HOUSEHOLD HINTS

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 5, 13 February 1952, Page 5

HOUSEHOLD HINTS

Query: — Ferhaps some reader could tell me how to clean a pink sheepskin rug, felt-back — "Smudges." * * * * If you keep your butter in the dark you can preserve lt much longer. The light destroys the vitamins in it and it goes rancid more auickly. • * * * * To preserve your hands from smelling and your eyes from watering when peeling onions, do the job with your hands working under the water. * * * * Does your kettle get "furred?" You can buy special liquid preparations for de-furring — they are sold with full instructions. Or you can boil up a kettleful of water plus 1 dessertspoon* of borax: that softens the deposit so that you can wash it away. Get a little bit of loofah & keep it in the kettle for the future — a bit about two inches square. The lime deposit from ; the water will collect in this — and you can rinse the loofah out under the cold tap when the kettle has been used. Never put a kettle away with hot water left in it. All the time the water is cooling, scale — or fur, if you like — is being deposited. * • * * * For stains on baths get some oxalic acid; don't leave it lying about, because it is a deadly poison. Put about I teaspoon into a I pint of water. Drop this over the brown mark and leave it for a momjent till the stain disappears. And then thoroughly rinse the bath. * * * * Roses last longer in pottery jars than in glass vases because they are kept cool. Strip thorns from rose stems and cut up about an inch from the bottom. * * •» * To help in the preservation of jam, add pure glycerine, stirred in a few minutes before the jam is ready for potting. To every 4 lb. of jam, al3ow 1 teaspoon of glycerine. A knob of butter added to boiling jam brightens it and makes it easy to remove scum. Three suggestions on how to avoid burning when jam making: (i) a glass marble rolling round the pan bottom; (ii) butter paper rubbed over the pan before the fruit goes in; (iii) a little salad oil rubbed on in the same way. * * * * Some concrete floors yield a pan of dust at every sweeping although they have been laid for years. You can sea! the surface with silicate of soda — the waterglass you use for preserving eggs; one part of waterglass to five parts of water, applied from a watering-can with a rose on it. Brush it well in and give three daily doses.