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Household Hints
HOUSEHOLD HINTS
Some you may already know but some you may not ..... 1. Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it. 2. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.. 3. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold! 4. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking. 5. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. 6. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up. 7. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic. 8. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm! 9. Reheat Pizza ......heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy and no soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works. 10. Expanding Frosting ......when you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size and you get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving. 11. Reheating refrigerated bread .....to warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster. 12. Newspaper weeds away ..... Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and for- get about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers. 13. Broken Glass .....use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily. 14. Keep Squirrels Away .....to keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. 15. Flexible vacuum .....to get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings. 16. Reducing Static Cling .....pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ta da! ... static is gone. 17. Measuring Cups .....before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out. 18. Foggy Windshield? .....Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car . When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth! 19. Reopening envelope .....If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily. 20. Hair Conditioner ....use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair. 21. Goodbye Fruit Flies .....to get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass and fill it 1/2 full with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid and mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever! 22. Get Rid of Ants ....put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home' but can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed! INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something so he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. Well, the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box .. well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it ... the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about! |
#2
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great tips
Cayenne pepper will also stop most dogs from chewing things they shouldn't
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Avoid biting when a simple growl will do The Spirit Lives As Long As Someone Who Lives Remembers You - Navaho Saying |
#3
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I'm going to have to try separating the bananas and see if it works...
my question is why would it make a difference??
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Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts." |
#4
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Darn...if only I'd known that about the sealed envelopes and the freezer last Friday! We had to reopen one and really botched it...
Good tips, rainbow...I'll be trying some of these out!
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"We are--each of us--dying; it's how we live in the meantime that makes the difference." "It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!" "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." |
#5
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Mind you, I've never done any scientific testing on the hypothesis!
__________________
"We are--each of us--dying; it's how we live in the meantime that makes the difference." "It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!" "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." |
#6
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or do I have to place them all around the kitchen..lol lol
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Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts." |
#7
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Even a little distance will help. But you could always place them in strategic spots around the kitchen!
If I separated them too far, I'd end up losing them...till the fruit flies attracted to rotting banana gave their locations away!
__________________
"We are--each of us--dying; it's how we live in the meantime that makes the difference." "It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!" "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." |
#8
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I had to laugh at # 8. There are never any left over snickers bars from Halloween for me.
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There are only two rules at my house: House rule #1. Cats rule. House rule #2. See rule #1. http://nuriaandthegang.shutterfly.com/ |
#9
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Even if I had any, they'd all get eaten during the chopping stage! I love 'crumbs' of any sort... 'specially if they're sweet and chocolately!
__________________
"We are--each of us--dying; it's how we live in the meantime that makes the difference." "It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!" "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." |
#10
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Just to add to the dryer advice....also, to prevent it from overheating and causing a potential fire hazzard, take your vacuum outside to where your dryer exhausts to the outdoors. Remove plate from wall and vacuum excess lint trapped there. (While you're out there, you may as well take the vacuum to your air-conditioning unit to remove any debris) Back inside, remove the exhaust hose from the back of the dryer and vacuum there too. Make sure there are no kinks in the hose when you replace it. You'd be amazed at how much lint gets through the lint trap and how it can quickly block the exhaust.
And if you're enjoying the time you're spending with your vacuum , take it down to your furnace and use it on the filter. While you're at it, you can use it on the cooling elements behind your fridge, freezer, water cooler to enhance performance and reduce energy costs. Phew, I'm tired just thinking of all work .
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"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -Will Durant |
#11
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don't forget to vacuum your window screens where pollen and dust and coby webs can lurk good for people with allergies
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Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts." |
#12
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Thanks Rainbow. I'm printing this one out. I don't think I knew ANY of these! And I've been married for 28 years--how sad is that?
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#13
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I'm with ya Joeysmom--I'm gonna print this out too
Never knew about taking bananas apart or the number of lumps in a green pepper
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A dog wags his tail with his heart Dogs have Masters--Cats have Staff Rest in Peace Bailey: 12/10/95-1/9/09 (Golden Retriever) Rest in Peace Kitty: 7/1/2000 - 10/7/2013 Rest in Peace Gryphon (sounds like Griffin): 10/15/2004 - 11/18/2017 (English Springer Spaniel) Bella: 3/09/2005 LHD Cat adopted by/from Child Mollie: 6/2/2009 (English Setter) |
#14
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Very interesting tips! Going to try many of them. I buy already ripened bananas because I eat a lot of bananas each day, in my opinion the worlds most perfect food. They don't get a chance to go bad in my house, unless hubby wants to make banana bread.
Now if anyone has a tip on how to keep the neighbors cats out of my flowerbeds, I'd surely appreciate it. My front flowerbed has become the communal litterbox I went to plant stuff and with each shovel I lifted it was full of cat***** Why oh why can't ppl keep their felines inside, like I do. I filled the bed with a lurch and fir mulch, poured cayenne pepper (4 big costco bags) and mixed it in. Then sprayed a citrus spray around the perimeter, if this doesn't work I don't know what to do, |
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I definitely will heed 2 & 3. Being single, I don't always get a chance to cook... and therefore things tend to rot seemingly faster than normal. Seems that so often I throw out cheese and bananas.
6 -I do something similar. LINK <-- Best scrambled eggs ever. The dryer tip is really good too. I'm going to try it out tonight! Thanks! |
#16
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Great tips, thanks!
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