Give New Life to Old Linens

Do you have any sheets or other linens that have outlived their bright white glory days? Are they now a sad faded yellowish color? Good news is, it's not too late for them!

You can restore your dingy "white" linens to their former glory using basic household ingredients.

All you have to do is fill a bathtub with warm water, then add in 1 cup of baking soda and 1 cup of salt. Soak your linens in the tub for an hour, stirring and redistributing your sheets every twenty minutes or so.

After their soak, wring them out as well as possible and machine wash with detergent and a little bleach. Your linens will come out looking brand new! Now I can even tell the difference between the white sheets and the champagne pillow cases!

Tip: Extend the Life of Your Fabric Softener

When I'm out shopping for household cleaning items, I'm almost always looking for the cheapest ones I can find. With a boost from some other basic items, like vinegar or baking soda, there's nothing that the more expensive brands can do, that the cheapos can't. 

Some things, however, are impossible to find at a low price. Fabric softener is one of them. Just try finding a bottle of liquid softener for under $5. 

Price is one of the reasons that I've been a long time fan of drier sheets and the Bounce bar. The other is convenience. Who wants to listen to the washer to click to the final rinse cycle, just so they can run and pour in their softener? Nobody. Liquid FTL.

Well, I have shocking news. I'm back to liquid fabric softener. But rather than be a dope and go against everything I believe and hold dear in regards to softeners, I wizened up. Actually, I just got a really good tip. 

You can make any liquid fabric softener last 50x longer by mixing one part softener with an equal part water in a plastic bottle. Then, whenever you throw a load of laundry in the dryer, spray a cheap cloth with several spritzes of your mix, enough to dampen the cloth slightly and toss it in the dryer! 

The perks of this method are severalfold. First, it's crazy cheap. Each load only uses a tiny fraction of the softener you would normally use. Second, by keeping the cloth you use in your laundry room, the room always smells like fabric softener. This is awesome for me, as my laundry doubles as my trash can room. Third, you throw the cloth in to the dryer, so you don't have to wait for perfect timing, and fourth, unlike dryer sheets, liquid softener doesn't leave any residue on your lint trap, which can burn up your dryer. 

Never Scrub a Pan Again

I'm a member of that unlucky populace of non-dishwasher owners, which means that every dish that is dirtied in my home is also washed by my hands. Fortunately for me, I don't actually mind washing dishes... so long as I don't have to scrub them. 

Nothing quit spoils a good day like realizing that I'm going to have to scrub a pot or pan. Prior to my enlightenment, a caked on mess meant I had to fill the sink with soapy hot water, let the pot/pan soak for an hour and then get to scrubbing. While it was good for my arm muscles, it was bad for my stress level. 

Then, I discovered a tip that eliminated post-clean up stress from my life for good! 

Are you ready for this? 

To easily remove stuck on gunk from a pot or pan, simply squeeze in a little dish soap, fill the dish to the "gunk line" with hot water, set the pot or pan on the stove and bring the water to a boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, remove the dish from the heat (it will boil over if left on too long) and dump out the soapy water. Then wash like normal. The mess will wipe right out! No fuss, no scrubbing, no stress. 

As an added bonus, you save your pots from the harsh effects of the scrub brush, which can scratch them up like crazy!