When using a recipe that is a single page, slip it inside a clear sheet protector and pin a clothespin on the top.
Lay the clothespin inside the cupboard and close the door.
This keeps the recipe at eye-level and clean.

Use vinegar in place of fabric softener in the rinse water.

This is a safety tip.
Use your laptop on a plastic cutting board on your lap(what I do), or on a hard level surface. It won't block the vents and create a fire-hazard as when it's on something soft like your bed or a pillow.

Put baking soda and salt in a little shaker and use to clean your stainless steel sinks. The sink sparkles and it won't scratch.

Use a serrated knife to cut tomatoes.

Towel rack tip- Replace the bottom screws of towel racks with cup hooks. Small towels and washcloths may be hung from them

Screen repair- Use clear cement glue to repair a small hole in wire screening

Cleaning shower doors- Rub glass shower doors with a white vinegar-dampened sponge to remove soap residue

keep a few garbages bags at the bottom of the can...pull the full one out and a new one is ready for use.

Wax your shower stall and doors with car wax or better yet..GEL GLOSS (found at home depot..lowes..)..the water beads right off and keeps your shower and doors shiny and new looking!

Funny you asked this today. I get the Farmer's Almanac email and they're also on my Facebook. Today they posted "Timely Tips & Tricks" and I came here to post one of them and see if anyone else knew this! I didn't!

Boil water now or later? Timely Vegetable Tip
Ever wonder if you should boil the water before or after you add vegetables to the pot. HereÂs a simple way to remember:

Vegetables that grow underground (beets, carrots, potatoes) should start off in cold water.
Vegetables that grow aboveground (corn, peas, greens) should be placed in boiling water.

I may think of some of my own later to post.

I didn't know those CB! Except potatoes, they should start in cold water, so they cook evenly. Obviously that holds true with beets and carrots.
Potatoes are the only thing I boil, I microwave all my veggies.

The tablets that are used to clean dentures can be dropped in the toilet bowl and left overnight for cleaning. You can also soak your fingers or toes in warm water with one of these tabs to clean up after a day of grubby gardening.

Pull out that kitchen drawer and place a big cookie sheet over it...push back in to stablilize it. A large extra space that you can put prep foods on while baking or just use for extra cupboard space.

When washing a large amount of dishes in the sink, use a dishpan over another one that is inverted. Anyone with back problems will appreciate not leaning into the sink ..and your back will love you. I guess if you are short it might be too high though.

You can take away that "tinny" taste from any tomato based meal that has canned tomato or tomato paste in it by adding a tbsp. of brown sugar after putting them in the pot. ie spagetti or chili sauces etc.

To keep your brown sugar from getting hard as a rock, keep it in your freezer. I have kept mine there for years and it never gets hard anymore and only takes a few minutes to get soft enough to spoon into a measuring cup.
Kittywhiskers

Not so much a household tip as a caregiver tip - we're using a wireless doorbell as a "call" for my mom to use. The button is velcroed to the side of her nightstand and whatever room we're in - we take the "box" part with us.

(Can't take credit, it was Twinkie's brilliant plan and it's working!)

I love Scrubbing Bubbles for the bathroom chores but it is also a great spot carpet cleaner.

I second Liz's Gel Gloss recommendation. It comes in a dark pink rectangular can which makes it kind of easy to find on the store shelf.

Jodi-

The best cleaning tip I can give is....hire someone.

Babysitting the Grandsons yesterday and one of them got ballpoint pen ink on my NEW beige microfiber sofa. Anyone got a hint as to how to get the ink out?

Rubbing alcohol often will remove ball point pen, but with a new piece of furniture I wouldn't do ANYTHING without contacting the manufacturer first. See what they recommend before using any tips you may hear or read.

Baking soda is not just good for stainless steel--it takes stains out of formica, removes the little brown cooked on speckles on the bottom of your skillets, and in your oven. It freshens, disinfects, is non-toxic. It's a great, non-abrasive scouring powder for the bathroom fixtures. It's the first cleaner I reach for for most jobs (and I rarely have to try a second)--I use so much baking soda, I buy it in 5 pound bags.

Go the the restaurant/bar supply store to buy a lot of your kitchen needs. An industrial roll of film or foil will last you for many, many years (and just think of all the little boxes you won't be sending to the landfills). Deli containers work great for leftovers and freezing (you have to be sure to get the heavier ones, of course). They come in 1 cup, 1 pint and 1 quart sizes, stack for easy storage, the same lids fit all the sizes--and they only cost about 25 cents each. They're reusable, but at that price, you don't mind occasionally tossing one if you find it in the back of the fridge with a 'science experiment growing in it'. Supply stores are a great place for picking up heavy-duty kitchen items like whisks, scrapers, etc. And for inexpensive containers to use when giving away food (or taking it to pot lucks, etc).

A bench scraper is the best utensil to use for cutting brownies, pizza, pies, etc. Just press straight down, then pull straight up--nothing gives a cleaner cut in my experience.

Make your china teapot look like new. Pour a teaspoon of clorox liquid bleach into the pot, fill with water and let sit for an hour or so.

Badly burned pans with the food still stuck in the bottom seems to clean up easiest if you soak it with a tablespoon of electric dishwasher detergent and hot water for a few hours.

Windows, granite, mirrors, tile countertops all clean up nicely with a spritz of a combination of half water and half rubbing alcohol. I use an old Windex bottle. The windows won't streak as you clean them like they do with Windex.

Ditto the dishwasher detergent for stained coffee pots. Put a tablespoon in, fill with boiling hot water, and let sit for a couple of hours. Cleans up like new!

If you have soapstone countertops, a black sharpie quickly fills in small dings or scratches. Out of sight, out of mind.

Barkeeper's Friend is the BEST cleaner and quite cheap. Cleans rust or grime stains off things no other expensive formula will and doesn't scratch.

Microfiber cloths are fabulous for getting things like mirrors or countertops or the stovetop streak free. Buy them cheaply in packs from Target or Walmart automotive section; while thinner than the more expensive ones you can toss them when they start to wear out. In fact, they do last a long time and wash up beautifully.

"One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop."

Duct Tape is the binder of all things flat - there is no limit to what Duct Tape can do. Remember, this tape will leave a gooy and hard-to-remove residue on your surface. It can be removed with most oils, but do a test first! It is also known to remove paint and varnish off surfaces - use caution when considering using Duct Tape!

WD-40 removes adhesive, cleans bike parts, stops squeaks, loosens rusted bolts and it has a few more unusual applications: Police once used it to remove a naked burglar stuck in an a/c vent!

I will add a third necessity to handy hints: the Miracle Eraser - it will clean almost anything! Always test any new method of cleaning on an inconspicous area to assure you don't mar the surface of your object. The M.E. will even clean dirty hands after working in the garage or garden.

Here is a 4th - liquid dishwasher soap will remove MANY stains - again, test a small area before using on a visable surface!

I use old credit cards as scrappers. I removed paint drops, fish tank algae, tub scum, tough food stuck on plates and floors. Very handy.

WD-40 shines my stainless steel appliances like nothing else. Spray a tiny bit on a fiber cloth and wipe. You'll be amazed.

Jodi-

I save the smaller meat trays when I buy meat. When I buy family packs of meat(cheaper) I break it down into servings for 2 people, then package it in the smaller trays.

Great tips! I tried the denture tablets in the toilet. That didn't work.
Damp kitchen gloves wipe pet hair off furniture miraculously.
I use scrubbing bubbles for stains in the laundry.
Peroxide to remove blood stains.

I use the plastic wrapper the newpaper comes in to cover ceiling fan blades while painting. They also double for the paint brushes you use, just put them in and store them in the freezer til the next day. They work great!
To get that ballpoint pen out of the microfiber couch, I had the same problem. Give it a shot of cheap hairspray, wait about 15 minutes, then use sudsy warm water on a cloth to remove it. I use resolve carpet cleaner on my micro couch also, especially where my DH puts his sweaty head.....need I say more?
I also use a rolled up towel secured with a rubber band like a doughnut at my computer. If I am on it a lot, I put my elbow on the towel to prevent a sore elbow.

When company comes over, I try not to sweat it like I used to.....just clean the bath and pick up the kitchen and livingroom, close the doors to the rest of the house and call it good.
If my kitchen floors need sweeping, I let the dogs in. if my tub needs cleaning, I close the shower curtain.
I am an Erma Bombeck cleaner. If it can't be seen, it isn't there.

Trin

after bathing/showering, sprinkle oxiclean in the bathtub, let it sit overnite and rinse off before the next bathtime.

Nice clean tub

Here is the page if you want to have a look

Here is a link that might be useful: Tips to Share

I found that my stress levels went down significantly when I started taking my glasses off before I entered the house. :-)

Jodi-

Mix one part Listerine mouth wash with one part water for an effective insect repellent.

Acetic acid (at least 15%) is great for killing weeds in driveways, patios etc.

Scrub your deck with a mixture of powdered Oxy clean and Hot water. It cleans and brightens up an old deck so it looks like new!

If you find Static Guard too expensive visit your local sanitation supply company. They sell anti-static products for carpet cleaners that are far less expensive and work like a charm mixed with water in a spray bottle.

Here's a link to one we've kept going for several years on the Texas Forum!

Here is a link that might be useful: Helpful Hints & Home Remedies

As Mush mentioned the yellow mouthwash, with water and a few drops of dishwashing liquid makes a great bug killer on my houseplants.
I've used it for scale and spider mites.

Put bananas in the refrigerator when they reach the ripeness that you like, and they will stay fresh for about a week. The skin may turn dark, but the banana is fine.

If you have trouble swallowing a pill.....put the pill in your mouth, take a swig of water, and then turn your head to either side like you're looking over your shoulder. The pill will go right down! Wish I'd known this trick years ago.

I've been using a box grater to cut the butter into the flour for my biscuits. Works like a charm!

jasdip - what's a box grater?

Jodi
I love that comment about the (eye) glasses.

When I was newly married I thought my elderly mother-in- law was a not so good housekeeper.

Now that I am nearing the age that she was then, I realize that she just could not see the dust on furniture and spots on the dishes without glasses.

Sorry suzieque.
You know the cheese grater thingy. Box shaped with different sized shaped holes for grating and shredding and slicing.

Use a safety pin to fasten a washloth around your uninsulated mug filled with ice water on a really warm day, to forestall most of the drippage.

On such a day, soak the rag around an uninsulated mug filled with room temperature water to chill it a bit.

I like to store peanuts, cashews, etc. in frozen juice tubes, kept on my desk, by the computer, etc. for occasional snacking ... but I've had some trouble with small brown moths leaving eggs behind, that turn into larvae that just love them (and leave webs and residue behind).

I use round individual-serving yogurt tubs to slip into the top of those tubes that do a first-class job of keeping those bugs out.

By the way ... I can leave processed cereals out in a dish for a week and those bugs won't touch them ... I guess even those critters are smarter than humans, in some ways!

If you're old and have one of those push-button warning systems that use your phone to alert a central office, which then phones a couple of friends to notify them to check you ...

... make sure that you either have a house key securely hidden near your place (easy here, where there's a garage, sheds and a barn), and they know its location, or that each of them has a key ...

... or expect to have your door or window smashed, if you press the button (maybe by mistake).

Thanks for this message, OP - forty-four heads're better than one ... even if they are cabbage.

ole joyful

A couple of denture cleaning tablets do a great job of cleaning and freshening coffee carafes,commuter mugs and thermos bottles.

a few more here:

For attractive individual butter servings, squeeze butter through a pastry bag or plastic beg onto a cookie sheet, set in refrigerator to harden.

Pickle juice should be saved and used for making coleslaw, potato salad, etc.

Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks

Anyone got another to add?

I'm washing my squeezy socks every night ... and then wash a bit of underwear, shirt, socks, etc. in the soapy water.

ole joyful

For those of you with pets, we have 11 cats. Borax and baking soda on your carpets. I leave it over night and vacuum the next day. By all means, let people walk on it. Never have a flea problem and my turquoise carpets look as good today as they did 5 years ago when we moved in. Keeps them smelling fresh and cleaner. I use baking soda in the pool as well, keeps my chemical usage down. Walmart sells the 7 pound bags.

Oooooooooh! I love the Borax and baking soda tip on the carpets for pets!!! I am going to try that tonight!! Thank you Two.25acres!

More uses for baking soda:
- in your bath water, makes the water silky and your bubbles are twice as big! Big bonus: The tub is getting cleanned while you bathe, just rinse!

- I use a squirt of dishwashing liquid along with the baking soda in the bath water. I love Ultra Sunlight Advance Hand Replenish with silk protein. Better than any expensive bubble bath, any day.

- To clean your corning wear dishes and glass dishes (and pots / pans) soak them in baking soda and hot water, the baked on goop will come right off - sometimes you will have to scrub a little, but most of the time it will clean up in a jiff.

- Baking soda with your dishwaster detergent. Use half the the amount of dw detergent you normal use and you will get cleaner dishes.

- I soak my dish cloths every night in a little bit of Tide and some baking soda in the kitchen sink. The result is clean dish cloths and a sparkling clean stainless sink.

I heart baking soda. :-)

BJ

In my kitchen cupboards I have a shelf on the upper third.
To increase usefulness of my cupboard I put a wooden shoe shelf on top of the cupboard shelf.
Similar to the picture shown, but without the top shelf.

I have pots and pans under the shelf, and shallower items on the top, depending on the depth of your cupboard. I have my large roasting pan on the top.

Put a long piece of wax paper on top of your upper kitchen cabinets to catch all the dust/grease. Change it out once/twice a year.

Rubbing alcohol makes chrome shine.

Baby wipes are amazing spot removers. (One friend once dropped a full cup of tea on the off-white sofa I used to have. Another friend grabbed a couple of baby wipes from his daughter's diaper bag and completely removed every trace of tea.)

I second the peroxide for blood stains tip, too.

TrinityTX, I used clear hand sanitizer and a cotton face cloth on those ballpoint pen stains on my microfiber sofa and they came right up with hardly any effort! You can't even tell there were marks there!

Thanks

For nicks in the enamel of your dryers drum, it could put rust on your clothes. Use the tiny little model plane paint sold @ Hobby Lobby, cost about $1! Just like new!

Save the scraps from your pie dough. Roll them and twist them and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon and bake.

Simple green works very good for removing blood stains,and chocolate from clothing etc.Spray it on,scrub between your hands and throw in the washer,it all comes out.

I use a denture brush(from dollar stores) to clean the tracks of my windows when i wash the windows.

I also use vinegar for tons of things,like the weeds growing in the cracks of the driveway,etc.

I use newspaper on the tops of my kitchen cabinets,it's recycling,and i change it out no more than twice a year(now that i'm older)LOL No one sees it,it catches the dust and i just pick it up and throw it away and add some new ones.

Every home and car should have duct tape and WD40.I knocked one of my cacti on my arm one day.and the first thing that came to mind was duct tape.Grabbed it and kept putting and pulling strips of it on my arm til i got the cactus out,then washed my arm with warm soapy water and put antibiotic cream on it.
Kathi

I use aluminum foil to wrap meat for freezing. When I'm ready to defrost the meat and I want the foil to come off easily, I run the wrapped package under cold running water first. The aluminum foil comes off in one piece in a snap. No more struggling with trying to peel the foil off in bits and pieces or having to wait for the meat to defrost for easy removal.

MrsMarv, I do the same thing!

Clean brass with ketchup and a bit of lemon juice.
I read this tip and mentioned it to hubby. He immediately cleaned his drum cymbals with it and said they came cleaner than the brasso cleaner he used to buy. They smell good too! LOL

For copper, especially the copper sinks. Clean with toothpaste. I use Arm and Hammer with baking soda and peroxide. No gel toothpaste.

Any more offers?

1. If you like to save margarine or other plastic containers with lids to store things, here's a handy storage for the lids, which tend ordinarily to slide all over and make a mess.

We get our milk in square boxes, just under 3" square, about 9" high, with top folded like a roof, squeezing open part of the roof to pour it.

I pull open the rest of the roof, measure the width of the largest lid that you want to store up from the bottom, then cut from there down the middle of one side of the box, then fold each cut side down and staple. Then cut down each corner of the box to just a bit above the space needed, then fold the four sides over one another, cutting off extra material if there is any, and staple.

To make the sides a bit stiffer, after you cut down the side of the box, slip a yardstick at the fold of each of the flaps and fold the flap down over the yardstick, to make an edge about 1/16 - 1/8" just before the flap turns down. If you do that, it helps if you lay the box on a board just wide enough to fill the hole in the side of the box and staple into it from the outside, rather than using the bottom of the stapler, which will push down the folded edge of the wall that you want to make.

That will hold your lids in one place, in order, on edge, taking up only a small space in the cupboard, drawer, etc.

1a. Cut to a different length, they make handy storage containers for letters, as well. Slip two together, top to top, then staple to make a box for business-sized envelopes. You'll soon learn that you'd like to use the fold-over-the-yardstick system for the outside one of them, to make the sliding easier and to add strength to the sides, even though there may be two of them for most of the distance, I think.

2. Use frozen orange, etc. juice containers when empty to hold pens, pencils, etc. on your desk.

I use them to hold nuts, candy, etc., as well ... but have had some trouble with Indian grain moths, whose larvae love nuts, cookies, etc. and whole wheat (but not white) flour. We have individual yogurt containers with sloping sides that fit just nicely into the tops of those juice containers, to foil the larvae and the webs that they spin (in addition to the residue from their behind that they leave behind).

I can leave the various processed breakfast cereals out in a dish on the table for a week and those critters won't touch them - smarter than we are, I guess.

ole joyful

I haven't read if this was posted. but vinegar in your wash will soften clothes better than any brand name softener out there.