Household Folklore and Tips

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Household Folklore and Tips

29 Aug 00 - 04:42 PM (#287347)
Subject: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Bert

We've had several recipe threads but this is slightly different. Hints and tips from around the house or farm or factory or office. Old wives tales and folk medicine stuff will be most welcome as well.

Here's a start...

When making strawberry jam, it will set without pectin if you add lemon juice and make the jam one the SAME DAY that you pick the strawberries.

Bert.

29 Aug 00 - 04:44 PM (#287349)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Kim C

Peppermint oil will stop indigestion in its tracks. At least it does for me. Have Altoids, will travel. :)

29 Aug 00 - 04:46 PM (#287353)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Catrin

If your child suffers from travel sickness, get them to sit on a newspaper(?!) Apparently its got something to do with static.

29 Aug 00 - 05:05 PM (#287361)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Rollo

toilet paper will last longer if you use both sides. *GGG*

29 Aug 00 - 05:35 PM (#287376)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: wysiwyg

Oh Bert, I have a WHOLE BOOK of these!!!!! I'll have to bring it to work to post from it!! (Hey!! If I lend you the book, would I get it back?)

OK. The BEST one... there were two, but one is too cruel... OK. The one I can share is...

TO RID YOUR HOME OF RATS.

Trap a few of the rats. A dozen, we'll say. Cage them together. Provide plenty of water and NO FOOD. They will get hungry. The weakest one will be eaten. This process will continue until only a few are left. They will be quite accustomed by then to the delicious flavor of fresh meat, rat meat in particular.

When you are down to two rats, release them back into the house.

Oh! One more I can share. Ladies are advised, for their health, to spend at least an hour in their boudoir naked each day, taking the morning sun and fresh air. (Don't recall what the gents were advised. Hafta look it up.)

~S~

29 Aug 00 - 05:39 PM (#287378)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: kendall

You can preserve a used brillo pad by placing it on a sheet of aluminum foil. It will not rust there.

Adding a pinch of salt to the water will make peeling boiled aggs easier.

29 Aug 00 - 06:29 PM (#287412)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Liz the Squeak

Boiled AGGS??

We were told to put a spoonful of vinegar in the water for the same reason.

Salted water takes longer to boil, so don't salt vegetables until the water is already boiling.

Tomatoes, halved and rubbed over sunburn will take the sting out. Or is that strawberries.....?

Chocolate will last longer if you don't bring it to my house..... *BG*!

LTS

29 Aug 00 - 06:34 PM (#287417)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Rollo

Perhaps someone out there has some good advice against cockroaches?!? When they brougt my neighbor to the sanatory and after that smoked out his flat all his little pets came over to live with me... And there is so much room for them in this old house... oh dear...

29 Aug 00 - 06:51 PM (#287435)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: CarolC

Rollo,

Paint all surfaces that the roaches have to walk over to get into your kitchen or whatever, with a liquid solution of boric acid. Good places are the backs of kitchen counters, around the edges of the floors, etc.

Carol

29 Aug 00 - 06:59 PM (#287439)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Alice

gee, all this time I thought salt water boiled faster than unsalted water....

To keep zippers working smoothly, apply a very small amount of vaseline to the zipper teeth.

29 Aug 00 - 07:01 PM (#287442)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: bflat

You won't have to clean out the refrigerator if you keep a fresh box of Baking Soda opened inside. Absorbs the odors. Good idea for you guys who live alone and don't know about cleaning out the refrigerator.

29 Aug 00 - 07:11 PM (#287449)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: RWilhelm

Nothing will eat a cockroach but a gecko. Nothing will eat a gecko.

29 Aug 00 - 07:22 PM (#287453)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: CarolC

bflat,

Remind the bachelors that the rotting leftovers still have to be gotten rid of before they start evolving and creating new civilizations.

Carol

29 Aug 00 - 09:18 PM (#287508)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Les B

Put a rattlesnake tail inside your fiddle for a sweeter sound. Put the whole rattlesnake in your guitar to keep kids away !

29 Aug 00 - 10:15 PM (#287551)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Sourdough

I had a flying gecko, a female named Amelia Earhart and no cockroaches! Hardly ever say the gecko. She spent a lot of time behind a painting on the wall. Sometimes she would flick her tail. It was odd, seeing this movement out of the corner of my eye but then there'd be nothing there.

Sourdough

29 Aug 00 - 10:21 PM (#287558)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

If you take cranberries and stew them like prunes, they taste much more like applesauce than rhubarb does.

Pulling your skin tightly to either side of a biting mosquito will cause its little sucker to become stuck and it will keep sucking blood til it explodes.

The best way to darn socks is to sit with the sock and sewing materials on your lap with a wastebasket at your feet. Closely observe the location and size of the hole, If its in a position where it bothers you, wad the sock up into a small ball and throw it in the wastebasket and shout, "Darn!" Works on 100% of all socks.

A mixture of honey, lemon juice, glycerin, and Jack Daniels Whiskey, will help alleviate clogged nasal passages and many other symptons of the common cold. Eliminating the other ingredients and tripling the Jack will work even better because you won't care if you have a cold.

Making Jello with Vodka improves the taste and makes an excellent bedtime snack for your kids as they will go to sleep very quickly. A large mallet is also handy for the more stubborn cases.

Taking mass quantities of Vitamin B-12 will improve your energy level and make your whizz smell as though you have pissed a pharmacy.

A mixture of ketchup, pickle juice, onios, and mustard, formed into a poltice and applied to the male organ twice a day for two weeks will eliminate the need for Viagra. You will also develop a tremendous hard-on as you pass McDonalds.

Spaw

29 Aug 00 - 10:23 PM (#287559)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Art Thieme

Where there's smoke, there's dinner.

To cure a limp, remove a carrot from your shoe.

For good luck, put a carrot in your shoe.

To cure a limp _______, take a Viagra.

(Art Thieme)

29 Aug 00 - 11:24 PM (#287595)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: JamesJim

To cure a severe cold: Drink a pint of Kentucky Bourbon (any brand); take 110 lbs. of honey; go to bed and work it out.

29 Aug 00 - 11:27 PM (#287597)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: bflat

CarolC,

Ha Ha! Let them figure it out!

bflat

30 Aug 00 - 12:13 AM (#287618)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: katlaughing

Apparently Viagra may work too well in some cases; in the fine print in a Reader's Digest ad for it, it actually says "in a rare event of an erection lasting more than four hours, seek immediate medical help."

Sorry for the thread creep, bert, but I just couldn't resist following on Spaw's and Art's postings!**BG**

I am resisting all of the images it conjures up, though!

Pouring baking soda down your drains, then vinegar, once a month, will keep them from clogging and they will smell fresh and clean. It also is an enviromentally friendly way to do it.

I finally gave up after trying every home remedy there was for roaches and called in the exterminator; it only took one visit. He and the county extension agent told me they had come in with the grocery bags, so we now never have plastic or paper grocery sacks NOR stacks of old newspapers in the house and it is roach-free!

kat

30 Aug 00 - 12:18 AM (#287622)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Mbo

My Grandfather said the best way to get rid of pimples is with human urine.

30 Aug 00 - 12:24 AM (#287625)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

If you want information on the amount of methane produced by Siberian yaks, start a thread on Mudcat asking for the actual 3rd word in the 5th line of the 44th verse of "Diddle My Fiddle."

Spaw

30 Aug 00 - 12:28 AM (#287627)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Alice

eeeeewwwwwh (your own or someone elses? never mind I don't want to know)

30 Aug 00 - 12:34 AM (#287632)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: CamiSu

Cinnamon will stop most ants. Sprinkle it across their path and sweep it into the cracks. Cinnamon oil works even better.

30 Aug 00 - 12:40 AM (#287636)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Seamus Kennedy

Two apples a day keep the doctor away. You might miss him with the first one. All the best.
Seamus

30 Aug 00 - 12:46 AM (#287641)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

Well Chet, things seem to be moving along on the I-70 Sugarway and the ants are really moving fast today......Wait a minute.........What's that up ahead? Looks like...OH NO!!! Its CINNAMON OIL!!! ....Ohmygawd, the lead ants have hit it and are skidding out of control!! Now more are coming in behind them and......oh...oh....ohmygawd, THEY'RE PILING UP........GEEZIZ....One of the Fire Ants has exploded and flames are everywhere..........I can't look anymore......Oh the carnage.........the humanity.........

BTW, we now don't have to worry about whether its Mbo, Embo, Meebo, or whatever.....Now we can simply use "Pissface."

Spaw

30 Aug 00 - 01:49 AM (#287658)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: campfire

If you put a fresh apple slice in the brown sugar bag, the sugar won't get hard. I don't know what happens if you put Viagra in the sugar bag...

campfire

30 Aug 00 - 01:59 AM (#287661)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Clinton Hammond2

On stuck zippers, us a pencil rather than vas... just rub the sharp end of the pencil over the teeth of the zip a few times and the graphite dust will have 'em runnin' slicker'n snot!

The best way to get rid of acne once and for all is castration... without the testosterone in your system, your skin will be fantastically clear... But I'm willing to put up with the occasional zit....

Call me crazy!

30 Aug 00 - 02:07 AM (#287664)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: campfire

But what about us women?

campfire

30 Aug 00 - 05:58 AM (#287697)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: sledge

I like to keep a lemon in the fridge, it keeps the other things (whatever they might have become) company.

30 Aug 00 - 06:32 AM (#287705)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Airto

How do I stop snails getting into my letter box (mail box to some of you)and eating the contents?

30 Aug 00 - 07:14 AM (#287713)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: kendall

Airto..try throwing in a French chef.

30 Aug 00 - 07:34 AM (#287716)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Airto

Sorry kendall,

It's already been tried by one of the neighbours. The chef deals with the snails alright, pops them in his pan and all, but he uses the mail as fuel to heat them up. To make matters worse, he reads the stuff before burning it. He is now blackmailing the neighbours and refuses to leave. Not having room to stand up, he has claimed squatter's rights.

He has become a chef dey keep.

Oh God, I should never have started on this...

30 Aug 00 - 08:48 AM (#287740)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Grab

One useful tip - don't read a post by spaw whilst eating a peanut butter sandwich and drinking a glass of water. Especially don't do it if you're at work and there's ppl ready to laugh at the results, as half goes down your lungs, a third goes up your nose, and the remainder comes out of your eyes, whilst you desperately try to keep your mouth closed to avoid coating the keyboard and monitor. Crunchy peanut butter too...

Airto, try nailing a strip of sandpaper around the flap. Slugs and snails don't like crawling over that.

A guy I met out walking once swore that the best insect repellent is to dab a drop of vinegar on your neck. Downside is that it keeps everyone else away too, cos you'll smell like a chip-shop.

Grab.

30 Aug 00 - 09:07 AM (#287755)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: sian, west wales

Break off a leaf of aloe vera and rub it on a burn.

Clean windows with scrunched up newspaper.

A few gooseberries in with the strawberries is supposed to help the jam to set.

Bread doesn't rise right when it's thundery.

If you're blind-baking pie shells, 'paint' the crusts with beaten egg before you bake 'em. They won't get quite so soggy when you fill them. (And use *really* cold liquid when you're mixing the dough up, and don't use your hands any more than you have to - 'cause it's flakier when it's colder.) (I get a bit flakey when cold too.) (But don't mind if you use your hands ...)

A lump of charcoal in the fridge also absorbs smells.

And a broken piece of a terracotta flower pot in your brown sugar will also keep it soft. Don't know why ...

sian

30 Aug 00 - 09:23 AM (#287768)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Ma-K

For tight shoes. Put a zip lox bag full of water in the shoes and put them in the freezer. Really works.

30 Aug 00 - 09:29 AM (#287771)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: SINSULL

I love the smell of chip shops.
My Nana kept an onion in a saucer of honey on the stove in the winter. It was used in small doses to sooth a sore throat.
Toothpaste rubbed into a waterstain lifts it out of wood furniture. Use a soft cloth to avoid scratching.
Vick's on a zit brings it to a head quickly so it looks twice as disgusting.
Oil lamps clean up with newspaper too. The ink absorbs the greasy stuff.

30 Aug 00 - 09:32 AM (#287776)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Jeri

For most critters that chew on things you don't want them to chew on:
Steep a couple of tablesoons of cayenne, 2 cloves of garlic and a small onion in 2 quarts of water. Strain the stuff out and spray it on plants or whatever. Drawbacks: whatever you spray it on stinks, (your house stinks when you make it, and when you spray it, for Pete's sake - stand up-wind!) and you have to re-apply after it rains. Pluses: environmentally friendly, and bees don't notice it. Letting the same stuff sit in oil makes a solution that seems to work when you paint it on wood.

For stale cookies, put a slice of fresh bread in an airtight container with them.

30 Aug 00 - 09:52 AM (#287790)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Jim the Bart

As Sinsull mentioned, toothpaste on a rag is a great mild abrasive for cleaning water spots on wood surfaces or cleaning the grunge off guitar frets. Another tip - never use furniture polish with silicone in it, particularly on musical instruments. The silicone gets in the wood and keeps it from aging properly. Lemon oil polish is the best.

Special for all you bourbon fans: bourbon and apple juice is really tasty. Bourbon with cran/raspberry juice is also good. And "good whiskey never lets you lose your place". Michael Murphy said that in Cherokee Fiddle and it's pretty much true.

30 Aug 00 - 09:55 AM (#287793)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: MMario

tomato juice with tabasco (hot peper sauce) and lots of black pepper and lemon juice is great for hoarseness. add vodka nad you don't care.

30 Aug 00 - 10:03 AM (#287795)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

If your fecal excrement (read: turds) float, you are getting plenty of fiber.

If they sink, you are not getting enough fiber.

If it is a tiny little thing that smells extremely vile and putrid, its Conrad Bladey, #1 Super Pissant.

Spaw

30 Aug 00 - 10:05 AM (#287796)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: bflat

Spaw, what kinda' diet are you on? You are one crazy; funny guy. I'm glad I wasn't eatin' peanut butter too. I just spritzed my monitor.

So here's another tip for the women. Put your panty hose in the freezer. Makes them last longer when you go to use them.

bflat

30 Aug 00 - 10:14 AM (#287800)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: SINSULL

bflat,
The voice of experience?
Spaw,
Do you get a lot of invitations to visit your children's teachers whenever it's "Show and Tell" time?

30 Aug 00 - 10:25 AM (#287803)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: sian, west wales

Why does freezing help pantyhose?

And what does Jeri mean by stale cookies? Can cookies go stale?

sian

30 Aug 00 - 10:36 AM (#287806)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Jeri

Er, Sian, we may be talking "biscuits" here, but the soft variety like chocolate chip. (Well, I LIKE them chewy, not crunchy!) Can biscuits be chewy/soft or do you call them something else?

30 Aug 00 - 10:38 AM (#287807)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: rabbitrunning

If cookies get hard and dry then the moisture from the bread softens them, at least that's what my grandmother said.

She also recommended onion and honey for a sore throat, although the best cure for a vicious cough I've ever been given was one part honey, one part lemonjuice and one part everclear (about 6,000 proof, I think!).

Cockroaches need water. If you have something like tidybol in the toilet, and put a few drops of bleach down the other drains, making sure not to leave any other water sources out for them, you can go on vacation and come back to no roaches. Works best when you combine it with the egg killer sachets by Raid or similar, though.

You should use ammonia free glass cleaner on stained glass. Ammonia will eventually pit the glass otherwise.

30 Aug 00 - 11:09 AM (#287825)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: kendall

Hey Airto..are you studying under Spaw? or are YOU Spaw? fess up now! Another hint..old eggs will float, fresh ones will sink. (Spaw reminded me of this in his post on fibre)

30 Aug 00 - 11:09 AM (#287826)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Kim C

Woooeeee! Cold Panty Hose! That's just the ticket here in this 90+ degree weather. Of course, I generally put the panty hose away from April-October.

Sian mentioned that bread won't rise if it's thundery. I reckon that has to do with humidity and such - I know that affects bread, it's happened to me, back when I actually had time to bake bread. But Mister said something a couple weeks ago that I'd never heard before - he said stormy weather will sour your milk quicker. He said his daddy told him that.

Anybody else ever heard that?

30 Aug 00 - 11:19 AM (#287836)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

Pantyhose can also be used as a sexual trampoline if in your haste, you have forgoteen to remove them from ladyfriend. The first good thrust will catapult you backwards into the wall and leave you crumpled on the floor with a broken tool.

I don't even want to think about frozen ones........but it does give an expanded meaning to the word "frigid."

Spaw

30 Aug 00 - 11:34 AM (#287846)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Liz the Squeak

If your salt clogs in the saltpot, put a few grains of rice in with them, and the salt should run freely. Unless of course, you get a grain of rice caught in the hole.....

Maybe the salt in the water thing was about beans and peas - salt toughens the skins, so they take longer to boil, so it shouldn't be added until they are nearly done....

LTS

30 Aug 00 - 11:35 AM (#287847)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Liz the Squeak

And if you get a sharp pain in one of your eyes when drinking cocoa, take the spoon out of the cup first!

LTS

30 Aug 00 - 11:39 AM (#287851)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: jeffp

The itching and swelling of insect bites and stings can be relieved by rubbing a cut onion on them. Meat tenderizer also works on bee stings (it breaks down the proteins that cause the pain).

jeffp

30 Aug 00 - 11:52 AM (#287866)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: sian, west wales

Jeri ... so, cookies (a.k.a. biscuits ... but I'm Canadian Welsh so I'll eat either) go stale if they're left alone long enough? i.e. uneaten? So, let me get this straight: you've got this box of cookies, you open them, and there's some left the next day?

hey, ya' learn something every day in Mudcat...

sian

30 Aug 00 - 11:58 AM (#287874)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Bert

Wasp and bee stings.

Like it says in the hangover thread, Prevention is the best way to deal with them. It's a little known fact that if you talk nicely to a wasp or a bee it is less likely to sting you.
If you have a wasp in your house, just talk nicely and calmly to it and offer it a little treat, say a dab of jam or honey (or even water) on your finger (or on a knife if you're too scared to use your finger) and often she will come down and eat out of your hand. Then you just walk outside and put her down, or shake her off.

Bert.

30 Aug 00 - 12:06 PM (#287884)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: wysiwyg

Toothpaste to polish silver jewelry. Not on big flat fancy stuff-- it's a bit abrasive. Great on rings, chains, etc.

I can't help but think that those zipper techniques sound really interesting if done with pants ON.

~S~

30 Aug 00 - 12:06 PM (#287885)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

Uh Bert? Are you OK? I mean sheep are one thing, but wasps? How long have you had this particular fetish?

Spaw

30 Aug 00 - 12:11 PM (#287889)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Jeri

**whooooosh** - sound of humorous comment flying unhindered over head! Er, well...if you hide some of the cookies so people can't get at them, then forget where you put them...

A paste made of baking soda and water works on bee stings, too.

If you add salt to meat while it's cooking, it will make the meat dry.

30 Aug 00 - 12:26 PM (#287909)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Liz the Squeak

To stop cats spraying your furniture with their own brand of 'polish', sprinkle a citrus oil around it, or use a citrus oil/perfumed polish. If you use a bleach based or disinfectant based cleaner to wash it off, the cat will only come back and do it again, because you have covered its smell with a stronger one, so obviously its smell needs to be stronger this time...... but they don't really like citrus smells so they avoid them. Sooner or later, the habit is learned and then you just have to stop them crapping in the pot plants.

LTS

30 Aug 00 - 12:41 PM (#287928)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Mbo

Bart...Cherokee Fiddle is Johnny Lee. And Spaw, shut it.

30 Aug 00 - 12:44 PM (#287931)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Bert

Aw Meebs, he's only kidding.

30 Aug 00 - 12:45 PM (#287933)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

***chuckle,chuckle***......

Spaw

30 Aug 00 - 12:46 PM (#287934)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: wysiwyg

LTS, it is also because the ammonia smells to them like a rival cat. Gotta one-up that bad invisible kitty and remark the territory.

They like to pee on plastic grocery store bags too. If you have one peeing in the wrong place, line their kitty pan with these bags, it will attract them. After putting this near where they have been misbehaving, put down their cat food where they are inappropriately peeing or pooping-- they will pick a new spot, eventually learning that the whole house is a potential food dish, not a cat pan.

~S~

30 Aug 00 - 12:50 PM (#287938)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Bert

If you're going to use a gecko to control your insect pests, you must NOT use insecticides - EVER.

30 Aug 00 - 12:52 PM (#287943)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: GUEST,Louigi

To get rid of roaches, sprinkle borax powder in back of the stove and fridge, and in the space under the sink. the little buggers walk over it, then rub their sides with their crystal covered feet, abrade holes in themselves, and dehydrate. For fleas, put the borax in your pet's bed, on the carpet, and in the litter box for cats. They go the same way. For ant infestations, spray their path with Pinesol.

I have the big black ones sometimes, and I spray them with fullstrength ammonia. Same for spiders. Lou

30 Aug 00 - 12:59 PM (#287952)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Airto

The advice above about fibre has set me thinking. When I was growing up one of the hazards of using the toilet was to be confronted by one of my younger brother's floaties. Mine always sank but his would have withstood Niagara Falls.

How could this have been the case when we were both eating at the same table? I always thought it was because he tended to gobble his food, and was therefore taking in lots of air with his nourishment, while I carefully chewed mine.

Or maybe he was surreptitiously adding bits of cork to his mashed potato, which would explain both why his handiwork could have been used for liferafts and also why he didn't bother much with chewing.

By the way, Grab, thanks for the sand paper tip for dealing with the snail-mail problem. It sounds a lot simpler than a French chef...all that prima donna stuff would be a bit hard to take.

30 Aug 00 - 01:01 PM (#287953)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Mbo

Best way to kill a roach--use a big shoe.

30 Aug 00 - 01:08 PM (#287958)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: sledge

Best not to squish them in your house, their dying act is often to eject live eggs, thus perpetuating the problem. It is fun though.

30 Aug 00 - 01:18 PM (#287966)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Morticia

leaving the avocado stone in the guacomole will keep it fresh and stop it turning brown....same with lemon juice in apple sauce and lemon peel scattered around the garden will keep cats from using it as a public lav. Cigarette ash mixed with meths will take out those white water marks from furniture

30 Aug 00 - 02:02 PM (#288008)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Peg

add water to your commercial cleaning products that are water-based (window cleaners, dish-soap, floor soap, etc.) They will last longer and be far less toxic in your home environment. (and they will work just as well).

To freshen, hydrate and decontaminate stale indoors winter air in your home, boil a pot of water on the stove. Add any of the folloing in any combination: orange peels, lemon peels, grapefruit peels, cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, dried rosemary, nutmeg. This cleanses germs and odors from the sir, adds moisture taken out from indoor heating, and smells lovely...you aromatherapy converts can add a few drops of essential oils, too: the citrus ones are especially nice and inexpensive...

Baking soda is amazing. It is a fine replacement for abrasive ammonia cleansers for porcelain tubs and sinks and for stoves or stainless steel sinks too. It cuts grease quite well, too, with hot water. I sprinkle it on the floor when I am scrubbing it. You can also add it to the kitty litter box for added odor absorption. Also the vinegar and baking soda drain cleaning does work!!!

if your kitties have worms, add some ground up pumpkin seeds to their wet food...if you have time and inclination, feeding them an all-natural raw meat diet is best to prevent this (cooked commercial foods weaken their immunity to parasites found in raw meat, ironically)

If you know anyone with a quince tree (I have on ein my yard), a bowl of quinces placed on a table will keep for weeks and imbue the air with a wonderful fragrance: slightly sweet, autumnal, spicy...

30 Aug 00 - 06:42 PM (#288185)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

Eating rare steak, cabbage, beans, and a large glass of milk about 3 hours before sex will make your partner believe you are Thor, God of Thunder.......but its also a major contributor to Coitus Interuptus.

Spaw

30 Aug 00 - 08:47 PM (#288245)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Jim Dixon

Any sticky stuff that can't be washed off with soap and water can probably be dissolved with oil. Any kind of oil will do, so use whatever is handiest and cheapest, such as whatever you cook with.

To intimidate an emu, hold your hand high over your head. To an emu, your hand will resemble the head of another emu that is taller than them. Emus are always deferential to larger emus. Otherwise they might kick the hell out of you.

An organic, but cruel, way to wipe out a nest of yellow-jackets - they're the hornets that live in a hole in the ground - go to the hole at night when they're asleep. Shove an open glass jar into the hole, bottom upwards. When the hornets try to fly out of the hole in the morning, they'll hit the glass, and they're too dumb to go back down and look for another way out. Eventually they'll starve.

Batteries that are too weak to run a Game-Boy, Walkman, or whatever, still have enough juice in them to run an electric clock for a long time.

31 Aug 00 - 01:10 AM (#288336)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: GUEST,Crazy Eddie

Ma-K I've had a pair of shoes for two years which are too tight to wear, and too nice to throw out. I'll try your ice-bag tip. If it works I'll e-mail you a beer!

Someone mentioned getting rid of nasty smells by boiling oranges (OK it may have been orange-peel) ...................... For some reason I got this mental picture of Conrad #1 peasant in a large cannibal-type cook-pot. Not sure if it would get rid of smells, but it'd be fun to try (Only kidding).

31 Aug 00 - 01:43 AM (#288345)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: rabbitrunning

If you accidently put too much salt into a sauce or gravy, add a raw potato while it cooks, and then remove the potato before serving the sauce. It will have absorbed most of the salt.

31 Aug 00 - 11:32 AM (#288586)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Jim Dixon

Aversion therapy for people who want to quit smoking: Save up your cigarette butts in a glass jar with a lid, and keep it handy. When you crave a cigarette, open the jar, stick your nose in, and inhale. The disgusting smell will extinguish the craving.

31 Aug 00 - 05:47 PM (#288765)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Peter T.

Hints from Abelard:

(1) Suzanne G. of North Dakota writes: Hi Abelard! Steel wool dipped in peanut butter and rubbed over old vinyl records is the best way to reproduce the sound of the last radio message from the Hindenburg! Great for the historical sounds buff in your family!

(2) Mary R. of Poughkeepsie sends in this life saver: If your child comes in with a bruised and bloodied knee, daub the other one in a mixture of burnt sienna and alizarin crimson so as to balance them off. Who is to know?

(3) Tom T. of Oregon wings in a solution to a perennial problem: I always keep an ice tray filled with honeybees in the fridge in case Jehovah's Witnesses drop by. The bees go into hibernation until you thaw them out. JW's always seem to have a thirst, and I am always willing to oblige.

(4) Cherlee L. of Bangor, Maine says: Do you have a problem with socks that don't match? The secret is to have different coloured pairs of shoes and trousers with different coloured pant legs. The human eye fixes on the big differences and will not notice the sock problem. thanks Cherlee!

(5) Frank Q. of Timmins, Ontario solves a real oldie: you know when you have one of those scotch tape rolls where you lose the leading edge, and have to scratch it out, and curse and everything? When you get the roll to start with, unravel all the tape and lay a thread down the length of the sticky side, and then roll it all back up again. Perfecto!!

More Tips Daily!!!
yours, Abelard

31 Aug 00 - 06:34 PM (#288810)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Lyrical Lady

A daily dose of Catspaw49 is good for what ails ya!!! I needed that!

01 Sep 00 - 12:01 AM (#289004)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Ely

I'm told boiling socks will whiten them (I've never tried it because by the time my socks are this old, they're so threadbare there isn't anything left to stain).

Another good way to reduce the incidence of cats spraying the furniture is to neuter them (the cats). ;)

Rice grains in the salt is a must here in the South.

We also paint our porch ceilings blue to try to fool bugs into thinking it's sky so they won't nest on it. I don't know that that works, though (I do know that ours is white and we're always sweeping cobwebs).

Someone told me a roach remedy that involved separate bowls of dry plaster (perhaps with sugar in it?) and water. They eat the plaster and then get thirsty, and plug themselves up. Never tried that--I'd probably get my dog instead, the little pig.

My personal reaction to roaches is to spray them with Windex. It kills even three-inch palmetto bugs ("flying roaches") and doesn't fume as badly as bug spray.

01 Sep 00 - 01:02 AM (#289028)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Troll

To kill the pain of a bee or wasp sting, put a poultice of "used" chewing tobacco on the site.

To keep mosquitos and chiggers off, drink a quart of sulfur water daily. You'll smell like a dog fart but the bugs will avoid you. You can also sprinkle your body liberally with flowers of sulfur. But the water is better.

If your yard has fleas, plant a chinaberry tree. Pennyroyal is also good, both inside and out.

troll

02 Sep 00 - 02:18 AM (#289803)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: BlueJay

The best way I've found to get rid of a wasp nest is to wait until near-dark when they are all in their happy little home, then spray it with automotive starting fluid. They just drop to the ground instantly. I don't know if it's the ether in the fluid, or the cold temperature, but if you hit them, they go down fast. Bug sprays don't work: it usually just pisses them off and they attack you till they die. The starting fluid won't kill them, however, so once they are immobilized, you need to stomp them or something to kill them off.

02 Sep 00 - 02:28 AM (#289805)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Liz the Squeak

Boiling your socks will make them nice and white - it will also render them useless to anyone with a foot larger than the average 5year olds.....

Boiling tea towels/dish cloths is a good idea too, gets the nasty stains out, and makes em smell nicer. Plus, they tend not to shrink! What's for dinner dear? MMmmm Dish Cloth soup, yum!

LTS

02 Sep 00 - 06:47 PM (#290054)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: JenEllen

LOL Dynamic Darlin' Duo Spaw-n-Abelard.

If you put a dab of vanilla behind each ear, you'll smell like a cookie all day.

~Elle

02 Sep 00 - 07:21 PM (#290076)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

Thanks JE...but that reminds me...............

HOT TIP: Never attend any function that includes Jen Ellen and a barbecue grill unless you are dressed in a Nomex Firesuit. This applies to your birds too.

Spaw

03 Sep 00 - 08:03 AM (#290244)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Penny S.

There was a tale in the Summer issue of New Scientist of some Aussies who used slugs to keep down the mildew in the shower, a gecko for the roaches, and I forget what for the mozzies. Parasitic insects in the standing water or something. Try it on their website.

Penny

03 Sep 00 - 09:33 AM (#290263)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

I'm always a little frightened at the idea of bringing in something to counteract something else. Sometimes the solution becomes a bigger problem.......like kudzu.

Spaw

03 Sep 00 - 10:29 AM (#290276)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Noreen

JenEllen, dabbing vanilla on the skin is supposed to counter a craving for chocolate: I keep meaning to try it!

Noreen

03 Sep 00 - 11:39 AM (#290302)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Alice

To kill gnats in pots of house plants, cut small sections of a flea & tick collar and put them in the surface soil of the pot.

To prevent spider mite infestation in house plants prone to mites, spray weekly with a mixture of water, rubbing alcohol, and a drop or two of dishwashing liquid. Place ivy (hedera) in the shower and wash it off once a week to suppress mites.

03 Sep 00 - 12:12 PM (#290312)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: flattop

If you have big ears and you run out of q-tips, try your bodhran tipper.

03 Sep 00 - 02:17 PM (#290350)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny

Oklahoma All Purpose Repair Kit.

Assemble a repair kit containing the following:

(1) Roll of duct tape, (2) Can of WD-40, and (3) Ball-peen hammer.

Anything that can't be fixed with duct tape, WD-40, and a ball-peen hammer, AIN'T WORTH FIXIN'.

Johnny in OKC

03 Sep 00 - 03:19 PM (#290369)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Metchosin

Airto, try a copper mailbox or cheaper yet a bare strip of copper or copper wire around the entrance. Slugs and snails won't cross, as it sets up some sort of electro chemical reaction when in contact with their slime.

03 Sep 00 - 05:13 PM (#290411)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Ely

My brother and his Civil War reenacting cronies always start eating garlic a couple of weeks before a big reenactment (or garlic tablets, if other people have to share living space with them). It's supposed to make them less palatable to ticks.

03 Sep 00 - 10:35 PM (#290556)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny

Use a clothes-dryer "Bounce" cloth tucked in your belt to ward off skeetos, ticks & bugs. == Johnny

04 Sep 00 - 09:54 AM (#290699)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Bagpuss

Sitting on a newspaper for travel sickness - I don't think it has anything to do with static. It's a way of making you lean into corners, insteadof being thrown out by them (the newspaper slides, so that your hips are not a fixed point, and they get slung outwards by the force, rather than your shoulders).

This is why drivers don't tend to get travel sick - they already lean into the corners by turning the wheel.

Bagpuss

04 Sep 00 - 10:34 AM (#290728)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Airto

Thanks, Metchosin.

The copper wire sounds like a neat solution to the snail problem.

Incidentally, does your theory explain why eating raw snails hurts your fillings, or is it in fact the bits of shell that are responsible?

04 Sep 00 - 11:15 AM (#290747)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny

Why does chewing on tin foil hurt the fillings in your teeth? I don't do this often, nor eat raw snails, but I just wondered. == Johnny

04 Sep 00 - 05:04 PM (#290931)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Liz the Squeak

There is one fork in our cutlery drawer that sets up the same "hot" reaction - just one out of a set of 12.... can I ever find the one when I have the marking paint with me? And why does it always happen at dinner parties when I'm trying to impress. Chatting away like an erudite blond mushroom and suddenly there's this bolt of lightening and my face screws up to one side. Very attractive I don't think!

And why are there so few left handed cake forks? I spent ages finding a set of cutlery that doesn't have right handed cake forks. All I need now are evenly ground steak knives and I'll be OK. Ho hum...

LTS

05 Sep 00 - 04:49 PM (#291574)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Penny S.

http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns224948

Slugwise

06 Sep 00 - 02:52 AM (#291925)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Elise

A friend of mine once brought in a Gecko to eat her roaches. Every time she went in her kitchen it screamed "F--k you!" at her and nearly scared her to death. She was frightened of it to begin with, 'cause if they bite you ther can't let go. The story didn't have a pretty end.

Water with salt in it will take longer to boil, but it will boil hotter. Good idea not to salt it if you're cooking veggies, I think.

06 Sep 00 - 11:46 AM (#292104)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: sheila

Vinegar helps to soothe the skin after a midgie attack.

06 Sep 00 - 11:53 AM (#292109)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Bert

Elise, your friend should have got a 'House Gecko' not a bloody 'Tokay Gecko' :-)

Bert.

06 Sep 00 - 12:00 PM (#292112)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: SINSULL

Geckos and snapping turtles will let go in thunder storms. You have to wait. This from a lady who kept a full grown alligator in her bathtub.

06 Sep 00 - 12:20 PM (#292128)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: catspaw49

....Gator?........In your tub?..........Right then..............geeziz................

HOUSEHOLD TIP: Its always nice for others if you give a courtesy flush before you finish. This is not considered to be a waste of water.

Spaw

03 Sep 01 - 10:22 AM (#540730)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull

Dont kill spiders, I like spiders

03 Sep 01 - 03:31 PM (#540930)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: Gareth

Drinking rough Cider (Applejack) is the perfect cough cure.

Two pints and you darn't cough.

Gareth

03 Sep 01 - 03:37 PM (#540933)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: wysiwyg

According to my book of folk cures, they used to "cure" someone of the drink by locking them up with only bread and water, the bread being soaked in diluted alcohol and the water containing a bit of alcohol as well if I recall right.

The outcome is supposed to be that the "patient" becomes just mildly enough affected by the alcohol to avoid DTs and gets sick to the stomach on the diet, and thus this would be an early form of aversion therapy.

Supposedly, even the smell of drink after such a cure (can't recall how long it goes on!) is supposed to produce the aversion effect (strong or mild, eeew!) and the "patient" therefore avoids establishments where the smell pervades.

Not PC. Never tried it on anyone. Offered merely as a curiosity. *G*

~Susan

03 Sep 01 - 04:19 PM (#540955)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: jaze

This really works! If you light a small candle and put it on the counter while cutting onions-you won't shed a tear.

03 Sep 01 - 04:50 PM (#540980)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: lady penelope

Neutering a cat will NOT stop it spraying. I know, 'cos Mungo still sprays away whenever we get an intruding cat. Also the vet told us when we got him neutered that it wouldn't necessarily do anything about the spraying. But deffinately avoid using cleaners with an ammonia or chlorine base.

Am I missing something? Elise, your friend had a gecko that talked? The little lizardy things? Am I the only one that thinks possibly her problem may have been chemical? Or is it just me being clueless?

HP sauce cleans brass and copper and coal tar based shampoos clean silver jewellry up a treat.

If you polish your formica tops after you clean them, it helps to stop tea and coffee stains.

Cats can't stand neat lavender oil, keeps them off everything!

Apparently my grandad Ward used to make a cough linctus from vinegar wine, a bulb of garlic, brown sugar and a large amount of paprika. You boil everything up together, till the cloves go soft, leave it to cool and then drink about 2 table spoons ( 50 mls ) every few hours. I think it scares the cough away. My brother just likes to drink it 'cos he likes the taste!!!!

TTFN M'Lady P.

03 Sep 01 - 04:51 PM (#540983)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: lady penelope

Neutering a cat will NOT stop it spraying. I know, 'cos Mungo still sprays away whenever we get an intruding cat. Also the vet told us when we got him neutered that it wouldn't necessarily do anything about the spraying. But deffinately avoid using cleaners with an ammonia or chlorine base.

HP sauce cleans brass and copper and coal tar based shampoos clean silver jewellry up a treat.

If you polish your formica tops after you clean them, it helps to stop tea and coffee stains.

Cats can't stand neat lavender oil, keeps them off everything!

TTFN M'Lady P.

03 Sep 01 - 04:52 PM (#540985)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: lady penelope

Neutering a cat will NOT stop it spraying. I know, 'cos Mungo still sprays away whenever we get an intruding cat. Also the vet told us when we got him neutered that it wouldn't necessarily do anything about the spraying. But deffinately avoid using cleaners with an ammonia or chlorine base.

HP sauce cleans brass and copper and coal tar based shampoos clean silver jewellry up a treat.

If you polish your formica tops after you clean them, it helps to stop tea and coffee stains.

Cats can't stand neat lavender oil, keeps them off everything!

TTFN M'Lady P.

03 Sep 01 - 04:53 PM (#540987)
Subject: RE: Household Folklore and Tips
From: lady penelope

Neutering a cat will NOT stop it spraying. I know, 'cos Mungo still sprays away whenever we get an intruding cat. Also the vet told us when we got him neutered that it wouldn't necessarily do anything about the spraying. But deffinately avoid using cleaners with an ammonia or chlorine base.

HP sauce cleans brass and copper and coal tar based shampoos clean silver jewellry up a treat.

If you polish your formica tops after you clean them, it helps to stop tea and coffee stains.

Cats can't stand neat lavender oil, keeps them off everything!

TTFN M'Lady P.