By Reena Nerbas
Life just got easier!
- To save real snowflakes; wait until the temperature is -10 or colder outside. Collect snowflakes on microscope slides (do not use your fingers). Cover the snowflakes on the slide with a drop of super glue (not gel). Put a cover slip over glue, don’t press. Store slides in the freezer for two weeks without touching it. This allows the glue to completely harden before you remove the slide from the freezer. Examine slides with a microscope and take notice of how no two snowflakes are alike.
- Save all of the cookie crumbs in the bottom of cookie boxes. Use your food processor to grind them into fine crumbs. Perfect for all kinds of cake and cookie recipes.
- Pigeon problems? Screen the birds out of wall recesses and window ledges with fine-mesh chicken wire sold at hardware and garden shops. Also, sheets of plastic with plastic spikes at narrow intervals are available in hardware shops for use on flat roofs or window ledges. It is impossible for pigeons to perch on them or find a comfortable foothold.
- Discourage mice from visiting areas around the home, car or barn by shaving several bars of Irish Spring soap and sprinkling them wherever mice tend to gather. Tip: Discourage rats and mice with the help of a weasel. They’ll soon be gone.
- Transfer your jelly to a small plastic squeeze bottle, no more mess, sticky jars or knives! This also works well for homemade salad dressing!
- Concrete that has black coloration from weather is usually moulded. Spray bleach water on the concrete with 1 part bleach to 3 parts water. Brush in and let set. Then wash off.
- Wax paper taped inside slatted closet doors will help to keep out moths and dust.
- The best way to hammer a small nail into the wall is to use a small comb to hold the nail.
- For all of the little wastebaskets around the house use this housecleaner’s trick. Keep folded garbage bags underneath the liner being used. That way you don’t have to track down another liner after you empty the basket.
- Next time you make Fajitas; add cooked pork, peppers, onions and seasoning to your baking pan. Next cook powdered onion soup and water on the stove. Thicken soup with cornstarch (the way that you would gravy). Add this to the Fajita pan for great flavour and texture. Bake to heat.
- Store birdseed in a 20 gallon garbage can, this is inexpensive, holds more than a 50 pound bag of seed, fairly easy to carry because of the handles, comes with a lid, easy to access food for quick filling of bird feeders. Less mess, and less time.
- For painting crafts, use an empty egg carton to place puddles of paint colours in, when finished dispose of carton, no mess to clean!
- Make ripe tomatoes firm again. Dip tomatoes in cold water, add some salt and leave overnight.
- Make leafy vegetables crunchy again. Cut the stem off and separate the stalks. Add three quarter cup granulated sugar to a vessel filled with cold water. Place vegetables inside. Soak for 4 to 5 hours. Drain well and refrigerate.
Reena Nerbas is a highly popular professional speaker and the author of three national best sellers, “Household Solutions 1 with Substitutions”, “Household Solutions 2 with Kitchen Secrets” and “Household Solutions 3 with Green Alternatives”. To request Reena Nerbas as an entertaining and informative speaker for your next event contact her on-line or call: 204-320-2757.
I enjoy your questions and tips, keep them coming!
Check out my web site! www.householdsolutions.org
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