HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 329, 10 July 1914, Page 3

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

To remove brown marks from dishes caused by baking in the oven, rub them well with common 6alt.

To prevent tea staining a cloth if spilled, put a lump of sugar in the teapot when making the tea.

If fat is dropped on tlje floor, pour cold water upon ij; at once. Most of it will harden, and it can be scraped up.

Never stay in a warm bath more than twenty minutes, and bathe tho neck and face first, to prevent an unpleasant rush of blood to the head.

To remove paint from clothes, saturate the spots two or three times with equal parts of ammonia and turpentine, and then wash out in soap-suds.

When ' the grate is cleaned and polished, rub all over with a piece of old velvet. Old velvet is also very useful as a final polishing cloth for waxed boards and floorcloths.

To cleanse a frying-pan which smells of onions or fish, fill the pan with water, and when it boils drop in a redhot cinder. Afterwards rinse and wash in the usual way.

To protect gloves when the hands perspire, keep a roll of absorbent cotton on your dressing-table, and slip a little bit of it between the palm of your hand and the glove. The cotton will absorb the perspiration.

A Rubber hot-water bottle can be cleaned by merely rubbing it with a piece of flannel which has been dipped in hot water and well soaked. Then dry with a soft cloth, and the rubber will look like new.

Cane chairs are most uncomfortable when they have become slack. By turning the chair bottom upwards and sponging the eanework. with hot water and drying out of <Vors in the sun, the seat will become perfectly tight again.

If a pane of glass has to be removed, cover the putty which holds it in place with soft soap, leaving it on for some hours. Tiro putty will then become soft and can be scraped away, and the glass taken out easily.

To clean saucepans thoroughly after cooking oatmeal, fill them with boiling water, empty, and then fill with cold water, and the oatmeal almost falls away from the sides of the saucepan.

Apples cut in irregular pieces will cook more quickly ’in a pie than if sliced, for they do not pack closely as slices do, and so the hot air comes more easily in contact with the fruit, and cooking facilitated.

To clean brass thr.t has been exposed to the weather, mix a saucerful of salt with common vinegar to a paste, rub the brass well over with the mixture, and leave for ten minutes; then clean in the usual way. This is very good, especially for rain stains.

After the dustbin has been cleared burn a couple of newspapers, and if available, a couple of handfuls of straw in it. This will remove all grease and damp, and make the dustbin perfectly clean and sanitary, and free from all unhealthy smells.

To remove tannin stains from teacups or any other porcelain wear a pasty mixture of salt and strong acetic acid should be used. The mixture should be applied with a cloth, and after the stain is bleached out the cups should be washed and dried..

When buying handkerchiefs or other linen goods, to find out if they are really linen, moisten the tip of the finger and press on them. If the wet penetrates the handkerchief at once, it is linerip but if cotton it lakes some leconds to wet the thread through.

To keep the coffee-pot sweet and clean, put a. tablespoonful of carbonate of soda into it, fill it nearly full of water, and let'it boil for a little while. Then rinse thoroughly with several lots of warm water. If this is done once a week, the pot will always be fresh and nice.

For very bad grease spots on the front of a cotton dress sprinkle plentifully with finely-prepared starch and cover it with brown paper. Iron it with an hot iron for a few minutes, then wash it in the usual' way in warm soapsuds; no trace of the grease remains.

To keep butter cool dissolve a little saltpetre in cold water, put this in a large howl and stand the basin containing the butter in it, allowing the water to reach nearly to the top of the butter bowl. Cover the small howl with a piece of muslin, placing the ends to rest in the saltpetre water. This will keep it as cool as if placed on ice.

If you happen to break a glass or valuable glass ornament, it can effectually and easily he mended in the following way: Melt a little isinglass in spirits of wine; add a small quantity of water"; warm the mixture gently over a moderate fire. When mixed, by thoroughly melting, it will form a perfectly transparent glue, which' will unite glass so nicely and firmly that the join will scarcely be perceptible to the most critical eye-