By Rosie Preston
Last week I shared some tips about using Dawn dish detergent and vinegar to save money and time. Maybe you will find some of the following tips useful.
The first tip is a great way to trap fruit flies. I know they seem to come to my house each summer, and I learned from a friend to a take very small container, fill it up about an inch high with detergent and then pour vinegar on top. You will be surprised when it attracts the fruit and (sometimes) house flies!
The glass top of my stove seemed impossible to keep clean until I tried the following tip using baking soda, vinegar and Dawn detergent.
I mix it into a paste-like consistency (but it is still wet) and leave in on overnight. I’ve used this method over and over, and it works as well as any store-bought product.
When furniture, cabinets, walls, etc., are dirty, I take the Dawn detergent and add vinegar in a spray bottle and spray and clean. It doesn’t take a lot of rinsing and gets rid of the dirt and grease that accumulates on just about every inch of my home.
The next tip I’m going to share with you concerns a way to keep from wasting clean water.
One day – as usual – I was waiting on the hot water to kick in when I decide to measure how much water was going down the drain before the water turned warm.
I saved several plastic laundry detergent containers and ran the cold water and amazingly found it takes about a gallon of water before the water is warm enough to use. My little test proved that at least 15 gallons of water a day was the average.
I turned this information into a mission and took it a little further by collecting water from my kitchen sink and bathtub water. It took me a while to come up with a way to save water before a shower was a comfortable temperature. I then I realized that I could turn on the bathtub faucet and fill up the containers until the water is warm enough to turn on the shower.
When I told one friend about saving the water, she said, “But I don’t think we’re going to have a drought.”
I said in reply, “It’s about saving water. By collecting water into the plastic laundry containers, I then add the water into my washing machine. This saves the water that would fill usually fill the washing machine.”
And don’t forget about using it to water your inside and outside plants.
Let me know if you have any tips to share!
Keep Smiling, Rosie
Please visit my blog site at www.life101rosie.com and e-mail me at rosie.preston@yahoo.com.