So many of these "internet miracles" aren't. There's some that might work but no way would I wipe an animal down with dryer sheets. Many people have reactions to them just from residual chemicals left in clothes from use. I wouldn't wipe myself with it. No way would I do that to a poor animal. Plus they start licking themselves and ingest that stuff? Nope.

Burns are usually best left to air heal. Putting toothpaste, with an abrasive irritant in it on a burn? Not on my body! LOL Just like flavored mouthwash - why when there's alcohol or peroxide?

My last bout with the flu, for which I had a flu shot but that's another story, I called the clinic and talked to them. They asked how I was dealing with congestion and stuffed up nose and I told them I took a washcloth, soaked it in hot water and inhaled that and used saline nasal spray occasionally. She told me that's the best thing I could be doing for it.

For splinters, if there's enough splinter showing for glue to adhere to it, a tweezer will remove it faster. Alka-Seltzer for UTI? Gatorade for headache? A major cause of headaches is dehydration so water, milk, and other liquids probably do the same thing. Especially when taken with a 2â aspirin rather than a $2 bottle of sport drink.

Oatmeal curing arthritis?? I'm dubious on a number of these things. Oatmeal has been used for a skin cleanser but to relieve arthritis, I think a copper bracelet has more credibility.

For bugs, use hair spray on them. Works better than soap and those babies aren't moving for a long time. Just don't step on them barefooted.

I'm also confident that other brands than Maybelline nail polish will secure a screw. You could also use LocTite, Glyptol or other items made to do the job. Even glue. As with tomato paste, I don't know it has to be Hunts.

No sense going through all of them. I'm always skeptical of these email or website "cures" and other "send this to everyone you know" things when they have nothing to back it up. Not even a person who will say they use it. The best documentation they have is something like they don't advertise it as curing cancer...

Good ideas

I'd add this--if you have occasion to need Aveno bath (hives, the kids have chicken pox, etc)--save yourself a LOT of money. Take regular oatmeal and grind it in your food processor or blender into a fine powder. If you look on the ingredient list, all that's in it is colloidal oatmeal. And colloidal just means finely ground

Cynic, I had the same feeling about Gatorade, until my Mom's doctor suggested it when she was ill once. She didn't pick any up when he told her to, thinking same - sports drink - and she was not interested in a sports drink at almost 80 yrs old that year. But the Gatorade combines water, carbohydrates and electrolytes and can be very helpful fighting dehydration from a fever - if you can bring yourself to drink something that color :)

I bought it for her, she had little appetite but could drink the sports drink that week....after it made more sense to her and she'd had a little better explanation. (OT, her doctor is so soft spoken, has a heavy accent, and she's very hard of hearing so I don't know how they communicate at all :))

Hmmmm. Why are their sooo many BRAND names here? And as a retied RN, I haven't researched it, but I'm REALLY sceptical about using toothpaste (Colgate!) on a burn.

The contents of a vitamin E pill on a cooled burn does wonders.

I once developed a flu with intestinal symptoms. I was feeling very shaky, had diarrhea and had to leave work early I was so ill. I was able to drive most of the way home. But I made one stop, at a deli type store (Seven-Eleven)for a bottle of prepared "Snapple" iced tea. I drank it and within an hour I was fine. Not sure if it was the cold water, sugar or caffeine or all 3, but it certainly worked. My only "household" remedy.

I have quite a few home remedies that I know they have been worked for me and my family. I rarely share them because I realize that everyone is different. What may work for me may be toxic to others. The common over the counter drugs are even that way.

ie: an aspirin may help to subside pain, fever, heart attack, etc. for many people but for me, it will puff me up like a balloon! LOL, I'm so allergic to it, it gives me the umost hives you'd ever seen :o(

My favorite home remedy is for insect bites and stings and it was passed on to me when I first moved to the South many years ago. There are many things to love about this part of the country...fire ants are NOT on that list.

I learned to keep a little container of granulated meat tenderizer with me whenever I am outside where a fire ant sting is likely. If applied in a paste (water or saliva) promptly, the natural enzymes greatly reduce the pain and swelling and itch associated with stings. This also works for other kinds of bites and stings, too, not just those horrid fire ants.