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Handy Household Tips

Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish.

Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 min.

Mayonnaise will KILL LICE, it will also condition your hair.

Spike your hair with Close-up tooth paste (It will also give it a tint)

Elmer's Glue - paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads if any.

Shiny Hair - use brewed Lipton Tea.

Sunburn - empty a large jar of Nestea into your bath water.

Poison Oak - witch hazel relieves itching and speeds healing.

Minor burn - Colgate or Crest toothpaste.

Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it!

Kitchen burns? -- cut fresh aloe Vera leaf into slabs and tape moist side directly on burn overnight. Stops pain fast and heals almost overnight!

Bee stings -- meat tenderizer.

Chigger bite - Preparation H.

Puffy eyes - Preparation H.

Paper cut -- crazy glue or chap stick (glue is used instead of sutures at most hospitals).

Stinky feet -- Jell-O!

Athletes feet -- cornstarch, or Listerine, straight from the bottle.

Fungus on toenails or fingernails -Vicks Vaporub.

Kool-Ade to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet.

Kool-Ade can be used as a dye in paint also.

Kool-Ade in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint. Your kids will love it and it won't hurt them if they eat it!

Peanut butter -- will get scratches out of CD's! Wipe off with a coffee filter paper.

Sticking bicycle chain -- Pam no-stick cooking spray.

Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands! Keep a can in your garage for your hobby.

Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls.

When the doll clothes are hard to put on, sprinkle with corn starch and watch them slide on.

Heavy dandruff -- pour on the vinegar! Listerine works great too, dilute half and half.

Body paint - Crisco mixed with food coloring. Heat the Crisco in the microwave, pour into an empty film container and mix with the food color of your choice!

Tie Dye T-shirt - mix a solution of Kool Aid in a container, tie a rubber band around a section of the T-shirt and soak.

Garlic odor on hands -- rub stainless steel utensil over entire hand. No more odor!

Preserving a newspaper clipping -- large bottle of club soda and 1/2 cup of milk of magnesia. Soak for 20 min and let dry, will last for many years!

To keep goggles and glasses from fogging, coat with Colgate toothpaste.

Stay-Free Maxi Pads - clean window, floors, just stick to the palm of your hands and work! Can also be used as a knee pad.

Pampers as an absorbent! Remove stains from the carpet with club soda, and a pamper to absorb.

Wine stains - pour on the Morton salt and watch it absorb into the salt.

To remove wax - Take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb into the towel.

To remove labels off glassware, etc., rub with peanut butter! Or mayonaise.

Baked-on food -- fill container with water, get a bounce paper softener and the static from the bounce towel will cause the baked-on food to adhere to it. Soak overnight. Also, you can use 2 Efferdent tablets, soak overnight!

Nasty stuff in your cut crystal bud vases? fill with hot tap water and drop in one or two Efferdent tablets, let sit overnight, rinse.

Crayon on the wall -- Colgate toothpaste and brush it!

Dirty grout - Listerine.

Stains on clothes - Colgate.

Grass stains - Karo Syrup.

Grease Stains - Coca Cola. It will also remove grease stains from the driveway overnight. And will remove corrosion from batteries!

Sweat Stains - Efferdent, or vinegar.

Use a Maxi-Pad in your cap as a sweat ban! (Of course I would staple this or pin it in . You wouldn't want this to drop on the floor or ground).

Fleas in your carpet - 20 Mule Team Borax. Sprinkle and let stand for 24 hours. Plain household salt works too.

To Keep flowers fresh longer add a little Clorox, or 2 Bayer aspirin, or use 7-up, instead of water. If you cut the stem ends every other day, this will help the flowers from wilting too fast.

For minor burns or blisters - used tea leaves. Place wet, cool leaves on burn. Stops the hurt and keeps from scarring.

Mosquito bites - scratch the surface then dab with ammonia. It will burn, but it completely stops the itching and all that is left is a little red bump that goes away in a day or two. For a fast fix use Anti-persperant, this will wash off and the itching will start again.

Glass casseroles or baking dishes won't come clean? Place on several layers of newspapers, spray with oven cleaner (kind that works in cold ovens),let sit for an hour or two, rinse WELL with cold water, then wash with hot soapy water.

Edited: AGene on 18th Dec, 2003 - 4:36am

Tips Household Handy

Agene, you always come up with these useful tips

Where can I get Poison Oak? I have a rash on my leg that keeps coming back and forth when it wants --> the doc says is stress.

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Poison Oak is the enemy. That is what gives a nasty rash. Witch Hazel is the remedy. Here in the US any grocery, department store (like K-Mart) or Pharmacy should carry it. For stress rash, I don't know what would work. Does the Dr. recommend a lotion, cream with cortizone in it? That is what I use for hives. (am allergic to shellfish, but I refuse to quit eating it. So I take anti-histimines and use cortizone creams.)

Tips Household Handy

I was in a 'rush' when I wrote that!!!! I will find out if they sell Witch Hazel here in Trinidad. Thanks for the advice.

Tips Household Handy

*as Tena gets up off the floor and checks to see if she broke anything when she fell off the chair laughing*

That cracked me up. I know it was an honest mistake, but thanks for brightening my day!

I would try Aveeno, if you can get it. They make something you can put in the bath to relieve itching. Like an oatmeal soak or something. My grandson suffers from exzema in the winter and this is what his doctor recommends. Then use the Aveeno skin lotion liberally as well. It is dermatoligist recommened even for young kids so it shouldn't make the rash feel worse like some lotions might.

It is either Aveno or Aveeno, not sure of the spelling. Sold in the lotion aisle.

Handy Household Tips

To kill mold and mildew on solid surfaces, wash with TSP(TriSodiumPhosphate - it can be found in hardware stores, paint stores) mixed in hot water. You can also add either bleach, or pine sol depending on where you are scrubbing. If you are doing a wall and there is carpeting on the floor, use pine sol, or just the TSP alone.

What the TSP does is inhibits/retards the growth if the mold and mildew.
The pine sol totally eradicates odors. ?Even skunk spray.
Bleach disinfects (it kills the HIV/AIDS bacteria - hospitals use bleach and only bleach to clean) and whitens. It is great to clean bathtubs, shower surrounds, toilets, sinks, etc.
TSP is a strong cleaning solution that cuts grease (WEAR GLOVES, it is so strong it will remove the body oil from your hands and make them hurt!) and it does NOT leave a film that needs to be rinsed off.

You will never get rid of the stain caused by mold and mildew, that you will have to cover up with a paint/primer that is made especially to do that. And sometimes you will have to use two coats to effectively do that.

Now that you have the mold and mildew cleaned up. Take care of the problem and prevent it from happening again. If it is in the bathroom, then improve the ventilation! If you have a vent, clean it! Take the cover off and vacuum out all the cobwebs and insects. Then with the cover off, turn it on and check to make sure it is working like it should. If it doesn't effectively suck up the smoke from a blown out candle, then replace it! If all you have for ventilation is a window, check into having an electrical exhaust fan put in. They are not all that expensive.

If it is in a room or closet, take a look around outside and cut back all the plants that are growing up against the house. Cut down or seriously prune the trees. You need sunshine hitting the sides of the house where the mold/mildew is growing. If you can't do that, then get some form of de-humidifier for that room or the house.

IF it is on an interior wall, you better check for a leak in your water pipes!!!

Mold and mildew are living organisms which require moisture to live and grow, and they are a health hazard. Get it out of your home and keep it out.

Handy Household Tips

AGene that is some list of cures although myself i can only use 97% of them i think i will leave the maxi-pads for what they were intended to do other than that minor problem i have a real good shirt and on that shirt is a real good stain so i am going to try your mayo to remove it [now what i would like to know is if things go wrong and my good shirt becomes a shirt i would only wear to work do you have any guarantee to go with theses cures
even if ya did how do i collect you there im here[wow man that sucks]

Handy Household Tips Culture Family Travel & Consumer Reviews

Max don't use mayo on clothes, not unless you have gum stuck to jeans or cotton fabric that can also hold up to a degreaser. Mayo is made from oil and eggs ~ so it is better for removing labels from glass or plastic or removing water/alcohol rings from finished wood.