Tuesday Tips

Garden Hose Care

Do not store a hose where the sun will shine down on it. The sun’s heat will dry it out. Also, keep a hose away from any kind of heating source, like a furnace or outdoor barbecue.

If the hose has sprung a little leak, instead of using glue or tape to repair it, try this fix—heat up the tip of an ice pick or Phillips-head screwdriver, and gently touch the rubber around the hole in the hose with the hot tip of the tool. It should seal the hole closed.

Fruit Facts

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), fruit should be ripened at room temperature. When it is ripe and refrigerated, you can plan on it staying edible for the following amounts of time...

Apples—1 month
Apricots, bananas, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums—3 to 5 days
Berries and cherries—2 to 3 days
Citrus fruit—2 weeks
Cranberries and melons (except watermelon)—1 week
Watermelon—3 to 5 days

A Natural Mosquito Repellent

A popular mosquito repellent is the mosquito coil. The coiled, clay-like material sits on a stand and is burned. It releases a pleasant odor that is very repellent to flying pests. Each coil burns for about two hours.

But many of these contain a potent lung carcinogen. Studies show that burning one coil could be the equivalent of smoking more than 100 cigarettes!

You may want to try the following suggestion to deal with those nasty little buggers...

Drink 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water. The smell of vinegar, emitted in your normal perspiration, will repel mosquitoes, whose sense of smell is about 10,000 times better than ours.

For Fresher Cheese...

To prevent a chunk of cheese from getting moldy, place it in a resealable plastic bag along with one or two cubes of sugar (try to squeeze any excess air out of the bag). The cheese should stay fresh longer, and the sugar deters mold.

Fast Fix for Frizzy Hair

If you wake up with out-of-control frizz and have no gel to tame it, take an ice cube and run it over your hair. It’s a cool way to calm down frizz.

Or, buy great-smelling fabric-softener sheets to run over your hair from top to bottom. Softening ingredients in the sheets lubricate hair and counteract the static that causes flyaways and the frizzies.

From Household Magic Daily Tips