A Housewife's Diary

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 181, 18 August 1937, Page 14

A Housewife's Diary

Hints About The Home White Shoes. Whiten canvas shoes with an old tooth brush instead of a cloth. The whiting is applied more evenly and in less time. Hanging Basket. Insert a small funnel leaving the cup part above the soil and fill daily with water. Lavender Curtains. Tiny bags of lavender sewn Into the hems of curtains will perfume the room when the breeze blows. Spare Bedroom. Keep the bed in the spare room. asred by placing the iron in it when the ironing is finished. An electtic iron is specially good for this purposa. Coat Loops. Make loops of strong elastic for chfidren's coats instead of using tape. Cans. •Mend a hole In your oil- can by dropping some sealing wax over It. Tilea. A cloth dipped ln methylated sptrft will clean and polish glazed tiles. Torn Frock. Place the torn edges together and press .on a strip of aidhesive paper that is Just a little longer than the tear. Press with a warm iron over a piece of cloth, Bucklea. When put away in a drawer pot a piece of camphor with them to prevent tamishing. Lighting Fires. T f ' When lighting a ftre whldi refuam te draw, or which is ln a damp grate, place a piece of lighted newspaper on top of the coal at the same time and ihe fize will bum up amazingly quickly. ' Scented Polish, . * ■ Sweet lavender and Scotch phte k* rtead of the usual odour of furniturc polish that armounces the fact that s room has just been spring-cleaned I You may give your furniture this dean, sweet fragrance by using a special polishing cream that combines these two scents in its coiiiposition. New Type of Armchair^ / Armchairs with upholstered ama fcat unfold to form sturdy tables and when closed include roomy compartments for the storing of books, needlework, or writing are assets in a small room. Socne of the chairs have the interiors of their arms fitted with playing cards, ash-tray^ pencils, markers and all the othar etceteras required for a card party, PatenJ Hammock. T \ Here is something to wH flne hours in the garden still mora pleeiant. A hammock slung on a steel frame, oomplete with overhead canopy to aheltar you from the sun. As the frame can be taken down and packed into quite a small compass, the hammock is an easily ! portable luxury for outdoor zest and t comfort. ! Useful Permanganat®. A few pence spent on permanganeta ef ' potash will be money well spent by the ' housewife who knows how to use it. As a disinfectant, a permanganate solution— in the proportion of a deswrtspoonful to an ordinary wine bottla oi water— will prove as efficacious as any of the more expensive things for keeping the kitchen sink and pail in good order. A few drops in the dust-bin after it has been emptied will do wonders in preventing disagreeable odours, and in keeping away flies. When a light floor Is to be stalned a darker shade, a permanganate solutlon is the thing to use. Begin with a weak solution, brush it evenly over the boards, and wait for It to dry in order to ascertain whether or not it is suificiently deep. It is better to apply two or three coats rather than attempt to obtain the desired effect in one. Polished afterwards with beeswax and turpentine, a floor treated in this way will take ou. the colour and surface of old oak. Faded curtains and covers of cretonna, linen, casement cloth or twill may be renovated by dyeing with a warm permanganate solution, previoysly strained through mxislin. The colour will be ' rather purple at firsfc, but dipping in a glucose solution will deepen it to brown. The proportions are, roughly, a tablespoonful of permanganate to a gallon of water, and four ounces of glucose to the same quantity. In each case the water should be boiling.