GREAT household tips!

I was emailed this and I found it so helpful, I decided to dedicate a hub to a bunch of useful tips.

I am now on a mission to find thousands of great household tips to bring to you every week!

Please check back regularly for updates.

Bed Sheets

After drying my sheets, put both sheets and one pillowcase in the other pillow case. Fold neatly in a square. Next time you change sheets, you just take the one pillow case and all the sheets and pillow case are inside. No need to look for matches.

Reheat Pizza

Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Reheating refrigerated bread

To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Broken Glass

Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken pieces of glass - the fibers catch ones you can't see!

Easier thank you's

When you throw a bridal/baby shower, buy a pack of thank you cards for the guest of honor. During the party, pass out the envelopes and have everyone put their address on one. When the bride/new mother sends the thank you's, they're all addressed!

Proof it's your Kids Bike

If you purchase a new bike for your child, place their picture inside the handle bar before placing the grips on. If the bike is stolen and later recovered, remove the grip and there is your proof who owns the bike.

Flexible vacuum

To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- voila -- static is gone.

Measuring Cups

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?

Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser!

Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope

If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.

Conditioner

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...

Good-bye Fruit Flies

To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants (my favorite!)

Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," & can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, esp. if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Take baby powder to the beach

Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When you're ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder and the sand will slide right off your skin.

Here are some tips bunched together under the relevant heading.

Dishcloths

Keep dishcloths soft by rinsing them in cold water with Epsom salt.

Vinegar

Add some vinegar or lemon juice with your pancake mixture, it prevents the pancake from getting a rubber texture.

A spoon of vinegar in the water when poaching eggs, prevent the white of the egg to spread.

Add some vinegar in the water when boiling eggs, it prevents the eggs from cracking/bursting.

A small amount of vinegar in the water when cooking ox tongue will help to peel the skin of easier.

Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda makes a good disinfectant.

Citrus Soda and vinegar will clean a burnt pot easily.

To get rid of flies in the kitchen, pour vinegar in small containers (lids of empty bottles) and place on top of fridge or any other place. The flies don't like the smell of the vinegar.

To clean your jewellery, leave them overnight in a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Rinse the following day, do not leave pearls over night only an hour.

Keep you copper shiny by mixing salt with vinegar/lemon juice.

To keep shirt collars clean, make a paste with white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda and rub it onto the collars, wash normally.

Soda water and white vinegar usually removes red whine and blood stains.

Baking

Add baking powder at the very last minute to your cake mix, your cake will be very light and fluffy.

Home made biscuits stay fresh for longer when sugar is placed in the bottom of the cake tin.

To avoid any dough that needs to stand and rise for a while to form a hard core, cover with cling wrap.

Add a half a teaspoon when whipping cream, it will help to whip the cream faster.

Milk will not boil over when a marble is placed in the pot when boiling/heating the milk.

Add a bit of bicarbonate of soda or lemon juice to jelly, it will help is to gel faster.

Add a bit of salt in a frying pan, it will prevent the oil/vat to spatter.

Do not through left over whine away, place in the deepfreeze in a ice cube and use when cooking.

When baking pies, seer with mayonnaise, instead of egg.

Bread

Place a small bag of salt in the bread tin, it will keep your bread fresher for longer.

Eggs

Make sure the eggs are in a cool place when you store them, it will keep organisms from growing on them.

Eggs stay fresh for longer when stored at a temperature of 5 degrees Celsius.

Whipped eggs with a pinch of salt can be frozen up to 3 months.

Cut hard boiled eggs with a knife that was dipped in water, it will prevent the egg yellow to break.

Potatoes

Add lemon juice to water when boiling potatoes with skin, it will prevent the potato to loose its colour and stay white.

A grated onion added when boiling potatoes for mash, adds a very decadent taste to it.

Add a bit of grated lemon zest to potato salad for a tasty treat.

Beetroot

To remove a beetroot stain on a carpet, use glycerine and a sponge and rub it tin to the carpet. Wash with warm soap water afterwards.

To remove a beetroot stain on clothes, pour a bit of milk on the stain and soak in cold salt water, then wash it in warm salt water.

Salt

Place a raw potato in soup/stew if you have added too much salt. The salt absorbs the most salt.

When the prepared dish is too salty, add some brown sugar.

Add some rice in the pot of salt, it will prevent the salt from becoming hard in wet weather.

Through 1 pea in the pepper pot, it will prevent the pepper to get clammy.

Meat

Dip sausages (wors) in boiling water, it will prevent it from bursting open when baking it.

Add fresh milk over burnt milk, it will take out the burn taste.

Bacon won't curl up when dipped in boiling water before you fry it.

A easy way to prepare a delicious pork roast is to pour a tin of coke in the backing tray, cover the pork roast in tin foil and bake. Remove the tin foil a half an hour before the roast is ready. Bake for half an hour or till cooked. The sauce of the roast and the coke mix together and makes a very tasty sauce.

Apples

Apples peel easier if laid in boiling water for 1 minute.

Lemons

Lay the lemon in hot water before you use it, you will get more juice.

Bleach

Make your own bleach by using vinegar and bicarbonate of soda.

Reading glasses

A drop of glycerine will help to keep your glasses clean.

Bee sting

Scrape the bee sting out with a knife and place a bicarbonate of soda paste on the sting, it will extract the poison.

Coke

Pour a tin of coke in the toilet and leave to stand for a couple of hours. Flush toilet, and you will have a sparkling clean toilet.

To remove fatty stains on clothes, pour coke on the close, and wash normal afterwards. The coke helps to break the fat up, and it will dissolve in the wash.

Stickers

To remove stickers, rub some Brasso on the sticker, it will rub the sticker off.

Spray Doom on the sticker and leave a couple of seconds. You will then be able to rub off the sticker.

To remove stickers on glass bottles, rub peanut butter on the label, it will help to remove the glue of the label.

Glasses

Should two glasses be stuck into each other, place the bottom glass in warm water, and fill the top glass with cold water. That will loosen the glasses from each other, and will prevent the glasses to break.

To bring the shine back in to your crystal glasses, add ammonia to the wash water, and vinegar to the rinse water.

To prevent a glass from bursting when adding boiling/hot water, place a steel teaspoon in the glass first.

Globes

When having a dinner party, spray perfume on the globes in the dining room. Leave to dry before switching on. When your guests arrives, switch the lights on, and the air will be filled with a lovely fragrance for the evening.

Ticks and fleas

Bathe your pets two - three times in water which was used to boil potatoes in, it keeps the insects away from them.

To keep fleas away from your pets, bathe them in sunlight soap and add 2 measures of Dettol in the water. Rinse them off with Dettol water afterwards.

Jewellery

Clean gold jewellery by mixing Savlon with water, (ratio 2:1). Leave jewellery in this mixture for 10 - 20 minutes. Brush lightly with old toothbrush, or just rinse with cold water. Dry with a soft cloth.

Gold jewellery can be cleaned with soft bread.

Rub your silver jewellery with half a lemon and rinse.

Candles

To keep candles burning longer, place them in the deep freeze for a couple of hours before using them. It also helps the candle to burn evenly.

Clothes

Keep your white clothes white by soaking them in 5 litres of water mixed with 1 cup of white vinegar.

To clean white shoes or handbags, rub them with a cloth dipped in Dettol.

To prevent a zip from getting stuck, or to just let it work easily, rub candle wax or soap or even a pencil over the zip.

Soak jeans in salt water, it will prevent it from loosing colour.

To prevent dark colours to get coloured lint on it, turn it upside down when washing, and tumble drying.

To prevent wool clothes to stretch in the was, put them in a pillow case before you wash them.

Leather jackets - Instead of buying expensive oil to tread your leather jackets, just pour some olive oil on a soft cloth or cotton wool, and brush off your jacket with that.

Fever blisters

Dip a ear bud in normal Vanilla essence and dip it on the fever blister. The Vanilla essence will help to dry out the blister.

Buy Zink tablets at the pharmacy.

Go to the nearest family clinic and ask them to give you some polio drops in your mouth. On drop should do the trick.

Leather furniture

Wash leather seats with a little bit of milk, you will be surprised at how new your leather furniture looks again.

Wash leather couches with soap and water, rub dry and rub Vaseline in. Leave for 24 hours and take a soft cloth and shine the couches. It helps to preserve the leather for longer.

Wood furniture

Use ZEB to remove old varnish and packed on grease and grime from wood furniture. Clean immediately with a cloth and clean water. Do not let polished furniture stand in direct sunlight, it will fade the colour of the wood permanently.

Microwave oven

To clean your microwave, just heat ½ a cup of vinegar in the microwave. The vinegar loosens all fat. Wipe the microwave with a clean cloth.

Nails and cutex

Never cut your nails with a scissors, it causes your nails to split. Rather use a emery board.

To strengthen your nails, take a packet of gelatine, mix a teaspoon full with warm fruit juice. It takes a couple of weeks, but you will have the most healthiest and strongest nails ever.

Soak your nails in milk every evening for 10 minutes.

Feed your nails with bio-oil.

Avon's Strong Results. It is a clear cutex, the nail absorbs it completely, and does not leave a layer on the nail.

No matter how short or long your nails are, always wear cutex, even if it is the clear one. Add 3-4 drops of Formalien (buy at chemist) to the cutex. It will strengthen your nails.

Cutex dry quicker if you dip your nails in ice water, or if you spray good old spray and cook over them.

Store your cutex in the fridge. This will prevent the cutex from getting thick or sticky.

First aid

If you struggle to remove a plaster from a cut or a wound, pour some baby oil on the plaster, it will peel of easier.

Bleeding cuts

If you have cut yourself, and this cut is deep and does not want to stop, pour a heap of pepper on the cut, it does not burn, and the bleeding will stop immediately.

Burn wounds

If you have burnt yourself, and do not have an ointment to put on the burn immediately, take toothpaste and rub that on. It takes the burn out of the burn.

Sore muscles

Add half a cup of apple cider in your bathwater.

Winter hands and feet

Try aloe gel and then normal aqueous cream.

Mix one small tin of Campher cream (the white one) with 5 Grandpa powders. Rub this in 3 times a day.

Oven

If your oven is very dirty, and you struggle to clean it, place a small ovenproof dish with household ammonia in the warm oven. Leave to cool down, and clean easily with a soap formula.

Ink stains

Put some salt on the ink stain immediately and rub ½ a lemon over it. Rinse the material and wash normal.

Wine

Open champagne just before serving.

If you opened the champagne too early, place a metal spoon with the handle in the bottle on top of it, it will prevent the gas to escape for up to 2 days.

If you are serving white wine, open the bottle 1 our before serving and put the cork screw in lightly, place in fridge to cool.

Open red wine 2 hours before serving, to enable it to breath.