HELPFUL HINTS

— DEAR HELOISE: My daughter and I were reading your column and little did we know that we would be using your advice just 12 hours later.

In the column, you mentioned that you should always unplug, wait for 30 secondsand re-plug electronic devices before calling the repairman. We had a horrendous thunderstorm, and I saw a flash of lightning flyinto the window and blow out our large-screen TV. The sound and the lightning were enough to convince me that our TV was destroyed. My daughter’s bedroom TV also was not working later that night.

Before I called the insurance agent, we unplugged the TV and plugged it back in. Luckily, it came back on! We were both so happy that we had read your column!

- C. and K. via e-mail

DEAR HELOISE: My wife and I have been using a trick to conserve our liquid dish soap and make cleaning a little bit easier. We bought a $1 spray bottle and filled it with dish soap and water. We just put a couple of sprays on things as we are cleaning them. We use far less soap compared with pouring it directly from the bottle, and it puts the soap right where we need it. The only downside is the bottle gets clogs, but a couple of raps against the cabinet usually clears that up.

- Mark in Texas

DEAR READER: I tested this and did need to add quite a bit of water to make it thin enough to spray.

DEAR HELOISE: I have some repairs going on in my bedroom, and the workers came without anything to protect my furniture. I found some plastic shower-curtain liners, and they worked great to drape over furniture, etc., plus I’m sure I can reuse them for other projects.

- Joan in Houston Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or e-mail

[email protected]

ActiveStyle, Pages 32 on 12/21/2009

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