27 Great Tips for Around the House
[UPDATE: Click Here for more Tips!] Some of you may have heard of these before but we couldn’t resist letting our readers know of a few extremely helpful tips that could not only save you money but could even save your life!
- Peel a banana from the bottom and you won’t have to pick the little ’stringy things’ off of it.
That’s how the primates do it. - Banana Ripening: Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. - Cheese: Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.
It will stay fresh much longer and not mold - Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating raw.
- Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
- Beef: Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. - Eggs: To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple
of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in
and then beat them up. - Mint Brownies: Make brownies as directed.
Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies.
Let set for a wonderful minty frosting. - Garlic: Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light
taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a
stronger taste of garlic. - Quick Dessert: Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert.
Simply chop them up with a food chopper.
Peel, core and slice a few apples.
Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. - Reheat Pizza: Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza.
- Easy Deviled Eggs: Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done for an easy clean up.
- Expanding Frosting: When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
- Reheating refrigerated bread: To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
- Newspaper weeds away: Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go over with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
- Broken Glass: Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can’t see easily.
- No More Mosquitoes: Place a dryer sheet in your pocket.
It will keep the mosquitoes away. - Squirrel Away: To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.
- Flexible vacuum: To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
- Reducing Static Cling: Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and-ta da! — static is gone.
- Measuring Cups: Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
- Foggy Windshield: Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
- Reopening envelope: If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It seals easily.
- Conditioner: Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs (or your face). It’s a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair…
- Goodbye Fruit Flies: To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it ½’ with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
- Get Rid of Ants: Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it ‘home,’ can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed! (Also try dry Grits, when the ants eat the dry grits, the fluid in their stomachs will cause the grits to expand blowing up the ants and the colony.)
- Clothes Dryers: Even though you clean the lint itself from the dryer lint trap, you must also clean the mesh part with hot soapy water and a brush (may use tooth brush also) every 6 months or so. Dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh. That’s what burns out the heating unit. You can’t SEE the film, but it’s there. It’s what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free-that nice fragrance too, this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire and potentially burn your house down with it! By washing it, you can save electricity and help your dryer live longer.
Of course we haven’t tried ALL of these but they are worth a try. I know I have seen that information before about cleaning your dryer vent thoroughly. Takes just a few seconds and they pay off is priceless. Let us know what your experiences are!
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Comments
@mad scientist: Thats exactly right. its amazing the amount of airflow that gets hindered by such tiny fibers.
There are some very interesting tips here. I’ll have to give a few a try. Thanks!
I break my bananas in half, then peel them. It’s quicker and easier than any other method I’ve tried. People usually look at me funny the first time they see me do it, but I’ve caught a couple friends doing it later. 
Most of these ideas are great. I can’t wait to try the vacuum hose extender idea. I’ve read that the cornmeal idea is a myth, though. It actually just feeds them. What I use for bait is peanut butter mixed with borax. They take it back to the colony and share it.
there is an addition to # 26. nutra sweet was originally an ant poison. sprinkle this directly on ant hills. the company found it safe for humans and could sell a lot more. and yes, i have tried this and it does work…i got those small trail ants in the house in the winter.i occasionally still do and i use a packet on the trail
Actually, Aspartame (aka NutraSweet) was never developed as an ant poison. That’s an urban myth: http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/antpoison.asp .
If fact, it appears that ants will thrive if fed Aspartame.
I do know that borax works!
Tip 21, on measuring cups, proves just how dotty the US system of measuring solid and sticky things in cups really is. What’s wrong with weighing things? Not to mention the irritation of being faced with a recipe that doesn’t have metric conversions. Otherwise, some nice tips, thank you.
@Jeff: Glad you enjoyed!
@Patrick: That’s interesting…doesn’t the banana break unevenly? I’ll have to try it…
@Christina: Thanks for the heads up about the cornmeal, borox sounds like a good idea!
@brian: NutraSweet?! Awesome. That’s great because you always see that at restaurants and if I just put a few in my pocket…
@Second Brian: Dang it! I got all excited. Well borox is a good solution as well from what I hear.
@Jeff: Right you are. Thanks for the thumbs up!
@Saba: Good point, although the one thing I can see as hanging people up is the fact that different items have different densities. How do you get around this?
@Schahryar: Your welcome! Feel free to share!
Ben, I can’t help hoping you have the ability on your counter or your commenting system to check IP addresses. 
By the way, I’m impressed with your blog, and have subscribed. Thanks again.
@Christina: I certainly do. Thanks for visiting, and I will be sure to stop by yours.
Great tips! I’d personally suggest scrubbing the lint trap at least weekly. It gets clogged up way before six months - or at least mine does, hehe.
Hmmm - I’m going to have to try #17 No More Mosquitoes: Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away. I can’t say I trust it 100%, but can’t knock it till I try it!
@hank: I agree, I have heard quite a few different “mosquito” tricks but this one seemed the easiest.
I really like these ideas. I’ve heard a few of them before, but every one of them is worth trying at least once. Thank you for posting these ideas!
The best thing I’ve found to clean the lint trap with, (and the easiest) is a bottle brush.
I’m so using that fruit fly one. We’ve had them in our house for the last week and they’ve been driving me crazy. I’ve killed loads of them, but it’s impossible to get them all.
I’ve tried #17 (mosquito trick). It doesn’t work at all. I’ve tried it on a couple occasions. I’ve even tried rubbing it on my skin and then putting it in my pocket. Still get bit. I live in Texas and this is prime country for testing that crap.
Awesome–I can actually use these! The cheese, peppers, and garlic tips are all going to work in my kitchen right away.
Wow, great tips. LOL I break my bananas in half before I peel them too, works great, its all in the wrist. Glad to get the ant tips, we are swarmed with ants and cant get rid of them! Now I know how to blow them up.
“UP or DOWN”? This is to end the debate about the toilet seat being left up or down. What about the LID?
In my home the rule is to put the lid down. It looks much better that way and ends the debate.
Cheap way to rid yourself of roaches. Mix sugar and baking soda together and leave small amounts where they will find it.
It seems that roaches do not have the ability to fart. As they consume the sugar and baking soda gas will build up inside of them. POP! End of the roaches.
James, that kind of make want to have roaches just to get rid of them that way. I really want to try it. Seeing roaches pop would be funny.
#22 suggests wiping fog from your windshield. Do this only as a last resort. There’s one last trick you can use with your car’s air controls. Turn off the heat, turn on the air conditioning, and blow that up onto the windshield. If it still doesn’t work, switch from recirculated air to outside air, or vice versa (one works, one doesn’t, I forget which). Yes, you’ll be cold, but since cold air doesn’t hold as much vapor as warm does, your windshield will clear right up! If you keep the A/C on too long, though, you’ll have condensation on the OUTSIDE, which you can at least wipe off.
[...] with Andrea at AskAndrea.com in Texas (WBAP). Its a national station that wanted to discuss our 27 Tips Around the House as well as talk about our main philosophy of helping our readers make milk the most of what they [...]
Great tips! Never tired using a dryer sheet to repel mosquitoes, but I’m going to try it tomorrow night. Thanks!
Dryer sheets for repelling mosquitoes doesn’t work…but I’ll tell you what does. I live in Alaska where the mosquitoes are HUGE and annoying. Put REAL Vanilla Extract on your pulse points, you’ll kinda smell like a sugar cookie, but the sweet smell is what repels the mosquitoes. This is the only way I survived this summer!! I’m the person that is always being bit, even if no one else is. When I used the vanilla, I only got bit maybe once or twice, and that was after being outside all day, so I probably needed to reapply.
[...] food last longer. 27 Great Tips for Around the House Great tips to avoid food going to waste. For example: separating your bananas will slow down [...]
Here’s a good kitchen tip….
When cutting onions, put them into the freezer for about 15 minutes or so before trying to dice them up. The cold causes all of the little particles that spray into the air to become crystallized. As we all know, crystals fall, not fly. I have used this for some time now and don’t shed any tears when cutting them up.
Hey, great list! Not a one of these is made up, like pretty much every other similar list I’ve read, and many of them I already use.
I have a lot of tips like this on my website greatinfotips.com. I really liked some of the ones you posted. Great job!
I HATE ants!!! I am trying this one out tonight. Thanks for the tips. Love the blog too.
This is a great list. I can’t wait to try some of them. Thanks so much.
I’d like to add something that works great for me also. Use Vaseline on door hinges to stop a squeaky door. I tried everything I could find: WD-40, synthetic lube FOR hinges, nothing stopped it. Vaseline has worked perfect now for months.
Take care.
[...] here’s another post of great tips to use around your house. Check out the original post titled, 27 Great Tips Around the House. Do you have any tips that aren’t included? Leave a comment and let us in on the secret and [...]
[...] here’s another post of great tips to use around your house. Check out the original post titled, 27 Great Tips for Around the House. Do you have any tips that aren’t included? Leave a comment and let us in on the secret and [...]
Awsome tips…you can also leave a little bit of wine in the bottom of a wine glass over night and fruit flies can’t resist. They enjoy and fall in never to be seen again…it works every time.
Also the heat sensors can become coated and make the element stay on which intern ignites the lint that no one sees on the inside of the dryer beyond the lint filter = House fire. Have it cleaned out according to the manual.
I have tried the vinegar with dish soap for the fruit flies and they seem to have multiplied. Help? Also one trick i learned about the ants was to sprinkle ground pepper on windowsills and around doorways and it gets rid of ants. i tried it and it worked! However my problem now is the fruit flies. Any other suggestions?
Fantastic tips, here and some great money savers, too. I can’t wait to try the dryer sheet in the pocket next mosquito season!
@kati: You might want to try this-get a jar of honey (that you dont want anymore) and tape a funnel into it and be sure its sealed. The flies should be attracted to it and go in and get stuck. leave room for them to fly around as well within the bottle. Molasses might also work.
You actually have tips I’ve never heard of before! Love it! Specifically no 4 & 5! I had no idea.
These are excellent! I’m going to try the banana ripening hint. Also, #22 sounds like a pretty great idea. Thanks for the tricks!
These are great tips, thanks for sharing. I have washed the film off the dryer vent screen and before you wash it you can see the water bead and not seep through the screen. After you clean it, try this again, water goes right through.
I never knew that about bananas! Thanks for all the great tips!
-Dustin
great page, great tips
tip 27 is very handy. you can run water over your lint screen and watch water bead up and resist flowing through the screen before you clean it with soap and water.