SOME USEFUL THINGS WE THROW AWAY
Bread dust
Two or three times a week spread the accumulated scraps upon a tin plate, or in a baking-pan, and set in a moderate oven until perfectly dry. Soft or “soggy” bits are good for nothing and interfere with the work. If, by chance or intention, the bread is slightly browned, keep it apart from that which remains white. A glass jar for each kind is a good idea.
While the dried bits are still warm, lay upon a kneading-board and crush to powder with the rolling-pin. Do this thoroughly for the “dust,” leaving no gritty particles. Keep in a closed jar in a dry place. It is invaluable for breading croquettes, fried fish, chops, etc. Roll the article to be breaded, first in beaten egg, then in the bread dust, to which have been added a little salt and pepper.
Dripping
Save fat odds and ends of cooked meats, and skim every particle of the congealed grease from the top of gravies, soups and the liquor in which ham and other large pieces of meat are boiled.
Bring slowly to a gentle simmer over the fire, and strain, without rubbing, through a fine soup-sieve, or a bit of mosquito-netting. When firm it is better for frying than any fat you can buy, unless it be pure cottolene.
Mutton and lamb fat
Must be excluded from the “trying-out” pan. At its purest state it gives an unpleasant taste to anything cooked in it. Melt it in a saucepan; when hot, add a little boiling water with a pinch of salt to cause the dregs to settle; heat five minutes without boiling, strain, but do not stir or squeeze, into small molds, such as egg-cups. When hard you will have a better cosmetic than cold cream and an invaluable salve for chapped hands and lips.
Broken crackers
Spread upon a flat platter and leave in a moderate oven until dried, but not colored. Let them cool in a dry place; crush fine with the rolling-pin and keep in a glass jar for breading chops, croquettes, etc., and for scalloping oysters, meat and other of the many made dishes that add character and variety to every-day fare.
Bones of cooked meat
Not those left on the plates after meals. They are the lawful perquisites of fowls and dogs. Bones cleaned by the carver, or the wise housemother, in the preparation of minces and stews and salads, should be laid in a spare dish, cracked through, while fresh, and put over the fire with a quart of cold water for every pound of bones, a carrot, a turnip, two tomatoes, an onion, a stalk or so of celery, all cut into dice, and boiled slowly until reduced to half the original quantity of liquid. Cool in the pot, skim and strain, and you have a tolerable “stock,” useful for a great number of dishes.
Rice water
Always boil rice in plenty of water. When the grains are soft, but not broken, drain in a colander over a bowl, and not into the sink. Rice water contains more nourishment than the cooked cereal itself. Set aside for some hours and you have a jelly which will add value to your soup stock, or may be boiled down still further, sweetened slightly and flavored with rose-water or vanilla; lastly, left in the ice or in cold place to form in a mold. Eaten with sugar and cream, it is a pleasant dessert. Beaten into a plain custard it is even better. It can also be used for thickening white sauces or gravies.
Testing a broom
When buying a broom test it by pressing the edge against the floor. If the straws bristle out and bend, the broom is a poor one. They should remain in a solid, firm mass.
To clean brass
Clean it with pulverized pumice-stone, wet with household ammonia, applying this paste first, and polishing the brass when this has dried, using for this purpose chamois skin.
Wring out a flannel cloth in kerosene, rub upon Putz-Pomade, clean the brasses and polish with old linen.
To clean a white fur rag
First, beat out all the dust and hang in the wind for some hours. Then lay it on the floor of a room you seldom use and fill it with dried flour. Rub it into the rug as you would suds, rubbing between your hands, and working with your fingers down to the roots of the fur. Cover with a clean cloth and leave all night with the flour in it. Next day take out of doors, shake out the flour, hang on a line and whip on the wrong side until every particle of flour is dislodged.
Powdered chalk may be used instead of the flour, but if any is left in the rug the alkali may injure the fur.
A few things kerosene will do
For ants, saturate rags with kerosene, and hang or lay these near their runs, and they will quickly disappear.
Kerosene is a household necessity at cleaning-time. For cleaning painted and varnished woodwork, painted walls, varnished floors, bathtubs and marble washstands it is unsurpassed. For tubs and marble, apply with a woolen cloth, then wash with soap and water. For woodwork and walls use clean cloths, changing as soon as soiled. A few drops in the water when washing windows and mirrors will give them a beautiful polish.
To clean white silk
If one desires snowy whiteness, silk should never be allowed to become badly soiled; that is, so that the silk is yellowed. Dust the garment and wash in rather warm (not scalding hot) water with Ivory soap. Rinse well, the last water being quite blue. Hang up and allow to get just dry enough to press nicely with a warm iron. If this is followed out, I know that white silk will stay white. Care must be taken with the blue water not to have it too blue, and yet blue enough to help the silk retain the “new” shade.
Should silk merely need sponging no iron should touch the surface. If rolled while damp on a broomstick, it will dry in a day or so. When there are grease spots, apply the time-honored remedy, powdered magnesia, to the wrong side under a cold pressure; then, after some hours, rub off, and if not wholly cleansed, apply again.
To clean yellow lace
If you desire to keep the lace yellow, pour enough gasoline into an earthen crock to cover the lace, shake it about in the liquid, rubbing soiled spots gently between your hands; immerse it fully in the liquid, cover the crock and leave the lace in the gasoline for five or six hours. Squeeze and shake it then, and leave it in the open air. When quite dry lay it on a clean cloth, spread over a board or table, and dampen slightly. Pull into shape with your fingers while it is damp. If the lace be wide, baste it to a thick, dampened cloth, setting a stitch in every scallop and figure. Cover with a thin, damp cloth, and press with a warm iron.
To clean Battenberg embroidery
First make a suds of warm water (not hot) with a bland, white soap; wash the pieces, and if very much soiled, rub a little soap on the Battenberg on the wrong side, then rinse thoroughly, but do not blue. Wring out, put between two folds of soft cloth and pat with the hands. Hang in a shady place for a while to take most of the moisture out.
Spread a sheet on the floor and take your pieces, one at a time. First, pin the linen from the corners, as you would a curtain, where the Battenberg joins the linen. When you have the linen perfectly smooth, begin on lace, and pull out well so as to get the same shape as when new; put plenty of pins in, so that the edges will be well shaped. This will take you a little longer than if ironed, but the iron takes all color out of embroidery, and it never does Battenberg well. When you have your piece all pinned down, take your fingers and smooth down the flowers while wet; they will look like new.
To clean black lace
If it be real lace you can treat it at home with reasonable hope of success.
Boil a black kid glove in a quart of water until you have reduced the liquid by one-third. Squeeze the glove and throw it away. When you can bear your hand comfortably in the water dip and shake the lace in it up and down a dozen times. Shake off the wet and squeeze the lace in a soft towel. Do not wring it. While wet, begin to pull the lace straight with the tips of your fingers, getting every mesh and bit of the edge into the right shape. It must be in order and still damp when laid upon the ironing-cloth. Spread a piece of old cambric or linen, or, better still, a piece of clean tissue paper over it, and iron on the right side; then, and harder, on the wrong, to bring out the pattern.
Hang in the sun or in any hot, dry place to dry quickly. Roll upon a card or a thin board to preserve the smoothness.
To dry-clean white lace
Wash in flour. Rub the flour in as you would soap; let the lace lie for some time and then shake it out. If it be not quite clean, repeat the process, which will make it look like new.
To get rid of bed-bugs
To get rid of “red rovers” (or bed-bugs) simply apply a good, thick coat of varnish to all lurking places.
OR
Get a clean oil-can, fill it with gasoline and inject into all cracks and crannies where they can possibly hide. Shut the room up for some hours to give the gasoline a fair chance to do its work.
To get rid of rats and mice
Smear the entrance of their holes with liquid tar, and spray the holes as far as a bellows will carry it with powdered, unslaked lime;
OR
After the holes are located, fill them deeply with absorbent cotton; moisten with formaldehyde; the holes are then quickly cemented with plaster of paris. Then let the neighbors do the worrying.
For mange in cats
Mix vaseline with a drop of two or diluted carbolic acid, as put up in the drug stores as an antiseptic and healing salve. A very little placed on the affected part and a clean linen rag tied around it will heal the skin and cause a new growth of fur.
To draw thread in linen
To draw thread for hem-stitching make a good lather of soap and water, and brush this over the linen where threads are to be drawn, using a shaving or other soft brush. Let it dry, and they will pull quite easily.
To clean decanters
Never use shot, for there is danger of its causing lead poisoning. Instead, try the effect of a little soapy water and some fine sand. Shake the decanter till the glass is clean and then rinse with fresh water, finally with alcohol.
To clean hardwood furniture
Make a solution of two heaping tablespoonfuls of sal soda to a quart of warm water, put it on with a tooth-brush well soaped, the place being immediately rinsed with cold water and dried with a soft cloth.
Afterward the wood should be rubbed with a mixture of two-thirds raw oil and one-third turpentine with a little salt.
The secret of success lies in cleaning only a small piece at a time and in doing the work rapidly.
Cement for lining an aquarium
Take white lead, such as you buy in a keg, thicken with as little of the oil as possible, and mix some dry red lead with it. Put in just enough burnt umber to make it the color of black walnut, a little Japan drier and a very little varnish. Paint the edges of the glass and let it dry, or this will not stick. After cementing the aquarium, let it stand two weeks to harden before putting water in it.
Washing fluid for removing stains
You can take all the red laundry marks out of a linen by using the following washing fluid. It will also take rust, ink and mildew out without leaving a trace:
Five pounds washing-soda, one gallon of cold water, put to a boil. While boiling add one pound of chloride of lime and stir well; set aside to settle; strain through a cloth and cork up in a jug. Put your soiled clothes in ten quarts of water, or enough to cover them, with two handfuls of chipped soap and one pint of the jugged fluid. Let them boil, raising them up once in a while with the clothes-stick. If the marks do not disappear, add a little more of the fluid, but not too much, or it will eat into the clothes.
To kill an evil odor
Dried orange-peel, allowed to smolder on a piece of red-hot iron, or on an old shovel, will kill any bad odor in a room and leave a fragrant one behind.
To clean oil paintings
Cut a raw potato in half, rub quickly over the surface of an oil painting, after which polish with a silk handkerchief to remove dust or dirt.
To keep leather from cracking
Add a drop or two of neat’s-foot oil to the shoe-blacking to prevent the leather from cracking. It is also fine to use on damp boots or shoes.
How to keep palms
If you want your palms to thrive in an ordinary sitting-room, sponge the leaves once a week with lukewarm water, to which a little milk has been added. Then stand the plant for two hours in lukewarm water deep enough to completely cover the pot. This is the proper way to water palms.
One way to remove iron rust
One method of taking iron mold out of linen is to hold the spots over a pitcher of boiling water and rub them with the juice of sorrel and salt, and then, when the cloth is thoroughly wet, to dip it quickly in lye and wash at once.
To clean a light cloth gown
Lay the gown on a table, spread out smoothly and cover with powdered fuller’s earth shaken through a sieve. Hang, without shaking, in a dark closet for twenty-four hours; then shake and brush in the open air.
To get rid of plant-lice
Put the plants into a closet from which you have cleared everything else, and set on the floor a pan containing refuse broken tobacco. Light the tobacco, and shut the closet up for five or six hours. Soak the earth in the pots with tobacco tea, made by pouring boiling water upon the tobacco stems and letting it cool. You can brush up the tiny insects by the hundred. To make sure they will not come to life, burn all you sweep up.
To take dry ink out of a carpet
Rub into the spot as much thick buttermilk, made into a paste with table salt, as the place will hold. This may tone down the inkiness. Cover the wet paste with paper to exclude light and dust, and leave it alone for six hours. Wash, then, with household ammonia and warm water; rub dry, and make a second application of salt and buttermilk, covering as before.
To get rid of the smell of paint
To remove the smell of paint from a room leave in it over night a pail of water with three or four sliced raw onions in it. Shut the door, and in the morning the paint smell will have gone, the onions and water absorbing it.
To clean gold thread
Tarnished gold embroidery may be cleansed by dipping a brush in pulverized burnt alum, then brushing the embroidery thoroughly.
To polish patent leather
To polish patent leather remove every particle of dust, and apply a mixture of one part linseed oil to two parts cream. It should be well mixed and applied with a flannel. Rub the leather well with a soft, dry cloth.
To clean linoleum
If the linoleum be wiped first with a cloth dipped in warm water, and wrung as dry as possible, then wiped over with skimmed milk once a week, the colors will be lightened, and the varnish, which protects the colors, will be longer preserved. Soften obstinate spots with a little linseed oil. If the whole floor is treated once a month with linseed oil, using as little as possible, and rubbing all superfluous oil off, it will wear longer and the color will be brighter. If the varnish is entirely removed in any part, a mixture of one part lac varnish and three parts oil will restore it.
To renew cane-seat chairs
Cane chair seats that have sagged may be tightened by washing in hot soapsuds and leaving to dry in the open air.
How to keep patent-leather shoes
Put them on, and as soon as they are warmed by the natural heat of the foot, rub with the palm of the hand until you are sensible that the moisture of the skin is lubricating the leather. Five minutes spent in this way whenever you wear the shoes will keep them in good order. About once a week put three drops of neat’s-foot oil into your hand, hold it until blood-warm, and rub it thoroughly into the leather. Cold weather induces cracking in patent leather. Gentle warmth prevents it.
To clean russet shoes
Russet shoes may be kept clean and bright by rubbing them with a slice of banana and polishing with a cloth.
To clean black cloth
Use warm water and alcohol in the proportion of about one or two tablespoonfuls of alcohol to a pint of water; goods sponged with it and pressed will look like new. Alcohol is not harmful to any goods, but ammonia will leave certain colors streaked unless evenly distributed. Alcohol is excellent for cleaning and brightening jet trimming.
To remove grease spots from cloth
Get at the back of the spots; i. e., the wrong side of the stuff, and rub into each spot as much powdered French chalk as it will hold. Leave it all night. Then lay soft blotting or tissue paper over the chalk and press with a warm iron, changing the paper as the grease “draws” through. Brush out the chalk, and the spot should have disappeared, unless a trace remains on the right side of something, which is not grease, but adherent dust. Sponge this with household ammonia.
To take out mildew
Make a thick paste of table salt and buttermilk, and cover the mildew with it. Lay in the hot sun for a day, renewing the paste at the end of four hours. If obstinate, repeat next day. Should a trace of the stain remain, cyanide of potassium will eradicate it. Moisten the spot with water, rub in the powder and lay in the sun for four hours, moistening the place twice in this time. Then wash at once with pure water. You can get the cyanide of potassium from the drug store. It is a deadly poison, if taken internally.
How to dry-clean a lace curtain
Pin a sheet snugly to the carpet, and pin the curtain smoothly to the sheet. Go all over it with flour you have dried in the oven, rubbing it into the lace with what is known as a “complexion brush” until the whole surface is coated and the curtain will hold no more. Throw a sheet over all and leave for twenty-four hours. At the end of this time unpin the curtain, lift carefully, shake out the flour and hang in the outer air and sunshine (the day must be dry) to let the flour blow out of it. Lastly, lay it upon the ironing-table, wrong side up, cover with clean cheese-cloth, or thin muslin slightly dampened, and press firmly with a warm, not a hot, iron.
Powdered starch may be used instead of flour. Curtains treated carefully in this way will look almost as fresh as when new.
A trio of useful hints
Perfumed olive oil sprinkled on library shelves will prevent mold on books.
Mud stains can be removed from black cloth by rubbing them with a raw potato.
The juice of a raw onion applied to the sting of an insect will remove the poison.
How to add to one’s stature
If you will take simple stretching exercises two or three times a day for a year your height will increase. Rising on toes and stretching the tips of the fingers as far toward the ceiling as they will go, and sweeping hands over front, touching tips of fingers or palm of hand to floor, keeping both knees straight, are excellent exercises if one would grow.
A skin tonic
A bag made of cheese-cloth, doubled and filled with bran, a teaspoonful of orris root and a half cake of Castile soap, chopped fine, makes an excellent skin tonic for the bath. After using it for several weeks the skin will be smooth, firm and white.
How to care for the hands
When the hands are stained by fruit or vegetables, remove the stains before the hands come in contact with soap or soapy water. Remove the stains with an acid, such as lemon, vinegar or sour milk, then wash in clear water.
When using soap and water for any purpose, rinse off all the soap before wiping the hands. Always wipe the hands perfectly dry. Do not change soaps if you can avoid it, and always use a good soap.
To soften and whiten the hands
Use some sort of cream on them at night, then powder them and put them in loose gloves kept for this purpose.
Habitual use of Holmes’ Fragrant Frostilla will keep the hands smooth, white, and prevent chapping in the winter.
To keep piano keys clean and white
Dampen a piece of muslin with alcohol, and with it rub the keys. If this does not remove the stains, use a piece of cotton flannel wet with cologne water. The keys can also be bleached white by laying over the keys cotton flannel cloths that have been saturated with a solution of oxalic acid.
A washing compound
Shave a pound bar of good, common laundry soap; put it into a kettle holding about six or eight quarts. Add two quarts of water to the soap, and boil until all of it is dissolved. Take it to the dooryard, or on the porch outside of the house in the open air, and add one-half pint of gasoline before the soap cools off. It will immediately foam and boil up until the kettle is full. Let it stand until it has cooled off somewhat.
The clothes should be soaked first in lukewarm water, or even cold water, wrung out and put into suds made of this compound and quite hot water, then rubbed as usual; or it can be used in the washing-machine. Some may also be put in the boiler without the least danger.
It softens the water and loosens dirt, and the clothes keep white. It does not injure colored goods any more than the laundry soap by itself would.
As usual, in using gasoline, be sure to take proper precautions about mixing it anywhere near fire.
Starch for black lawns, etc.
Boil two quarts of wheat bran in six quarts of water for half an hour. Let it get cold, then strain. You will need neither soap nor starch if you use this. If thick, add cold water. This preparation will both cleanse and stiffen.
Whitewash that will not rub off
Dissolve glue in hot water and add in the proportion of a pint of this water to four gallons of whitewash; or dissolve an ounce of gum arabic in a pint of boiling water and stir in, observing the same proportions. Before applying this or any other wash, scrape the wall clean and smooth. Do not leave any of the old on.
How to clean a straw hat
Go all over it with damp corn-meal, rubbing it in well. Next apply dry meal, work thoroughly into the straw and leave it on for some hours. Brush out the meal and wash freely with peroxide of hydrogen. Let it dry in the shade.
The care of hardwood floors
The daily care of the hardwood floor is very simple. A room that is much used must first be swept with a soft-haired brush, then wipe with a long-handled dust-mop or with a cotton flannel bag put over a broom. If there are spots on the floor they should be rubbed with a flannel cloth. If this does not remove them, clean with a little turpentine on a piece of cloth. The floor should be thoroughly cleaned and polished twice a year. If any water should get spilled on them it must be wiped up at once. Any liquid spilled on a waxed floor will produce a stain if left to dry, which can only be removed by hard rubbing and the encaustic.
A good floor polish
Melt not quite half a pound of beeswax and pour it into a quart of turpentine, then add five cents worth of ammonia. Put it in a tin pail and set it in another vessel containing hot water, and leave it on the back part of the stove to heat. Keep warm while using, for it goes on better. Apply with a flannel cloth, and polish with a piece of Brussels carpet.
To clean hairbrushes
Put a tablespoonful of ammonia into a basin of tepid water and dip the brushes up and down in it until they are clean. Dry with the bristles down, and they will be like new.
To wash blankets
Pour into a tub half a pint of household ammonia and lay a blanket over it; cover immediately with lukewarm water. This sends the fumes of the ammonia through the blanket and loosens the dirt. The blanket should then be stirred about with a stick and pressed until all the dirt seems to be in the water, then rinse in a tub of clear water of the same temperature as the first, run lightly through a wringer and hang out to dry.
To keep tinware from rusting
If the tinware is new rub over carefully with fresh lard and heat thoroughly before it is used.
How to clean marble
To two parts of common baking-soda add one of pumice-stone and one of fine salt. Sift the mixture through a sieve and mix it with water, then rub it well all over the marble and the stains will all be removed. Wash with a strong solution of salt and water, rinse with clear water and wipe dry.
To remove old tea and coffee stains
Wet the stains with cold water, cover with glycerine and let stand for two or three hours, then wash in cold water and soap. Repeat if necessary.
To wash windows and mirrors
A little turpentine dissolved in warm water is the best thing with which to wash windows and mirrors. A little alcohol will also do wonders in brightening glass.
To remove grass stain
Cover the stain with common cooking molasses and let stand for two or three hours. Wash in lukewarm water. Repeat the process if necessary.
To take out machine grease
Cold water, ammonia and soap will take out machine grease where other things would fail on account of making the colors run.
What to do till the doctor comes
Croup: Hot fomentations, flannels wrung out of boiling water, should be applied to the throat, and, if necessary, a warm bath given. Give a teaspoonful of wine of ipecac, or the same quantity of powdered alum stirred into syrup, molasses or honey. Sometimes a few drops of kerosene on brown sugar will relieve the tightness.
Whooping cough: Steaming the throat with thirty drops of pure carbolic acid in two and one-half pints of boiling water is said to be an excellent remedy. A half teaspoonful of kerosene will often relieve the paroxysms of coughing when nothing else will do it.
Antidotes for poisons
For laudanum, morphine and opium: First give a strong emetic of mustard and water, then very strong coffee and acid drinks; dash cold water on the head, and keep in constant motion.
For arsenic: Give, just as quickly as possible, an emetic of mustard and salt, a tablespoonful of each in a cupful of warm water; then follow with sweet-oil, warmed butter, or milk. You may also use the white of an egg in half a cupful of milk or lime water. Get a doctor as soon as possible.
For ammonia: Give lemon juice or vinegar.
For acids: Give magnesia, soda, or soap dissolved in water every two minutes; then use the stomach-pump, or an emetic.
For belladonna: Give an emetic of mustard, salt and water; then drink plenty of vinegar and water, or lemonade.
For “white lead” and “sugar of lead”: Give an emetic, then follow with castor oil, epsom salts or some other good cathartic.