(And other hints from convents, homes and work hovels.)
By Rosie Gertie.
Do you need a sure-fire way to keep the fruit flies away? Are you having trouble getting rid of those persistent hiccups? Drats, you spilled raspberry juice on the front of your white blouse!
Thankfully, there are solutions to all of these! Two of them I learned in the convent. Cotton balls keep fruit flies away (if you don’t believe me, just try it, rather than politely though quizzically insist on removing them from my fruit bowl saying, “It looks like you accidentally dropped a few cotton balls.”)
Who hasn’t experienced hiccups that won’t stop hiccupping? Taking a tall glass of water, place a butter knife (sharp end down please) into the bottom of the glass, with the blunt end directed away from you. Then, position the blunt end in the middle of your forehead and slowly drink the water at the excellent angle the knife has produced for you. Voila! Hiccups gone!
As for that raspberry juice you spilled on your blouse…please don’t wash it in soap and cold water! You will set the stain. Instead, place the blouse, stained portion face up, at the bottom of a sink, then take freshly boiled (or just very hot tap) water and pour it from a height onto the stain. Watch it go away completely bit by bit…no soap, no scrubbing. That one I learned from a colleague ages ago.
Time and time again these neat tricks come in use not only for me, but for others, and almost every time I share these hints with someone, it is something they never knew! It gave me the idea to suggest a forum on Leonies Longing where we share fun tricks like that which you learned at home, at work, from friends or in the convent, that can save us from not only fruit flies, in-your-face berry stains, and interminable hiccups, but from whatever other household troubles, large or small, we may encounter that have fun, surprising and effective solutions.
Do you have some tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below!
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