Archive for July, 2006

Vanilla you will find in many recipes, bet you never thought about it when you paint or make a dish that calls for hot chilies. The following are just some of the way we can use  vanilla.

To help mast the odor of paint fumes, add a tablespoon to the can of paint, preferably clear vanilla, less chance of discoloring your paint.
To add flavor to your salad dressings or other foods place a little vanilla in a bottle of olive oil or vinegar.
Out of room freshener, make your own by adding vanilla to simmering water on the stove.
When you’re measuring out vanilla extract to eliminate messy spills, use an eye dropper.
Want to soften the bite of chilies add vanilla extract and at the same time the vanilla will bring out the sweetness and flavor of the peppers, yet ease the burn of the hot chilies.  The beans then can be used in your spicy salsa recipes.
Burning that vanilla candle you bought, will remove odors in your kitchen or house.

 

The Homemaker Helpers are please to announce that Mary Ellen has joined us as a contributing author. We look forward to learning her homemaking tips and tricks and working with her. Welcome aboard Mary Ellen!

There are thousands of cleaning products, supplies and tools available theses days but really only a few basics are required to keep your home clean. The same basics that have been used by homemakers for years.

• A broom and dust pan to sweep floors or a vaccum.
• If you have carpet, you’ll need a vaccum cleaner. A vaccum maybe used on most any floor surface so you can skip the broom and dust pan if you like.
• Rags, cotton works best. I like old cotton T-shirts or cotton towels. You can purchase these at thrift or second hand stores very inexpensively.
• A bucket or pail. Reuse an ice cream type pail if you like.
• A multipurpose organic cleaner
• A mop. You can use a rag to wash floors but a mop makes it easier if you have a large area of floor to wash.

You may need a few special cleaners for particular jobs but for the most part a good multipurpose cleaner can be used for all the regular weekly cleaning jobs around your home. A mixing bottle with a trigger sprayer can speed application for spray and wipe tasks like mirrors, appliances, counter tops and dusting.

The less products and tools you have to deal with the simpler your life will be. You will save money and it is friendlier for our environment too because you’ll be adding less waste into the eco-system.

It’s easy to use more than you need and this leads to unnecessary waste. We might not even realize that we are using too much until we make a conscious effort to monitor our usage. This is especially true with cleaning products but you can use the following method with various other things around your home as well.

My dear Mother was a very frugal person and she wrote the date on all kinds of things when she started using them. This way she could keep track and make it last longer. I’ve developed the habit as well and I make a game of seeing how long I can make it last.

For example I know I can make a gallon of Watkins degreaser, a can of cooking spray, a gallon of organic cleaner, and a bottle of vanilla all last more than a year. A box of Laundry detergent last more than 6 weeks, window cleaner and tub and tile last about 6 months. I’ve even dated long life halogena and fluorescent light bulbs to see if they live up to the manufacturer’s claims, and try to make them last longer. If you are playing “the make it last game” you’ll turn off lights when you leave the room and use a smaller squirt of dishwashing detergent each time you wash dishes.

I know it may not seem like much but over the years you’ll save hundreds of dollars and keep our earth a little greener to boot. So, how long can you make it last?