More Great Household Tips

 If your husband is anything like mine, he really does not have time to listen to all the little ideas I have in my head for making our lives easier.  So one day I decided to stop showing him BEFORE I do them, and just show him AFTER I do them.  Now he thinks I am a genius.  He has no idea that it has taken me years of research, trial and error and listening to the experts to actually come up with these things.  He thinks I did it all by my little self.  So now I am ready to share some more of these little tips with you.  Remember, don't tell, just do! 

 If you save plastic bags from the grocery store to reuse, good for you!  Saving our environment by recycling as much plastic as we can will not only make a better place for us to live, but it will save on buying trash bags as well.  But where do you save all those bags?  I have tried folding them and putting them in a drawer, I have bought those little cloth bag caddies and I have just resorted to stuffing them in the drawer.  What a mess!

Here is a tip that is also a great way to recycle.  Get a retangle tissue box and one of those plastic covers you can find at the dollar store.  Use double face gorilla tape or some white glue to glue the tissue box to the cover.  Next, get some push pins or some more double face tape, depending if  you want small holes on the inside of a cabinet door or not. 

Have you guessed the next step?  Just mount the tissue box and cover on the inside of a cabinet door for easy access and start stuffing it with plastic bags!  The bags will always be there and you can put these up all over the house so you will always have bags at your fingertips.  Put one in the kitchen, in the bathroom and even in the garage!  Handy!

Belive it or not, WD-40 is good for more than just unsqueeking hinges. This lubricant has amazing powers that you may not even be aware of.

1. Got kids who chew gum? Then at one time or another, you will have to get gum out of a carpet. Ice works good if you can stand there with a cold ice cube in your hand while it melts OR you can just spray it with WD-40 and wait about 5 or 10 min. After that, just lift it off with a butter knife. If you are worried about getting the solution in your carpet, just put some wax paper over the gum and cut out an X with a knife. Slide the wax paper over the gum and spray. You will get rid of the gum and protect your carpet.

2. I used to have a clock in the bedroom that just seemed to run so slow. No matter how many times I changed the batteries, it just didn't keep time. On squirt of WD-40 and now time keeps up with me!

3. Sliding closet doors are a sore subject when they don't slide right. Before you start taking it apart, Spray the tracks on top and bottom as well as the rollers. You might be surprised that it was just a little dirt or raw metal grinding.

These 3 tips are handy, but if you want to know what else this amazing product can do, go to

http://www.wd40.com/uses-tips/

According to the manufactuer, there are actually over 2000 uses!

 The last thing you want when you are trying to spruce up the place with a little paint, is to have to clean up a bunch of mess from spilled paint or over spray.  These two tips will help you keep it clean.

1.  If you have a Gorilla Ladder or a Straight Ladder, you know that there is no way to hold a paint tray.  But both ladders are great for getting to the top of the wall or painting a celiing.  So how do you hold the paint tray, and paint while not falling off the ladder?  Follow these simple instructions and you will have not problem:

-get your paint tray ready by drilling 2 small holes in the deep end at the top by the edge. 

-take a wire hanger, take it apart and cut it in two, or you can use 2 separate hangers if you want.  Bend the wire hangers so they have a hook on both ends.

-slip one hook through the holes you drilled in the paint tray and make sure you press the end of the hanger so it closes.

-hook the other end over a wrung on the ladder.  It isn't nessicary to close the opening completely, just close it enough to keep it from sliding off the ladder wrung.

Remember, only fill your paint try so the paint comes to 1/2 way up the deep end of the tray.  Any more than that and you will have problems cleaning your rollers of excess paint.

Unless you have a water softener installed in your house, you are filling your steam iron with hard water. That means that eventually calcium and minerals are going to clog up your iron and it will start to sputter water and stop steaming altogether. Don't go out and buy a new iron, instead, get yourself some white vinegar. Dump out the water that is left in the iron, and re-fill it with the vinegar.

Set the iron to steam and place it plate side down, on a rack in your open oven. DO NOT TURN ON THE OVEN. Pull the rack out so it is over the door of the oven and plug in your iron. Your iron will heat up and want to start steaming. Wait about 15 minutes, go back and check to see if the iron is steaming like it should. If not, leave it on the rack until it does. If your iron is really clogged you might have to fill it a second time with vinegar and repeat the process.

This will also losen any grease and food on your oven door so you can just wipe it off!