HOUSEHOLD TIPS NOT FOUND IN WOMAN'S WEEKLY

[plaques]

they work well with plaques

Will you please leave me out of these discussions. I'm still hanging on to my teeth. Well most of them at any rate.

[chinatyke]

I've been under the impression for years that toilet cleaner was bleach China, you live and learn!

You are right, one of the "thick" toilet cleaners was based on bleach and a detergent. I'd forgotten that one and I used to make it when I worked in Bradford. Bleach will sterilise and whiten the bowl but isn't that good at removing scale or iron stains.

Sorry, P!

[Stanley]

It's complicated isn't it. I'll have to look into this a bit deeper I think.....

[chinatyke]

It's complicated isn't it. I'll have to look into this a bit deeper I think.....

Something to get your teeth into...

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

Every now and then it's a good thing to be waited on hand and foot for a day. Wonderfully relaxing when they get it right!

[Stanley]

Looking back at the changes I have seen the one thing that strikes me is the fine line between satisfaction with personal circumstance and guilt because so many people are worse off. Today's tip is to be aware of the fact that inequality is endemic in our society but at the same time not to feel guilty because we are OK. This is one unavoidable concomitant of human life and we will never change it. Bernard Shaw once made a speech to the Fabian Society in which he said he hated the poor and wanted to abolish them. His point was not extermination of poor people but abolishing the causes of their deprivation. Nothing has changed!

[Stanley]

I was cooked out yesterday, I had finished the stew I had on the go but it was no problem, I looked in the fridge and the cupboards and soon came up with two meals. It struck me that there must be many today who would have had to go shopping but I was reared in the days when the pantry was always well stocked and the habit has stayed with me. So today's tip is to look in the cupboards and think how well stocked you are..... These are uncertain times and you never know! Some people would call this pessimistic, to me it is simply reality. I remember the remote farms I know in the Dales where they always have to be ready for being snowed in during the winter. No popping out to the shops there!

[Marilyn]

Same here Stanley, as we ate all our fresh stuff before our holiday...have been back from holiday for two days now but have survived on pantry and freezer stock.
Shopping day tomorrow, but no drama "making do".
Can't understand folk who shop every day...we could live quite happily for a few weeks ( more if we had to) on our stores.

[Stanley]

Same here Maz. I even buy a week's worth of milk at a time now as it keeps so well. It's the old motto isn't it; "Be Prepared!" I think rationing had an effect on me as well..... Even during the war my mother always had something in the pantry.

[Stanley]

Question.... Is a 40 wash bottle of washer detergent reduced from £7 to £4 a good buy? I shall have to do my sums when I go to the Cathedral of Choice this morning to top up on cleaning stuff and Oxo. Isn't it strange how things go out of your head when you enter the hallowed portals.....
We are warned that offers like BOGOF are bad for us as they increase waste but that isn't the case with me. I am always attracted to an offer and never waste any food! My tip is to use your head and if reducing the shopping bill is important, go for it!

[Stanley]

I think I must be advert-proof! I am never seduced into spending based on fashion. My tip for today is that if you are on limited incomes, decide what your priorities are and stick to them. Do you really need a new sofa or the latest kitchen gadget? Or is keeping warm and well-fed more important. The choice is ours..... I have an old fashioned cluttered house and it suits me.....

[Stanley]

I saw a mouse in the back street this morning, a rare daylight sighting outdoors. Today's tip, if you hear the pattering of tiny feet in the house it's mice. Rats are silent apart from a slithering sound if you are very close to them.

[Stanley]

If you have one of the modern drain covers in the rainwater drain outside, the type that have plastic grills, pop a heavy stone on top of them. The rats which are undoubtedly there in the sewer can come up through the water trap and push them up. I never realised this until Jack drew my attention to it repeatedly and I realised what was happening. Some old fashioned installations still have one of these for the sink or bathroom drain and so it's a direct connection to the foul sewer.

[Stanley]

My mention of rats reminds me..... When I was spending a lot of time in the US I used to leave Eigg, my old Jack Russell, with Philip Lawson while I was away. One time while she was boarded out the water board were doing a major exercise jetting the main sewer which ran close to Philip's house and he told me that one day he heard a commotion in the back garden and it was Eigg killing a rat almost as big as herself! They had been disturbed by the works on their home. These big rats are still there. I remember when we delivered skim milk to Rex Patterson's pig-feeding operation at Birstall there were enormous rats there and the dogs were afraid of them! I've seen them out above ground sunning themselves while the dogs looked on. As I said before, out of sight, out of mind, but be aware they are there and do as little to encourage them as you can. They love untidiness and careless disposal of waste food.



Eigg on the left with her mates Rosie the running dog and ? the terrier at Philip's....

[Stanley]

Modern washing machines are usually quite reliable but my present one is giving notice. It did a quick wash yesterday on the spin programme. It took me over three hours to coax it through a wash cycle. I am not normally a throw away man but modern white goods are not really economical to repair. I shall take advice from Garlicks....

[PanBiker]

Switch it off at the mains and give it a reboot before you chuck it away.

[Stanley]

Thanks Ian, I'll try that. It never occurred to me to treat it like a computer! I've chucked my soft toys in and put them on a wash, I shall report back.... Biggest job is getting down into a position where I can reach the switch which is in the back of the corner cupboard! While down there I realised that the carousel in the cupboard needs removing and the floor of the cupboard given a good scrub!
You know you are getting old when, on getting down onto the floor, you automatically think "Is there anything else that needs doing while I am down here?".
Later. It still jibbed when it hit the rinse cycle but I switched it off, left it to complete the cycle by opening the door latch and then put it on the rinse and spin cycle which finished OK. This is better than Sunday morning, I shall persevere!

[Stanley]

When you have found a nutrition regime that has obvious benefits, don't get idle and allow yourself to deviate from it.

[plaques]

I shall persevere!

Check your outlet filter, The machine won't spin if there is too much undrained water in it.

[chinatyke]

My Sanyo Diqua went wrong in the same way because the vent valve failed and I assume the "brain" then refused to open the drain valve, fixed under the warranty.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that P. I checked and there was more water than usual in the drain, I opened the 'filter housing' (no actual mesh filter in there and there was quite a lot of crud in there, more than usual.
China, the pump and spin actually worked on Sunday so I think the valve must be OK. I shall report back after I've done a load.....

[Stanley]

There comes a point when you have to accept that perhaps a long-serving item in the house has reached its sell-by date. I like clocks, I always keep my eye on the time. It stems back to so many years in jobs where good time keeping was essential. The clock in the bathroom has been giving me problems of late, it keeps stopping. Not surprising really because it is a quartz movement that is at least 40 years old. It stopped again and I bit the bullet, it's in the bin now and I have a new one on the wall. Much as I hate throwing an old friend out, there comes a time when you have to let go.

[chinatyke]

Like you, I like to have clocks about the house. 3 weeks ago one of our favourite clocks failed. It was a modern wooden framed one which my wife purchased and lugged back from Thailand. Not wanting to throw it out (it cost about five quid) she ordered a package of 4 motor units + 8 sets of hands for 2.75 GBP from the internet. Two clocks were repaired and are working fine.
We can buy kitchen type wall clocks for about one pound so really they are disposable items and not worth repairing.

[Stanley]

I have found the perfect solution to the washer problem. My kids have persuaded me that it is time to upgrade all my dodgy old electric items that have been giving notice and they are paying for them. So today's tip is look after your kids and be nice to them, eventually they will return the favour! What lovely daughters I do have!!