St. Paddy’s Pancakes
Add an Irish touch to your St. Patrick’s Day breakfast, by adding a drop or two of green food coloring to your pancake batter. This is sure to get the attention of sleepy children! To really wake them up, make the milk green for their cereal.
(tip submitted by MN, SD)
Sticky Paper Removal
A reader writes:
We recently purchased an older home and to save money, we decided to refurbish the old kitchen cabinets. Some of these were lined with plastic coated sticky paper, and it was a horrible job to remove it. You would pull on it and a chunk would come off–along with several more chunks. Frustrating.
A friend stopped by to see how I was getting along, and suggested I use my hand-held hair dryer to warm the old glue to see if that would help with the removal. We warmed up a section, and I was able to pull the whole thing off at once. It didn’t take long to clear the cupboard after that!
(tip submitted by DT, IA)
Cheap Boot Dryers
A reader writes:
Kids will be kids and this time of year, there are of puddles to stomp in. And if the water gets in their boots and if they aren’t thoroughly dried, they begin to smell bad.
A simple solution is to simply crumple up newspapers and stuff them inside of the boots. Lay the boots on their sides and let the paper absorb the water from the insides. Be sure to keep them away from any heat sources–the paper could catch fire.
(tip submitted by IU, MN)
Organized Bathroom Cabinet
Collect those safety pins, nail files, tweezers, nail clippers or anything else that seems to get misplaced in the bathroom by setting a couple kitchen magnets in your bathroom cabinets. Even better–put one of those strip magnets on the wall of the cabinet and things can be stuck to it from the start.
(tip submitted by GB, NE)
Musty Blanket Scent Gone
A reader writes:
Use fabric softener sheets in packed-away blankets and other items you are going to store long-term. They will eliminate unusual odors and provide a fresh clean smell to almost anything.
Sometimes, you can get them in a roll and then just roll out a long strip to cover the shelves in the linen closet or even on the top shelf of your clothes closet to hold down odd smells. This will leave a long-lasting fresh scent.
(tip submitted by BC, ND)
Winter Foot Care for Dogs
If your dog constantly comes in the house with snow packed between his paw pads, just spray a little bit of cooking spray on his feet just as he goes out the door. The snow won’t stick, and you won’t have a mess, and it doesn’t hurt the dog either.
(tip submitted by TD, MT)
Potting Plant Help
A reader writes:
I have a large number of houseplants and repot the majority of them each spring. To keep things neat, I use an old shower curtain as a cover on my patio table when I’m repotting things. This catches all the dirt and dribbles, and I can just gather the corners up, carry the whole mess over to the compost heap and dump it, rather than having to clean and sweep the whole patio area because I just didn’t keep everything in one spot.
(tip submitted by LG, MN)
Lipstick Stain Remover
A reader writes:
I work in an office and wear makeup and lipstick every day. I have an awful time taking the lipstick out of my cloth napkins and off blouses I wear under my suit jackets.
A friend shared a solution with me that really blew me away. She said, “Plain old petroleum jelly will take lipstick stains out of napkins and clothing. Just rub it in real good and let it sit for at least an hour, and then wash as usual.”
I tried this and it worked really well. Now I don’t have to toss out good clothing because of lipstick stains–money saver!
(tip submitted by BM, AZ)
Do you have any tips or ideas you would like to share? Email them to Paula at pennywise@goldenwest.net Be sure to mention the "Farm And Livestock Directory" when you respond.
