Renewables At Home » Household tips

How to get shiny silver without harmful chemicals

ellen — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:44:15 +0000

Commercially available silver polishes taste horrible. Many of them also contain harmful chemicals. Not exactly something I’d like to put in my mouth! I realize that you’re not supposed to eat silver polish, but there might be some left on your silverware after you’re done polishing.

I’d much rather use something that does no harm to me and my taste buds in any case. Or to the environment.

Toothpaste makes both your teeth and silver shine

The silver polish I use, I willingly put in my mouth every day: toothpaste!

Using it is easy:

Put a dab or three – as much as you need – of white toothpaste (not the gel variety, and stay away from the ones that are advertised as having a whitening effect on your teeth) on a soft, dampened cloth. Old cotton T-shirt scraps work well.
Gently rub the toothpaste over the tarnished silver in a straight, back-and-forth motion. The toothpaste is a mild abrasive, and if you rub too hard, you might scratch your silver.
As the tarnish comes off, your dampened cloth will become dark with tarnish. When this happens, add some more toothpaste to a clean part of the cloth and continue polishing. Remember to be gentle.
If your silverware has intricate patterns or other hard-to-reach places, use a soft toothbrush to get to it.
Once you’re done polishing, rinse your silver thoroughly with warm – not hot – water and dry it with a soft towel.

Voila! Your silver is nice and shiny and you’ve done no damage to the environment or yourself. You didn’t even need to wear rubber gloves while you were at it.

In fact, you really shouldn’t wear rubber gloves when handling silver anyway, since the sulphur traces in rubber will corrode silver.

Happy polishing!

How to lubricate without petroleum lubricants

thomas — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:10:43 +0000

Got some squeaky hinges driving you nuts or a sewing machine in need of lubrication?

You don’t have to use polluting and foul-smelling petroleum based lubricants – there’s an excellent, natural alternative: Jojoba oil – a natural, liquid wax extracted from the seeds of the jojoba plant.

While jojoba oil is most commonly known for its use as moisturizer in cosmetics, it’s also an excellent lubricant. It’s fully biodegradable, non-polluting and free of unpleasant smells. It never turns rancid, so you won’t have to worry about your door hinges or sewing machines starting to smell funky.

You’ll find jojoba in most health food stores and from herb suppliers. There’s also a wide selection of jojoba products on Amazon – this organic product seems popular.

How to sharpen a needle

How to clean out burnt food without chemicals

ellen — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:17:46 +0000

Here’s a quick tip that will help you out whenever you’re unlucky enough to burn food in your pan.

First quickly scrape out any burnt bits that come off easily.

Then fill the pan with enough tepid water to cover all the burnt food.

Put in a couple of teaspoons of baking soda, give it a quick stir and leave it overnight. The next day, all the burnt bits can easily be cleaned out with a brush.

How to unclog and clean drains without harmful chemicals

thomas — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:34:14 +0000

Many commercial drain cleaners are quite unpleasant substances.

Their causticity will easily damage PVC pipes, and might cause chemical burns, scarring and blindness to you and your loved ones. They’re also harmful to organisms that come in contact with your wastewater.

Luckily, there are cheap alternatives that are just as effective at unclogging and cleaning drains – without the unpleasant side effects.

If your drain still lets a reasonable amount of water through, pour 1 cup (slightly less than 2.5 dl) of baking soda down the drain. Follow this by 3 cups (a bit more than 7 dl) of boiling water.

If your drain is completely clogged, washing soda is your friend.

Washing soda is the stronger brother of baking soda. While it releases no harmful fumes and is a lot safer than commercial drain cleaners, you should still be careful and wear gloves when handling it. Also, don’t use it on aluminum surfaces.

To use it for unclogging drains, pour about 1 cup of it into the water around the drain. Make sure you pour it as close to the drain as possible. If there’s a lot of backed up water in your sink, you might have to use more than 1 cup.

Within a minute, water should start flowing through the drain again.

To keep drains clean and prevent them from clogging up at all, pour 1 cup of washing soda down them every week or so.

Remove rust with onions

ellen — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:18:29 +0000

Has your favorite kitchen knife gotten rusty? Despair not. You don’t have to throw it away or resort to chemicals that are bad for your health and the environment to remove the rust. Instead, try this:

Buy a large yellow onion
Cut through the onion numerous times with your rusty knife
The rust will be dissolved by the onion juices and rubbed off on the cut surfaces

To avoid getting the knife rusty again, always clean and dry it properly after use.

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How to make children’s jeans last longer

ellen — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:59:24 +0000

Kids grow fast. Chances are they will grow out of their clothes before they’ve worn it out.

If your kid has a pair of jeans that have become too short, but still fit around the waist, you can give it a second lease of life by sewing a piece of different material neatly on at the bottom of the legs.

Frills and elastics are often a success with girls, but you’ll make things a lot easier for yourself if you let the kid pick out the material him- or herself :-)

How to sharpen a needle

ellen — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:10:26 +0000

Do you have a needle that has become dull? Don’t throw it away! Sharpen it with this quick and easy tip instead.

You can sharpen a needle simply by using it to sew through a piece of fine grit sand paper. A few inches should do the trick, although if the needle has become very dull, you might have to keep at it for a little longer.

Do this regularly – every few months if you do a lot of sewing – and you’ll be able to keep them sharp for years to come.

This sharpening tip will work equally well for both sewing machine needles and regular needles. Just don’t overdo it with sewing machine needles, you don’t want to grind them completely away ;-D

Baking potatoes: halving time and energy spent

ellen — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:30:41 +0000

Baked potatoes are one of my favorite side dishes, but the time it takes for them to finish baking is not. Especially if they’re properly large baking potatoes.

Which is why I really like this tip:

When preparing your potato for baking, pierce it through the middle with a metal skewer that pokes out on each side by at least an inch. Leave the skewer in, wrap the potato in aluminum foil as usual and start baking.

The skewer will conduct heat into the middle of the potato, essentially baking it from the inside. This will ensure the potato is done baking in about half the time.

Ellen’s household tips

ellen — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:55:50 +0000

Hi, I’m Ellen.

Every once in a while, I’ll post quick tips for savings and reuse, most of the time with a slant towards housekeeping and natural body care. Reusing old stuff and consuming less around the house is a good way to reduce your ecological footprint, since the current average consumption of the “Western world” is taxing the Earth heavily.

This time, I have a quick tip for reducing waste in the kitchen:

If you need just a few drops of fresh lemon juice, don’t cut a whole lemon open and throw the rest away. Pierce the rind with a knitting needle instead, and just squeeze out the drops you need. As long as the knitting needle isn’t too thick, the hole should seal back up again and you can use the rest of the lemon later.