Heather Solos 
Dear Home Ec 101:It seems like all my colored T-shirts come out of the washer with a few faint stains on the front. It looks like I spilled a drop or two of water on me when I put them on. It’s on them all, no matter what load they went into or what they …
Heather says: Commenter Keter raises some interesting points: Formaldehyde in clothing also makes it more flammable, and can cause contact dermatitis. Washing will remove the chemical treatment. Baking soda adsorbs (yes, that’s spelled right, it is a chemical process, no a physical one) some of it, but does not neutralize it. Try soaking the clothes …
Heather says: It’s back to school time in my neck of the woods. Try to have the rugrats in bed at a decent hour, lay out clothes (including shoes!) the night before, and check those backpacks. These simple routines help cut down on the morning scramble. Over the next few weeks I’ll supply some quick …
Heather says: The next time a cotton sock goes missing, take its clean mate and fill it with uncooked rice, be sure to leave some room for the grains to move. Tie or stitch the end closed. You now have a a great hot or cold compress. To use microwave for 1 minute, check for …
Heather says: The current heatwave has done a number on my allergies and the grass pollen has wreaked havoc with my eyes. One way I cope is to use teabags as compresses. When I brew a batch of tea, I store the bags in the fridge. When the itching gets out of hand, they are …
Heather says: First, I’ll apologize to everyone with preschoolers who now has a song stuck in their heads. There is no need to wait until you have been suckered into bringing something to a pot luck or picnic to make an appetizing fruit salad. With the recent heat wave, I thought a cool fruit salad …
Dear Household Goddesses, My nearly 2 year old daughter is many things. She is a clever, fearless, climbing artist who uses the world as her canvas. As hard as we try to keep any and all writing instruments away from her, she seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to finding stray pens …
Heather says: As decluttered as I like to keep my home, redundancy is occasionally a good idea. For example, it is a good idea to have more than one alarm clock in the house for the night one decides to go kaput. Let’s file this under “Lessons recently learned.”
From the comments: I’ve heard from a friend that the way Febreze works is by “gluing” the molecules causing the smell to the fabric. So you may not smell it anymore, but it is most definitely still there… doesn’t normally bother me, but it seems to bother some people heh. Assuming that what my friend …