RACHAEL RAY

I happen to notice recently that each box of baking soda, depending on the brand, has a different list of uses.  If you look at them all, you realize this is one impressive box of powder! I couldn’t begin to explain to you why this mineral does what it does, but I can give you examples of what it does:

Baking Soda can put out fires.  Remember in grade school you made the handy fire safety kits?  I had to take a coffee can and fill it with non other than baking soda and was told to keep it by the stove in case something caught on fire.  Throwing baking soda on the fire would put it out (apparently).  I can’t recommend this as a serious fire extinguisher, but it’s a good thing to know, just in case.

Baking soda can be fun! Baking soda and vinegar, especially when mixed with food coloring, make a great fake lava fall or a witches’ brew for kids who like to make some fun in the kitchen!

Baking soda is a natural way to clean and disinfect many items.

Your mouth.  Recently I was visiting my dentist who was telling me about the best way to keep my gums clean.  She said to keep a box of good ole’ baking soda handy in the bathroom and mix it with water or hydrogen peroxide to make a paste.  Use the paste and brush my teeth and gums with it, swish it around with some water and rinse out for a clean and effective mouthwash.

Your tub or sink. Ever look at the side of a can of sink scrubbing powder?  It’s scented baking soda.  Take regular baking soda, sprinkle it on your sink or tub and scrub away.

Laundry. If you throw 1/3 cup of baking soda in your wash cycle, it will help your laundry detergent work better, help eliminate odors, and soften fabrics.

The fridge. We all know a box of baking soda in the fridge will help eliminate odors, and it will.  So will a sprinkle on your rugs or on your furniture or even in your litter box.  Baking soda will help eliminate the odors in the rug and furniture and will also help absorb the spill.

Fruits and Veggies.  I like this idea of cleaning veggies without harsh soaps.  You  just mix a little bit with water and scrub the fruits and veggies and rinse them clean.

Your bod.  Sprinkle a little baking soda into your bath tub for a relaxing soak that also lifts off oil and dirt from your body.  Ever get one of those fizzy bath balls?  Look at the ingredients next time and I bet you’ll see sodium bicarbonate!

Dear Cleaning Lady,

Is there any way to remove color that has bled on other clothes in the laundry? My little boy had a pair of white socks with a tiny red stripe that ended up staining a pair of his brand new khakis. AAAAHHH!
Thanks for your advice…

Jamie N. Varblow

Dear Jamie,

Assuming the khakis are cotton, try washing them again with hot water, laundry soap and ammonia.  You could also rub one of those laundry stain removal sticks on the spots before you throw it in the wash again.  Don’t dry them until you have tried to get the stains out a few more times.  This may not come out, but it is worth a few tries!

-The Cleaning Lady

If you are pulling out your window units from last year and installing them into your windows, before you use the air conditioners, you must either clean the filters thoroughly or get new ones.  The filters contain all kinds of pollen and dust that can wind up in your lungs and make the air conditioners far less effective.

To clean the air conditioner filter, make sure the air conditioner is off, then pull out the filter.  Wash the filter in your sink with a small amount of dish soap and water.  As you are washing the filter, use your hands to kind of scrape the dust off the filter.  It’s most likely some kind of foam or mesh so it doesn’t just slide off without a little help.  Once the dirt is completely removed, rinse until all of the soap is gone.  Hang to dry.

Now go back to the  air conditioner itself and wipe it down with a wet cloth.  Remove as much dirt as possible.  If you have a brush or a feather duster, you can dust inside the air conditioner where the filter goes.  Once the filter is dry, add it back and you should be good to go!

Now that the weather is warmer, I see more and more people washing their cars in their driveways. I, for one, love to wash my car myself and get rid of the dirt, grease, salt and grime that it picks up throughout the week. To preserve the life of your car, you are supposed to wash it at least once a month.

You should not use dish detergent or other soaps that you would normally use to wash anything inside the house. Remember, those are designed to cut grease and they will take the nice waxy finish right off your vehicle. I learned that one by trial and error when I washed my car with Dawn and it wound up with a dull finish. It sure took the grease out of my way!

Washing your car at home it is not the most earth-friendly thing you can do, unfortunately. First of all, many of the car soap products on the market today are toxic. Secondly, even if you used no soap and just gave it a rinse and a wipe down with a chammie, the grease, gasoline, etc that comes off your car can run off into your garden or down the drain. Interestingly, it is more earth-friendly to have your car washed at a real car wash than to do it yourself. When you wash your car at home, you use significantly more water, for one. But secondly there are government rules that require car washes to dispose of their dirty water through sewers so the water gets filtered before it gets used by people. If you wash your car at home, the run off doesn’t go through the sewer most likely, but it goes down the drainage system that spits out into rivers and lakes.

If you do have to wash at home, there are some products that are environmentally friendly, so putting the water waste issue aside, the toxins would not be a concern. Go to these websites for a variety of products:

Eco Touch

Simple Green

One way to save money this summer and to help the environment is to invest in an outdoor clothesline.  You can buy all sorts, from one string to the many-stringed umbrella style, and they make them retractable these days.  It may seem old fashioned to dry your clothes this way, but you save money on your electric bill and your grocery bill as there is no need for dryer sheets, obviously.  Who needs dryer sheets when you can get the real thing-there is nothing like that fresh air smell flowing through your sheets.

If you like this idea but feel you need the dryer sheets to soften things up, add fabric softener or baking soda to the rinse cycle.

Here are some clotheslines you can buy through the internet:

The Clothesline Shop 

Breezecatcher 

Dear Cleaning Lady,

I would like to know how to get the sour, stale smell out of towels,
dish cloths, face cloths, etc.

Thanks,

Kathy

Dear Kathy,

The smell may be coming from your water, however here is what I would suggest doing:

1. Make sure your washing machine is clean. See my last post about how to clean these
2. Use the hottest setting to clean these items-most of them are probably made from cotton so they can withstand the heat
3. If the items are white, use bleach which will kill any bacteria, help make them whiter and help get rid of that smell
4. Try adding 1/4 cup baking soda to your wash to also help eliminate odors

Let me know how it goes

Here’s where we turn to our friend vinegar again!  Run the wash cycle with no clothes in it and add two cups of vinegar to hot water.  Then take a paper towel and wipe the inside of the machine to pick up any grime that you just loosened.

Remove the fabric softener receptacle and soak it in hot water and detergent. Clean the bleach dispenser with a spray cleaner and paper towels and Q-tips. Don’t forget to clean the top rim of the wash bucket as it is up and under where it can’t usually be seen easily and becomes quite soiled. Run the washer empty on a hot cycle one more time.

Once you’ve soaked the fabric softener receptacle, replace it and polish up the outside of your washing machine with glass cleaner and paper towels. Your washing machine now looks better and will run better as well!

I am obviously getting this question from a nurse or a doctor and I must say this is a difficult one.  A highlighter is almost as bad as a permanent marker so unfortunately, if you don’t wash it out right away, it might not come out at all.  Wash right away after you mark your shirt and see if you can get it out before it has a chance to set.  Use soap and water-any kind.  Cotton loves to take in that dye, unfortunately.

If you can stick to the darker scrubs, you won’t have as much to worry about, or if your scrubs get too marked up, you can always dye them in your bathtub a darker color.  I always take my blue jeans or my black clothes and throw them in the bathtub once in a while with their matching dye color to give them a color boost and even out all of the effects of multiple washes and wears.

Hope that helps!

Red wine can be among the scariest of stains, but it can, in fact, be removed easily, if you act promptly. Follow these steps and you’ll get it out in no time:

1) Blot the stain with a dry rag or paper towel.

2) Mix 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide and 1 tsp. dish washing liquid (such as Dawn), take a sponge or clean rag, immerse in mixture, and wring out half way.

3) Blot stain with the damp rag or sponge until stain is lifted.

4) Take another clean sponge or rag and blot with warm water.

5) Blot dry with a clean rag or paper towels.

The key is to get to the stain quickly - this method also works on clothes.

Q: Hi,
I am just wondering how do I get rid of spiders and spiderwebs from inside the house?
Thank you,

Amanda

A:Keep your house as dry as possible (spidies love moisture) but also make sure it is crumb-free. They also go looking for food so if you have left something out on the counter overnight, or you forgot to sweep the floor after dinner, your kitchen will look pretty appetizing to spiders and ants. However, not even the cleaning lady can keep spiders away in the warm weather.
To get ride of their webs, just take a broom and sweep them away.