Clean stuffed toys with a mix of 2 parts of baking soda and 1 part of cornstarch. Place the toy and the cleaning mix inside a Ziploc bag (or a pillow case) and shake intensively. Make sure the toy is fully covered with the powder. Then brush it or vacuum it clean.
If you are running out of fabric softener, try this homemade option. Mix 6 cups of water, 3 cups of vinegar and 2 cups of the hair conditioner of your choice. Add 2 tbsp of this to your wash load.
Bleach can cause your clothes to wear out fast and you spend a lot of money on your clothes. Try to replace bleach with a mix of baking soda and vinegar. This natural recipe will make your whites really white.
Peel a couple of oranges, then top the peels off with vinegar in a mason jar. Let this mixture sit for a couple of weeks. It’s going to take away the harsh pungent smell of the vinegar, replacing it with a nice orange scent. You can apply this mixture anywhere you want.
Make a water and vinegar solution. Spray over the area. Sprinkle with baking soda and then vacuum.
If you need to learn something by heart, the best way to do it is by using the hidden potential of your memory. Learn it by night, lying in bed and smelling rosemary. This simple trick will help you to memorize the necessary information faster and with better results.
Everyone has their own recipe against the hiccups: pull the tip of your tongue, press ice to your tongue, or swallow a sugar cube. Try to close your ears with your palms and drink a glass of water through a straw in one breath. Or bend over a sink and drink water right out of the glass.
Insert the small paper clip you bent earlier into the small pin hole opening in the SIM tray.
If you left home and forgot to brush your teeth or you ran out of toothpaste, chewing an apple can help with bad breath.
Put your phone into a drinking glass or a bowl to boost the volume of its speakers.
To turn your canvas shoes into waterproof ones, you need nothing but beeswax and a blow dryer. Spread beeswax all over your shoes. Next, use the blow dryer to melt the beeswax until you can no longer see it. Voila! Your waterproof shoes are ready!
Heavy use cooking with stainless-steel pans will eventually result in black and brown burnt marks all over cookware. To easily remove without using toxic chemicals like oven spray, mix up equal parts baking soda with cream of tartar with a drop or two of liquid dishwashing soap. Put in on the burned spots and then add some hot water. Let sit for a few minutes then scrub the black marks out.
When putting up pictures or doing anything that requires marking on walls or other surfaces around the home, save yourself from extra clean up by using white chalk. The chalk will make easy to see marks that will quickly disappear when wiped with a damp paper towel. Don’t use color chalk though; it may stain and leave a long-lasting mark.
Inevitably the walls in your home will get a few holes in them from hanging pictures or mirrors. This is annoying; when you want to change things up, there are ugly holes peppering the drywall. Thankfully, this is an easy fix: just pick up some spackle from the hardware store and scrap into the hole. Let dry then lightly sand and paint to make any holes vanish.
Living around a bunch of wood furniture or in a house with a hardwood floor means that dents and deep marks will eventually happen. But there’s a novel way to remove those dents without resorting to power tools: a household iron. Put a little water in the dent, then lay a moist towel over the it. Heat up your iron and then move it over the towel in circles, pressing down on it for a few minutes. The heat and water should rehydrate the wood, allowing it to puff back up
Leaks in roofs or ceilings will cause brown water rings on drywall but before you assemble everything you need to paint over them, try spraying a mix of 10% bleach to water on them. Wait 24 hours and more often than not, those unsightly brown spots will have disappeared. This will clear up most stains on flat or popcorn ceilings, just be sure to protect your eyes and anything close by that could get bleach on it.
After a few years of daily use, the minerals in water—not to mention dirt and sloughed off skin cells—can make any tub look stained and dingy. Instead of reaching for some harsh chemicals, mix up equal amounts of baking soda and cream of tartar (found in your grocery’s spice section) with lemon juice until it forms a paste. Apply to stains and rub in, then wait about an hour and rinse.
Air fresheners may smell great, but what they’re doing to your lungs isn’t so terrific—they’ve been linked to a host of respiratory illnesses, as well as eye irritation. Fortunately, there’s a simple alternative: by simmering a vanilla bean in two cups of water on the stove (adding some cloves or cinnamon if you want a spicier scent), you can perfume the air in your house without putting your health in jeopardy.