Household Hints

Household Hints

The Classical Ye Olde and New Household Hints Collection for Homemakers.

HEALTH AND RELAXATION

Try a cup of baking soda in a Cup of warm water. Relax for ten minutes or until refreshed.

One tablespoon of baby oil in very warm bath water for smooth skin. Watch the wrinkles go.

Try a warm bath with feet propped up high for a relaxing twenty minutes.

Mix dry oatmeal and water into a paste and spread on face. Lie down and let it dry. Wash off with warm water. Excellent facial.

Cold Cream on eyelashes and brows keeps soap out of eyes while shampooing.

For that Bright Eyed look, place cucumber slices on eyelids while relaxing in a hot bath for ten minutes.

Remove gum from hair with nail polish remover, then shampoo. Cornbread mix spread on face, let dry and wash off with warm water and see how clean your skin looks.

Another refresher... squeeze cotton pads out of ice water, place on eyelids and lie down, elevate feet.

To prevent hair pins from falling out, bend one prong in a "V" about halfway up and insert in hair. It will stay.

Clean your rings with toothpaste and old brush. Artgum eraser will clean bone colored shoes.

To keep Cold Cream from spoiling and maintain its freshness, keep it in the refrigerator... and it's so cool.

Prevent wrinkled scarfs. Roll and place in toilet tissue cones. Old lipstick tubes, thoroughly cleaned, are great for purse-sized pill boxes or for pins etc.

White shoe polish will keep a cast clean on broken bones. Clip on earrings can be used for cuff links or scatter pins.

Cuticle remover will clear hands of nicotine stains. Ice water and soap to remove ring from swollen finger.

Cut legs off old card table, to about ten inches high. This will make a good table for sick or bed-ridden folks.

Boil pine splinters and sip tea to stop hiccups of long duration. Use a lazy susan at bedside to enable sick to reach more items.

Old socks worn over shoes on ice helps to prevent falls. Tape on shoes helps prevent falls on highly waxed floors. Emergency Sinus Relief - swap white vinegar high up in the nostrils.

Recycle Your Own Paper - Use backs of unwanted advertising mail for scratch paper pads. Roll your newspapers into a tight roll until they are log size, tie with a wire and burn in the fireplace. It will burn like a log, but even longer. Shred all of your newspapers and junk mail and save in a large bag for use in packing materials and for making paper mache items by adding flour and water.

Save cans to freeze leftovers in. Save plastic bags from bread for freezer use.

Save plastic milk containers, fill with water and freeze. Use in camper iceboxes or coolers. Also these can be used to freeze colored water or juices in for later use in a punch bowl.

Clean vinyl with liquid window cleaner. Avoid tears when peeling onions, slice first, then slip the bands of skin off.

Use an egg slicer to slice apples or mushrooms. Leftover pancake batter makes good fried onion rings. Separate and let soak in batter for fifteen minutes. Fry in hot oil.

Loose door knob? Put a drop of shellac in the screw hole, then tighten. It works.

To grow thyme - thyme will grow anywhere, but it prefers a dry, poor soil. If the ground is rich, the plant will become too luxuriant and lose its aromatic qualities.

Very strengthening drink - beat the yolk of a fresh egg with a little sugar, add a very little brandy, beat the white to a strong froth, stir it into the yolk, fill up the tumbler with fresh milk and grate in a little nutmeg.

How to preserve flowers and fruit - Fruit and flowers may be preserved from decay and fading by immersing them in a solution of gum arabic and water two or three times, waiting a sufficient time between each immersion to allow the gum to dry. This process covers the surface of the fruit with a thin coat of gum, which is entirely impervious to the air, thus preventing the decay of the fruit or flower. Roses thus preserved have all the beauty of freshly picked ones, though they have been separated form the parent stock many months.

Household cleaner formula: Soap powder - 2 oz.; soda ash - 3 oz.; trisodium phosphate - 40 oz.; finely ground silica - 55 oz. Mix well and put up in containers. most of the above items can be purchased from drug stores or hardware and paint stores.

Household window cleaner formula: Castile soap - 2 oz.; water - 5 oz.; chalk - 4 oz.; french-chalk - 3 oz.; tripoli powder - 2 oz.; petroleum spirits - 5 oz. Mix well and pack in tight containers. Above ingredients can be purchased at local drug, hardware, paint, or nursery stores.

Fire Kindler Formula: Rosin or pitch - 10 oz.; sawdust - 10 or more oz. Melt, mix and cast in forms.

Paint Brush Cleaner - ammonia (household ammonia will do). Sun Burn Lotion - Peanut oil (buy at grocery store).

Radiator Cleaner - Tri-sodium phosphate (buy at paint store). Tree Wound Dressing - Lanolin (buy at drug store).

Frosted Window Paint - super saturated solution of Epsom salts. Mosquito Repellant - Oil of Pennyroyal, rub on skin (buy at drug store).

Furniture polish and cleaner - Vinegar. Tile Cleaner - Deodorized kerosene (buy at an oil company).

Windshield Anti-fog - Glycerine (buy at drug store). Label Cement - Egg white is an excellent label cement.

Cockroach Exterminator - Borax (buy at the grocery store). Ground Mole Control Powder - Black pepper placed liberally in their runs.

Battery Anti-corrode - Vaseline. Fire Extinguisher - Plain baking soda. Nail Bleach - Hydrogen peroxide (buy at the drug store). Type Cleaner - rubbing alcohol (buy at the drug store). Wonder Car Product - Removes tar, paint, wax gum, etc. Benzol.

Cures Cigarette Habit - Take before breakfast 1/2 teaspoon each of Rochelle Salts and Cream of Tartar, also chew Ginseng root and swallow the juice.

For Great Beauty - drink a teaspoon of Figwort. This will banish every blemish from your skin as it cleanses the blood. Chamomile teas will give one a complexion to be proud of.

SEWING HINTS

Emergency ripped hem repair - use double faced sticky tape between hem and dress.

Bobbins, thread, and other sewing notions can be hung on a bulletin board with straight pins near your machine.

Cut buttons, zippers, snaps, hooks, and eyes from all old clothes and place near your sewing machine. Pin all the buttons that are alike together with a large safety pin. Saves a lot!

Cut the cost of making a round tablecloth by using the fringe from an old bedspread.

To cover unremovable spots on children's clothes, iron transfers of animals, etc. over spots or paint with textile paints. Looks new!

To reline a jacket or coat, use the old lining for the pattern. Spray heavily with starch and press. Pin to the new material for a perfect pattern.

For a matched set of spread and drapes, buy two bedspreads and make a set of drapes from one.

For an attractive eyeglass case, fold a pot-holder and sew up one side and the end.

Worn out tops of little girls slips? Cut off at the waist and insert elastic for half-slip. Also good if she has grown too tall for it.

Use iron-on rug binding on men's trousers to prevent "waist-band curing" of trouser tops. Great for the heavy-set men.

CLOTHING HINTS

Footlets twisted twice in arch of foot prevents slipping off.

Use two rubber bands and three safety pins on sliding bra straps. Pin to each strap and in a "V" to center bra.

Use hair spray to stop runs in hose. Clear nail polish will stop runs in hose and also makes good glue.

Use nylon net to brush lint off dark clothing. Fold several pieces of tissue, pin through dress with tissues on back to prevent heavy broach from sagging.

Felt markers are good to cover shoe scuffs. Grease spots which have set, in washable fabrics, can often be removed by rubbing fresh grease on spot and washing immediately.

So, make use of your Household Hints!