Famed household hints guru Heloise has discovered hundreds of alternative uses for everyday products. Bottom Line/Personal asked her to tell us about some of her favorites.
MOUSE PADS
Companies sometimes give away free foam mouse pads as advertisements.
Jar opener. Use the grippy underside to open stubborn jar lids.Kneeling pad for gardening or home-improvement projects.Pedicure spot. Place a mouse pad under your foot when you give yourself a pedicure to catch any drips.PLASTIC GALLON JUGS
Water, milk and orange juice often come in plastic gallon jugs. When empty, these jugs have many uses…
Scooper. Slice a capped jug in half on the diagonal to scoop ice-melting granules or dirt for the garden.Funnel. Turn the jug upside down, cut it in half horizontally and use as a funnel for liquids or dry material, such as dog food or bird seed.Fishing buoy. Use a capped jug to mark where you’ve placed a fishing line.MAYONNAISE
Be sure to use real mayonnaise, not diet mayonnaise or salad dressing.
White mark remover for wood furniture. If you see a cloudy white mark on a wood table where a coffee mug or some other hot item recently stood, put a dab of mayonnaise on your finger and rub the stained area in the direction of the wood grain until your finger feels a bit warm and the oil from the mayo gets absorbed into the wood. Let the mayo sit overnight, then wipe it off and buff the surface. A little mayo also can hide light scratches on dark wood.Leaf shiner. Apply a light coat of mayonnaise to plant leaves, and buff gently with a paper towel. Use mayo only on the tops of leaves — it might interfere with plants’ ability to breathe if applied to the underside, too.Hair conditioner. Rub one to two tablespoons of mayonnaise into the bottom inch or two of your hair. Pin the hair up (if it is long enough to do so), put on a plastic shower cap, then wrap your head in a bath towel and leave the towel on for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour. Be sure to rinse thoroughly afterward.FINGERNAIL POLISH
Organizer helper. Use nail polish of different colors to differentiate similar items. Example: I put a dot of pink nail polish on the end of my tools so that my husband will not think they are his and move them to his toolbox.Contact lens case marker. Place a dot of red nail polish on the right side of your contact lens case. This will make it easy to tell which lens is stored on which side of the case, even when you do not have your contacts in. Remember that both “right” and “red” start with the letter R.Childproof medication bottles. Use a brightly colored nail polish to mark both the bottle and bottle cap of any childproof medication bottles where the top must be properly lined up to open. These bright marks will be easy to see and align (of course, do this only if you don’t have young children in the house). Helpful: If you take several medications, also use nail polish to write the first letter or two of each medication on its bottle in large print so that you do not have to squint at labels to figure out which is which.Rust preventer. Use colorless nail polish to provide invisible protection. Example: If there is rust on the screws holding your toilet seat or lid in place, remove the screws, soak them in vinegar to clear off the rust, dry them, put the screws back, and then apply a coat of clear nail polish to ward off future rust.Button saver. Apply a layer of clear nail polish to the threads on top of dress-shirt buttons. The nail polish will help the threads endure the heat of laundering, keeping the buttons on the shirt longer.HAIR SPRAY
Panty hose run stopper. Spray a small amount of hair spray on minor snags in panty hose to prevent them from becoming longer runs. (Clear nail polish also works.)Needle threader. Spray the end of a piece of thread if you are having trouble threading a needle. Let the hair spray dry for 10 seconds, then try threading the needle again. The spray will stiffen the end of the thread and make it easier to thread the needle.PANTY HOSE
There might be more uses for old, clean panty hose than any other household product…
Item finder. When you drop a small object on the floor and can’t find it, stretch a piece of old panty hose over the end of your vacuum hose, secure with a rubber band, then vacuum the area. The vacuum will suck up the lost item, but the panty hose filter will prevent it from being sucked past the nozzle. Shut off the vacuum to release the item.Plant ties. Use strips of panty hose to tie garden plants in place. Unlike rope or plastic ties, panty hose will not cut into the plants, and its natural color will blend unobtrusively into your garden. You also can put a piece of panty hose across the bottom of the inside of a pot to keep soil from falling out through the drainage holes.Shoe bags. Slide a pair of shoes into the snipped-off leg of old panty hose before packing the shoes in a suitcase. It keeps the pair together and prevents the shoes from coming in contact with other clothes.Onion and potato storage. Keep potatoes and onions fresh longer by snipping the legs off panty hose and storing these vegetables in the legs. Put in one onion (or potato), tie a knot, followed by another onion and another knot for the length of the leg, then hang the leg inside a pantry door. Onions and potatoes will last longer because they will have better air circulation than they would have had in a bag. When you need an onion, just take a pair of scissors and clip off the bottom section, leaving the rest of the panty-hose leg in place.
