Household tips and tricks! - Are you having trouble getting the wine stains out of your carpet? Do you clean your cookware with something extraordinary? Come share!

[one_time_user]

Does anyone have any cordless vacuum cleaner recommendations? The one I have now isn't great and id like to upgrade to a Gucci one. I'm willing to spend up to $500 or close enough to that if it's really good. What I don't like about the one I have now is that it has two modes, bare floor mode which I use for the laminate floor and a high speed carpet mode but it switches between them """"intelligently"""" (retardedly) and you can manually set which mode it's in anyway so it's fuckin pointless and annoying for it to randomly change its rev speed.

I would recommend shark brand that way when it dies you don't feel like you got assraped and only got a hand held dust buster as a consolation prize like I did with my dyson when everything after the first 2 inches stopped working.

 

[Generic Name #37]

Anyone have tips on descaling an electric kettle?

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

Anyone have tips on descaling an electric kettle?

Boil it with a mix of half vinegar, half water. Boil for idk 15 minutes, then rinse and wipe it out.

 

[Narwhal]

Boil it with a mix of half vinegar, half water. Boil for idk 15 minutes, then rinse and wipe it out.

I usually let the vinegar-water mix for a night, the next morning I boil it once, rinse thoroughly and it's good as new

 

[There She Glows]

It finally happened, my husband thought I gave my cat her flea medicine and I thought he did and now she has fleas. I feel so terrible. She got her topical this morning and I just gave her a dose of something called Capstar. She already seems less itchy thank goodness.

I haven't really seen any fleas around the house but I took the day off to wash all the bedding and vacuum and shampoo the carpets and couch. I vacuumed the mattress. I bought something called PetArmor to spray the couch, cat tree and carpet. I've never dealt with fleas, is there anything I'm missing?

Edit: that capstar is some potent shit she's going kind of nuts but the fleas are literally falling off of her

 

[isalaide]

Anyone have tips on descaling an electric kettle?

Elbow Grease make a good one.

 

[TheBigZee]

I haven't really seen any fleas around the house but I took the day off to wash all the bedding and vacuum and shampoo the carpets and couch. I vacuumed the mattress. I bought something called PetArmor to spray the couch, cat tree and carpet. I've never dealt with fleas, is there anything I'm missing?

Use a flea comb every so often to make sure the local fleas haven't developed a resistance to the topical. Happened in my area with frontline.

 

[There She Glows]

Use a flea comb every so often to make sure the local fleas haven't developed a resistance to the topical. Happened in my area with frontline.

When I called the vet this morning they confirmed that's the situation with pretty much all topicals here. They said they prescribe an oral medication that's the only thing that really works.

 

[ATI Escapee]

It finally happened, my husband thought I gave my cat her flea medicine and I thought he did and now she has fleas. I feel so terrible. She got her topical this morning and I just gave her a dose of something called Capstar. She already seems less itchy thank goodness.

I haven't really seen any fleas around the house but I took the day off to wash all the bedding and vacuum and shampoo the carpets and couch. I vacuumed the mattress. I bought something called PetArmor to spray the couch, cat tree and carpet. I've never dealt with fleas, is there anything I'm missing?

Edit: that capstar is some potent shit she's going kind of nuts but the fleas are literally falling off of her

Vaccum daily for a month at least. Always take the vaccum collection gunk outside, like dont empty it into the trash and let itcsit overnight indoors. Flea eggs have certainly fallen off and if you can prevent them from hatching inside youll be golden. Vac your couches too and wash your bedding twice as often during the next month as well.

 

[one_time_user]

capstar is good shit. you should cut up a flea collar and throw it in your vacuum bag/container and vacuum. leave the collar pieces in for a few weeks. you may want to treat your upholstered furniture and rugs with a powder or spray additionally. Fleas are bad but tapeworms fucking suck (no pun intended)

 

[ATI Escapee]

capstar is good shit. you should cut up a flea collar and throw it in your vacuum bag/container and vacuum. leave the collar pieces in for a few weeks. you may want to treat your upholstered furniture and rugs with a powder or spray additionally. Fleas are bad but tapeworms fucking suck (no pun intended)

The cut flea collar in a vaccum is absolutely brillant. I grew up in a flea infested shit hole and luckily havent had to deal with that since living on my own but if I ever do again I am absolutely doing that. Fleas are so hard to deal with once allowed a foothold to infest.

 

[one_time_user]

it's a trailer park trick from the 70s and 80s

 

[TrainWreckSpotter]

I buy as much as I can in glass jars and reuse them for food storage.

I am very anti-plastic, not just because of the environmental concerns (which is definitely a factor), but also because of the new concern about ingesting microplastics, the fact that I am a super-taster and can TASTE plastic, and because it's easily scratched, stained and melted.

THIS is a great gadget to have.

https://pump-n-seal.com/pump-n-seal-systems/

As long as you have the right kind of lid, it does a good job of vacuum sealing. No electricity, no noise, and it doesn't take up a lot of space.

 

[Major]

I buy as much as I can in glass jars and reuse them for food storage.

I am very anti-plastic, not just because of the environmental concerns (which is definitely a factor), but also because of the new concern about ingesting microplastics, the fact that I am a super-taster and can TASTE plastic, and because it's easily scratched, stained and melted.

THIS is a great gadget to have.

View attachment 6202068

https://pump-n-seal.com/pump-n-seal-systems/

As long as you have the right kind of lid, it does a good job of vacuum sealing. No electricity, no noise, and it doesn't take up a lot of space.

What sort of stuff do you store, cooked/prepared or just fresh? I use ceramic baking dishes + tin foil. I want to get some glass ones but they're expensive.

 

[TrainWreckSpotter]

What sort of stuff do you store, cooked/prepared or just fresh? I use ceramic baking dishes + tin foil. I want to get some glass ones but they're expensive.

Gosh, anything. Flour, coffee beans, leftovers. Just save pickle jars, olive jars, whatever. If you go to Costco, get food that comes in large glass jars if you can. Then you've paid for what's inside and the jar is a bonus that will last forever (unless you break it).

 

[Aunt Carol]

Say you're storing things in boxes/tubs right on the floor--an example for this would be off-season linens in a storage tub, under the bed.

If this is on a hard floor, put down a cheap rug/mat first. It doesn't have to cover the whole area, but it will let the storage container slide out more easily, without scratching the floor. The thin but antiskid-backed "welcome" mats from the dollar store work great for this; they have soft on the top, rubber on the bottom, and not so much pile that they raise the container up too high.

You can also buy those stick-on sliders for the underside of storage containers, but I think the rug thing is cheaper, and the sliders tend to come off.

 

[Aunt Carol]

A cast iron napkin holder makes a great swap for a mail holder if you are clumsy, have chaotic pets/children, or just like roosters. Check the thrift store first, but for "used," not "antique" prices; they're still in production everywhere.

The vertical kind of napkin holder, not the flat kind with a weight. This is the one currently in production at Walmart, so you don't get conned by an optimistic Goodwill pricer:

Red makes the mail go faster.

Lurk around second-hand sources for many more design options.

 

[Aunt Carol]

Silicone stress putty/bouncing putty/Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty in carpet/fabric:

Attempt removal with isopropyl alcohol before you murder the child, because the cops will see the glitter putty stuck in your carpet and immediately realize you had motive. Also the rubbing alcohol works surprisingly well.

 

[Shig O'nella]

Anyone have tips on descaling an electric kettle?

Citric acid.
Works better than vinegar, it's a powder so way easier to store, odourless so it doesn't stink the house out, and if you're in a rush and don't want to double boil the kettle afterwards it just adds a hint of lemon flavor to your tea.
Most places that sell indian spices have it and it's dirt cheap.
It's also a godsend for rust removal.

 

[DickMain]

Citric acid.
Works better than vinegar, it's a powder so way easier to store, odourless so it doesn't stink the house out, and if you're in a rush and don't want to double boil the kettle afterwards it just adds a hint of lemon flavor to your tea.
Most places that sell indian spices have it and it's dirt cheap.
It's also a godsend for rust removal.

Would this work for a cheapo keurig using lemon juice? Or is that not quite strong enough? I have some of it lying around and a hard water problem at home. I took the thing apart a couple weeks ago but couldn't figure out how to disconnect any of the tubing to maintenance it.