HOUSEHOLD HINTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 343, 2 May 1928, Page 6

HOUSEHOLD HINTS

Fruit stains can be removed quickly by applying powdered starch, which will absorb the colouring matte.r of the fruit. Afterwards wash the article as usual. Hot water marks on polished furniture can be removed if a little camphorated oil is dropped on them, allowed to soak in and then rubbed briskly with a soft cloth. To save your stockings from the dye inside your shoes, cut out clean blotting paper insoles and tit inside the shoes. If changed frequently these will lengthen the life of stockings. Windows and mirrors smeared with thin, cold starch and allowed to dry thoroughly will polish splendidly with a soft cloth. Furniture known to the trade as “dull polished” should be wiped with vinegar and water and then polished with a soft duster. Bright polish mixtures should never be used on this class of furniture. A good substitute for cream can be made by stirring a dessertspoonful of plain flour into a pint of new milk, taking car© to mix smoothly, then simmer a few minutes to take off the raw taste of the flour, then beat well the yolk of an egg and stir gently into the mixture. The brown marks on plates due to overheating can bo removed with a cork i*nd some salt. Sprinkle the salt over the part to be treated and then rub it briskly with the cork. A little moisture will help, but the salt must not be made too moist. When a cork will not fit into a bottle quit© easily it should not be driven home. It is difficult, too, to shave the outside down evenly, but if a wedge-shaped piece is cut out at the bottom the cork will fit in comfortably with no danger to the bottle. In cleaning spots from clothing if a small quantity of salt be added to the petrol the customary “ring” will not be left around the spot. When the cream is doubtful and there is no more on hand so it must be used, a pinch of carb. soda will keep it from curdling even in hot coffee. If you possess an ordinary kitchen table of white wood, and if you are unlucky enough to spill grease upor. its spotless surface, sprinkle the stain immediately with coarse salt and so prevent the grease from sinking into the wood. Probably it would help some housekeepers to know that an excellent mahogany furniture polish is made from equal parts of pure olive oil and warm black coffee. Just dampen a cheesecloth with this mixture and pass over the surface to be polished, then wipe with an old piece of silk. The result will be surprising.

There should be a good reason for every bit of colour and every bit of design or pattern that enters into the decoration of a room. Some women fail to achieve satisfactory effects in interior degoration simply because they have never taken the trouble to study the problems.

No woman who really sews ever finds her work-basket big enough to hold all she requires, but there is a most sensible new basket-work one which is of an attractive shape. Closed it is like a high, round linen basket on short feet. Open it consists of four round sections, the first and third sections swinging out to the side and making a double affair of it, with all parts open at once and the whole made extra steady by reason of the increased width.