Oh, not nasty, juicy or headline grabbing secrets!!! Household secrets. Do you have simple ways of doing something that you don’t think other people do?
Here are some tips from Eloise. She always has good idea’s but I want some of yours.
Let’s see how many good tips we can get.
I use clothespins for keeping bags closed. Anything from chip bags or noodles, cookies or anything else you need to keep closed that just don’t fold over. I’ve also used clothes pins for keeping my place in a book while I’m eating and clipping socks together in the washing machine. I LOVE CLOTHESPINS.
If I break a glass or mirror or something like that, I use a piece of bread and “pat” at the glass with it and the shards go into the bread. It works with anything that breaks like that. Ceramic or a pot from a plant. I’ve used it for many things that don’t “sweep” up. Even coffee grounds that I’ve spilled.
If I get one of those teeny tiny slivers that are blonde and I can’t see it, I use a piece of duct or packaging tape. It works great. Put it where it feels like the sliver is and let her rip!
If there is a stubborn fly that I’ve chased and chased and just can’t get, I get the hairspray and give em a squirt. They can’t fly and I can pick up and throw outside.
Let’s see what some of you can come up with.
I’ll-be-back
Us Girls..Our Views 
Hmm, I’m not sure which ones I’ve come up with on my own. I have a lot of ideas I’ve gotten from, e.g., Heloise during my teens, or my dad, and most people don’t have a clue. But my own ideas?
Let’s see. In the bathroom, I have baskets under the sink to hold categories of stuff. My vitamins/supplements are in one basket. All the stuff I use right after a bath is in another basket. This way I avoid clutter but also have everything I need where I need it in a split second.
I’ll come back if I think of any other stuff.
The ones that pop to mind right now are ones that I used when Josh was a baby, but everyone has a baby in their life at some point, right? So here are some of them:
You know those little clips that they have for pacifiers? There’s a clamp on one end and a velcro loop on the other. I used one of those for his hat in the summer. I’d always have a baseball cap on him, so I looped the velcro through the sizer-thing on the back of the hat (where there’s always a hole), and clipped the other end to his coat collar. That way, when he flipped it off as he was prone to do, the hat stayed attached.
Those “phone-cord” keychains? The ones with the keyring on one end and the snap-hook on the other? Loop the chain through the keyring, around the stroller/backpack bar/strap, and clip the snap-hook on a toy or bottle that the baby is using. When they pitch said object out of the stroller/backpack, it can’t get away.
Puff-paint to write braille on various appliances………
OH!! I have one of these. I keep it in the laundry room for when matchbox or other flotsam ends up under the washer/dryer. It’s also close to the kitchen for fridge/stove retrieval.
Laura talking about the pacifier things reminded me that I use shower curtain rings for lowering plants that I have hanging in the windows. When Christopher was a baby I used them for one of his toys and I needed to lower a plant that I had in a hanger. I used the clear and it looked really nice. They’re also good for hanging things on other stuff too like the thermometer for the pool.
I cannot think of anything. I will use your secrets though 🙂 Thanks!! Someone have a good tip on cleaning the windows? I’m so bad at it. When I do it with water and sponge, it does not look right, and when I do it with the windex cleaner, it leaves a blue coating on it. So, please help me in this, my American friends 🙂
Another use for a slice of bread is to put one in with your brown sugar. It helps keep the brown sugar from hardening.
Great tips, Joy!
When I need to put lotion on my back in those places I can’t reach, I take a long handled wooden spoon and put the lotion on the back-side of it and rub the lotion on my back with that. I’ve also used that for suntan lotion and for washing my back.
AAK!!! Wooden spoons!!!
I don’t have any great ones 😦 To whiten whites I use the oxi clean stuff in the load of laundry. Since we have our own well, over time your whites get a little dim and that brightens them right back up. I use the water, rubbing alcohol, Dawn soap combo on my windows and that works great! I use empty pop cans in the bottom of my big outdoor planters in the summer to take up space so you don’t have to use as much soil and the container isn’t as heavy. (I think I got that from Joy!)
I got that pop can idea from Heidi. It’s a great one. I’d forgotten.
I’d never heard of the pop can thing! Brilliant!
I don’t have any secrets. 😦 I do use Dawn for Baileys baseball pants. I got that idea from Joy….seems like her daughter in laws have learned a lot from her. 😉
I’ll think about this more, I’m sure I have some secret tricks!
I use old cotton diapers, cut into strips, and duct tape to seal up the seams in my sliding doors over the winter. It keeps the drafts out, since I can’t get the plastic covers to work on them. I dress it up by using different colored duct tape… this year it’s the Hot Wheels look: black with yellow and orange flames. (old dishtowels would probably work, too. Any semi-bulky fabric that you can stuff into the cracks/openings around the slides to block the wind)
OH! Another one… I use a knee-high nylon stocking over my dryer vent to catch extra lint so it doesn’t fly all over my garage.
Well since Joy covered the clothes pins and hairspray for flys, I really don’t have anything to add I use the hairspray trick for spiders as well. I hate when they start to crawl right when I’m ready to nab them. (Actually, I just hate spiders!)
You folks are truly amazing! I will remember the bread tricks, and getting slivers out with duct tape, which is really one of my favorite items, but already use (and have passed along) alot of the others. 🙂