I will “third” using vinegar and baking soda to tackle most cleaning jobs (I’m a little frightened of ammonia so steer clear of that one). Another side benefit of using these is they definitely more environment-friendly.
I have been using vinegar in the washing machine rinse cycle instead of fabric softener…towels and sheets are fluffy and sweet smelling and less crud build up in the washing machine. I use baking soda for pretty much all tough stains on pots and pans, on counters, in the bathroom. It’s great!!
My tip: If you use bath gels or liquid soaps in the shower, I have found that buying inexpensive shampoos are less than half the price and come in a wide array of scents. Suave and White Rain are 2 brands I buy, I have a big pump bottle in the shower and fill it up with the shampoos when it’s running low. The moisturizing shampoos are great as they leave your skin feeling really soft…it’s silly to me to pay $3.00 or more for a bottle of shower gel when I can get the shampoos for under a dollar.
Yup, sunshine is good for killing musty odors in stuff. There’s a reason the old folks used to take their carpets out and beat them in the sunshine and let them hang for a while. My next yard is going to have a clothesline, so all my clothes can hang outside.
I’ve also found that putting newspaper in plasticware and fridges freshens them up, too.
Thought of another one - throw your crust of bread into your brown sugar to keep it moist. The bread dries out but doesn’t mold, and the sugar stays soft.
I buy quart size jars of mustard to refill my squeeze bottles. Once the jars are empty, I save the plastic lid because they fit regular mouth canning jars pefectly. I use them to replace the regular metal canning jar lids when I open homemade pickles and jellies. The plastic lids are easier to open and don’t corrode from the vinegar in the pickles. I also use pint and quart size canning jars with these plastic lids to store pasta, rice, etc. in my cabinets.
When you spill red wine or the kids spill Kool-Aid (or vice versa) on your carpet, immediately grab your big box of salt and pour it liberally on the liquid. Allow it to dry, and then vacuum it up. Voila! No red/green/blue/purple/pink stains on your carpet.
When a recipe calls for one tbs of tomato paste? Freeze the leftovers in a freezer baggie. Label it! I freeze leftover chipotle in adobo sauce, tomato sauce, canned tomatoes… When I need more, I just hack off a hunk.
Freeze nuts so they don’t spoil. You can freeze fresh ginger, too.
I wrap cut pieces of bell peppers in a paper towel and store in a baggie. (I mean like 1/2 a bell pepper, not chopped.) It stops it from getting slimy so fast. I also will wrap a bunch of parsley in paper towels. Keeps it very fresh! Green onions, too.
This paste works even better if you add a squirt of dishwashing liquid. I’m moving and had to clean off the top of my stove that had baked on crud–made that paste, left it on for an hour, came back with warm water and a plastic scrubby and viola! All clean. (Ok, there were a few spots I had to tackle with a small wire brush from Home Depot, but only a few tiny spots. That’s my other tip–invest in a tiny wire brush. They’re great for getting hard to reach spots on tough material that can take a little scrubbing.)
I love cleaning out my kitchen drain like this: pour baking soda down the drain. pour vinegar down the drain. watch the fizzies. pour a kettle of boiling water down the drain. rinse any extra baking soda off with hot water from the faucet. squirt some lemon juice into the sink. rinse with hot water from the faucet. Then the drain is clear and smells nice. (It works especially well when you’ve left dishes sitting in the sink for a few days, have just cleaned up your shameful mess, and need to get rid of the telltale odor.)
Bachelor tip for condo/home-owners: If you have encrusted grime on a hard surface, rather than scrub for hours, you can just pour Drano Gel on it, let it set for ~10 minutes, then wipe clean (with gloves). Of course you should test out a patch beforehand to see if it will harm the surface. (I have yet to get up the courage to test on my rented apartment but it works in my owned condo.)
Why yes, I only clean my condo once a year. The only problem with this is the stuff I just poured the gel on is so much visibly cleaner than the rest of the surface after just a pour and wipe!
I moved into an apartment that had the filthiest blinds I’d ever seen. They were hanging in the bathroom which had a large eight foot tall window. Dust and moisture had created the fuzzy gross film on each blind that seemed to only rub off with a thumbnail. Since I had no interest in doing each slat like that, I tried something desperate.
I removed the blinds from the window and hung them up in the shower stall.
I then got a can off horribly toxic and non-eco-friendly Easy-Off Oven Cleaner and sprayed the blinds all over.
Fifteen minutes later I rinsed them in the shower and had brand new looking blinds.
They sound scammy, but those Debbie Meyer’s Green Bags that you can buy at Walgreens really do extend the life of your fruits and vegetables admirably. They’re made with some sort of clay, which absorbs the “ripening” (ethylene) gas given off by produce. I’d try those, maybe with a nice absorbent Viva style paper towel thrown in for extra moisture absorption.
GOING GREEN After a month, berries stored in a Green Bag like the one at right were moldy (see above). Those stored in a Ziploc bag were simply soft.
The claim. Debbie Meyer Green Bags “prolong the life of your fruits and vegetables” by absorbing and removing the ethylene gas they release, which accelerates rotting. They’re sold at www.greenbags.com; 20 bags cost $10 plus $6.95 shipping.
The check. We put bananas, peaches, apples, melons, blackberries, strawberries, basil, asparagus, tomatoes, broccoli, grapes, lettuce, and carrots in Green Bags for up to five weeks. We stored the same foods for the same length of time in Ziploc bags, on a counter, in a refrigerator, or in plastic supermarket bags.
CR’s take. We saw green inside the Green Bags, but often it was mold. Blackberries became moldy after three weeks, strawberries and basil after a month, and peppers and tomatoes after five weeks. It was a tough test, but the same foods stored in other ways nearly always had less mold or none after the same time. Only bananas fared significantly better in Green Bags: After two weeks, they were firm and had not turned black.
Hmmm. I’m sure some research will turn up a Scandinavian equivalent. On the other hand, you guys have some amazing solutions for stuff we normally just grit our teeth and endure.
Rice grains are good for that, too, both in sugar and in salt. For the salt shaker you can just use loose grains; for a container without a “holey” lid, I wrap a few grains in a scrap of cloth and tie it up with a rubber band.
:smack: And one of those things you have to grit your teeth and endure is Dopers assuming you’re American! Sorry.
The clay in question is a form of zeolite , which I think you can also get at pet stores in chunk form (it’s used in aquarium filters). Maybe a few chunks of zeolite in your fridge would help, if it’s an all-over moisture problem.
