies Plus Causes & Prevention Tips: Heartburn or pyrosis is a painful and burning sensation in the esophagus, just below the breastbone usually associated with regurgitation of gastric acid. The pain often rises in the chest and may radiate to the neck, throat, or angle of the jaw. Heartburn is a major symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD); acid reflux is [...]
• How To Clean A Curling Iron: Have a bit of hairspray and hair product buildup on your curling iron? Here’s an easy way to clean that gunk off: Make sure the curling iron is unplugged and the barrel is cool to the touch. Pour a bit of rubbing alcohol on a damp cloth or a cotton ball and rub the barrel of the [...]
• Lampshade Cleaning: Quick Tips: Do you keep the plastic packaging on your lampshades to make cleanup easier? It’s easy enough to wipe the plastic down with a damp cloth, but the plastic wrap doesn’t fit everyone’s sense of style. Also, be aware that the plastic may be a fire hazard because of the heat the light bulb generates. ere are [...]
• Patina In Minutes: How To: Today’s feature is from DIY Ideas with Patina In Minutes: blockquote>Why wait a lifetime for a rich patina finish when you can create it yourself? Here’s an easy way to add a faux-patina to concrete pieces you have for the garden, this adds a richness to the items that you’d otherwise have to wait years to naturally [...]
• Making A Coupon Organizer System – How To Guide: One of the most frugal, money-saving things you can do is utilize as many of the free coupons you have at your disposal as possible to cut costs on the products you use. You’ll never redeem each and every coupon that comes your way, but by keeping your coupons organized and at hand for when you [...]
• Get Rid Of Fleas: Tips & Info: Fleas are one of the bloodsucking species of insects. While certain fleas confine their feeding to animals, other types are equally satisfied with human blood. Of those likely to come into the house, there are the cat flea, the dog flea, the human flea and, occasionally in the South, the sticktight flea. at and dog fleas [...]
• Dry & Cracked Heels: Skin Treatment Tip: Summertime means strappy sandals and barefeet since it’s more comfortable for our feet to breathe in hot weather than to keep them bundled up in socks and shoes. For some this leads to problem dry skin on feet that can progress to the point that the skin starts cracking and can get painful (especially around [...]
• Homemade Dish Detergent: Recipes: Today’s feature is from DIY Life with How To Make Your Own Dish Soap: blockquote>Making your own dish soap is a great for so many reasons. Homemade soaps tend to not dry out your skin and they work well for people who are allergic to commercial cleaners. But, my favorite perk is that you save money [...]
• Charming Kitchen Plants From The Garden: Flowers and house plants are not the only types of greenery which will enhance the appearance of the home. Vegetable arrangements are attractive and original. A vegetable plant placed on a sunny window ledge will last for months. The best way to grow vegetable plants is in water. Appropriate for the kitchen are the old-fashioned sweet [...]
• How To Store Seeds: If you’ve tried saving seeds from your garden in the past and didn’t have much luck with them germinating in the Spring, chances are you didn’t store the seeds in the environment they needed. Storing garden seeds in optimum conditions can keep most varieties viable for several years, following the steps below can increase the [...]
• 12 Quick Tips For The Home: Tipnut’s Mailbag: Here is the latest batch of helpful quick tips sent in by Tipnut readers: Keep bread fresh by sticking a piece of celery in the bread bag before closing. (Tracey) Use wooden pants hangers to hang rugs on the clothesline, regular clothespins don’t work because they can’t hold the weight. (Dale) Having done the flowers and foods for [...]
• How To Ripen Tomatoes: Tips & Tricks: Ripening Tomatoes On The Vine Here are a few tips to help speed up and encourage tomatoes to ripen on the vine close to the end of growing season: Keep plants free of diseased leaves and pinch off new flowers so all the plant’s energy can go into ripening the fruit. Watch plants daily and pick off the [...]
• Get Organized & Save Cash: Grocery Stockpiling Tips: Today’s feature is from Mom Advice with The Art of Stockpiling: There are many ways to begin tackling the grocery budget and one of the most popular ways is the art of stockpiling items when doing your grocery trips. This method, also known as the “pantry principle” by loyal Tightwad Gazette readers, is a method of [...]