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!

[glass_houses]

Do you have a dry-erase list or calendar on your fridge? Do you like your new, bold markers but they did not have magnets to affix the pen to the fridge? Here is a solution that doesn't involve tape and string:

Snip a piece of the neat velcro-type closure you sometimes see on rice bags, then use a fake nail adhesive pad on the pen cap and the magnetic calendar or note list and apply the velcro strips you just cut.

Now your pen hangs conveniently where you need it.

I went to a cheap shop and bought a small plastic basket with a magnet on it.

 

[General Disarray]

I went to a cheap shop and bought a small plastic basket with a magnet on it.

LOL didn't even know they made things like that. I was working in the moment and needed something pronto. Thanks for the tip, I'll look for what you described for the other pens in the pack. o7

 

[Aunt Carol]

LOL didn't even know they made things like that. I was working in the moment and needed something pronto. Thanks for the tip, I'll look for what you described for the other pens in the pack. o7

After "back to school" season hits clearance, there's a lot of magnetic stuff, intended for lockers, left over. Also magnetic mirrors, which are fun to put right at the bottom of the fridge door for your cat to encounter.

 

[TrainWreckSpotter]

Do you have a dry-erase list or calendar on your fridge? Do you like your new, bold markers but they did not have magnets to affix the pen to the fridge? Here is a solution that doesn't involve tape and string:

Snip a piece of the neat velcro-type closure you sometimes see on rice bags, then use a fake nail adhesive pad on the pen cap and the magnetic calendar or note list and apply the velcro strips you just cut.

Now your pen hangs conveniently where you need it.

Velcro is good for so much. I used self-adhering velcro to stick my ceiling fan remotes to the wall because I didn't want to drill holes in the walls to mount them.

 

[LonesomeDud]

Hairspray for ink stains before washing. Peroxide to blood for the same. Those are two weirdly magic things to me.

 

[Aiōn]

When I was a teenager I went to a house party and someone ended up getting stabbed and I helped the host by cleaning the blood out their carpet. I just used soap and cold water and a lot of blotting with a towel.

 

[Anna O]

Lots of great stain-removal advice ITT already, but I do want to give special mention to hydrogen peroxide. I was once tasked with cleaning up an explosion of bright orange hair dye (high school: Not Even Once) in a very pristine white bathroom. With the bottle shoved in the back of the fridge plus a spare toothbrush, and to the great surprise of my teenage self, I was able to get the dye completely out of the towels, floor, walls, and sink, to the point that no one was the wiser. I rely on it for nearly every stain now.

 

[glass_houses]

I can't take the boxes off filthy crockery in the spare room anymore. They belong to the housemate, and have a dinner service plus misc items that belonged to his mother. He left the open boxes in the dirt under our old house, and they are full of DDT contaminated dust and various vermin faeces. Obviously he doesn't care about them, but his mother died a ways back so I'm not going to dump the boxes in the bin no matter how good I want to.

So what's the best way to get this crockery clean? They're cheap so I'm not sure how well the glaze will stand up. My thoughts so far are that I take them outside, hit them with the garden hose, then scrub them with standard dish detergent before a final dip in a bleach solution.

 

[Imp]

If there are any defects in the glaze there is no way to sterilize the bare clay/porcelain that is exposed. The cleaners on Hoarders TV dispose of anything, including dishes, that were contaminated by rodent droppings. If the 'experts' on the show say that dishes cannot be saved then I would not be able to eat from any of those dishes you dragged out from under the house. Especially the DDT - it's just not worth the risk. If you were to only use them for display then they could be scrubbed and used but there is the danger that someone not in the know might decide to eat from them.

 

[glass_houses]

If there are any defects in the glaze there is no way to sterilize the bare clay/porcelain that is exposed. The cleaners on Hoarders TV dispose of anything, including dishes, that were contaminated by rodent droppings. If the 'experts' on the show say that dishes cannot be saved then I would not be able to eat from any of those dishes you dragged out from under the house. Especially the DDT - it's just not worth the risk. If you were to only use them for display then they could be scrubbed and used but there is the danger that someone not in the know might decide to eat from them.

Yeah, that's what I thought. The old house was Federation era, and there was wood borer damage everywhere, so it's more a case of what banned pesticide chemical residue isn't under there.

I've spoken to the housemate about it and he wants to keep the crockery regardless to 'display'. I'm going to clean them and write 'not for use with food' in texta on the back of each piece. If/when he uses them anyway, it won't be my problem.

 

[Triple Flutz]

This isn't really a tip but it didn't fit anywhere else.

I'm so mad at myself for not considering a wet vac sooner. I have a bunch of young kids who are pretty well-behaved and clean after themselves, but I'm insane about my floors because they reflect a lot of light and that flooring paired with that floor autism doesn't work super well with toddlers in the house. I've been breaking my back using a broom and a swiffer for localized cleaning, a mop for actually clean floors, and a vacuum for everyday upkeep, and it's taking its toll since I do it a lot. Anyway, I had an opportunity to try a wet vac for free and I am not going back, lmao. It's cordless and has a self-cleaning feature, so all I have to do is keep it charged, use it, dispose of the dirty water and solids in the basket, run the cycle, and then I like to take the components out to air-dry to ensure it doesn't develop a weird smell. 10/10 can't believe it took me so long to figure out how handy these are. I'll still be mopping once a week because nothing beats that kind of floor cleaning, but that's a long way down from how often I currently mop.

 

[Aunt Carol]

Revisiting the earlier discussion about bathroom counter real estate, I got some cheap adhesive holders made specifically for holding tubes:




Dunno why the seller is demonstrating with toothpaste with a stand-flat cap, but a couple of them on the mirror get your toothpaste/hydrocortisone/triple antibiotic ointment/etc off the counter. If you have self-standing tubes of toothpaste, it's nice to get the hydrocortisone cream in a completely different place than the toothpaste, but that's a lesson everyone has to learn once.

They're Chinesium so you have to type things like "stainless steel toothpaste holder wall" until you find them for a few bucks on your etailer of choice.

 

[countrybumpkin]

So that I always have healthy snacks on hand, I prepare a few and keep them in Tupperware-type containers. That way I'm not tempted to eat junk food because it's convenient. For example, I love cucumbers as a snack, so I keep a couple peeled and cut in the fridge.

 

[On a Journey]

2 Hamper Bags for clothing. When your clothes get dirty, pre sort your whites and coloreds using either hamper bag. Stow both hamper bags in the ditty, and when the ditty gets heavy, it’s laundry day. Can also get a third hamper bag for towels.

Recently, my mother told me that when I was a kid she used to use the third section of the laundry hamper for clothes she wanted to get rid of (the rest of the household would otherwise wear our clothes even if they were stained, full of holes, or otherwise looked terrible). She would keep this unwearable clothing there so when we asked about a specific thing, it was “in the laundry”, then threw it out once we stopped asking. Part of me feels betrayed but it’s a genius tactic and I never noticed.


•There is a pet-safe, skin-safe disinfectant/antiseptic called chlorhexidine, mainly used in veterinary and medical settings. You can buy a gallon jug of it for <$20 at a farm store or some online pet supply stores and you dilute it so much that such a jug will easily be enough for even the dirtiest home for years (just make sure to store it well). It can be used to treat wounds and even as a mouthwash but for that you need it even more diluted, also don’t let it get near eyes. How much you dilute it depends on the exact solution you buy and what you’re using it for. With a 2% chlorhexidine glutonate solution (the most common) you use 1 oz per gallon of water for medical use (i.e. applying to skin) or 2 oz per gallon of water for a general disinfectant. I think of it kind of like bleach but more gentle and afaik it won’t stain stuff.

•Diatomaceous earth is a great, non-toxic way to torture bugs to death. It’s been mentioned ITT but I have some more specific tips:
-Put a thin layer of it on their point of entry and around walls (roaches and such prefer to stick near a wall rather than dash across an open space).
-If you have ants in your house, follow them to their holes and plug said holes with it.
-It’s got a dusty texture so wear a cloth mask when applying to prevent inhaling a lot of it and keep in mind that it will get all over the floor.
-I leave it for about two days. The goal is for every pest around to come across it so the longer you have it there, the better. It just gets annoying after a couple days and by that point the returns if having it longer are diminishing.
-Try not to use too much because then there will be more to clean and that’s a pain. The ideal way to clean it is a shop vac, do not use a regular vacuum.
-You likely won’t see the bugs die on the spot, but if they walked on the DE then they’re doomed, it just might take a while for them to bleed out.
-It only hurts things with exoskeletons, so it should be safe for children and pets (unless you have spiders, bugs, or other arthropods as pets, then it is not safe for them).

•Some insects go to light and some flee from it. Use this to your advantage. Also a lot of flying insects automatically go upwards when they don’t have a specific goal, so the best traps are basically upside-down funnels into an enclosed space with something that will kill them.

•Make sure you’re storing your produce correctly:
https://www.seattle.gov/util/cs/groups/public/@spu/@conservation/documents/webcontent/1_037049.pdf
https://blog.misfitsmarket.com/the-ultimate-fresh-produce-storage-guide/

•Know which fruits and vegetables produce lots of ethylene (a gas that makes things ripen) and keep them away from fruits and vegetables that are sensitive to ethylene. This is why you can make a banana ripen faster by putting it in a paper bag with an apple; apple are ethylene producers and bananas are ethylene sensitive.
-https://www.lancasterfarming.com/country-life/food-and-recipes/keep-fruit-fresher-longer-the-role-of-ethylene-in-storing-
-produce/article_a94185ec-5d38-56c8-9c29-647ef36f731b.html#:~:text=There%20are%20no%20hard%20and,summer%20squash%2C%20and%20sweet%20potatoes.
-https://ucsdcommunityhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ethylene.pdf

I also posted some stuff in the poor thread:

Misc. kitchen tips

Does anyone have advice for dusting? I have a lot of things that get dusty but hate doing it, especially with small, delicate things.

 

[TrainWreckSpotter]

Hairspray for ink stains before washing. Peroxide to blood for the same. Those are two weirdly magic things to me.

Peroxide is great for both blood and wine stains. They come out instantly. My go-tos for cleaning are hydrogen peroxide, Fels-Naptha soap, baking soda, and white vinegar (which is also great as a fabric softener because it rinses out soap residue). And they're all cheap.

 

[glass_houses]

Recently, my mother told me that when I was a kid she used to use the third section of the laundry hamper for clothes she wanted to get rid of (the rest of the household would otherwise wear our clothes even if they were stained, full of holes, or otherwise looked terrible). She would keep this unwearable clothing there so when we asked about a specific thing, it was “in the laundry”, then threw it out once we stopped asking. Part of me feels betrayed but it’s a genius tactic and I never noticed.

If my father walks past my mother in a worn out tshirt that she told him too many times to throw out, she'll reach out, hook her fingers into the holes, and tear it off his body. He used to get pissed off but now he's used to it.

Don't feel sorry for him. He frequently threatened to take a pair of scissors to my clothes growing up, because 'comfortable' to me is 'derelict' to him.

chlorhexidine

Stinks like a bitch, would not recommended it. The only time you need to use disinfectant in a normal family home is when a resident has a communicable disease or a compromised immune system. Using disinfectant when it's not necessary will breed superbugs and/or deprogram your immune system to bugs outside the house. If you keep a clean house and don't have 150 cats, you will not need disinfectant except in specific circumstances.

Does anyone have advice for dusting? I have a lot of things that get dusty but hate doing it, especially with small, delicate things.

Feather dusters, or electrostatic dusting wands. However, with the tiny decorative pieces, the most effective way to protect them is a display case of some kind.

 

[TrainWreckSpotter]

Does anyone know why toaster oven interiors and pans are made of aluminum? Aluminum is a bitch to clean. Why can't they make the interiors out of the same stuff that they make regular ovens out of? I have done exhaustive research on this and have come up with nothing.

My toaster oven works fine and I don't want to pitch it, but the fact that I can't get all of the baked-on stuff out drives me crazy. And cleaning with an abrasive scratches the hell out of it.

 

[Aunt Carol]

My toaster oven works fine and I don't want to pitch it, but the fact that I can't get all of the baked-on stuff out drives me crazy. And cleaning with an abrasive scratches the hell out of it.

I don't have any good intel on cleaning beyond cussing and scrubbing--which it sounds like you're doing already.

You can cut down an oven liner for the bottom, though; that helps with the drip aspect. Sometimes I've seen oven liners pre-cut to toaster oven size.

 

[Aiōn]

My toaster oven works fine and I don't want to pitch it, but the fact that I can't get all of the baked-on stuff out drives me crazy. And cleaning with an abrasive scratches the hell out of it.

I see a lot of people suggesting making a paste of baking soda and water and leaving overnight. I've never owned a toaster oven but to stop foods sticking, would a thin coat of cooking spray like Pam work? I use that on my waffle iron which is no longer nonstick.

 

[Surfherder]

My toaster oven works fine and I don't want to pitch it, but the fact that I can't get all of the baked-on stuff out drives me crazy. And cleaning with an abrasive scratches the hell out of it.

The Pink Stuff (paste) or Bar Keeper’s Friend (the powdered cleanser, not the soft cleanser) are both great for this. Cleaning will still require some elbow grease, though, and also some gloves for the Bar Keeper’s.