How to simplify your household chores
You may not be aware, but there are ways to simplify some of your house chores. You can try these useful and frugal ideas.
Hair Care
For hair that will not keep a set, try a package of unflavored gelatin with warm water as an after-shampoo rinse.
Always rinse your hair with cool water after washing. It will help you keep the hair that you have and tighten your scalp. A hair rinse of about four tablespoons of vinegar to three glasses of water will remove all soap film.
Diamond Ring
Boil mild soap suds with a few drops of ammonia added. Immerse the ring. Then dip into a small bowl of alcohol and let it dry on tissue paper.
Heat-Resistant Glass
Heat-resistant cooking glass is not unbreakable. Handle it with care. Avoid sharp blows and sudden exposure to heat and cold. When it has cooled, wash it by hand in hot detergent suds. To remove burned-on or scorched-on food, soak in warm detergent water and loosen with a plastic pad, rubber scrape, or wooden spoon.
Transporting a Cake
Punch two holes in a paper plate and run a string through the holes; punch two corresponding holes in the bottom of the box. Put the cake on the paper plate and set it in the box. Pull string ends through the holes in the box and tie underneath.
Bathtub
Clean bathtub with a damp cloth or sponge dipped in trisodium phospate or other chemical cleaner advertised for this purpose. Mild cleaning powders can be used but must be washed away afterwards. Coarse powders scratch the porcelain enamel finish and make the tub more difficult to clean.
Gas Range
For a thorough cleaning remove the pan beneath the burgers and grates and wash them in hot detergent suds. Rinse with clear water and dry. For the burners, use soap, a heavy duty detergent or washing soda, and a stiff brush. A good soak in a very hot solution of any of these loosens grease and makes its removal easier.
Storing Paint
Before storing paint, mark a line on the outside of the can to indicate its level. You can tell at a glance how much is left and what color is in the can.
Houseplants
Keep houseplants dusted and washed, as dust shades the leaves and deprives plants of much needed light.
Sponge leaves of houseplants with milk to remove dust and give the foliage luster.
Emergency Extinguisher
Keep a box of baking soda in the glove compartment of the car as an effective emergency extinguisher for an engine fire. Should a fire occur, turn off the ignition and toss the soda on the engine. Soda also smothers a blaze should a fire start in a seat cushion or floor mat.
Laundry Bluing
Bluing is not essential in the laundry, but many women like the extra whiteness it suggests in clothes and bed linens. If you are using bluing, remember that it is better to use a little too than too much. If cotton clothes are over blued, pour boiling water over them unless finished for wrinkle resistance. Or rinse them in hot water, in your washer.
Wooden Furniture
Wooden furniture usually is finished with varnish or lacquer, sometimes with shellac, and rubbed to a high polish. To clean finished furniture with soap, make rich suds, using pure, white soap and warm water. Wipe dry. Move to an adjoining area and repeat this routine until this entire piece has been thoroughly cleaned. Dry thoroughly and polish.
Draperies
Dust heavy drapes when you clean the room, using a hand vacuum or the upholstery attachment of your vacuum cleaner. Lacking these, use a brush of medium stiffness. Work always from the top of the drape down. Regular dusting will stretch the time between cleaning and keep your house from smelling like a sneeze.
Newborn
To allow mother a few extra hours’ sleep, use the same perfume freely while at the hospital and when you get home. Later, dab your perfume on your baby’s crib sheets or pillow. He will smell the mama smell and feel safe and content.
Versatile Charcoal
A block of charcoal in your refrigerator will help keep the onion and fish from perfuming the butter. Heating the block in the frying pan will rout the odors it has absorbed. Activated carbon, derived from coconut shell, is many times more efficient than ordinary charcoal for absorbing odors and gases.
White Sink
For a sparkling white sink, place paper towels across the bottom of your sink and saturate with household bleach. Let set for ½ hour or so.
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