Household tips

The bathroom cleaner failed. Erring on the side of safety I've been reading about isopropanol. Each article has said not to use it as it will destroy the coating on the leather and fade the colour.

 

I've tried using toothpaste to clean around the kitchen, and it did work pretty well. It gets rid of grease and dirt quickly and leaves the surfaces looking shiny. The only downside is that it can be a bit hard to rinse off completely, so make sure to use hot water when you're rinsing it off!

 

Any tips to remove color stains from clothes? I accidentally put my coloured dress together in washing machine and it is now stained!

 

Sorry, I can't help you with that @amyjones329.

A tip for something else though....

Soaking gold and silver jewellery in bio laundry liquid or gel diluted in tepid water for up to an hour will bring it up clean and sparkling. It doesn't affect any attached gem stones.

 

Coca cola does the same. Not Pepsi or any other cola, only coca cola.

EDIT: I've just realised I'm showing my age. For younger readers, that's Coke.

 

Someone told me left over coke was good for cleaning the toilet.
All it did for me was leave a brown stain .

 

Someone told me it gets rid of rust if you use baking foil to rub it in with. I haven't tried it so I don't know if it works, it's just what someone told me.

 

I think it contains acid.

 

It's very acidic. pH 2.5. All fizzy drinks have an element of carbonic acid but the main acid in coke is phosphoric acid. I'm no chemist but I think this is what gives it is amazing ability to clean metal.

The type of acid seems to matter. I have left many metal objects including old coins found in the garden, overnight in coke. Next morning they're as good as new. When I wanted to clean the metal parts of my hair clippers one time, and I had no coke, I tried vinegar instead. The next morning the parts were all pitted and ruined, and stunk. So I came to the conclusion that acetic acid reacts differently to phosphoric acid.

 

We used to use a wood glue which you could buy a catalyst for which made it set in 10 mins rather than the 3 to 4 hours normal setting time.
The container said it was phosphoric acid but we found coke had the same effect.

 

A tip for the clumsy.
I read somewhere that strong sunlight will get rid of a curry stain.
Well there was plenty of strong sunlight today and it worked.
Admittedly, I'd soaked the stain and washed the t-shirt but there was still a bit of a stain left. All gone.

 

When transferring bulk items like sugar, oil etc, from one container to another, always put the receptacle in the sink so that any spillage can simply be rinsed down the drain. No muss no fuss.

 

I've got a fairly wide funnel that I use for this sort of job.

 

I use the sun for lots of stains. Specifically my 35 year old Tefal baking tray.

 

I have several funnels but I imagine not everyone else does so that is why I suggested confining any possible mess to the bottom of the kitchen sink.

Bur I don't use any of my funnels to put the contents of a bag of sugar into the canister.