HOUSEHOLD HINTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1938, Page 8

HOUSEHOLD HINTS

To prevent stockings wearing at the toes, turn them inside out and tack a piece of soft silk around the toes. Do not remove when washing. When ironing frocks with sequin trimmings, do not allow the hot iron to touch the sequins, because it will shrivel them. To keep ants out of the sugar tin, take a piece of fly-paper about one inch wide and put in firmly round the tin close to the bottom. The legs of the kitchen safe can be treated the same way, only keep the fly-paper well up from the floor, otherwise dust and fluff will adhere and the ants will be able to get across. Old Net curtains need not be thrown away. Cut out the good portions and make up into bags for holding vegetables, poultry, or fish. This will keep the food much fresher, as the air can circulate around it. Three squares of net sewn together will make an excellent dishcloth. To brighten gilt frames, slice and boil a large onion in a pint of water, and apply gently. Let the frames dry before polishing. An umbrella that has become shabby, but which is not really worn, can be made to look much better by opening it and washing with cold, strained tea. An old, marked pair of brown shoes can be given new life by rubbing over with a raw potatoe and then polishing with black shoe polish. In effect, the potato dyes the shoes. Lacquered trays should never be cleaned with water, but they can be safely washed with spur milk, applied on a piece of soft, clean rag. Polish with a piece of dry cloth afterwards.

To prevent the water in which flowers are placed from smelling, put a teaspoonful of sugar in the water. The flowers will keep much longer.

Before washing woollen cardigans, remove the buttons and over-sew the two extreme edges • together with brightly-coloured wool. This will stop the garments from sagging in the front and the stitches can be easily taken out after washing and- the buttons replaced.

To make cherries and dates easy to chop when requiring them for puddings and cakes, roll in plain flour. Fewer cherries and dates are required, and the pieces will not stick together.

When the hands have become ingrained with dirt, use kerosene to remove it. This saves lots of hard scrubbing with soap and water, and does the skin more good than harm.