From drying pasta to saving paint, readers offer household tips

Here are a few household hints from readers:

• A great substitute for a saucepan lid is to place a metal colander over the pot upside down like a dome. The holes allow air to escape, without the water boiling over. Nancy

• Nobody likes dripping wet cooked pasta noodles. Dry the pasta by placing it in a salad spinner. Spin the noodles before adding sauce. Nancy

• To save a partial can of paint so that it is as good as new, take a sheet of aluminum foil three inches larger than the paint can. Place the can on the centre of the foil, take a sharp knife and cut the foil 1 ⁄ inches larger than the can. Lift the foil tightly up around the can. Then lift the can off the foil and very gently place the foil on the top of the paint can. It helps use a roller to smooth the foil firmly around the wet-paint sides of the can. Treated this way, even a very small amount of paint will stay fresh for years in its original condition. Alan

• Before I go out, I always check to make sure that my leather shoes or boots are clean. If they are not, I buff them with WD-40 and a soft cloth. Doing this makes them shiny, and best of all, waterproof. Rowan

• It was always difficult for me to clean underneath my appliances, until I discovered this handy little secret. Take a ruler and put a sock over one end. Fasten the sock with a rubber band. Push the stick under the appliance and move the stick back and forth to clean the floor. Xavier

• My grandkids gave me an iPad that I don’t use very often, because I have another one. I decided to put the extra iPad to use by hanging it on the wall in my kitchen. Now whenever I need to look up a recipe or check a conversion, I just use my iPad. It’s very handy. Elda

• I am known around my town as being a great Italian pizza maker, because I never serve a soggy crust. Here is my secret: Put the cheese onto the crust, next add the sauce and last add the meat. Morgan

Feedback from a reader

Dear Reena: I noted with interest your response to the question about easily converting Celsius to Fahrenheit. I created a method shortly after the metric system came to Canada.

Double Celsius, subtract 10 per cent, add 32. (For example, 40 times two is 80; 80 minus 8 is 72; 72 plus 32 is 104.) This is exactly what one does in the long, complicated formula, and has the same results. To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, you do the reverse. Subtract 32 from Fahrenheit, add 10 per cent and divide by two. Alan

Note: Every user assumes all risks of injury or damage resulting from the implementation of any suggestions in this column. Test all products on an inconspicuous area first.