how true.

i've got a great recipe for liquid laundry soap:

cheapest gallon of liquid laundry soap you can find - add 1/4 cup of palmolive liquid to it - shake well - use 1/2 lid instead of a full lid in each load - goes twice as far and is a very good spot remover also. i use the palmolive with oxyclean.

repairing scratched cd's - with a soft cloth rub some unscented, unflavored lip treatment such as chapstick or vaseline onto the cd until it has a thin film - then buff it with a chamois or other soft cloth until it shines like new - you may have to do this every so often but it works and i've not found any damage to our players in over 15 years of this practice.

as for plastic jug-type containers, the ones we DON'T recycle we clean and cut the bottoms out of and use as scoops in our pet foods and use the opaque gallon milk jugs with the bottoms cut out for mini-hothouses for our garden plants we start in the early spring - it will keep the temperature inside up to 20 degrees warmer than it is outside.

okay, enough handy hints from nanc!

okay, enough handy hints from nanc!

#1 | Posted by nanc at 2009-01-07 11:30 AM

Nah, keep 'em coming, nanc. I love that stuff.

I was hooked on all the "Hints from Heloise" books.
Couldn't read enough of them.

How about you starting a weekly thread with all different household/handy tips suggestions?

You could call it handy "Nuggets from nanc." :)

I had already started down this path. My divorce several years back helped me to downsized my house. I went from 3,000 sqft to about 1,000. The yard went from 6 acres to less than 1/4 acre I went from a $5,000 lawn tractor to a $99 push mower.
I had already been paying down bebt, so while I am still working on that, I am used to living this way.
I made most of my own furniture. At least the stick furniture. Tables, end tables, book cases, etc. Chairs (unfinished) and the couch I had to buy.
When I bought a new washer and dryer I got the energy efficient stuff. Our water is not that good so I put in a reverse osmosis system about 4 years ago. Long before the campaign to eliminate the bottled water thing hit.
We both own cars that were used when we bought them.
The one thing I splurge on is drycleaning (cleaning). I *hate* to iron so my dress shirts and slacks go to the cleaners.
Eating out has been cut way back. We go out once or twice a month. We cook enough for dinner so that I can have leftovers for lunch the next day.
I tried changing my own oil, but disposing of the used oil was more hastle than the money I saved. Besides my son owns two oil changes, so I get a discount.
The one thing we are looking at (since we live in Michigan) is upgrading the furnace. We have an old oil furnace and it is pretty inefficient compared to the new propane models.

Kerrin57

By 2003, the average household size shrank to 2.6 people. Only 5 percent of new homes built now are less than 1,200 square feet, but 37 percent have more than twice thatwith at least four bedrooms. About 95 percent have two or more bathrooms and 88 percent have central air conditioning. And practically everyone who builds a house93 percentinstalls a dishwashing appliance. Americans own twice as many cars per person, plus multiple TVs, computers, and cell phones.

Good ideas for conserving. I think those McMansions build this last decade are gross. Our (built in 1959) house is about 1575 sq. ft. so with my folks raising 2 kids we were a family of four. 3 bedrooms, 1 and 3/4 baths.

Sorry, though, you'll have to pry my automatic dishwasher, central air conditioning (it is California after all), and tv from my small, chapped, and overworked hands. lol

I second CC's post, Nanc.

I had already started down this path. My divorce several years back helped me to downsized my house. I went from 3,000 sqft to about 1,000....I had already been paying down bebt, so while I am still working on that, I am used to living this way.
I made most of my own furniture. At least the stick furniture. Tables, end tables, book cases, etc. Chairs (unfinished) and the couch I had to buy.

#3 | Posted by sawdust at 2009-01-07 12:16 PM

You sound like a mighty sensible guy, Sawdust.

You looking to get married again? lol

"McMansions build this last decade are gross."

Not just that...think of the heating/cooling, up keep, and land taxes paid on the huge houses.

"automatic dishwasher"

Just make sure you fill that sucker before you run it. Turn off the heated dry cycle...pop the door at the end of rinse .

" central air conditioning"

We keep ac at 75 in summer with ceiling fans running . Heat at 66 in winter...cold? ...get a sweater on.Money saved can purchase several bottle of Amaretto for additional warmth and entertainment!

"Nuggets from nanc."

"automatic dishwasher"

Just make sure you fill that sucker before you run it. Turn off the heated dry cycle...pop the door at the end of rinse .

I find a small shake in and out of the rack to get excess water off the tops of glasses and coffee cups does the trick. Then I leave them in there for another couple of hours.

CFL bulbs have cut the electricity bill down a WHOLE bunch.

I installed motion sensor light switches too. They pop on when I walk through a room. The timer for them to go off is set for a minute. I never have to worry about turning off a light. They won't turn off until they don't sense motion for a minute. Once in awhile if I'm in the den on the couch and they turn off, I just wave my arm and VOILA, light.

There's a switch to leave them on if you choose in addition to 'off' and 'auto'. Handy dandy devices.

the opaque gallon milk jugs with the bottoms cut out for mini-hothouses for our garden plants we start in the early spring - it will keep the temperature inside up to 20 degrees warmer than it is outside.

okay, enough handy hints from nanc!

#1 | Posted by nanc at 2009-01-07 11:30 AM |

so you do grow your own weed. Go figure.

"our garden plants"

Bet Nanc is in heaven...seed catalogs arriving daily ?

Even though I have grown and selected my own OP's for a long time...I still can't resist a few of those snazzy new hybrids each year.

Territorial Seeds,Tomato Growers Supply,Totally Tomatoes catalogs...almost as good as....

chris - we live in a fairly large two storey and i'd never give up my central a/c - the humidity in arkansas is brutal from july through september!

we skimp on some things to splurge on others - trade-offs is what it's all about.

kerrin - we keep a good portion of seeds from one year to the next from other plants and trade seedling plants with others. my husband always THINKS it's a good idea to have tooooo many tomato plants, but this past year we had a curly leaf mold come in on one and it destroyed all but two of our plants.

we canned at least 25 cases of great food from the end of summer to the end of fall and surprisingly everybody we shared with brought all my jars back.

our get away cabin has no running water so we've been using rainwater for 8.5 years and purchase water from neighbors when it's a dry spell or travel to a community cistern and fill a 300 gallon tank. i recycle my washing machine water to 40-50 gallon barrels outside to water our gardens.

Neat...we recycle the wash water also. We are lucky having a creek down by the lower gardens.
Damn...can NOT wait til spring!!!
But I have soooo much to do in the meantime.

Haven't people in America been saying this for over 100 years? Hello Thoreau!

kerrin - our creek and pond are on the lower s/e corner of our 40 acres - almost straight down from our cabin - it is a joy to have rain which is usually plentiful in the ozarks.

SPRING IS THE BEST HERE!

well, except for the fall change.

I'd like to make a suggestion here, take it or leave it as you see fit.

It's not so much people's lives as egos that need to be starved.

*enter sarc-mode
Not mine, of course. You'll take my primary self-defense mechanism away from me when you out a bullet in my brain.
*exit sarc-mode*

/ wouldn't mind doing some growing of tomatoes and peppers
// but lives in an apartment
/// and the pollen would likely kill him, d'oh!

// but lives in an apartment
/// and the pollen would likely kill him, d'oh!

Container gardening. If you have a balcony or window that gets full sun all day long, you can grow tomato plants there. When I lived in Columbia, SC that's what I had to do because the landlord wouldn't let me dig up a patch in the backyard.

The pollen probably won't hurt you very much.

kerrin - i see supper in my back yard...at least 30 dove...HA!

"i see supper in my back yard...at least 30 dove...HA!"

Well, get ready for a banquet-size block party when the elementary school kids hop off the bus and trot across your line of sight.

we're a mile from the bus stop, doc.

Then at least they've got a running start. Very sportswomanlike, Nanc.

at least 30 dove...HA!

#19 | Posted by nanc

Doves?...unless you shoot about 20...you are talking appetizers!

not if i slap them onto a sausage/cornbread stuffing before putting them into the oven.

now where did my son put the shotgun?

It's right where you left it after your daughter's wedding.

Axiom:
"If you have a balcony or window that gets full sun all day long, you can grow tomato plants there."

Don't have it, first floor apt, partially underground, pointed the wrong way, and the other buildings are in the way. Bummer. I gotta find a better place to live... say about 100 mile from the rest of humanity.

l.u.r. - find someone nearby who will allow you a small plot to grow on and grow enough for the both of you. buy plants that will cross pollinate in a breeze and plant accordingly. wear a mask when pruning - pollen's really only a problem while your plants are flowering.

p.s. - sar - i'm giving you an ff for that!

why? because i'm a really good effing sport.