Household Tips

Need a fast and cheap solution for dingy copper around the kitchen? Clean it with equal amounts of ketchup and water.

Here’s a great list of tips for packing the kids’ lunches (it’s back to school time!) or your own!

Packing A Lunch Kids Will Love
To make sure your children bring fun and nutritious meals with them to school, follow these easy-to-follow tips:
1. Keep food cold and safe by packing an ice pack in an insulated lunch box.
2. Pack your child’s favorite cut-up fresh fruit and include a toothpick or place fruit on a skewer to make eating it more fun.
3. Include a small container of low fat ranch dressing to make veggies, like baby carrots and red pepper strips, more appealing.
4. Offer a low fat cheese stick or yogurt for bone-building calcium.
5. Include a variety of lean protein sources such as tuna, turkey, and chicken.
6. Pack a healthy beverage of 100 percent fruit juice, water, or low fat milk.

lunch, school

Have you ever picked up drinking glasses from the sink, only to realize that they had have been perfectly stacked? And now they’re stuck? Here’s an easy way to separate them. Fill the cup with cold water, then dip the bottom cup in hot water. The temperature difference should make it easy to pull the glasses apart.

stuck glasses

Here’s an easy way to clean a coffee pot. This can be especially useful at work or in a house without a dishwasher! Instead of scrubbing out the pot, simply fill it halfway with ice, pour in a good shot of salt (1 to 2 Tablespoons) and swirl the ice around. The salt will do the cleaning! When you’re done, dump out the ice and rinse out your sparkly clean coffee pot!

cleaning, coffee pot, salt

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

It is easy to wash the outside of a car windshield, but it isn’t so easy to wash the inside with that squeegee thing at the gas station.

Recently, my Mom asked me something to clean her windshield with and I gave her paper towel wet with Windex Multi-Surface Cleaner with Vinegar.

It worked like nothing ever before!

I use this on my bathroom mirrors and faucets to make them shiny and ultra clean.

When boiling eggs for stuffing, stir them for the first few minutes. This will set the whites, leaving the yolk in the center. You will have a strong wall of white around the center for stuffing that will not tear while filling.

eggs, cooking

Ronda wrote in to share this tip. I’ve listed Pam cooking spray in my favorite products and suggested spraying appliances and utensils before use to make cleaning them easy. Ronda says her favorite tip is to spray her Crock Pot before filling it so EVERYTHING washes away in the dishwasher. I plan to try this tomorrow when I take a dish to work. I remember when I hated to clean the crock pot, but that was before they had removable crock that could go in the dishwasher. Thanks for the Hint!

One of my friends in the emergency room was talking about how many people come in with food poisoning. Many people think that freezing food kills E.coli. NOT TRUE. That is why it is so important to cook food throughly. E.coli can also appear foods other than meat, but the biggest culprit may be your cutting board. I have a chopping block, but use it mostly for big jobs. Wood chopping blocks and cutting boards should be cleaned after use with hot, soapy water. Add a tablespoon of bleach to a quart of hot water and sanitize them frequently. I have a smaller plastic cutting board that fits in the dishwasher that I use for most things. It goes in the dishwasher every time I use it. Wash your hands, utensils, and work areas after touching any raw meat, fish or poultry.

E.coli, cutting boards, utensils, chopping blocks, bleach

Marble, tile, & granite floors should only be cleaned with very hot water. Cleaners of any kind will pit these floors and will disolve the glazing on them over time.

tile, marble, granite, floors, cleaning

Ya’ll know that Sam’s & Costco are two of my favorite places to shop. Well imagine my excitement at finding a twelve pound bag of baking soda which is one of my favorite cleaning products. Had to share that as well as another baking soda tip. Baking soda on a damp sponge will remove the orange residue from storing chili, spaghetti, or other tomato based foods from those plastic food storage containers.

baking soda, Sam’s, Costco, food stain

In a small container, mix some butter spread, sugar and cinnamon. Put a lid on it and store in the fridge. Next time you are running late, spread it on some wheat bread and pop under the broiler or in the toaster oven. A great emergency breakfast for the kids and better than a Pop-tart!

kids, breakfast, time saving

Don’t purchase chip clips, buy a bag of cheap good old-fashioned clothespins. Hot glue magnets on the back of some and stick to the refrigerator. Great for chips, cookies, pretzels, bread, rice, or just about anything that comes in a bag! Keep a few in your suitcase when traveling and clip motel drapes closed from morning light.

clothespins, chip clips, food, travel

I remembered this hint the other day while making a grilled cheese sandwich for my grandaughter. Use your pizza slicer to cut the crust off sandwiches and to cut them into bite size pieces. It is also great for cutting up pancakes, waffles, noodles and just about anything else small hands can manage.

feeding kids, cutlery

Multipurpose cleaners

1. Pour one cup of ammonia, 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1/4 cup baking soda into a gallon of lukewarm water. Mix well and use in a spray bottle for a great all-purpose clean. Label and keep out of reach of children. No rinsing is necessary.
2. If you use washing soda use one full cup ammonia, 1 cup washing soda and warm water to make one gallon. Label and put in a spray bottle to clean counter-tops, tile, appliances, vinyl floors, painted woodwork and even some painted walls
[ammonia, vinegar, baking soda, multi-purpose cleaners