Helpful household hints

Fingers protector

Did you know that you can slit an old piece of garden hose along one side and slip it over the blade of a hoe or an ax to prevent damage to little and big fingers? This works really well if they are freshly sharpened.

Homemade produce wash

I have used this recipe for years. It’s so much cheaper than the packaged and bottled version and works just as well. It will wash the dirt and bacteria off of your freshly purchased apples or any other fruit and even works on all sorts of vegetables such as carrots, green beans, etc.

2 cups of water;

1 teaspoon baking soda;

1 teaspoon citric acid (found in powder form in any supermarket in the canning section where the lids and rings are located);

1 teaspoon lemon extract (the alcohol in the extract kills the germs); and

Few drops of grapefruit oil (mostly for the smell

With all the bugs going around all the time any more, the first thing I do when I bring anything fresh into the house is to take it out of the packaging, sack or whatever and give it a good bath and then a rinse. I’ve never had anyone get sick from anything we’ve used it on, so I know this works.

Big rubber bands for free

When those rubber gloves you wear for dishwashing or floor scrubbing or wall washing get holes in them, don’t just toss them. Cut the cuff part into big stretchy rubber bands of various widths to hold all sorts of big bags shut. I fill a big garbage bag with our freshly washed sleeping bags every fall when we quit camping and use a couple of the big bands to hold the top shut tight and no dirt or dust can get in to them even though they are stored in the garage.