HELPFUL HINTS

DEAR HELOISE: When making a family cookbook, I typed and copied each recipe onto an 8-1/2-inch by 11-inch sheet of paper and stored them in a three-ring binder. To protect each recipe, I inserted the paper into a plastic sleeve. Now, when family members prepare a dish using my recipes, if there are food spills on the recipe, all they have to do is wipe off the plastic sleeve.

— Pat Austin, via email

DEAR READERS: To prevent odors from overwhelming your closet, mix a box of baking soda with 3 to 4 teaspoons of your favorite spice such as nutmeg, allspice or cinnamon. Place the mixture into plastic margarine tubs and poke holes in the lids. Your closet will be sweet-smelling, and so will your clothing.

Baking soda is an excellent tool to use for cleaning and deodorizing. FYI: If your pet’s plastic toys are dirty and yucky, make a solution of baking soda and water. Scrub this solution over the dirty areas of the toys to clean them well.

DEAR HELOISE: Greetings, Heloise and staff! I truly have benefitted from all of the good hints for many years! Here’s one of mine: If I find that I am out of bread or rolls when trying to make a sandwich, two toaster waffles work really well as a substitute. —

J.J., via email

DEAR HELOISE: When growing up, I would see my mother hanging cloths on the clothesline, aka the “solar clothes dryer.” Instead of using two clothespins on each garment, she would use one on the left side of the garment and one on the right side, putting two garments together. This would use up less clothespins and still get the job done.

— D. Hansel, Houston

DEAR HELOISE: I make my grocery list on my phone as a message to myself and keep it in my drafts to add to it if I need to.

— Barbara Shaidnagle, via email

DEAR READERS: If you have a large arrangement of fresh flowers, and some start to droop or die, you can replace them by filling in the spaces with dried or artificial flowers. Then, you can mix and match the different flowers, and it will create quite an interesting display.