Dear Home-Ec 101, My son’s shoes stink so badly it is smelling up my entire house. How do you get rid of the smell that is coming from his room? Signed, Need to breathe in Texas Ivy says: Conveniently, one part of this question has already been answered. Have your son try some of the …
Dear Home-Ec 101, How do you get chewed up plastic off the carpet? My puppy and my big dog chew everything! When I had hardwood it was easy. . . carpet, not so much. Also, I have trained the puppy for the most part to pee outside, except for one area of the house. She …
Dear Home-Ec 101, I keep finding mold in my house at every turn – first it was the sippie cups that for over a year had been mold-free. Next, my dishwasher. I ran it with a mug of vinegar in the top rack in an otherwise empty dishwasher but it is still dirty and is …
Dear Home Ec 101: I hate vacuuming. It’s just so noisy and hard to haul around and then put back in the closet. I also shed like crazy (I especially did after the birth of my daughter). Do you have any advice on how to keep hair off of the carpet and bathroom floors without …
Dear Home-Ec 101, What’s the best plan of attack if I need to make the house *look* clean for visiting parents or (especially) in-laws, but I don’t necessarily have the time or desire to do it up right? In other words, what spots do I absolutely have to hit to make it look like cleanly, …
Ivy says: Kathy T is at it again! She tells me she’s going to send me stupid questions as long as I’ll answer them, so here we go with yet another edition of Stupid Questions™. 1. Is it true that the chemical in soft drinks are strong enough to clean things? Eh, kind of. Coke …
Dear Home Ec 101: My daughter shredded her diaper before I knew she was awake. There are diaper crystals everywhere! The room smells like pee, can I vacuum it? I never knew a diaper had that much stuff. Horrified in Helena Heather says: Ay yi yi, there is nothing like body fluids to start a …
Heather says: Here at Home Ec 101, we get many questions about stretching those grocery dollars. One of my personal favorites is how to roast chicken. You can get a lot of bang for your buck when you buy whole chickens. As you choose your chicken, be sure to watch the amount of salt water …
Dear Home Ec 101: Any helpful hints on cleaning wood floors? I can get them clean and I can get them shiny, but not at the same time without doing two rounds. First with water/vinegar, then going over it with Orange Glo wood floor cleaner. But who has time for that? And another thing about …
Ivy says: Kathy T over at Where’s the Mute Button asked us some questions. We at Home-Ec 101 are here to help, so here’s where I answer those questions. Kathy’s questions are in bold: 1. How to clean up *shart-stains. In case anyone was unaware, shart stains are those brown stains that mysteriously appear in …