Real Homemaking

Here are some interesting and helpful uses for toothpaste - besides whitening your teeth and freshening your breath - from Nora Dunn at Wise Bread.

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A great article from TipDiva

Traveling with more than one person can be a bit of a feat - you’ve got many different personalities, opinions and preferences to deal with. Here are ways to make traveling in a group a little less stressful: Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe the oldest use for vinegar yet (besides as a food). Cleaning with vinegar is much safer than using commercial products. White Distilled vinegar is best for cleaning.

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Here are a few tips for laundry that were previously published on Tipnut as Quick Tips: Read the rest of this entry »

Basic Ingredient Substitutions

Here are some of the suggestions cited most frequently. The substitution tips for which there was the most general consensus and which used the most common ingredients are listed. Your final product made with the substituted ingredient may differ slightly from the original food, but still be acceptable in flavor, texture and appearance. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Calculate the square footage of the surfaces to be painted. Measure the length and width of the room and determine its perimeter, which is the distance all around the room. For example, if the room is 13 feet wide and 18 feet long, its perimeter is 62 feet (13 feet + 13 feet + 18 feet + 18 feet).

2. Multiply the perimeter by the room’s height to get the square footage of wall space. If the room is 8 feet high, then its square footage is 496 square feet (62 feet x 8 feet). Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably tried to paint around furniture and carpeting, but it always happens: You dribble or spill paint on something. That’s why step one in prep work is to clear out the room. An empty room is an easy room to paint, so begin by removing everything that you can from the room. Gather anything that is left to one side of the room, away from your work area.

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Here are some very sweet tips that came from Woman’s Day Magazine:

Use Hair Conditioner to:

Free up a shower curtain - Rub some on the rod to keep the curtain from catching and dragging as you pull it closed.

Clean leather shoes - Gets dirt off them and keeps them soft.

Remove a stuck ring - massage conditioner onto your finger to help a tight ring slide off.

Take off a bandage - rub conditioner on the ends of the sticky part of the bandage to ease it off without taking your skin.

How about these ideas:

For Musty Books - sprinkle talcum powder between pages, then wrap the book(s) in brown paper and store for several days - remove and brush out loose powder.

Quick fix for static cling - massage a small amount of lotion onto your hand and lightly rub over pantyhose, tights or slip.

Wrap a rubber band around the end of you mixing spoon so it rests on the edge of your bowl and doesn’t slip into the batter.

When hammering a nail, hold it in place with a small ball of plastic putty, after the nail is firmly pounded in place, remove the putty.

If you have smashed carpet rings where your furniture has sat, place an ice cube on the indent - the melting ice will swell the fibers. Later, blot with a towel and vacuum.

When you are moving your computer or entertainment center, take a digital picture of the wire connections, so that when you go to re-hook everything up, you won’t have to struggle to remember what plugged into where!

A good way to keep your trunk clean is to spread a shower curtain across the bottom to catch spills and dirt - when you’re cleaning the car it can easily be removed and cleaned, keeping your trunk looking like new.

PLEASE REMEMBER: Sweet Tips are suggestions and ideas, the author cannot guarentee results and you follow the tips at your own risk.

Eliminate ear mites. All it takes is a few drops of Wesson corn oil in your cat’s ear…Massage it in, then clean with a cotton ball. Repeat daily for 3 days. The oil soothes the cat’s skin, smothers the mites, and accelerates healing. Read the rest of this entry »

A sealed envelope - Put in the freezer for a few hours, then slide a knife under the flap. The envelope can then be resealed. (hmmmmmm…) Read the rest of this entry »