HOME HINTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19269, 5 January 1931, Page 4

HOME HINTS.

THINGS WORTH KNOWING. To clean a gilt picture frame peel a large onion, put it in a saucepan with a pint of cold water. Boil for twenty to thirty minutes. Strain liquid into two basins. Dust the frame well, apply tepid onion water with small brush or rag. Rinse with clean onion water. Dry with a soft rag and polish with a duster. To heat a bedroom on particularly chilly nights, get a block of rock salt and soak it in paraffin. Place it in an empty grate and apply a light. It can be resoaked and used again and again. If you suspect damp in a rrom place a block of camphor in each corner. The camphor will disappear in a week’s time, and so will the dampness. This has proved successful where fires have failed. The best way to use up milk which has become burnt is to make it into a chocolate blancmange, when the nasty odour will be quite tasteless. This can quickly be made by mixing a little cocoa with cornflour. To stiffen hairbrushes, prepare a strong solution of alum water—twopennyworth of alum to a quart of hot water —and leave the brushes to soak in this for half an hour, taking care not to let the backs or handles touch the water. Rinse in cold water, when the bristles will be found quite stiff. A good way of mending a tear in a tweed coat or skirt quickly and invisibly is to use a few needlefuls of human hair (supplied from combings). A three-cornered or jagged tear should first be lightly drawn to shape by a coloured thread, which should be removed when the darn is finished. To prevent the hair from slipping through the needle a knot should be made at the eye; this will keep it in place, and will not interfere with its passage through the material. •When an earthernware hot water bottle becomes cracked, do not throw it away. If filled three parts full with common sand and heated in the oven it will answer the purpose even better than when filled with boiling water. When heating remove stopper. As cotton frocks are being worn this summer here is a useful hint eoncern.ing starch. As soon as the starch is made and while steaming hot, cover it with a thick cloth (the kitchen runner will do). This prevents a thick skin forming on top. This skin has always to be removed and is just waste, as if it is stirred in it makes the starch very lumpy. Don’t throw away j'our old rubber hot water bottles that leak. They make fine kneeling mats for house or garden use.