Notabilia

Miscellaneous

Nifty Knacks

576 through 600

Back to where you came from. The same text in Greek.

  1. Find your keys easily.
    Attach a piece of elastic to the strap of your handbag, thread it through to the inside of the bag and hang your keys from the end of it. Never again will you search frantically through your bag to find your keys!

  2. Stop ladders in your tights.
    Instead of stopping ladders in your tights with nail polish, spray them with a little hairspray. It is just as effective but not as noticeable!

  3. Clean rush seats.
    The rush seats on your chairs will look clean and new again if you brush them with salted water. It works just as well on baskets.

  4. Clean cupboards.
    Line the inside and cover the underside of cupboards that are over a cooker with aluminium foil. The sticky grease that cooking sends up will stick to the foil, which can easily be replaced every so often.

  5. Blow crumbs out of the bed.
    Use a hairdrier to blow crumbs out of your bed.

  6. Stop potatoes discolouring.
    When you peel potatoes long before you cook them, put them in water with milk added to it to stop them discolouring.

  7. Relief for tired eyes.
    Give your eyes a rest when you are using a computer or reading for a long time. Every twenty minutes or so, stop working or reading and turn your gaze to a distant object for a minute.

  8. Remove cakes from cake tins easily.
    It is easy to remove cakes from cake tins if you have first rubbed the inside of the cake tin with kitchen paper dipped in cooking oil and then sprinkled it with rusk crumbs. Ideally, you should make your own crumbs by grating rusks in the mixer.

  9. Soft, smooth hands.
    Keep your hands soft and smooth by rubbing them with good cream just before putting on rubber gloves to do the washing up. The warmth of the water will help the skin to absorb the cream.

  10. Remove adhesive labels from the soles of shoes.
    If you are having difficulty removing adhesive labels from the soles of your shoes, try a drop of nail polish remover.

  11. Brighten up old jeans and fade new ones.
    Brighten up old jeans by washing them with new ones. Some dye will wash out of the new ones and brighten up the old ones.

  12. Know what is in your freezer boxes.
    Use coloured elastic bands or sticky labels to colour code the containers you use in the freezer. Green for vegetables, blue for fish, red for meat and so on.

  13. Clean blades on the fan.
    Fan blades will stay clean if you rub a little furniture wax into them. It will stop dust sticking to them.

  14. Get rid of the smell of fried fish.
    Rid your home of the smell of fried fish by cutting a lemon in half and putting it in the oven. Turn the oven on at a low setting and leave the door open.

  15. Stop sausages splitting.
    Stop sausages splitting on the barbecue by rolling them in flour first. Not only does this keep the sausage skin intact, it also makes it crispy.

  16. A clean fridge.
    Next time you give your fridge a good clean, try rubbing the walls with a cloth dipped in glycerine. The thin film it leaves behind will stop things sticking to the inside and leaving marks, even those things that stick easily.

  17. Fresh salads.
    Salads stay fresh and crispy longer if they are put in cold serving dishes. Leave the empty serving dishes in the fridge for an hour or two, take them out and fill with salad about five minutes before serving.

  18. Get rid of smoke from a room.
    Get rid of smoke from a room by soaking a towel in equal parts of water and vinegar. Wring it out and whirl it round above your head while you move around the room.

  19. No more blisters from new shoes.
    Protect your feet from blisters when wearing new shoes without stockings. Paint egg white onto the parts of your feet which are at risk. It forms a protective layer.

  20. Protect fingers and thumbs from hammers.
    So that you don't hit your fingers and thumbs when using a hammer, use an old comb. Hold the comb with the teeth over the place where the nail must go and put the nail in place through the teeth. The teeth will hold it and you will be able to hammer it in correctly.

  21. So the fridge door opens more easily.
    If the door of your fridge or freezer is hard to open, put a little washing up liquid on the rubber seal.

  22. Stop honey sticking to a spoon.
    Dip a spoon in hot water before using it for honey. Then the honey will not stick to the spoon.

  23. Clear ice cubes.
    If you want your ice cubes to be clear, not cloudy, make them with water that has been boiled and then allowed to cool.

  24. Straighten up candles.
    To straighten up candles that have gone out of shape, soak them in hot water for a few hours and then carefully mould them back into shape. Then put them into cold water to set.

  25. Have your plants got enough water?
    You can check whether a plant needs watering by pushing a pencil into the soil to a depth of about 5 centimetres. If the point of the pencil is dry when you pull it out, water the plant.