You know what else works for poison oak/ivy? Toothpaste!
What, pray tell, are sock clips?
Correction: Caffeine is indeed a vasoconstrictor.
You can also use it to fix scratched/dirty CD’s
Toothpaste? Is there anything you can’t do?!
Aqua Net hairspray will remove ink stains off of furniture.
Pledge Pet Hair lifters do a great job of taking pet hair off furniture, electricity free. However, they cost about $5 each, and fill with pet hair quickly, after which they become almost unusable. Instead of throwing it away, take a knife, cut open the plastic on the top in both directions to create 4 corners, (a “+”), stick your fingers in the “plus sign”, pull the pet hair out, and cover the slits with scotch tape, voila, you can reuse the pet lifter over and over and over again.
Itchy scalp: Nizerol is also great for treating athletes foot.
Dehydrated on a hot, humid day? Eat a dill pickle.
Instead of overpaying for expensive eyeglass cleaner, cheap rubbing alcohol and a tissue should do the trick (dont use on special coated lenses)
Use a leaf blower to clean out your garage and your gutters.
Works with any alcohol-based hairspray.
Perfect 10 Hair Coloring- purports to dye hair in only 10 minutes - it works very well indeed, in only 10 minutes as promised.
OMG, I did exactly this, just today! I didn’t know if it would work, but it works fine. I like L’Oreal active daily moisturizer - in fact, the whole family uses it, but it doesn’t come in a pump and I don’t like the idea of fingers stuck into the wide opening of the bottle.
My helpful hint is Christmas-related. I save cereal boxes, cracker boxes, that kind of thing and save them to use for boxing up Christmas presents. If you don’t want to give someone a pair of gloves in a Cheezits box, they can be cunningly taken apart, refolded so the blank side is outside, and glued or taped shut. Because I’m always running short of just a couple more small boxes.
Please consult a veterinarian before home treating sick/injured pets. I’ve seen far to many cases of people thinking they know what they are doing leading to much, much bigger problems for their pet.
I have not advocated home treating pets.
So, for brevity, you skipped over the part where you took Cosmo for evaluation at the vet for that deep puncture wound between her shoulder blades? That putting a pantyhose t-shirt on Cosmo happened after the wound was professionally evaluated, clipped, cleaned, and the pet started on prescription antibiotics?
Side question: How did tiny Cosmo get a puncture wound between her shoulder blades?
Spring onions actually work really well on bee stings, I’ve found.
Yes, except she wasn’t put on antibiotics and they gave her an Elizabethan collar that caused her to freak out and get stuck behind the sofa. I’m sure everyone finds this all extremely important to the topic of the thread.
We were unable to ascertain. It was an odd injury. Would you like my vet’s phone number?
Heavens forbid we should get slightly off topic in a Straight Dope thread.
I am glad your pet was evaluated.
I am worried about people who are less cautionary with their pets attempting home remedies based on reasonable advice that left out a key detail. By all means, let’s get into a huff fight on the internet.
I recommend epsom salts for hair and skin treatment. The stuff is super cheap and they sell at any pharmacy and many supermarkets in bags. It is magnesium sulfate and can fix most common skin and hair conditions quickly. You just slather it on in the shower, soak in it in a bath solution, or make a facial mask and let it dry and then wash it off. It turns your skin oddly smooth and silky instantly and will fix dry scalp and add volume if you use it in your hair before shampooing. It is also a mild muscle relaxer so you can feel completely relaxed. You can also use it to treat sprains and sore muscles. It is a near miracle cheap product.
Arnica gel for sprains/bruises. The trick is buying a big tube for sufficient slathering. When I was first exposed to the hippy homeopathic remedy, my friend had an itty bitty tube of it which was supposed to help speed the healing of a nasty bruise. The amount I tried that first time was tiny. Now I use about as much as she had in that tube every time I use it. It works great on ankles, knees, and asses (my better half fell off a chair hanging a picture and walloped her right glute).
To relieve the pain of a bee sting, Break up a cigarette, shake the tobacco into a cup of water and dab the mixture onto the sting. I stepped on a bee at a family picnic when I was a kid and my mom whipped together this little wonder. Worked like a charm, once I realized she wasn’t expecting me to drink it.
When you go to buy bananas, pears, tomatoes, or other soft fruits, take a piece of bubble wrap with you, wrap the fruits in this, put in the thin produce baggies provided by the store, and you will get them home unbruised. The hard part is remembering to take along the bubble wrap. (I recycle the produce bags and regular plastic store bags, save them up and stuff in the recycle bin set up at the entrance to the store. Though I’m trying to remember to bring my woven reusable grocery bags with me when I go shopping.)
Another thing about warts…
When I was a kid I had a small one on a toe, which vanished after a day of swimming at a chlorinated community pool. I have no idea if it worked that well for me because it was a novelty for me to be in a chlorine pool (we lived out in the sticks and I usually swam in the river), but there are lots of articles advocating home treatment with chlorine bleach. The best part was that it was not a ‘treatment’, (I’d already tried and failed with Compound W) it was just a couple of hours playing Marco Polo with my friends.
Stinky Sandals, Shoes, Sneakers:
Go to a feed and seed store and buy a can of roach prufe, aka boric acid ($6.99 here in GA.).
Put shoes into a tall kitchen trash bag along with the open can (don’ t pour the boric acid out - it isn’t necessary), tie the bag up and very carefully set the whole thing in an out of the way place for 4-5 days.
Smell will be gone and you won’t have to throw away your shoes.
It sounds wonky as hell, but it does work.
I was 11 with a wort on my middle finger and decided to give this a go (heard about it on some news show). Within days the wort was gone.
I also had a wart on my knee for years and would tear it off each summer after hours of swimming. But, it always came back. So, I willed that little bastard away, too, just like the one on my finger. Within days, gone!
It seems impossible, but really has worked. No idea why.