HOSEHOLD HINTS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3452, 2 October 1913, Page 7

HOSEHOLD HINTS

When preparing .onions, turnips, and carrots for cooking, cut across the fibre,' as this makes thorn more tender when cooked.

When boiling potatoes put a teaspoonful of sugar as well as salt in the water. This docs not give a sweet taste, but makes them dry and floury. Tea made with boiling milk instead of water and allowed to stand for four minutes before being poured off the leaves is excellent for invalids and most nourishing. To curl a feather that lias become spoiled by rain, sprinkle thickly with common salt, then shape before a fire to dry. It will be as good as new. To dry-clean a woollen shawl, beat equal quantities of bran and flour, put into a pan or tub and wash shawl as if in water. Leave for a little while and shake well. To soften hard water, into four gallons and a half of water stir one ounce of quick-lime. Let it settle, and then pour off the clear solution, which will ho enough to add to two barrel* of hard water. Javelle water is the host thing to remove ironmould from linen. It can be bought- at a chemist’s, and can be safely used for white materials. Sponge with cold water after the stain has disappeared. Blankets need not be washed oftencr than once a year, if always protected from contact with the body, but they should be put out in the sun and air for an hour or two once a week.

An agreeable method of changing tho atmosphere in ail invalid's room is to pour some eau do Cologne into a soup plate, and with a lighted match sot- fire to it. Tho spirit will impart a delightfully refreshing odour to the air. To keep the hands soft have a bottle of olive oil on your washstand, and before washing the hands rub a little of the oil well in. Then soap and wash, as usual. The oil loosens the dirt and also keeps the skin soft. Soiled clothing ought not to be left either in the bedroom or adjoining elosot. Keep the soiled-clothes hamper either in the attic or wool-shed, and see that- every article is dry before lacing put into it. For keeping butter cool in the hot weather, get some saltpetre, dissolve it- in cold water, and stand the butter crock in it, so that the saltpetre water may reach well up the sides. Cover it- with a wet cloth, the ends of which, resting in the saltpetre water, will keep it constantly moist. Colored things and flannels are never soaked. They require washing separately, piece by piece, ■while the washing is in progress. Pocket-hand-kerchiefs should first he rinsed out in another pan before being placed with the linen things to soak.