To remove cat urine (and odor) from carpet using cheap ingredients: If fresh urine soak up as much as possible with paper towels first and if an older area, that is still odorous, do the following: 1. If you can replace the carpet pad under the affected area than cut away a square of the pad that is soaked and discard. Make sure you have a piece of new pad. If not, then clean the pad underneath as well, as follows: 2. Soak area completely with white vinegar (carpet and pad if not replacing pad). Let it sit for 20 minutes or so and then soak up as much as possible with paper towels. Allow to dry - use a fan to speed up the process if desired. 2. After this dries, apply a liberal amount of baking soda over the affected area and drizzle with a quarter cup of hydrogen peroxide mixed with a teaspoon of Dawn dishwashing liquid. Use as much of the mixture as necessary depending on the size of the cleanup. Work it in with a scrub brush or your fingers (wearing rubber gloves) to disolve the baking soda. Work it deep into the fibers and old pad (if keeping). Allow to dry and then vacuum it up. Repeat the process if a really old nasty stain with odor. Here's how it works: The acidic vinegar neutralizes the ammonia in the urine and hydrogen peroxide is a powerful oxidizer which kills the bacteria that causes the odor. Baking soda also absorbs odor and the Dawn cleans the area of dirt and more odors. Using water and rug shampoo to clean urine does not remove it and at first you think it is working but then it starts smelling again. That is because the bacteria is still working and the ammonia has not been neutralized. I've used this on cat urine stains in two places in my home (an older cat started going in these two spots) and it has worked very well at a fraction of the cost of those odor removal kits that cost $50 and up. I highly recommend you can buy some scrap carpet padding and cut away the old and replace with a new patch of padding (if feasible). It will greatly save time and work much better as the pad is harder to get all the fibers clean deep down unlike the carpet itself which has a more open weave.

I use 1/2 gallon and gallon plastic milk jugs as a slow watering system for gardening. Just poke a hole or two in the bottom of the jug...fill it with water (in place) and it drip irrigates whatever plant it is sitting near. It works really well as there is no runoff or soil erosion problem. The plant leaves camouflage the jug :^) I use it most in big pots or raised flower beds. Another idea that works great for us, but makes our visitors scratch their heads....I put all of my kitchen utensils in the drawer next to the stove.....upside down! That way, they don't hang and get jounced around as the drawer is opened and closed. I also put the wax paper/tinfoil/clingwrap boxes in the drawer upside down...the lids don't hang as the drawer opens. I use the cheapy dollar store clear plastic showercaps (12 for 1 $) to cover dishes/plates of left over food that are going into the refrig. I wash them after each use with dish soap and hot water and hang them over a hook to dry. They last about a year.

I never believe this kind of stuff, nothing is that easy. I had ants one day and wiped off the counter where they came in with a bounce sheet and guess what, no ants. They came in the patio door, wiped there and you guessed it no more ants anywhere. I was dumbfounded. BUT 2 weeks later I read in the paper: to stop ants from coming in all you have to do is wash the scent trail away. Yup, a wet rag would have done the same as they bounce. Back to being a non believer. I do use soda for musty doll clothes, put soda and the clothes in a paper bag, shake and leave closed for a couple of weeks, that really really works. I don't keep musty books in my home anywhere. I hate that smell and the smell spreads all through the house.

Since it's tip day, here's a couple of mine: I just zoom in and out of the page with the ctrl key and the mouse wheel. A quick way to increase or decrease font size is press ctrl shift and the > (to increase) or Another little tip while typing, if you make a typo, it's often quicker to just retype the word rather than backspace through all the letters or use the mouse to highlight. Just press ctrl and backspace and you'll wipe out the prior word. The last tip is another reason I like Opera so much better than anything else. Reading the forums you often scroll right or left. With Opera (and Chrome has an extension for this) you can just hit the "fit to width" button and zoom in as much as you need to increase font size. And a hit on the space bar brings you down a page worth in viewing. So many tips, so little time....