HINTS AND IDEAS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 261, 4 November 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

HINTS AND IDEAS.

USE OF SHELVES. GAINING EXTRA ROOM. In the small house or flat usually the main problem the housewife has to face its that of finding room enough to store away her possessions comfortably and easily—very much of a problem when every available inch of shelf and cupboard space seems already filled to overflowing. But often additional shelves and lockers, can quite simply be fixed up in unexpected places to relieve congestion in linen press, store room or pantry. Some pieces of board, nails and, perhaps, metal wall brackets, are all you will need, with paint or stains to colour the new shelves to match the rest of the woodwork.

It is in the tiny flat kitchen that the extra shelf accommodation is usually most urgently needed, for there is nothing more irritating than having to search through a pile of pots and pans every time a particular cooking utensil is needed. A shelf fitted half-way between the top of the kitchen table and the floor will help to relieve the congestion enormously, and it is simply enough nailed in place. There may be room, too, for an extra shelf between the drawers and the bottom shelf of the kitchen dresser, while a third shelf to hold pots and pans or scrubbing brushes and pails can often be squeezed in under the kitchen sink. And a triangular shelf —just a i.riangle of wood carefully made to measurement —-can be fitted into a vacant corner simply enough with the aid of those metal brackets that are sold specially for the purpose. Incidentally these triangular shelves arc often a very useful—and a very decorative— addition to the furnishings in the livingroom or bedroom. Stained to match the rest of the wood work, and carrying one or two pieces of pottery or glass, or perhaps a bowl of flowers and some books, these shelves will transform an odd and rather ugly corner into a charming and an interesting one. In the bedroom a triangular shelf of this kind ill the corner near the bed will hold, a reading lamp, and so relievo the congestion on the bedside table.

When extra cupboard space is badly needed in the bedroom it is a good plan to make a fully-gathered curtain of chintz or cretonne and tack this to the edge of the corner shelf. Boots and shoes, hat or dress boxes can then be neatly stowed away out of sight behind the curtain, while if you insert screws into the bottom of the shelf you will be able to hang your jumpers, cardigans and skirts on coat hangers behind the curtain, and so leave your wardrobe free for frocks and coats.

Another practical suggestion for increasing the shelf accommodation in the bedroom is to extend the window sill with an added shelf. Make it fairly wide, choose a simple mirror in the photograph-frame style to set upon it, and it ■will perhaps save the necessity for a toilet table. A wide shelf of this kind, made as an extension of the window sill, will be found very useful, too, in the nursery or in the sunroom, which is need often as a workroom. Work boxes and the like can be neatly stowed away there, and will be ready to hand when they are needed. The towel horse in the nursery or bedroom presents an excellent opportunity of adding to the shelf accommodation, for usually there is a considerable amount of unoccupied space beneath the rails. A shelf for boots and shoes can easily be fitted some six or seven inches up from the ground, so that the ends of the towels will not interfere with them. Such a shelf is useful, too, in the bathroom, while a triangular shelf fitted into a corner or a narrow shelf set beneath the window sill will also help to relieve in the congestion in the wall cupboard or shaving cabinet. Here the extra shelves can be treated with a flat white paint or coloured with lacquer to match the colour scheme in the bathroom.

HANDY HINTS. Benzine and finely-powdered French chalk will clean piano keys. A lemon cut into slices and boiled with white clothes keeps them white and takes out stains. In buying mutton, see that the flesh is of a dark red colour and the fat firm and white.