Do you need some more time in your day? Try these cool tricks and you will have extra time to relax on the lanai sipping your favorite beverage.
Thank you, my long time friend, Marion Nee, for graciously sharing some of these household hints. I added a few of my favorites.
In Lanikai, Hawaii, we have a group of folks who have been long time residents and have shared with me their remedies to cure or fix most problems you might encounter living in these islands. Marion has been the most helpful and knowledgeable source of remedies in our neighborhood.
These hints can be used most places, not just Hawaii.
Dryer Sheets
It is amazing what a dryer sheet can do to make life less complicated. I need all the help I can get in my multi-tasked world.
I put dryer sheets under my car seats and the heat makes the car smell fresh. They also take away any doggie smells. I have a golden retriever who loves to swim in the ocean and he makes my car smell like under the boardwalk on a muggy day.
How about those mainland trips where the clothes in your luggage smell like jet fuel? I throw a few dryer sheets in the suitcase and that makes jet fuel blues go away. When you return from a trip toss a fresh dryer sheet in the empty suitcase for storage.
Do you or someone you know have smelly shoes? What about the gym shoes in your gym bag? Place a dryer sheet in each shoe and odor be gone.
Some of my recipes have not always turned out perfect and I have had a few burned pans. I fill the pan overnight with water and place a dryer sheet in the water. It is unbelievable to see how the food separates from the pan. I hear it is the antistatic agent that does the work.
I wish I knew years ago that mosquitoes are repelled by dryer sheets. Wear one attached to your outer clothing or toss a few into your tent while camping. Use them at the beach or while golfing.
I have dryer sheets under my mattress, under the couch cushions, in all my closets, and in my storage shed. No more musty odors.
You can collect animal hair by rubbing a dryer sheet between your hands. The static will attract the hairs. Do this on light colored fabrics or else you will get white marks from the dryer sheet on the dark fabric.
VODKA
These wonderful tips were circulating years ago on AOL on line and I wanted to share them again with new readers. Any brand of clear vodka will work. If you do not plan to drink the left over vodka just purchase a cheaper brand.
Use vodka on a cotton ball as an astringent on your face. It tightens pores and cleans your face.
Add 1 ounce of vodka to your favorite shampoo. It seems that it removes toxins and helps stimulate hair growth. Be careful where you use the vodka in case you do not want other parts of your body to have more hair.
For smelly feet you can wash them with vodka.
Bring a small bottle of vodka to the beach and use it for jellyfish stings. Label it for stings only, not for consumption.
You can clean your eyeglasses with vodka.
To relieve a fever you can rub vodka on your back and chest. I think the smell of it chases the fever out.
Pour vodka on poison ivy affected areas. This one is for you mainlanders who go to the woods. The vodka removes the urushiol from the skin. Urushiol is the oil found in the poison ivy plant. It is also found in the shell of the cashew nut. The name comes from a Japanese word urushi, which is a type of lacquer.
Put vodka in a trigger type spray bottle and it will kill bees and wasps. We need bees and wasps in our plant world, so please spray with caution.
Pour ½ cup of water and ½ cup vodka in a zip lock bag. You can add a drop of food color if you like for aesthetics. Freeze the mixture and it can be used as a slushy cold pack for pains and injuries.
OTHER HELPFUL HINTS
Have you ever gotten a line if ink on your clothes from a ballpoint pen? It can be removed by placing a paper towel under the stain and pour a small amount of vodka on the stain. It fades miraculously. Blot the top of the stain with a clean paper towel.
Marion suggests dental floss to separate old photos that have stuck together.
Newspaper for weed removal. It seems that you can place newspaper around your plants and weeds will not grow through the paper. Place layers of paper in between the soil around the plant. The weeds will get through gardening plastic but not the newspaper.
Please feel free to share any hints you have in the comment section of this column. I always love to hear from readers. Remember to spread the Aloha Spirit wherever you are. Thanks for reading my column.
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