Useful Household Tips

If you’re anything like me, you can appreciate a few helpful tips on keeping things running smoothly at home.  Here are some tried and true hints that really work!

With all of the rain we’ve had lately, (Thank you Mother Nature, I’m not complaining!) you may have an issue with mosquitoes around your home.  There’s nothing worse than planning an outdoor party to have it ruined by biting bugs.  Use antiseptic mouthwash in a garden sprayer to treat your lawn, and landscaping.  It’s a relatively inexpensive and environmentally safe way to rid the area of mosquitoes.  You can also spray around window frames and doors to keep them from entering your home.  We used it around kids swing sets and tables for serving food and no one was left with the sticky, oily film from other name brand bug sprays. 

Before you tackle a wallpaper removing project, first spray the old wallpaper with a mixture of fabric softener and water, 1 to 5 ratio, let stand, and begin peeling.  It makes the removal process much easier and less time-consuming so you can get on to other things, like a fresh coat of texture and paint!  Paper only, this will not work on vinyl.

And speaking of a fresh coat of paint… cutting in around the ceiling is one of the tasks most people loath when it comes to painting a room.  Next time you’re faced with the challenge of getting the brush right in that crease, try using a 2 inch artists brush, load it up with paint on one side, and start your straight line about 1/4 of an inch down on the wall.  Push that bead of paint in long, smooth strokes, rather than short, choppy dabs.  You’ll find that the line is much straighter and there is no bleeding onto the ceiling.  This is especially helpful if the ceiling is covered in the old “popcorn” acoustic texture.  No one will notice that the paint stops a quarter of an inch from the ceiling. 

When we moved into our home, a foreclosure, the burners on our gas stove top were coated with baked on grease.  I tried hand washing them, dishwashing them on the “pot-scrubber” mode, soaking them for days, etc.  Finally, my husband sat them on the racks in our self-cleaning oven and turned it on to clean.  A couple of hours later, voila!  Spotless burners that I’m no longer ashamed to cook my family’s meals on.

Our third child is 2 years old an keeps me on my toes with regard to cleaning up little messes.  During the recent “Sharpie Incident” where he was unsupervised for about 20 minutes, I learned that a product called Goof Off by Valspar will remove permanent marker from just about any surface, including carpet.  It doesn’t damage most furniture or cabinets if you work with it in a quick manner.  As always, follow instructions carefully.  Oh, and never leave child unattended.

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