Practical Home Tips – Easy Solutions (3)

We’re back with the third chapter in the practical home tips series to inspire you in the clean-up efforts over the weekend with new simple solutions coming to your help when you think the answer lies only on the shop shelves. Below are new tips which will make all the cleaning operation easier and, above all, more enjoyable.

We’ve already seen baby oil is the best answer to some really unpleasant situations. This time, baby oil also polishes chrome in the bathroom or kitchen. Apply a dab of it to a cotton cloth and use it to shine everything from faucets to hubcaps. You’ll end up with shiny, happy surfaces from a medicine-cabinet staple.

If you partied over the night and ended up with some lipstick stains on your shirt, don’t worry, the solution is again within reach. If the fabric is machine washable, then apply hair spray over the spot, let it sit for 10 minutes, then clean with a damp cloth or sponge to remove. Launder as usual to wash out any residual stain and spray before someone else finds out about your overnight itinerary.

We all use aluminum foils when cooking at home and then throw it away after each use. Well, you should know you’re just throwing away something which can be of a real use at home. For instance, to get baked-on food off a glass pan or an oven rack, use dishwashing liquid and a ball of foil in place of a steel-wool soap pad and the scrubbed pan will look sparkling clean with just a little effort.

Those of you who have silverware at home and want to give it the one time polish, put the washed items on an aluminum foil on the bottom of a pot. Add a baking-soda solution (1/4 cup soda, a few teaspoons salt, 1 liter boiling water) and cover for a few seconds. The chemical reaction will remove the black layer off the silverware.

If you like Chinese food or sushi and know how to handle those chopsticks, then use them to pluck the lint buildup from a clothes dryer’s trap.