Household Hints.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 3 April 1914, Page 8

Household Hints.

A teaspoonful of borax to a quart .cf water will make hard water soft, \bo tliat it can be used for washing the most delicate skin. 'To prevent custard-dishes or glasses from cracking whon pouring boiled custard into them, place the dish -,on a damp cloth. This plan lis most effective. Soap that is allowed to dry and harden lasts twice as long as if used when fresh. Therefore it is cheaper to buy. it in quantity and keep it in a dry place. When cane-bottomed seats sag, sponge both sides of the cane with hot soapsuds in which a handful of salt has been dissolved, then sta.nd the chair in the open air. Treated like this, the seats will become as firm as when new, shrinking into place. | A gas range may be kept black by wringing out a sponge (kept solely for the purpose) in w"arm water and rubbing well with' soap, washing the stove while it is warm. If this is done just after the cooking is over the stove may lje kept black and free from grease spots. When washing pudding - cloths throw some orange peelings into the water. This collects the grease and helps to make the cloths white and clean-looking. The best method of keeping small screws, brads, atid tacks, from rmsting is to place them in small, widemouthed bottles, tightly corked. The bottle should be perfectly dry j before using. Sandpaper can be kept dry and in good working condition by rolling it and keeping it in a wide-mouthed jar and screwing down the lid. To brighten a carpet, take five or six large potatoes and scrape them finely into a pale of water. Stir, then strain. Wring out a cloth in the water and rub the carpet. , Rinse the cloth as soon as. soiled, i Should soot fall on a carpet, j sprinkle dry salt thickly over it, ] leave it for a few minutes, then j brush up. No trace of the soot - will remain. If tiny corks are tacked on the back of the lower corners of pictureframes, they will prevent the line of black dust forming on the wallpaper which so often prevents rehanging pictures. When baking cakes, particularly where a gas-stove is used, the tin which contains the cake should be put inside another tin which has a layer of sand. This will prevent it from burning. : When a carpet is soiled with black- '' lead, take a little fuller's earth, put it into a saucer, pour on to it a little cold water and a few drops of liquid ammonia. Mix the whole into a soft paste, rub it on the ' carpet, and let it thoroughly dry ; then brush it off with a stiff brush. The blacklead wttl then all be removed.