“Snow has closed the X Highway,” droned the radio announcer. “Several drivers have been trapped. The road may not be able to be cleared for another hour.”
Have you ever wondered how you’d be able to cope if you had to wait in your car for any length of time waiting for the mechanics, the cops or the civil defence crew to turn up? What items should you carry in your car to cope with emergencies big and small? And those little emergencies include very little things indeed.
Let’s start with the basics. We’ll assume you carry your cellphone everywhere and that it is charged up – you don’t keep this in the glovebox or boot. Things can go wrong with your car, with punctures being the most common. You should always make sure that your car has a jack and a spare tyre – don’t buy a car without one, and make sure you know how to use it. If you’ve had to change a tyre thanks to a puncture, make sure that you get the old one repaired and pumped up again so you don’t have the nightmare situation of confidently taking a flat tyre off only to find that the spare is also flat. Other items for getting your car going again, if it breaks down or similar, are a towing rope and jumper leads. These tuck down nicely into any car, even a tiny little city runabout.
What about for you? A first aid kit is high on the list of must-haves inside your car. This isn’t just in case you crash – other things can happen, such as bee-stings, paper cuts and grazes, so it’s good to have the means to deal with this on hand. A blanket is another handy thing to carry. This can be used to keep an accident victim warm in case of shock. You may think it won’t happen to you because you’re a careful driver, but you never know when you’re going to come across some elderly person around town who has collapsed and you’re the first (or only) person on the scene.
Now come the creature comforts for not-so-big emergencies:
Sunglasses: Glare makes driving uncomfortable, so keep a spare pair in your glovebox in case you leave your favourites behind and get caught out.
Eatables: You may have to wait in the car for a while or be diabetic. Chocolate doesn’t keep all that well in the glovebox – it can melt, but peppermints, nuts and raisins, or crackers all make good, storable nibbles. Chewing gum is another handy way of keeping relaxed while driving on long journeys. Drinks are a bit trickier. While keeping hydrated on water is a good idea on a long drive, it’s not a good idea to store water long-term in a car, as it can get a bit unsafe. Take a fresh bottle of water with you when you go – it can come in handy for topping up radiators as well as yourself.
Serviettes, tissues or paper napkins: Paper napkins can be used for first aid, cleaning sunglasses, window cleaning, wiping windscreens, checking the oil, wiping fingers and scribbling notes. They can also be used as a substitute for loo paper if you find a public loo that’s out of paper.
Maps: Have two, a local street map and a nationwide map.
Pens and pencils: You never know when you may have to jot down phone number, licence plates or the name of a great shop you’ve just spotted.
Reading material: If you’re stuck for ages waiting for the breakdown crew or whoever, this prevents boredom. If you are likely to have children in the car, provide for them as well.
Music: Another must for long car journeys and for filling in dull waits.
Warm and/or waterproof clothing: If the weather turns appalling or you have to wait with your engine (and heater) off in cold weather, you will appreciate having a warm pullover on hand. And if you have to change a tyre in pouring rain, a raincoat is a lifesaver.
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Why would anyone want to make their own bath products when there are so many lovely products with delicious scents available on the market today? Well, it could be because you have sensitive skin and commercial products always make your skin itchy and uncomfortable, and you want to know exactly what is going on your skin. Or you could just like making things as a hobby – home-made bath products make great gifts and they could earn you a little if you sell them at a stall or something of that kind.
For best results, use proper essential oils rather than cheap fragrant oils. The “el cheapo” fragrances are artificial and don’t have the aromatherapeutic properties of real essential oils. When choosing essential oils to use for making bath products, let your nose be your best guide and choose what you like best. Having said that, remember to follow all precautions if you are pregnant or if the products will be used by small children. Experiment a little to find a blend of oils that works for you.
Bath oil: This is one of the simplest bath products to make. Simply mix about ten or so drops of the essential oil(s) of your choice in a bottle with some light oil such as almond oil, sunflower oil or even the sort of light oil you’d use for cooking such as soya oil or canola oil. Shake the oil together with the essential oil and leave it to “sit” for a little before using. You can tint the oil lightly with food colouring, but don’t use too much, as it can stain the bath.
Bath salts: Another easy one. Use either plain table salt or Epsom salts. Again, mix ten or so drops of essential oil(s) with about a cup or so of the salt. Stir together thoroughly. Once again, you can add a drop or two of food colouring to tint the bath salts. This mixture can be decanted into a pretty bottle or container (you can soak off the label from a jam jar or another suitable bottle with a paper label and re-use it for this).
Bath bombs are a bit trickier. To make a bath bomb, mix 3 T of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) with 1½ T of citric acid. Add about 10 drops of essential oil(s). Mix together well, then add a tiny bit of water to make a stiff paste you can mould and shape. You can also add a tiny touch of food colouring, powdered petals or even some salt for a bit of extra. Stir well then shape it and leave it to dry. Store in an airtight container until use. In a similar way you can also make your own domestic cleaning London products.
Bath bags need two things to be made up. Firstly, you will need the bag itself. For your own use, you can just tie the contents of the bag inside an ordinary face flannel. But if you want to give them as gifts or sell them, you will need something a little fancier. Cut up a hand towel and sew it into a bag, remembering to hem the top opening. Cut a few little holes near to the top of the bag going around the circumference and thread a ribbon through, leaving enough ribbon to pull it tight. Next, mix up the ingredients and put them into the bath bag before tying it shut. Milk powder and oatmeal make excellent soap-free cleansers, and you can also add minerals salts, the essential oils (of course), ground almonds or some dried herbs. To use a bath bag, simply drop it in the bath as it is filling. This will release some of the scent and cleaners in the bag into the water. Use the bath bag as you would soap – the flannel has excellent exfoliating properties. You will only get two (at most) uses out of the bath bag contents. Shake the old contents out, preferably into a compost heap, then wash the bag thoroughly after turning it inside out. Then refill for another use.
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Why has this household task become a staple of silly jokes and riddles? You know the sort of thing:
Q: How many social workers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Seven: one to change it and six to produce a publication called “Coping with Darkness”.
Q: How many (insert nationality that you want to pick on here) does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: One hundred and one: one to hold it and 100 to turn the house around.
Seriously, though, if you’ve never changed a lightbulb before, it can seem like a bit of a puzzle. It can be a bit of a lethal puzzle, too, as if you do it wrong, you can electrocute yourself. The job gets even trickier if the bulb has really blown, i.e. shattered, leaving the end in the socket and a jagged bit of broken glass. If you can call your handyman London to help you, but if you prefer to do the job yourself, read below.
Let’s start with the basics. First of all, make sure that the power is switched off before you begin. Then get on a sturdy chair or stool if you can’t reach the bulb. If the bulb was on for some time before it blew, the glass will be hot, so use a handkerchief or another soft cloth to protect your fingers. Unscrew the bulb from the fitting.
You will now need a new bulb. If you have kept a stock of spare bulbs, just get one of these (and congratulations on your thinking ahead – were you a Boy Scout who had to Be Prepared when you were younger?). If, like most of us, you didn’t keep a stock of spares, you’ll have to purchase a new one (or, if it’s dark and you really need that light right now, pinch a bulb from the spare bedroom or a desk lamp or some other little-used place). When you buy the new bulb, you need to make sure that you have the right sort of fitting – either screw-in or bayonet fitting. Also take care when selecting the wattage. Using a lower wattage of bulb does use less electricity (and thus reduces your power bill marginally), it produces less light. Using a 75 W bulb in places that don’t need bright lights, such as bedrooms, is OK. But if you need to see clearly to work properly (e.g. in the kitchen), use a 100 W bulb. If you need to replace a bulb in a chandelier or a fitting that uses several bulbs, then lower wattages are fine. Whether to use clear or frosted glass is more or less a matter of taste.
It is better to steer clear of tinted lightbulbs for general everyday use. However, if you want to use a coloured bulb for mood lighting, go for it!
Screw the new lightbulb in place and switch it back on. If you had to remove a lampshade to change the lightbulb, then replace it. It’s best to do this before switching the light back on, as a bright lightbulb at close quarters can be dazzling, making it hard for you to see what you’re doing. Dispose of the lightbulb in the regular rubbish – even though it is glass, it can be difficult to recycle this because of the gases in the bulb. Check with your local recycling depot to see if they take old lightbulbs.
If the lightbulb broke in place, begin once again by switching the power off and making sure you have a stable platform to work from. You will also need rubber gloves and a carrot. The carrot is going to substitute for your fingers. Put on the rubber gloves to protect your hands from splinters then wedge the carrot into the broken bulb (or the fitting left at the bottom). The bits of broken glass and the metal of the fitting with bite into the carrot (better it than you) and stick in there, allowing you to turn the fitting and remove it. If the lightbulb you are removing has been hanging down, this is all you need to do. If it was pointing sideways or upwards, then quickly whip around the empty fitting with the vacuum cleaner to make sure that all the splinters of broken glass are gone. Replace the lightbulb as usual, then tidy up the broken bits of glass, still using the rubber gloves to protect your hands. Wrap the broken glass up and dispose of in the rubbish, then vacuum to make sure that all the splinters of glass are removed.
If lots of lights in the house go off at once, don’t change any lightbulbs – you are either dealing with a blown fuse or with a power cut.
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If you ask people to give a list of ten fruits, there’s a very high chance that they’ll list bananas – if you ask for a list in alphabetical order, bananas nearly always are used for B (rather than blueberries, breadfruit or blackberries). Most of us love the smell of bananas – some list the scent of banana as a favourite smell – and they’ve been the subject of numerous slapstick jokes involving the slipperiness of the peels.
Bananas are the fruit from trees of the Musa genus, with several species being used for food. “Cavendish” is the variety used most widely used as a dessert or sweet banana, with its Latin name being Musa acuminate.
Bananas are a rich source of complex carbohydrates –they have triple the amount of complex carbs compared to most (if not all) other fruits. This is why they make a great snack and a good supply of long-lasting energy.
A banana provides enough energy for the average person to walk two kilometres.
Bananas are usually picked green and the ripening process is hurried up by washing ethylene gas over them. The flavour is improved, however, if the bananas are “ungassed” and allowed to ripen by themselves. However, the ethylene gas is not harmful – apples give off this gas naturally. For this reason, if you want bananas to last longer without over-ripening, don’t store them with apples. You can buy special fruit bowls that have a special hook for bananas above the main part of the bowl so they don’t spoil quickly. Conversely, if you have bought bananas a little green and want to hurry them along a bit, pop them in an airtight container with some apples and let the natural ethylene from the apples ripen them.
Bananas are rich in vitamins and minerals. Unlike many other fruits, they contain all six major vitamin groups, being particularly rich in vitamin B6 (one banana can provide roughly one third of an adult’s recommended daily intake). They are also a rich source of potassium, which is essential for healthy muscle tissue.
Bananas contain serotonin, which promotes sleep and is also a natural anti-depressant.
Bananas can be frozen. The skin will turn black, but the flesh will be fine. A delicious (and reasonably healthy) snack for children and adults involved skewering bananas (halved or whole) and dipping them in melted chocolate before freezing.
Because of their high vitamin, carbohydrate and mineral content, mashed bananas are excellent “first foods” for infants just starting on solids. They’re easy to digest, too. Only very few people are allergic to bananas so it is usually a safe food to give babies.
Banana stains are difficult to remove – unlike other fruit spills and splashes, they don’t just wash off in the regular wash. Suggestions to remove banana stains from clothing include dabbing it with tea tree oil before washing, rubbing it with a natural domestic cleaner London like lemon juice (which is a mild bleach) or rubbing with a mixture of glycerine and water. Washing with a biological washing powder in warm water can work. With white clothing and an old stain (baby clothes spring to mind), chlorine bleach can be used.
Banana peels can be used as an emergency shoe polish as it contains a natural lubricant – yes, the same lubricant that makes the banana peels so slippery. Banana peels are also supposed to be good for buffing leather upholstery and even for cleaning silverware. Do a patch test on an inconspicuous spot first.
Banana peels are also rich in nutrients. Roses, in particular, like banana peels, so instead of throwing out your banana peels into the rubbish, tuck the peels around the roots of your rose bushes. At the very least, compost those banana peels – they’re so full of goodies for your garden it’s a shame to waste them on a landfill.
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I must say at the outset that I don’t mean to imply by the title that my mother taught me nothing at all about washing hands or that hygiene was a low priority when I was growing up. Quite the contrary. I grew up hearing “wash your hands before you sit up to the table” as much as you did.
However, while I distinctly remember being told to wash my hands and being taught how to clean the sink out after I’d finished washing my hands after playing in mud so I didn’t leave muddy smears all over the soap and the sink (“Always leave it better than you found it,” was a favourite dictum of my mother’s), I have no memory of being taught how to wash my hands properly.
So how do you wash your hands properly? Handwashing is the oldest and by far the best method of preventing the spread of disease, and it is also the easiest way to limit the spread of harmful viruses and bacteria – much easier than wearing facemasks or spraying disinfectant around everything you might come in contact with, and much easier than trying to open public toilet doors with your elbow.
Let’s start with when you wash your hands. Most of us know that we ought to wash our hands after going to the lavatory or before we eat. However, you should also wash your hands after coughing or sneezing, after handling animals, after handling raw meat, chicken or fish, before cooking or handling food, before AND after changing a baby’s nappies, and before AND after caring for a sick person. And, obviously, if you get anything revolting on your hands that you wouldn’t want to put in your mouth, you should wash it off.
Now for how to wash your hands properly. A frightening amount of people consider their hands to be washed if they vaguely wipe a thumb over the soap then stick their fingers under running water for half a second before rubbing like billy-oh on a towel. This will remove a bit of dirt, but won’t reach the full potential for removing germs.
Yes, you should use soap. You don’t have to use special anti-bacterial soap to wash your hands properly and hygienically. Ordinary soap – bar or liquid – will do. But for the soap to work properly, it needs to lather. Wet your hands first, preferably with warm water, to get a good lather going.
Once you have rubbed your hands together to get plenty of lather, keep on rubbing. Rub your palms together first, and then move onto the backs. The more you move and scrub your hands together, the better, the more effectively you will remove dirt, bacteria and other nasties. This step of rubbing with lather should take about 20 seconds. How do you know you’ve spent long enough? You can count it out, but for little children, it may be easier to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” as an indication of the time. Or you could take a tip from the medieval monks and wash your hands for one Paternoster – the amount of time that it takes to pray the Lord’s Prayer.
If you have been doing a dirty job like domestic cleaning London, garden cleaning or changing the oil in your car, you may need to use a scrubbing brush as well. This is a must for dirt stuck under the nails. However, you can prevent dirt getting under your nails when you’re gardening by ramming your nails into a bar of soap before you start. This will wedge soap under your fingernails, which will block the dirt from getting in and also washes out easily. Soap with ground pumice or sand in it also helps scrub out deep dirt after a really grimy job.
Rinse off the soapy lather thoroughly. If water is short, you can do the scrubbing step with the tap turned off, or else in a basin of water. But the rinsing should be done under fresh running water, hot or cold. Make sure all the soap is off.
Lastly, you should dry your hands thoroughly. Paper towels are the most hygienic, but they are wasteful and expensive for everyday home use. Just remember to change your hand towels frequently – they shouldn’t be damp or discoloured. Changing them daily is ideal, but in the real world, twice a week is more realistic. Or have a series of little hand towels that you can use once and wash after using.
The alcohol-based hand sanitizers do a good job of killing the germs on your hands if you are out and about and can’t wash your hands properly. But they won’t actually remove grime off your hands, and using them too often can be tough on your skin, especially if you have sensitive skin. In this writer’s opinion, they’re good for if you find that the public loo you’ve just had to use is out of soap (it happens only too frequently) or if you decide on the spur of the moment to have a picnic but don’t have anywhere to wash your hands. Like space-saver tyres, they’re for emergencies, not as an everyday option.
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The standard first reaction from most people when confronted with a sink full of dirty grey water that just won’t go down the plughole is either to (a) phone the plumber or (b) run down to the nearest hardware store for a bottle of Drano™ or some other ferocious chemical to tip down the hole and obliterate the gunk doing the blocking. However, neither of these methods is really necessary for the majority of blockages, and it is quite possible to get things going again without reaching for the chemicals.
Drano™ and the like are strong chemicals that dissolve the substances (usually organic substances) that are causing the blockage. However, the Drano™ will keep working and dissolving organic substances after the water is gurgling freely down the sink. Just stop and think for a moment what this is likely to do to the aquatic ecosystem. Yes, your drain commercial cleaning chemical of choice is probably biodegradable (these days, anyway) and will break down and be less noxious after a while, but it won’t do this straight away and it will have some effect. These fierce chemicals should definitely not be used if you have a septic tank system – they will kill the anaerobic bacteria that break down the waste solids.
The most common cause of blockages down sinks is a gunky mixture of soap scum and hair, often caused by people washing their hair in the sink or wet shaving. While letting beards, armpit hair and leg hair grow wild and leaving it unwashed is probably going a bit too far in the quest for an unblocked sink, it is possible to minimize the amount of hair that goes down. Most plugs have a trap at the top of them to prevent large objects going down and a good amount of hair gets stuck here, especially long hair. Clean hair off the trap regularly. Sometimes, if the water is a little sluggish to go out, pulling out any hairs from the trap can work wonders. The hairs will come up covered with thick black or grey goo that smells vile – chuck this down the lavatory or in the compost heap (toilets have wider pipes for obvious reasons and can handle this sort of muck). Waxing and dry shaving with electric shavers can also minimize the amount of hair going down, but this is a matter of personal preference.
The other common cause of blocked drains is the stupid habit of tipping hot fat in its liquid state down the kitchen sink. A plumber of this writer’s acquaintance says that this is the most frequent reason he is called out to a job. Don’t do it. Instead, give that liquid fat to the dog, pour it into the compost heap, use it to make a bird feeder or save it for making soap (the soap produced won’t be perfect, but it will be good enough soap).
OK, that’s how to prevent a sink getting blocked, or at least reduce the likelihood of it getting blocked. But what if you’re sitting there with a sullen grey puddle that won’t go down?
First of all, try the force of air pressure. For this, use a plunger or plumber’s mate – one of those sticks with a big rubber cup on the end. A big one works better than the small ones – the idea of these things is to force air up and down the pipe, which will dislodge and/or break up the blockage, so the more air pushed, the better. Place the cup over the plug hole and get pumping up and down. You will hear a swirling, swooshing gurgling sound, and (all going well) the drain will be clear.
Still no luck? Now its time to try chemical action, but you can use natural products for this. Boiling water will melt fat so it can get down, so this can be your first line of defence if you suspect that fat is blocking the drains. But better still is the baking soda and hot vinegar method. First of all, pour about a cup full of baking soda down the plughole. Make sure it all goes down – use a bit of boiling water to help it on its way. Follow this with a cup of vinegar, preferably heated or even boiling, as heat speeds the reaction between the acid and the base. The resulting reaction will force the blockage apart, and the acid in the vinegar will also have some effect on the alkaline soap. Wait a few minutes and repeat.
If you still don’t have any luck, you may need to physically remove the blockage. This is a nasty job and you can only do it if you can see the S-bend (or U-bend) in the pipe – try the cupboard under the sink or basin. Remove anything in this cupboard and put a bucket underneath where the pipe comes down from the top. Now unscrew the bottom of the U-bend – you may need some help from a pipe wrench. Then unscrew the top and stand clear as the water from above comes splashing into the bucket. Tip any excess water from the bend into the bucket as well. Now comes the really nasty bit: you will have to poke around and find what’s blocking the pipe. If some idiot has poked cotton buds down the sink (it happens!) or if there’s a very thick plug of fat/hair/soap/gunge, you will have to remove this. Wear rubber gloves. When you’re done, screw the pipe back on nice and securely, and go and throw the bucket of dirty water onto some unobtrusive place in the garden.
And don’t ever tip fat down the sink again.
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American child psychologist James Dobson once described a typical scenario that many parents have encountered: you come into the bedroom and find a lipstick-covered toddler smelling of Chanel No. 5 smiling beatifically at you surrounded by a chaos of smeared foundation, mascara, talcum powder and moisturizer all over the place. What he didn’t describe was what to do next, especially when it comes to cleaning up the mess.
Cleaning up the meddling little monkey is the easy bit. Cream cleanser will get the lipstick off him/her, even if the child in question didn’t slather on moisturizer first. Deep reds or long-lasting lipsticks may leave a slight stain, but this will wear away in a day or so.
Worst things first for the clean-up job. In many ways, it may be better to leave cleaning up the child until last. This is especially true if nail polish has been involved in the chaos. Deal with this one first, especially if it’s on the carpet.
According to one household expert, you should use a metal comb (the sort used for dealing with headlice), tissues cotton wool and acetone (nail polish remover). Wrap the tissue around the comb so that the teeth poke through it. Use the comb to lift the pile of the carpet up slightly – slide it right into the carpet so it forms a barrier between the top of the carpet and the bottom. The tissue will soak up any excess. Then dab on a little acetone – not too much, as it can melt plastic and plastic derivatives in artificial fibres – and use the cotton wool to blot, rub and wipe the nail polish off. Don’t try do the whole stain at once; work through it bit by bit, moving the comb along as you go and changing the tissue when it gets wet. This method is also supposed to work with superglue.
If the nail polish is on cotton cloth, the job is much easier. Simply dab it in acetone. Artificial fibres are more difficult, as acetone will melt plastic-based substances. This is a job for a professional, so take whatever-it-is down to the dry-cleaning agency. However, if the nail polish hasn’t quite set, you can remove the excess by scraping as much as you can off, but make sure that what you use to scrape it off can stand a little nail polish on it, as the polish will now stick to it.
To remove lipstick from carpet, dab on a little dry-cleaning fluid with cotton wool. This will fade the intensity of the colour a bit. Then shake bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) over the stain. Then all you do is vacuum.
For foundation or other liquids containing oil on carpet, first tackle the oils by scrubbing it with a toothbrush using a mixture of cold water and dish detergent. Blot dry. If the stain still remains, use a proprietary carpet cleaning solution. If the stain still lingers, get the carpet out into bright sunshine if you can, as the UV light will fade the stain. If you can’t get the carpet outside into the light, then apply a little lemon juice to the stain as a bleach, or hire a UV light and focus it on the stain for a few hours.
Methylated spirits will remove most makeup off things like sheets or clothing. Dab a moderate amount (enough to soak through the cloth) onto the stain, then leave it to soak before washing in the machine. It’s best to use a cold water wash in case the hot water sets any stains.
Talcum powder goes everywhere, but it easy to clean up. Just dust it up with a duster as you would for any other type of dust, or else vacuum. Scented talcum powder in the vacuum cleaner will mean that the vacuum cleaner will give off that scent until you change the bag or empty the container – a nice bonus.
Better still, avoid the problems and keep your cosmetics out of child-reach. Or shut the bedroom door when you’re not there!
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There are many things we call irreplaceable, but of them all, perhaps old photographs are the most important. Old photos are your only visual link to people and places that belong to the past. You cannot take these pictures again. Because treasured old photos are looked at so often, they are subject to a lot of wear and tear and need a great deal of cleaning and maintenance to keep them going for years to come. This is something you will have to do yourself and cannot expect cleaning services to do for you. Cleaning old photos takes just a little time and patience, nothing expensive or complicated is needed.
Before beginning, have a high quality scan done of the old photos. This will not only be a back up is something should go wrong in the cleaning process, the digitally stored images will always be available for on screen viewing when you don’t want to disturb the originals.
* Lay a soft clean towel on the work surface you plan to use.
* Put on a pair of soft white (so you can see if they get dirty) lint free cotton gloves.
* Hold the photos only by the edges.
* Use a very soft brush to gently brush dirt away from the photo surface. Start in the middle and brush outwards. If you have a can of compressed air – like that used to blow dirt away from computer keyboards – use that after the brushing.
* If there is any adhesive or other residue on the surface of the photos, continue brushing gently to remove as much of it as you can without damaging the photo.
* Now we come to the only specialized material you will need. Ask a photographic supply shop to recommend a good photo cleaning spray or solution because if you use a general domestic cleaning detergent you may damage the photo. Read the instructions carefully and use it to clean any stains and ingrained dirt from the photo. Make sure that you use only the specified material to wipe the pictures.
* If there is any slight residual dampness, allow the photos to air dry and once that is done, store them in a way that ensures that while the can be seen, they are protected.
* If you find that there are marks or stained on the old photos that you are unable to remove, do not try and experiment yourself-You could end up destroying the photos. Ask a professional photographer for help.
* You could also try scanning the photos and using photo editing software to clean up the marks and then printing out new copies.
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One of the many ways to save energy and to reduce your carbon footprint is to look at the way that your home is heated. From a natural living perspective and from a sustainability point of view, wood fires have a lot going for them and may possibly be one of the most eco-friendly and natural ways of keeping warm when it’s a bit chilly. Wood fires certainly get the tick of approval from Friends of the Earth.
Advantages of wood fires:
* Buying firewood to burn as fuel encourages people to plant more trees and grow them in managed woodlots. This in turn reduces the atmospheric carbon dioxide held responsible for global warming/climate change. Many of these trees planted for firewood are coppiced, a practice that involves felling the tree but leaving enough of the stump in the ground and allowing it to re-sprout and grow new trunks, albeit thinner ones.
* When wood is burned, not all the carbon that has been stored in the wood is released back into the atmosphere to contribute to your carbon footprint. Some of the carbon will become soot inside the chimney, some will become charcoal and some will become ash. These can all be returned to the soil rather than being released to the atmosphere.
* The carbon that wood fires release to the atmosphere isn’t new carbon – it was in the atmosphere a few years ago before the tree absorbed it and turned it into wood. This is in complete contrast to coal, gas and anything that relies on petrol (including electric heaters that are powered by petrol-fired power stations) – these all take underground sumps of carbon and release it into the air.
* Wood ash is not particularly toxic, if at all. Unlike coal ash, which is bad news for disposal, wood ash is very beneficial for the garden, as it can be used to treat overly acidic soils. Potatoes love it. You can also sprinkle wood ash around young plants to protect them from the depredations of snails and slugs – these pests hate crawling over ash.
* If you’re concerned about EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) being released in quantity, wood fires have none of these, in contrast to electric heaters.
* Wood fires give off a warm, natural source of light. However, attempting to read or the like by firelight alone is not good for your eyes.
* If the power goes off, you’ll still be able to cook and keep warm if you have a wood fire.
* As the old saying goes, firewood warms you three times: once when you chop it, once when you stack it and once when you burn it. This is a good form of exercise.
* Wood fires can make use of free wood. Things such as dead, broken branches take on a whole new perspective: they’re not rubbish to be got rid of; they’re a valuable resource. Driftwood on the beach is another free source of wood.
However, wood fires do have some disadvantages:
* Some areas do not permit fires as a form of heating because the smoke (which is less noxious than coal smoke or car exhausts) lowers air quality.
* Wood fires may not be the most efficient form of heating, especially open fires. A lot of the heat can be lost up the chimney and wasted. However, some designs of log burners are more efficient (and, if you’re lucky, in older homes, you might have a wetback design that heats your water as well). These don’t give off much light, though.
* Fires can be more of a hazard, especially with an open fire. Some types of wood are more hazardous than others, as they crack and pop, spitting out embers. However, common sense around fires and regular chimney sweeping will keep the fire where you want it, burning only the wood you want it to. Very often when you have your chimney swept, stains may occur on your carpet, so bear in mind you may need a professional carpet cleaning straight after that. A fire guard should be used for any heating source to protect young children, and an open fire will need a spark guard as well.
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It’s funny, but have you noticed that when people give household related presents (e.g. as wedding gifts or at a bridal shower), they hardly ever give what are traditionally called tools (of course, any manufactured item used to do a certain job is technically a tool. In this article, the word “tool” will be used to refer to the sort of thing that was traditionally used by men in the “bad old days” before men got into the kitchen and women got underneath the bonnet of the car). You will find people giving appliances such as coffee makers, toasters and knives, but you hardly ever see people giving saws, jacks and wrenches.
But even if you’re not a do-it-yourself person, you should always have certain tools in your house. There are some things it is just plain silly to call out a handyman (handyperson!) to do, as they are easy to do yourself, as long as you have the right tools.
Here is a basic list of tools that no household should be without. I certainly wouldn’t!
A screwdriver. This will be used to replace and/or tighten a huge amount of things around your home, from door handles to saucepan lids. Straight screwdrivers also make good levers for opening stubborn tins. Have both types handy – Philips and flat. Magnetised screwdrivers are good, as they hold the screw in place so it doesn’t drop down somewhere awkward. Some very handy screwdrivers have a shaft that has a Phillips head at one end and a flat head at the other. If you have to deal with small screws (e.g. fixing printers into ports in computers), have a miniature set of screwdrivers on hand as well as larger ones.
A spanner or adjustable wrench. Once again, you will use this to tighten and loosen all sorts of things – I have used mine mostly for putting legs on beds and tables when moving house. The adjustable sort is better in some ways than a full socket or wrench set, as you don’t have to poke around finding exactly the right one for the nut you’re tightening.
A hammer. Use this for putting in nails to hang pictures on the wall. You can also crush rose stems before putting them in water to make them last longer, and the side of the hammer can be used as a meat tenderiser (it’s very easy to wash up and is probably dishwasher safe).
A plunger or plumber’s mate. Baths, sinks and toilets all get blocked at some time or another. Sinks and baths seem to be the worst offenders, as hair and soap go down quite regularly. A plunger will get things going again in most cases.
Pliers, especially the sort with a wire-cutter included. All sorts of things can be held together with a bit of wire as a stop-gap measure. Depending on the type you get, you can also take the outer casing off an electrical wire (if you’re rewiring a plug – don’t do other electrical stuff yourself, apart from changing fuses) or cut off the head of a fishhook that some idiot has got through their finger.
A craft knife/Stanley knife. Often, you need more precision than a kitchen knife can give, but need something tougher than a pair of scissors.
A vice or clamp. If you have to repair anything that needs pressure put on it, you will need a vice or clamp to hold it steady for a long time while the glue sets.
This list, of course, is just a basic one and is not designed for a handyman London. Other things like saws, soldering irons, Allan keys, drills, sharpeners, grinders and sanders can also be added. A handyman should have even more than that.
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