Tips for a great home.

How to heal a cold fast.

2010-02-08T07:34:00.000-08:00

I had a severe cold around the middle of December.

Every year, I play in the rain, sun and mud, and I catch colds only once or twice a year in either Feb and/or Dec, it has to do something with the winds changing direction.

This time, it was severe as usual, but the following helped me to get better sooner:

A small bite of ginger. The warmth soothes the throat.

2. Kashayam.

Grind black pepper, cumin and coriander seeds in equal measures (a half teaspoon should do), add sugar and boil in a cupful of water, and drink it slowly. Warms your throat and makes you better as it goes in.

For the dry throat that keeps you awake at night:

A bottle of water by the bed. Take small mouthfulls, and gargle before you swallow. The air bubbles moisten your air pipes, which doesnt happen when you just drink water.

Sleep with more pillows, so that your torso is raised, and you can breathe easily.

Loads of rest n sleep, to cure you sooner.

Dress very warm, to break out the fever.

Use kerchiefs, as tissues might irritate your nose more. Change kerchiefs everyday.

These tips helped me immensely, and I got better in less than a week.

A thousand annoying little tips

2009-11-03T13:59:00.001-08:00

Okay, maybe not a thousand, and perhaps not annoying, but a lot of tips, nevertheless.
Ones that I have tried and found to work for me, to maintain a better home.

I'm starting with a few, and will keep updating the same post, rather than making countless new posts with single tips.

1.
Use up the cut lemons you get with takeout Indian food. Freeze them and use when They r great for:
Squeezing lemon juice in the dishwasher along with your dishwashing liquid (the ones made for dishwashers)
Collect a cup ful of the rinds and put them in your sink, then run the garbage disposal. Would de-gunk the garbage disposal.
Store the cut onions too, and use within one day where over you need onions.
The little plastic boxes that contain takeout food can be reused, and used when you need to share sweets and snacks with neighbors, without having to remember if Mrs Jones has returned your boxes.

2.
Rinse your sponges and scrubs free of suds, and when they are still moist, nuke them in the microwave for 2 mins every 2 days to disinfect. (caution: dry sponges may cause fire, and also wait for a few mins before touching the hot sponges)

3.
Spray bathroom tiles and shower curtain, especially where the curtain touches the bathtub, with a salt solution, using a mister bottle, once a week, to keep mold and mildew from forming.

4.
Use either baking soda or isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) as a deodorant.
I got the tip about rubbing alcohol here: http://www.debtfreeadventure.com/2009/11/natural-homemade-deodorant/

5.
House flies.
To get rid of them, pour rubbing alcohol into a mister bottle (that you get for a dollar) and spray on them. They get disoriented and land down, so you can spray again and again till they don't move, then you could trash them.

Eco friendly cleaning tips.

2009-11-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

To stop mold and mildew in the shower, I fill a mister bottle (bought for a dollar at walmart) with 1/4th water, add 2 heaped spoons of salt to it, mix well, and spray away at the curtains, on the wall, between the curtains and the tub (where its most common to find mold. )

I spray everyweek, but not as thoroughly, and we have not got mold yet.

By the way, i think this link should be good, on eco friendly cleaning products. I am yet to read it.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00580/natural-household-cleaning-products.html

Bath mat

2009-10-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

We are using this grass tub mat we got from Walmart for around 10$.
It provides a non-slippery surface for standing on, and also the bristles massage and exfoliate your feet as you bathe.

The only problem I've faced with it is that it collects a lot of hair, and it is a pain to use a toothbrush to get the hair out.

From what I've read, putting the mat in the washing machine will do the trick.

Exercising at home.

2009-10-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

Today was a hectic day

We woke up at noon, shopped for groceries, and then started the weekend ritual of making biryani, (which can serve 8).

I had:
Chopped the vegetables
Made the biryani
Cleaned up all the utensils, a mammoth cutting board, miscellaneous glasses, knives, the countertop, stovetop, microwave and the blender surface, all in the time that the biryani was cooking, just because they might have come in contact with raw chicken at some time.

All in the course of two and half hours.

Hubby had chopped the chicken (good soul that he is), and then busied himself fixing a water purifier to the kitchen tap. Which leaked. So I had to rinse my hands and rinse the rice in the bathroom.

And there I was, trying to use the blender, and the kitchen tap spurted on my face... It was a mess, but a happy one... Do you know the scene in Nayagan, where it rains, and the tin roof leaks, and the chickens come in through the door...Its that kid of a happy mess.

Less is more.

2009-10-11T00:24:00.000-07:00

When I moved into the new house with hubby, I went out and bought different types of scrubs, brushes, cleaning fluids etc for the house, with all the anticipation of a new wife.

After a few months, you realise that you like one particular brand, or a particular product, and stick with it.

What about the other products?

Six months is a long enough time to use up everything you might have bought initially.

I have this strict rule at home: Buy something only when you do not have anything else that will do the same job.

So, we have this scented candle which has lost all its perfume. When we get an impulse to buy another, I make a mental note that I should either finish or throw away the old one, before we buy another.

I guess I am going to melt away the wax (throw it away) and use the glass as a pen stand.

We also have a lot of incense sticks around home. So I'm going to use them up before another scented candle enters the house.

It is so much harder to make another person understand this point of view, that I do not try much. I merely make try to lessen the stuff around us, without entering the other person's personal space.

Cleaning products that I use

2009-10-11T00:17:00.001-07:00

I have experimented with different products, and have whittled down my usage to a select few:

Baking soda: This stuff is the wonder thing of the cleaning world. Along with Borax and vinegar of course. There are countless sites listing the uses of baking soda. (on a strange note, I just keep thinking it should not be the thalidomide of our decade).

Vinegar: see baking soda. I am yet to try vinegar for my home, I'm going to buy it on the next shopping trip, to use as fabric softener and mildew cleaner.

Borax: see baking soda. I'm not sure of the health effects of borax. I would lessen or discontinue its use when there would be a kid at home, but for now, I'm using it for clothes and for roaches, and I make sure I do not touch it with hands or inhale it.

Dawn dish liquid: This stuff has made my life soooo easy. Ajax was bad, bad, bad. It was an oily soap, and would not wash away easily, and I had to keep rinsing the vessels in water for a long time. Dawn changed all that. Now I even use dawn and baking soda for cleaning countertops and appliances.

What other cleaning products do I have?

Clorox bleach, that I mistakenly bought for bleaching whites (hubby never let me do it.)

And 409 all purpose cleaner. that I rarely get a chance to use.

I'm planning on using the bleach for the toilets instead of Harpic, and the 409 could be given away.

"Frugal tip" - dilute your shampoo 1:1 with water

2009-10-11T00:16:00.000-07:00

There are scores of frugal sites out there, where people submit what they consider to be frugal tips.
Many are good, I agree, but more often than not, I come across these kind of tips:

Dilute your shampoo/body wash/conditioner/dish liquid 1:1 with water

I have tried it too, and found the result unsatisfactory.

If you are already using only as much product as you need to get the job done, why would you need to dilute it, and what purpose does it serve?

This tip is good only when you have been frivolous, and you automatically take more product than you need for one use.

Elbow grease and deep breathing

2009-10-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

Elbow grease is a metaphor for working hard at manual labour, as in "You need to use some elbow grease."

The first time I heard the term, I was like, "What?", they make grease from elbows?

Back in India, the cleaning products are quite primitive when compared with the ones in US, and most cleaning make use of a fair amount of elbow grease.

In the USA, it is very very rare for one to use elbow grease, because of the number of cleaning products available for each need.

I feel it is one of the essentials of a stay at home life.

When you cook thrice a day, the dirty pots and pans pile up. Dawn, deep breathing and elbow grease get me through them in no time. Plus it is my usual aerobics routine.

I try to wash as fast as I can, while breathing deeply.
The numerous advantages are:
1. I dont have to stand for a long time and hurt my back.
2. Deep breathing is always good, and helps you work faster.
3. You burn more calories that way.

What when I'm too tired, or too rushed? I use more of Dawn dish liquid, and less of elbow grease.

There is always a balance between the two.

Bathroom tiles

2009-10-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

They are a pain to clean.

The grout (plaster between the tiles) is a porous substance, where water can collect, and grow mold and mildew.
The mold would be deep in the grout, so Elbow grease does not help.

These tips are supposed to work on the stubbon bathroom mold:

Dilute vinegar with water and spray on tiles.
Use baking soda as a scouring powder, and scrub away with a tooth brush
Dilute bleach 1:9 with water, spray on tiles, wipe when it becomes white. (Not ecofriendly, but helps use up the bottle of bleach you already have.)
Use a cotton ball to apply tea tree oil on the grout, do not wipe (caution: Tea tree oil is a known endocrine disruptor, giving rise to man-boobs in teen boys. God forbid! I can live with bathroom mold any day.)

The first two tips seem the best and eco friendly, I am trying them out this week.

Update:
I cheated. My baking soda is over, and I have not bought vinegar yet, so I used bleach.
I had to spray twice, to get the mold off. The fumes were really bad and I kept the room closed.
Then I rinsed it off and used an old toothbrush to work away the remaining mold.

Now the mold problem is somewhat under control, and the bit that remains is under the sealant, on the grout.
I wonder how I'd get them out.

I found this link today, and the tips are simple enough.
http://www.mrscleanusa.com/tips/cleaning-bathroom-tile.html

The best cleaning tips for your home.

2009-10-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

Everyone who likes a clean home wants the best tips and tricks of the trade, right?

When I read a tip online, that is good enough for me to follow, I post it here.
The tip has to be:
Frugal
Easy
Ecofriendly.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/04/05/the-frugal-geeks-toolbox/

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/03/06/spring-cleaning-time-here-are-some-tips-for-cleaning-supplies-on-the-cheap/

http://basenjimom.blogspot.com/2007/06/frugal-tip-of-day.html

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/05/29/baking-soda-my-favorite-frugal-substance/

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/11/10/creative-cleaning-with-everyday-products/

Frugal fun loving

2009-10-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

I am collating links I find on the web about having fun on a budget.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/09/11/fifteen-ways-to-have-cheap-fun-with-your-kids-using-a-1-end-roll-of-paper/

Re using Dryer lint

2009-10-09T15:07:00.001-07:00

There are hundreds of pages out there telling you what to do with your dryer lint.

If you live near a laundromat, its all the better, you can get loads of lint to reuse!

http://www.planetpals.com/dryer_lint_crafts.html

General tips around the house

2009-10-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

I am collecting tips from the web on happy home making, and effortlessly maintaining a cleaner healthier house.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ah_usORWiLcjOEWB58Gwym0z53NG;_ylv=3?qid=20091007101832AAKnUEo
Use vinegar and baking soda as natural cleaners. Fill a spray bottle with 1/2 vinegar and half water to mist the shower after the last person. It cuts soap scum and helps kill mildew and mold spores

Use vinegar in the rinse water of laundry loads, sets dye, helps keep darks from fading and acts like a fabric softener in the dryer

Run errands all together trying to make only right hand turns. UPS has been doing it for decades and saves thousands of gallons of gas annually

How do you clean a bottle without a brush?
http://www.instructables.com/id/Clean-a-bottle-without-a-brush/
The instructions at this link are simple, and inexpensive.
And of course, you can always soak the bottle in baking soda, and wash.