Dear Heloise: A reader recently wrote in about their solution for opening jars by using rubber strap wrenches, the description of which frankly seemed like an awful lot of trouble. Not to mention, they had to make space for them in kitchen drawers that are often already too cluttered.
Most folks have a pair of latex gloves in their home for dishwashing or other cleaning chores. I have found that a resistant lid is much easier to open by slipping on latex gloves, grasping the container with one gloved hand and twisting the lid with the other. They give you just enough grip to loosen almost any tight lid.
I've seen products that are basically pads of latex rubber specifically marketed to use as jar openers, but why buy yet another thing and store it in a drawer when you already have latex gloves on hand?
Best regards! -- Stacey St. Edmunds, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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Dear Heloise: My comment on cutting the lotion bottle to get the remaining lotion out of it was for plastic bottles only.
We also use plastic newspaper liners to pick up dog poo. Just turn them inside out, and you're ready to go! -- Bob P., via email
Charity mail info
Dear Heloise: Almost all charities pay nonprofit postage, which is incredibly cheap. The United States Postal Service does not return this mail, no matter what is written on the envelope. It's just thrown away. To stop charity mail, call the sender and tell them to remove your name from their mailing list. -- Joe DiNapoli, via email
Bar-soap hint
Dear Heloise: Bar soap is preferred at our house rather than the liquid body gel. When the bar gets too small to use or breaks in two, I put it on top of the new bar after they are both wet and have been used. I press them together slightly so that they will dry together. The next time you need to use them, they will be permanently stuck together, and you won't have all those annoying little pieces of soap hanging around. -- J. Kennedy, in Wyoming
Money laundering
Dear Heloise: My son recently gave me some dollar bills that he had in his new leather wallet. But his wallet had a terrible chemical odor that made the money stink. There was no way I was going to put the money in my purse like that.
So, I decided to do some "money laundering." I had a dish of baking soda that I had recently removed from the freezer. I added cold water to the baking soda, put the dollar bills into the solution, sloshed them around a bit, rinsed them in cold water, then draped them over a hanger to dry.
I got rid of the terrible odor and found a good use for baking soda! -- P.C., in Ohio
No powders on carpet
Dear Heloise: I have an old upright vacuum that I took to the shop to get serviced. The man told me not to use powders of any kind on carpets because dust will eventually clog the filters. -- K.R., in California
Send a money-saving or time-saving hint to [email protected].
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