SPRING CLEANING HINTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 3

SPRING CLEANING HINTS

It's a great temptation to have a really good turnout at spring-clean-ing time and consign everything that doesn’t seem of immediate use to the dust bin. But wait a moment. Let’s think twice before discarding all these apparently worthless articles, for often they can be put to new and excellent uses. Odd pieces of old carpet accumulate in most houses. The best strips, if scrubbed well with good carpet soap, and wound with gay carpet binding, will make useful rugs for the kitchen or attic bedroom, or runners for odd places in the house where the traffic is specially heavy. Shabbier pieces can be folded into two or three thicknesses as "kneelers” or mats to stand in front of the kitchen sink. Even the very shabbiest pieces have their uses. They can be cut up and used as stair pads, to give an added luxurious thickness to the stair treads. When worn-out linoleum is being renewed, the pieces that have been under the furniture are often still quite good. These can be fitted on the pantry shelves, and a daily wipe with a damp cloth will keep them clean and fresh. Another good use is to cut them into circles and ovals to fit into the bottom of coal scuttles. As the bottom of the scuttle wears out long; before the rest, this plan will more than double its life. Smaller pieces of linoleum can be utilised as mats on which to place pans and hot dishes when taking up meals, so saving endless scrubbing and wiping down later. Old huckaback towels can be made into guest towels if cut across the middle and then hemstitched and embroidered at one end; while the best pieces of old Turkish towels can be made into bibs for young children or could be cut up as face squares.

An old beet will make a washable slipon cover for a polishing mop u elastic is threaded through the hem. Old chamois ’leather gloves make excellent polisl rs for windows, and for silver and furniture too. Rip up the sides, lay the gloves flat on the table, the more layers the better, and machine them together in the centre with circles of stitching, making them into a substantial pad.

An old lampshade makes a splendid food protector for use in the larder or on the table when it is laid in advance. Take off the covering and tack over the wire frame a new covering of butter muslin.

Sacks from poultry meal have endless uses. If well washed they make useful kitchen or gardening aprons, and embroidered with gay wools ano bound with coloured binding they look most attractive. In the same way they can be made into brightly embroidered kitchen or garden cushion covers. Tney also make substantial ovencloths and floorcloths, or could be converted into kneelers for scrubbing. Smaller pieces could be used up as ironholders.

Thin, worn blankets make splendid bed quilts. Put together two or more old blankets of the required size, ana cover them with sateen or a pretty cretonne, stitching right through the blankets in squares or diamonds. Delightful pram and cot covers can also be contrived from the best parts of old blankets. They can be dyed some pretty soft shade and then bound with ribbon. Small pieces of old blankets can be transformed into linings for tea-cosies and hot-water bottle covers. Sheets have an unhappy knack of wearing thin in the middle, and an excellent use for the unworn sides is to use them up as curtains. These would be ideal for use in a nursery or child’s bedroom if dyed a useful dark shade to tone with the furnishings of the room. Old sheets, too, make good drying-up cloths. Parchment lampshades, if not too dirty,’ can be cleaned with a piece of rubber. Methylated spirits applied with cotton-wool will do the trick if they are really grubby . . . Soap flakes, melted in hot water, cooled down to just warm, will wash silk shades. Specially dirty marks may be scrubbed with a soft brush. When white clothes have been blued too much, add a little vinegar to a fresh bowl of water, rub articles, and blue streaks will soon disappear. Sponge cocoa stains immediately with cold water. Rust on metal should be covered with sweet oil and left for two days. Then rub with finely-powdered, unslaked lime until the rust disappears. If pitted, scour first with very fine emery paper. Tea towels rinsed in a solution of weak starch water will not leave fluff on china. Vinegar and eggshells will clean musty thermos flasks. Put in a little warm water, add three teaspoonfuls ot vinegar and a few broken eggshells. Shake and rinse with clean hot water. Keep out the cork when not in use. American cloth, if a thick needle is used, will make most attractive curtains that wear beautifully and wash easily. Fuller's earth, rubbed in lightly and sprinkled on top of a greasy fur, will clean it, left for two or three days, and then thoroughly shaken.