Solving the laundry quandary
ONCE YOU’VE TACKLED the mountain of laundry, here are a few more tips from Heloise for taking on everything from the dishes to stairway safety. Clean a baking dish with foil. If you make a vegetable dish that doesn’t form a hard crust as it bakes and that you cover with foil to bake, you can use the foil to clean the dish. After the casserole is done, remove it from the oven. When it cools off, crumple up the foil and use it to clean the glass dish (like a scrubbing pad). Pour bleach easily. The seal on a new bottle of bleach can be hard to remove. Try this: Grab a pencil or other sharp instrument, and punch a hole in the center of the seal. You will have better control of the flow. A gentler flow of bleach will not splatter on and ruin some fabrics. Do a five-minute dusting. Stand in the middle of the room and look at all the surfaces—dining room, coffee or side
tables and nightstands. During the week,
do a five-minute quick dust. My mother
called this “top cleaning.” It will help
control the dust until you have time for
a more thorough cleaning.
Paint a stairway. Making sure a basement stairway is well lit is helpful for elderly people whose eyesight is dimming. Here’s another way to make the stairs easier to see: Paint every other step on the basement stairway a bright color. C
MEDIA BAKERY
Don’t overload your washer. Most wash-ing-machine manufacturers have load information in their owner’s manuals. The consensus seems to be that a normal load is around 6 to 20 pounds of dry clothing, sheets or other washables.
Sheets (especially large ones) need more room in the washer than a piece of clothing to be able to move around and get clean and rinsed. So, if your machine states 6 pounds is a load, it might mean that large flat and fitted sheets, pillowcases, and a few other items will make up a full load. C
ONE CHORE THAT absolutely has to happen is laundry—the alternative ranges from silly to embarrassing. Why not simplify the task by making sure it’s done right in the first place? The following tips from domestic icon Heloise are sure to help.
Are your clothes getting as clean as possible? There are some things you can do to make sure that you and your washing machine are doing the best job possible.
A lot depends on water temperature— did you know that …
Hot water removes dirt from heavily soiled clothes and kills more germs than cold water, but it can fade the dyes in some colored clothes and may cause wrinkling.
Warm water usually gets lightly soiled clothes clean and is safe for most colored clothes, but it doesn’t kill germs unless a disinfectant is added.
Cold water requires cold-water detergent to get clothes really clean. You also can dissolve powdered detergent in hot water before adding it to the wash water in a pinch.
Reprinted from Handy Household Hints from Heloise. Copyright © 2010 by King Features Syndicate Inc. By permission of Rodale Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098.
Is there a difference between powdered and liquid detergent? According to the Soap and Detergent Association, the only difference is the texture. An added bonus with liquid is that it can be used to pretreat stains. Whichever type of detergent you use, always follow the dispensing directions on the product container to achieve the best results.
Kim Thuringer
Buyer, Corporate Food and Sundries Buyer’s pıck
The Costco Connection Members can find laundry detergent, bleach, aluminum foil and more in their local Costco. For more household tips, see Costco’s Household Almanacs online at Costco.com. Click on “Costco Connection Magazine” at the bottom of the page.
SPRING MAY BE the traditional time to clean, but any time of the year is a great time to use Kirkland Signature™ Household Surface Wipes. I have the wipes in the kitchen, in each bathroom, in the laundry room and I even have some in my car.
Kirkland Signature Household Surface Wipes measure 8. 2 by 9. 8 inches, larger than the 7-by-8-inch lead-
ing national brand of disinfecting wipes. They can also be used on a Swiffer® floor mop to clean finished floors, glazed tile, laminate flooring and linoleum.
We worked diligently with our supplier to develop an eco-friendly pack and reduce the amount of plastic in our packaging. We eliminated the bulky canister and replaced it with a pack that allows the wipes to start and dispense more easily.
Our wipes are effective against E. coli, salmonella, staph,
Pseudomonas aerugi-
nosa and the flu virus.
Kirkland Signature
Household Surface
Wipes assure you that
you are helping to keep
a clean, germ-free environment both at
home and at your workplace. C
a clean, germ-free environment both at
MARCH 2011 ;e Costco Connection 55
References:
Archives