By Mary Conyard, Editorial Committee, TAG member
Cleaning the Microwave鈥�
Squeeze half a lemon in a bowl of water, microwave for 3 minutes. The build up inside your microwave should come off. Wipe off excess moisture.
Cleaning your Iron
All those who still use an iron, and the plate is not clean, you can use coarse salt on brown paper, iron over the salt and the yucky bits come off, and the iron plate is shiny.
Ants 鈥� how to deter them鈥�
1) Combine ground black pepper and red (cayenne) pepper (these are natural deterrents). Ants find these peppers irritating. Sprinkle peppers around baseboards and behind appliances.
2) Peppermint oil and Tea Tree oil 鈥� 10 drops of each oil with 2 cups of water in a plastic spray bottle. Spray the mixture around the house where you see the ants. Alternatively, you can soak cotton balls in the mixture and place them around the home where you think the ants are entering. Remember to change cotton balls each week.
Musty smelling 肠濒辞迟丑别蝉鈥�
Quarter (录) cup of vinegar in a plastic spray bottle, fill the rest of the bottle with water. Hang wet clothes inside and spray the vinegar and water solution, then let clothes dry. You can also spray the solution when you put them in the dryer. Vinegar is a deodoriser. You can also use this spray on the carpet when you are vacuuming (it only needs a light spray).鈥�
White Cotton Towels & Sheets
White sheets and white towels not so white anymore? Wash sheets and towels on normal cycle, adding half (陆) a cup of lemon juice to the fabric conditioner slot of the washing machine. Then hang the towels and sheets to dry outdoors. The residual lemon juice in the fibres of the fabric reacts with the ultraviolet light in sunlight and bleaches them white without making them go stiff.鈥�
Paint brushes have gone hard?鈥�
Soak the brushes in methylated spirits overnight. The next day rub with Vaseline, cover with plastic wrap, and leave overnight again. On the third day, wash the bristles in warm soapy water. Do this in preparation for painting. NOTE: Some paint won鈥檛 dissolve in this way, including acrylics, gouache, and oil paints.
Link Wentworth wishes to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which we work and pay our respect to the Elders past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.