Goofy Tid Bits

I did a bunch of goofy random things, or I should say I had to fix a bunch of random things, so here I am dumping it all on you.  The first of many was eating chocolate chips on the couch, and then someone sat on one or two and it congealed to their pants. Awesome! Of course chocolate on the butt looks like a big poo stain, so we needed to fix that.

>Chocolate on Clothing:  First, scrape off any excessive chocolate that was left on the clothing. Then rub an ice cube on the chocolate for a few minutes, freeze that baby, then scrap off any other other frozen chocolate that you can. Apply carpet stain remover and rub it into the stain. Rinse it off under water or throw it into the washing machine and it should come right out.  

That picture is similar to what I looked like eating my chocolate chips but significantly less cute. 

>Freezing for easy removal:  I like to burn candles but they are always in a candle holder, so when the candle gets all melty you have a waxy mess on your hands. For easy removal of the wax, stick it in the freezer for an hour or two, and it will chip right off when you take it back out.  This can also be used for any liquid substance that gets stuck on something and could pry off when it gets cold and hard. I am blanking on another instance it could happen with, but I know they are out there.

>Removing wax from carpet:  Heat up an iron, put paper towel on top of the wax, put the iron directly on top of stain/paper towel, and eventually the paper towel will "soak" up the candle wax.  As a heads up, you may need multiple paper towels. It takes a little while, but worth not having that nasty stain. 

>Mildew in clothes: The smell of mildew is not appealing to my nose, in fact, I strongly dislike it.  At times I have gotten attacked by the mildew gods and I found a pretty good way to fix it.  This relates mainly to clothes and towels.....wash your load with vinegar first, then follow with your normal detergent.  My washer has a short cycle that I use to rinse it with the vinegar, then I wash with detergent for a full cycle following. Dry as you normally would.  A side cause of mildew could also be the water residue that is left in the washing machine.  If dirty water keeps washing your already dirty clothes, they are never going to get fully clean. Wipe the inside of the washing machine with a water and vinegar mix or run the 'clean cycle" with vinegar if offered on your washing machines.  I know a lot of the front loaders have this option, and water does get trapped in the rubber that lines the door, so make sure you get in there and soak it up. The same goes for the residue that is left on the actual door. 

Did you spill something in the microwave?  To easily remove a spill from the micro, wet a paper towel, put it on top of the spill. Nuke it for 30 seconds, and the spill will get absorbed in the paper towel for an inpecable clean up! Yes! No one really likes cleaning out the microwave.  A piece of advice: Clean the mess right away so you don't have hard dried food on your hands, which is never any fun. 

If you didn't have time to clean it right away, microwave a cup of water and it will steam the food making it soft for a then easy clean up. Adding vinegar or lemon juice will take out any nasty smell that might have been left behind. Neat. 

Until Next Time....

Critters Snacking, Flatulence, And Tons of Useful Ideas!

Critters! I was having a problem with little critters eating my plants/peppers/tomatoes on the side of the house. I had read that you could sprinkle cayenne pepper on the leaves and plants and it would deter those guys from having a little snack. I did not have cayenne pepper around the spice cabinet, so I found a great alternative that also worked quite well.  Crushed Red Pepper. I sprinkled that all over the plants, leaves, pots, and it proved successful over the past couple weeks. A positive side note- if you use crushed red pepper it rinses off easily, and does not effect the taste of the leaves or veggies or fruits.

Flatulence! I had grown up using matches as a smell eliminator and I thought this was something that was common knowledge. Talking to some people, they didn't know that this could be something that rids the stank in the bathroom, so here I am telling you that matches are a fantastic solution.  The sulfur dioxide that is emitted when the match is struck is a very pungent smell, which does a great job of covering up the other really pungent smell.  Not too be fooled though, it doesn't RID the smell, it just masks it or fools our brains to think that it is riding it. Apparently there was a 2006 Mythbusters episode on this phenomenon and they concluded that the smell of the match being lit and then burnt really just masks our perception of the odors rather then the match neutralizing the gases.   Proof!

Tons of Ideas!