Housecleaning Helps

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 7, 1908

Housecleaning Helps

THE latest for the extermination of household insect pests is given in a circular of seven pages, issued by the Bureau of Entomology, which it would be well for our housekeepers to send for at once. It is free for the asking, and a postal-card will bring it. Write to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., asking for Circular No. 46, Second Series, Bureau of Entomology, and it will be sent you. The government issues many bulletins the reading of which would be of much interest, and often very great benefit, to all members of the family.

To clean wall-paper, make a dough of flour and cold water, and knead as you would for bread until it becomes free from stickiness and perfectly smooth. Use a piece at a time sufficiently large to handle. One piece may be used for a large space on the wall-paper, rubbing it over the paper as you would a sponge, but it should be changed for a fresh piece before it gets much soiled.

Cane chair bottoms should be washed with soap and hot water, turned upside down and well soaked. Dry out in the wind and sunshine, and they will be as firm as when new. Equal parts of vinegar, sweet oil, and turpentine make an excellent polish for varnished furniture.

To remove grease from matting, cover the spot thickly with powdered chalk moistened with benzine (gasoline will do), but do not allow any fire in the room when it is done. When this evaporates, brush off the chalk, and the grease will have disappeared. If necessary, repeat.

To remove the thin, hard coating in bath-tubs or other vessels in which soap and water are used for cleansing purposes, pour on a woolen rag a small quantity of naptha, rub the surface quickly, and when all the surface has been gone over, go over it again with hot water and soap. Polish with a soft cloth or a clean chamois skin, and it will have a beautiful luster.—The Commoner.