Household Tips

Need an energy boost? A quick fix and prevention for the cold and flu virus that could be spreading around? A stress relief? This Bath & Body Works Instant Aromatherapy set for $10 each should do the trick. The scent helps cure whatever it is that troubles you and you will be back in good disposition soon.

• Breathe deeply for best results
• Never tested on animals
• Fragranced with essential oils and other natural fragrances

	Aromatherapy Instant Aromatherapy Cold & Flu Therapy Coming down with something. Under the weather. Can’t breathe. Throbbing sinus pressure. Stuffed up. Want to go back to bed. Fatigued and exhausted. Chicken soup isn’t doing the trick. Feel better. This all-natural blend of therapeutic essential oils helps provide a feeling of relief from cold and flu symptoms.
	Aromatherapy Instant Aromatherapy Instant Comfort Back to school. Long flight. Nervous energy. Anxious about tomorrow. Too much caffeine. Bouncing off the walls. Can’t get comfortable. Marathon meeting. Pop quiz. New blemish. The in-laws are visiting. Roll this on for relief. Studies have shown that breathing in Vanilla absolute eases anxiousness. And Chamomile essential oil fosters feelings of comfort.
	Aromatherapy Instant Aromatherapy Stress Relief Stressed out? Too many deadlines. Not enough hours in the day. Worked late. No job security. Noisy traffic. Demanding husband. Screaming kids. No time to yourself. The car is acting weird. Roll this on for relief – studies have shown Eucalyptus essential oil eases stress and calms the body and mind, while Spearmint essential oil can ease mental fatigue and stress.

I keep a stock of baby wipes handy, even as I do not have a baby to take care of. I find that baby wipes make great cleaning agent for some things other than a baby’s bottom —

• Use baby wipes to clean your computer keyboard or calculator. These don’t leave any smudges nor destroy keyboards because no liquid can seep through the cracks.
• If you can launder baby wipes (with some brands, it is possible), you can recycle this as dust clothes. The fabric used to make baby wipes is very effective in gathering dust.
• Some baby wipes come in bulky containers which you can reuse to store pins and needles, pens and pencils and other items. Organize your knick knacks in fun colors with it.
• I use baby wipes if I don’t have a hand sanitizer with me. After eating at restaurants or in public places, I sometimes need not go to the restroom to wash my hands. I use the wipes instead.

Lemons are good cleaning agents. They also leave a fresh scent that, to me, is the final word on CLEAN. Seriously, no matter how much I have cleaned an area in my house, it doesn’t feel so complete and done, if I don’t smell a lingering lemon scent in the room.

Here are other things you can do with lemons, other than making lemonades:

• Clean the microwave oven. I do this regularly. It’s one chore chore I love doing. Mix lemon juice with water, put this inside the oven, turn on high and allow this to stay “cooked” for five to ten minutes. When you open the microwave, not only is it clean smelling, you can also easily wipe off hardened food now. Doing this just made microwave cleaning easier.
• Rejuvenate and protect your wood furniture and pieces. Mix lemon juice in mineral oil but don’t overdo it. Use this to wipe on wooden surfaces.
• Lemons halves may be used to clean out dirty fingertips that soap cannot seem to clean.
• Rub lemons on your pats and pans to make them brighter.
• Astringents may sometimes increase pimple breakout, instead of helping cure it. Use lemon to wash your face with, and replace the acne medication. Lemons make pimples dry faster, thus healing faster
• If you are going to be gone from your house for a few weeks, leave cut lemons in rooms (place these in saucer, of course). Stale air will remain fresh, and you would have loved to return home to this.
• A teaspon of lemon juice to your rice water will keep rice from becoming sticky when cooked.
• Lemons are the best sources for Vitamin C so stock plenty and drink plenty to keep cold sores at bay

The common table salt has plenty of uses other than for seasoning food. Below are just some of it —

• Do you have a lot of silk flowers around the house? Are they gathering dust? Using salt, you can clean these flowers. Gather them in a paper or plastic bag and then pour a generous amount of salt on it. Shake this vigorously. When you open this, you’ll see that the flowers are cleaner and brighter, rejuvenated and given new “life”.
• Relieve sore throat with salt. Now, this is a tip I learned from my grandfather. Mix a teaspoon of it with warm water. Gargling salt when its sore helps relieve the itchiness and the soreness. And of course, it’s also an inexpensive alternative to cough drops and sore throat candies like Strepsils.
• If you’ve been preparing fish for the family and the odor still remains on your hands, even while you’re done cooking, get rid of the odor by dipping your hands in warm water dredged with salt and lemon.
• Soak new pantyhose in warm water and salt. This will make it more resistant and long-lasting, you won’t have to buy pantyhose again and again.
• For oven spills, immediately sprinkle a dash of salt on it…and you’ll see that by the time the oven cools down, it will all disappear.
• A dirty iron base may stain the clothes you have (happens to me a lot!) that cleaning them once in a while is advisable. Salt can help with this too. Just sprinkle some on the iron’s hot part, then with a brown paper bag, run the iron over to remove the speckles.

Egg crates come in either plastic or carton. For obvious reasons, I prefer mine in carton/paper as it is more biodegradable. But both types may be used for several other purposes such as these below:

• Cut the excess part, or cut just the right size and place the crate inside the drawer for use as great organizer. Store paper clips, pins, tacks and little trinkets like fancy earrings or rings there.
• Cardboard egg crates make good use when you’re out barbecuing or camping in the backyard. Put charcoal briquettes on the crates, light it up and watch as it even out the flames, so you can barbeque with ease.
• Taking down the Christmas lights? Wondering where you can store these so that it doesn’t break and will still be of use by the time the next holiday rolls over? Then, store your Christmas lights in these egg crates. You eliminate the tangles or minimize broken bulbs by doing so.
• Egg crates are tailor made for storing golf balls! Or if you aren’t into golf….what about your kids’ ball toys?
• The plastic egg crates make excellent ice cube trays!

I love silver jewelry. But I don’t love how quickly it turns. For all those pieces you own (including the good quality fake stuff) that have little intricate designs and are just a pain to polish, try this quick-fix method for restoring the natural shine.

Boil some potatoes. Yes, really. And find some way to use them — like mashed potatoes! (I’ll post a recipe to Elementary Chef tomorrow!)

Reove the potatoes from the water and let it cool to room temperature, or slightly warmer. Drop your silver jewelry into the water! Yes, really! The starch will help remove the tarnish! (Now, rinse your jewelry, if you don’t want starch sticking to you!)

silver, tarnish, potatoes

Today at Elementary Chef, I gave instructions for brewing Southern style sweet tea. But what to do with the leftover teabags? I’ve talked before about using them to fertilize your plants, but there are other great uses for teabags, as well!

teabags, household tips

Sorry for the blasting gross-out title folks … but really, when your dear little Fido has the runs, life takes on new priorities.

I picked up Hines from the kennel this morning. He spent a few days there this weekend romping and playing with dogs ten times his size. He came home a pound lighter, very tired and immediately after greeting me at the car door, he proceeded to squat on my dining room carpet.

After walking him around the neighborhood and through the woods for about thirty minutes, I brought him inside for a bath with our trusted ole’ Mrs. Meyers Dog Shampoo.

Hines ate a dinner of rice and sautéed chicken.

After that, I did some quick Internet research and discovered that dogs can have Pepto Bismol! However, cats cannot. Please note, before you give your pet any medication of any kind, it is best to consult your vet.

The Doctor’s Foster and Smith say that Pepto is safe for dogs in small amounts. Be sure to follow the dosage guidelines from a trusted website or a doctor before administering these medications to your pet.

I also mixed some pedilyte in a fresh bowl of water and he joyfully drank about half.

Right now he is resting calmly so I think the worst is past.

I’ll post a Hines update around noon tomorrow, in case you are worried.

In a recent visit to my in-laws house in Florida, we went into the guest bathroom to take a shower and found a severe lack of hot water. So severe in fact that there wasn’t any.

After a few cold showers and four people using the master bathroom shower, although, thankfully, not at the same time, my in-laws decided to have a plumber investigate the problematic faucet.

It turns out the repair, if you can even call it that was very simple. The mechanism that turns behind the hand-nozzle was stuck in place, from lack of use.

It is very common to have a bathroom in your home that you don’t use on a regular basis, except the very moment that you have guests in your home and NEED a second working shower. To avoid this common household malady, be sure to run your bathtub with hot and cold water and turn the shower on at least once a month. Twice a month is preferable.

Consider making a schedule or incorporating it into your house cleaning routine.

In light of the recent pet food recall this entry will detail how to go about make your own dog food.

I have four cats and a dog and the thought that the food I have been feeding them, high quality-brand foods, like Iams and Science Diet are possibly laced with harmful, fatal chemicals is absolutely overwhelming and very discouraging.

If you want to opt on the very safe side, you can prepare food for your four-legged friend fresh and from scratch in your own kitchen. Here are some instructions to follow when you set out to prepare a balanced and nutritious meal for your dog.

1. Before you change a pet’s diet, check with your vet.

2. Know that dogs need a diet that consists of about 40% meat, 30% vegetables and 30% starch. This ratio (similar to The Zone diet, ironic, no?) is recommended for all canine diets.

3. Always cook meat before serving it to your dog. Raw meat can cause illness and hold harmful bacteria.

4. While it may gross to you, organ meet, like liver and kidneys is very good for dogs. There are a lot of vitamins to be gained by eating these organs.

5. It is a well-known fact in many health-food circles that many commercial brand dog foods are very unhealthy for pets. Frequently, the meat used in these foods is considered unsuitable for human consumption.

6. Start with a mixture of ground turkey, rice and carrots for your dog food. There are also a variety of recipes that include ground beef, brown rice, brewer’s yeast and carrots.

7. Be sure to rotate the meals your dog eats so that Fido gets a variety of nutrients.

8. Add garlic to your dog food. Dogs like the flavor of garlic and it doubles as a natural flea repellant.

9. Include oatmeal, pasta, rice or potato for your dog’s starch needs.

10. You can also grind up some egg shells and add then to your dog’s meal. The eggshells have a lot of necessary nutrients.

11. Keep cooked dog food in the refrigerator and use it within three days.

12. Remember, whenever you change an animal’s diet, you risk stomach upset, including gas and diarrhea. Consider switching to homemade foods over a period of time, mixing commercial food and your homemade food.

13. NEVER EVER feed your dog chocolate.

We’ve all had that dreaded morning after. I am not referring to the walk of shame, but rather, that pounding, throbbing headache, the churning yucky feeling in your stomach and the unbeatable urge to just go back to sleep in a very dark room for a very long time.

There are some things you can do to feel better sooner:

1. DRINK WATER. Alcohol dehydrates your body. That’s why you pee a lot no matter how much you drink. In fact, I’m such a dork that I get a big glass of water and drink it with a beer or glass of wine to avoid being dehydrated the next day. So, drink up! The water that is.

2. If your stomach feels like it will roll over if you breathe wrong, or if you are already horking, stick with the BRAT diet, bananas, rice, applesauce and toast. If you can eat, try something bland with some protein, fat and carbs, evenly mixed, like scrambled eggs, toast and a banana. Coffee and tea will only further dehydrate you, so try to stick with water, milk or juice.

3. Take an over the counter pain reliever like Tylenol, Advil, Aleve, Motrin or Aspirin.

4. Rest. (This is where you can assume that I am advising you to stay home from work and sleep.)

5. If you think it is time, or your alcohol drinking has gotten to a point of negatively impacting your work or relationships, consider visiting Alcoholics Anonymous, by clicking here.

If your oven looks anything like mine, it isn’t pretty. I can’t ever remember actually cleaning an over, except that one time just after college when I was moving into an apartment where I swear to God I could smell the lead from the seventy years of paint layers. But, that was just a “mild” cleaning.

Now that I am much older, slightly wiser, and far more cynical I am ready and able to clean my oven.

For a just happened spill or overflow, cover the area liberally with baking soda. When the over cools off, you should be able to scoop up the gunk with a metal spatula. The baking soda works by absorbing any liquid and gunk, like, pie filling, or pizza grease. However, it won’t stick to the surface of the over. The key for this home remedy for over cleaning is to catch the spill while it is still wet. Once it gets baked on, you will need a harsher cleaner.

Another earth-friendly over cleaning product is vinegar. Regular old white vinegar is one of the best household cleaning agents out there. It is pure and clean, doesn’t leave a residue and is not toxic. It also leaves a nice pleasant scent in your home without being overpowering.

Vinegar will cut grease and soften the baked on deposits if you cover the area thoroughly. Obviously, as it is a liquid, you can’t just coat your oven with it, as it runs off and that is a mess I don’t want to think about cleaning. It will work really well on the floor of the oven if you can pour a little into the bottom welled-out area. Also, the vapors will soften the gook on the walls after several hours. If you are in a hurry to see your reflection in your oven, try this: mix one quarter of a cup of vinegar and a drop of fresh dish detergent in a pint of hot water. Let it sit for a few minutes and then scrub.

Last, and definitely least on my list of choices is ammonia. Ammonia is not 100% safe. It can cause dryness and irritation of the skin, eyes, nose and throat and it IS toxic if ingested by children or pets. If you are using ammonia and you inhale enough vapors to cause you to cough, you are too close and should seek fresh air immediately. Ammonia is a very harsh chemical that will erode many materials. Glass is safe to use with ammonia. To rid your oven of baked on goo, fill a shallow glass baking dish with ammonia and let it sit in a cold oven overnight. After about 8-12 hours, the grease will scrub off the doors and walls fairly easily.

The best way to “clean” your oven is to not have to scrub it! Line the bottom with foil to catch drips and just replace and recycle it when it gets dirty, and, wash off the front window of the oven weekly, or after baking a particularly messy food.

If you think anyone has ingested anything toxic or potentially harmful, don’t hesitate, call the Poison Control Center immediately. It is a toll-free call! 1-800-222-1222