Home-Made Labour Savers

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12643, 31 December 1926, Page 15

Home-Made Labour Savers

“How I wish I could afford to buy dustless dusters and polishing mops,” sighs the housewife. “And a vacuum cleaner; but these things are so expensive.” , Why not make some of these modern helps at home? Lustless dusters, for instance, may be quiokly made by sprinkling squares of cheese-cloth with boiled linseed oil, rolling them tightly and leaving them, for twenty-four hours, 'it better duster, which has the advantage of not soiling the hands, may be manufactured as follows:—Mix oneeighth ounce of oxalic acid with £lb whiting in 1 quart of benzoline. Keep well away from fire or light. Blend well; saturate ns many soft cloths as the compound will hold and hang them in the open air to dry. You can also make a small dust remover, whioh you will find invaluable, by saturating an ordinary dish mop with the above mixture. Old stocking legs out in strips and fastened to a short stick will do instead of the mop, and will remove dust from brackets and shelves, without setting it loose in the air again—instead of a vacuum cleaner. Use a sweeping compound. It should be- made of a quantity of coarse salt saturated with just enough paraffin oil

Some Useful Hints from Constance Coventry

to moisten. • For cleaning rugs, make a fluid from four ounces white,soap dissolved' in four ounces of boiling water.. When cool add five ounces Of ammonia, 2J ounces each of glyperiqo .and alcohol, and two ounces of t ether. Shake well. To use—add one tablespOoAful to a pail of warm water. - ■ ' *■ Silver polishing'cloths which willnot scratch silver are easily prepared thus:' —Take one pound of whiting, i ounce of oleic acid, and blend with half a gallon or benzoline. Soak soft, old pieces of - flannel inr this compound, keeping them well' away from the fire or light, and dry them .in the' open air. Keep the oloths that are not in use in an airtight box. A washing fluid which has the advantage of not fading coloured clothes, while it improves white goods by' the simple process of removing every particle of dirt, is simply made: Dissolve one pound of potash in one gallon of boiling water; allow to col, and / add ino ounces each of washing ammonia, soda and borax, and one ounce of salts of tartar. Mix thoroughly and keep in a corked bottle. Use half a teacupful to a boiler of water—or its equivalent in the washing machine —and~the clothes will need no boiling.