More handy hints

My daughter, knowing how I like little cookery collections published by schools, churches,, women’s groups, clubs etc to raise money – little booklets full of family recipes – my daughter found four such for me! One was ‘a superb collection of tried and trusted favourites’, one included ‘…more handy hints’, one includes ‘a hotchpotch of starters’.

The handy hints are just that, handy! Some seem to come from a bygone time:

• barley water made from boiling a strip of lemon peel, a handful of pearl barley and water is a good mild drink for cold and fever sufferers
• rust stains on enamel baths and sinks can be removed by rubbing with a mixture of salt and lemon juice. Another old remedy is cider vinegar applied with a toothbrush
• sliced lemon or a teaspoon of vinegar left in a saucer of water overnight will dispel odours in a room
• use half a lemon dipped in salt to clean discoloured brasswork

Others are obsolete…

• when your cassette player chews a tape, simply cut out the damaged part and joining the two ends with a tiny piece of sticky tape. You will only have lost a small part of the music rather than discarding the tape.

Many of the hints use everyday items… and a lot of onions and talcum powder… although I’m not sure talcum powder is an everyday item any more… I haven’t had any in my bathroom for years and years and years!…

• to stop hinges squeaking rub dry soap on the hinges or sprinkle talcum powder on them
• grease marks can be lifted with talcum powder. Cover the spot and leave for 30 minutes before dusting off. repeat as necessary
• candle wax can be removed by using ice cubes. Put the ice cubes on the wax when hard and it will easily chip off. if there is a grease mark, cover it with talcum powder and leave it for several hours. repeat if necessary.
• a cut onion left in a freshly painted room overnight will absorb the smell
• to keep flies out of your home, rub doors and windows with a cloth soaked in lavender oil, water in which onions have been boiled, or ammonia

My favourite one has to be:

• a quick and easy way to clean the floor of a birdcage is to remove the bird and vacuum the floor of the cage

Well, thank goodness the bird is removed first!!