HOME NEWS and VIEWS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10832, 2 April 1932, Page 4

HOME NEWS and VIEWS

The. first step to efficient Spring cleaning is the renewal of all brooms brushes, dusters and cleaning utensils. This not only ensures that the work is done more thoroughly but it makes the doing of it much more pleasant. A visit to the decorators may also prove profitable. You will go there in any case if you propose to do a. little decorating yourself. But even if you do not, you will find many a use for an odd pot of paint or one or two rolls of light-coloured wall-paper in the course of the cleaning. Remnants of curtain net. and small pieces of plain-coloured cotton furnishing fabric will help to freshen the house in many ways, especially in those rooms you have decided not to have re-decorated or re-hung with draperies this year. The next step is the turning out of cupboards and drawers. This work should be completed before the actual work of turning out rooms is begun. A roll of light-coloured wall-paper is an excellent medium for lightening and freshening the interiors of dark cupboards and wardrobes and for lining drawers. If you have a cupboard in which it is difficult to find things, try this hint of papering it with pale-coloured wall-paper. In the bath-room, kitchen, scullery and similar places, re-painting may not be necessary but a use for your paint-pot is sure to be found on places like the edge of the bath, on the kitchen door, or where watersplashing has spoiled a wall in places. Tiny sample pots of the required colour may be bought without going to the expense of buying large ones. To obtain an easily-cleaned surface over the sink or behind the gas-stove just give a couple of coats of paint to a square that you can- mark out for yourself, and this will be much more easily wiped clean than is wall paper or distemper. But be sure to buy glossy-finish paint or enamel for these purposes. When you are actually painting a room nr part of a room, three coats ■ are usually needed on a surface that ; has been cleaned till it is free from dirt and grease. The first two coats • may bo of dull-surface paint. When you begin to Spring clean, remember the golden rule—begin at ■ the top. Attics bedrooms, bathroom, • living-rooms, and, finally kitchen and ; scullery—that is the most convenient ‘ order.

Begin early in the year, and plan the work so that yon do not have too much to do each day. Try to keep your mind on the results you are gettins, and not on the hardness of the work. Always rest a. little during the day. Whenever you feel the need of refreshment in the shape of food or drink, take it immediately. Otherwise the quality of your work goes down—and that is not helpful to the ultimate end.

When it comes to providing the family with adequate meals while trying to cope with the Spring clean •at the same, remember the virtues of tinned foods. Although one would not advise any house-wife to “go tinned’’ entirely in the matter of food, there is more prejudice against this form of food in this country than there need he. Much food loses no food value through tinning, and so long as plenty of fresh fruit, milk and salads are available at the same time, the family health is not likely to deteriorate because it eats a meal or two devised mainly from the contents of tins. TRUST THE DENTIST. A visit to the dentist every six months is practically imperative, If you wish to have—and keep—pretty teeth.

Teeth should he cleaned twice a day, once in the evening with paste of an antiseptic type and once in the morning with powder which polishes as well as cleans. And the night clean is oven more important that the morning clean! If you suffer from “acid mouth,” try using dicarbonato of soda occasionally as a tooth powder. Peroxide of hydrogen used as a mouth wash is also extremely useful for correcting acid mouth.

If there is anything wrong with the actual shape and position of your teeth, depend on the dentist, A modern dentist is a real magician. He can remove impossible front teeth, putting in good ones to replace (hem. He can build up broken teeth, make fillings invisible, change and improve the mouth, improve the health and—if your are young—even re-shape badly-shaped teeth. Beware of tarta.r. A good deal of harm to the teeth can take place under refuge of this ugly covering that forms on the teeth. To have your dentist scale this away is neither costly nor troublesome. But to leave unattended is to invite disas-ter-—(he spoiling, in other words, of the charm of your smile!