Category Home Problem Solver

•  Unclog dishwasher spray arms

If your dishwasher isn’t working as well as usual, its spray arms may be clogged. Look at the top of the spray arms to see if the holes appear blocked (in most dishwashers, one three-pronged spray arm sits above the top rack and the second arm sits on the floor). Stick a wooden toothpick into one of the holes; if it shows signs of dirt when pulled out, the holes need cleaning.

Unfasten the clips or screws holding the spray arms in place and put the arms in the kitchen sink. Then unbend a paper clip and insert it into each hole, moving it around to dislodge the blockage. Then rinse the spray arms under the tap and fasten them back into place. Your dishwasher should now be doing its job properly.

•  Get ahead of dishwasher smells

A good way to keep odours out of your dish-washer in the first place is to simply add 1/2 cup (125ml) lemon juice to the detergent receptacle each time you use the machine.

•  Give dishes the old-fashioned scrub

The simplest way to save on your electricity bill and get super-clean dishes in the process is to fill up the sink with warm water, add a few squirts of washing-up liquid, pull on a pair of rubber gloves and have a good scrub. If your dishes are a real mess, let them soak for 10 minutes in lemon juice-infused hot water; if they’re still sticky, sprinkle them with coarse salt and a little more washing-up liquid, before rinsing them until they are squeaky clean.

Credit : Reader’s Digest

Picture Credit: Google

•  Keep the sides of your oven tidy

If crumbs, spills and stains stick to the sides of your oven, pick up some inexpensive plastic gaskets (usually used for electrical insulation) from a hardware shop. Slipping them between a freestanding oven and the benchtops will keep dirt and grease from sticking to the oven’s sides. When the gaskets get soiled (and they will get filthy), simply remove them, wash them and reinstall them.

•  Beat baked-on mess on a stovetop

If the pan supports on your stove are made of cast iron and a spilled substance has baked on, wipe them with non-toxic oven cleaner and place them in the oven the next time you self-clean it, then remove and wipe clean.

•  Salt a grease spill while cooking

If grease spills over in your oven while you’re roasting meat, sprinkle salt over the grease before it has a chance to bake on. Close the oven door and let the cooking continue. By the time you come to clean it, the spill will have transformed into an easily removed pile of ash.

•  A poultice for ridged grill pans

Grill pans with burned-on food are a major pain in the neck to clean. To make the job less of a chore, heat the pan and sprinkle washing powder over the affected area. Now cover the detergent with wet paper towels, wait for 15 minutes, remove the towels and you’ll find it much easier to scrape and scrub off the mess.

•  In-the-bag oven-rack cleaning

Put the rack into a large, heavy-duty plastic rubbish bag that’s sitting in an empty bath, and add 2/3 cup (160ml) washing-up liquid, 1 cup (250ml) white vinegar and enough hot water to almost fill the bag. Seal the bag, half fill the bath with warm water and leave the bag there for an hour. Then empty the bath and release the water from the bag. Remove the rack from the bag to scrub, rinse and air-dry your now beautifully clean oven rack.

•  Ease a rack’s slide

When you clean the shelves in your oven, don’t Forget to clean the ridges that they slide in and out on. Scrub with soap and nylon scrubbing pads, rinse off the soap and dry the ridges, then wipe them with a little vegetable oil to keep the racks gliding smoothly.

•  A scrub for exhaust filters

Once a month, take the filter off the range hood above your oven and spray it all over with WD-40. After an hour, scrub with an old toothbrush then put it in the dishwasher or rinse it in hot water for a final cleaning.

•  A shortcut to microwave cleaning

The quickest way to clean a microwave oven is to place a handful of wet paper towels inside and run it on High for 3-5 minutes. You don’t need a science lesson to know that the steam from the towels will soften the grime. Once the paper towels cool down, use them to wipe the oven’s interior.

•  Clean the microwave base with bicarb

To remove cooked-on spills from the base or turntable of a microwave, make a paste of 2 parts bicarbonate of soda to 1 part water and apply it to the hardened substance. After 5-6 minutes, wipe up the bicarb with a wet sponge or cloth and remove any residue with a paper towel.

•  Make a mini steam bath

The easiest way to melt the grease that accumulates on the walls of your microwave is to fill a heatproof glass bowl with water, run it on High for 2 minutes, don’t open the door for another 2 minutes and then wipe with a soft rag. The steam will have softened the caked-on dirt so it should wipe away easily.

Credit : Reader’s Digest

Picture Credit: Google

•  Keep it clean

The surfaces of white fridges and freezers seem to attract dirt, especially around the handles. Even the hardware shows fingerprints and spotting. But you can make your fridge or freezer look bright and shiny by using one of the following methods:

1.  Scrub it with a mixture of equal parts of ammonia and water.
2.  Rub it down with soda water, which cleans and polishes at the same time.
3.  For a glossier finish, wash and rinse the surface, then apply car wax and buff it to a shine with a clean soft cloth.
4.  Polish any chrome trim with a cloth dipped in surgical spirit.

•  Keep a tight seal

The flexible rubber or plastic gasket framing the inside edge of your fridge door seals cold air in and warm air out. When cleaning the fridge, don’t neglect it. Wipe grime — and mould — off with a soft cloth dampened with surgical spirit and finish by rubbing the gasket with a little baby oil to prevent cracking.

•  Scrub with salt

When new groceries get crammed into the fridge, it’s all too easy to displace a small bowl of leftover sauce at the back, which then gets wedged in at an angle and begins to leak. To get rid of any gummy mess that may result, sprinkle it with salt. Then dip a scrubbing pad or abrasive sponge in hot water and rub the stain vigorously. Repeat until it’s gone, each time wiping the area with a wet paper towel.

•  Litter box lesson

If cat litter can absorb the really pungent smells that emanate from your cat’s litter tray, it can certainly soak up the lesser odours that so easily arise in the fridge. Keeping a small, uncovered bowl of natural clay cat litter on a shelf of the fridge will help to block odours before they take hold.

•  Deodorize with a spud

To diminish fridge smells, peel a raw potato, cut it in half and place each half on a small saucer. Now place the potato halves on different shelves in the fridge. When the cut surface turns black, trim the black part and return the potato to the fridge with its absorbent powers restored.

•  A lemon-fresh fridge

Mould and mildew can take hold of your fridge and not let go — and banishing their odours takes drastic action. Squeeze a lemon into a cup of water and throw the peel in with the mixture. Unplug the fridge and empty it (we said it was drastic), placing ice-cream and other frozen items in a bath, sink or freezer bag filled with ice. Then microwave the lemon water to almost boiling and place it inside the empty fridge. Close the door and let the deodorizer sit for half an hour. The citrus fumes will freshen the smell and soften any accumulated food. Remove the bowl, wash the interior of the fridge and restock.

•  Two ways to speed up defrosting

If you have a freezer that doesn’t defrost itself, you can speed up defrosting to keep frozen foods from spoiling or going soft. Speed up the process by aiming a stream of hot air at the ice with a hair dryer. Another trick is to boil water in a couple of saucepans, place them in the freezer (on trivets if the floor is plastic) and close the freezer door to trap the steam. In no time at all you should be able to pry off large slabs of ice with an ice scraper.

•  Use your oven when defrosting

If you have a self-cleaning oven, use it to store frozen foods as you defrost the freezer. These ovens are so well insulated that they should keep foods frozen for hours. Just remember not to turn it on.

• Borax in the bin

Kitchen bins are great incubators for mould and bacteria that cause odours. To ward off accumulations of these microscopic marauders, sprinkle 1/3 cup (60g) borax in the bottom of your bin and renew it every time you empty the bin.

• Cabbage as culprit

Boiled cabbage is one of the healthiest foods around, but the smell it creates as it cooks is a major turn-off. To sweeten the air (and improve the flavour), add half a lemon to the water.

• Bake a batch of brownies

There’s no better natural kitchen deodorizer than a batch of baking brownies. The gorgeous chocolate and vanilla smell will enhance any kitchen — and your family will thank you for it.

• Bake an air freshener

Don’t buy an air freshener when you can get rid of kitchen smells at a fraction of the cost with baked lemon. Simply slice 2 lemons, put them on a foil-lined baking tray and bake them in a low oven at 100°C for 60-90 minutes. To prolong the cleansing effect once the heat has been turned off, open the oven door and leave the lemons on the rack for a few hours.

• Odour-killing drain cleaner

Using salt and bicarbonate of soda to unblock a drain will put an end to unpleasant smells at the same time. Pour 1/2 cup (100g) salt into the drain followed by 1/2 cup (90g) bicarbonate of soda. Then pour in a kettleful of boiling water and let the hard-working sodium freshen the drain.

• Disposer deodorizers

In places where scraps of food gather, bacteria follow, thriving in the cracks and crevices deep inside a waste disposal unit. To keep unpleasant smells from wafting out of your unit, try grinding any of these super fresheners:

1.  Citrus peel — lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit.
2. Two or three bunches of fresh mint.

Credit : Reader’s Digest

Picture Credit: Google

•  Store flour and rice with bay leaves

Tiny weevils and other small insects can enter paper or cardboard containers of flour, rice, porridge and breakfast cereal through the tiniest of cracks. Keep them at bay by putting a few dried bay leaves in the containers.

•  Freeze them out

Some insect eggs may be in food containers before you bring your groceries home and have yet to hatch. Kill off any eggs by keeping new products in the freezer for the first day or two.

•  Two other insect chasers

One or two whole nutmegs buried in a sack of flour or box of rice will help to keep weevils and other tiny invaders out. Some people claim to have successfully repelled insects by placing sticks of spearmint gum (unwrapped) at different points on the floor of the cupboard where susceptible foodstuffs are stored.

•  Pop goes the weevil

If dried beans or peas are under attack by hungry weevils, add some dried hot chillies to the storage container. You’ll find that they hotfoot it out of the box or bag in a flash.

•  Get ants on the run

Ants hate crawling over powdery or grainy substances. So if you see a line of ants on the march in your kitchen, spoon a long thin line of polenta, cornflour or another powdery foodstuff in their path and watch them beat a hasty retreat.

•  Spicy ant repellents

If you want to stop ants from getting into the kitchen, sprinkle cayenne pepper or ground cinnamon outside the back door as an unmistakable ‘not welcome’ mat. Ants hate both the powdery texture and powerful smell of these spices.

•  Fend off fruit flies

There’s no need to keep a fruit bowl empty just because these unwanted guests tend to help themselves to your apples and bananas. Send them packing with one of the following:

1. Mint or basil leaves Scatter mint or basil sprigs near fresh fruit when you set it out; fruit flies hate the smell and will stay clear.
2. Surgical spirit Rub a little surgical spirit on the benchtop next to a bunch of bananas or a ripening melon, tomato or avocado.
3. Apple cider Pour cider into a jar or bowl and fruit flies will be drawn to the sweet-smelling liquid.

•  Non-toxic cockroach traps

Wrap the outside of an empty jam jar with masking tape and rub the inside of the jar with petroleum jelly. Pour in 2cm beer and top it with a few small pieces of ripe fruit and 4-5 drops of almond extract. Place the open jar under the sink or anywhere else cockroaches lurk. Cockroaches will be drawn to the appetizing aroma, climb into the jar (the tape gives them traction) and drop inside to feast —but thanks to the slippery walls, they’ll be unable to escape. To dispose of the cockroaches, fill the jar with hot water, then flush the contents down the toilet.

•  Borax on high shelves

Cockroaches like to roam any high spots they can reach, so use a stepladder to get high enough to sprinkle borax along the top of your kitchen cupboards. Cockroaches poisoned by the borax will take it back to the nest, where fellow cockroaches will start dropping like flies.

• Add vinegar to your bucket

Add a few drops of white vinegar to your mopping bucket to remove traces of soap. If the floor is linoleum or vinyl, adds a little baby oil to the mop water to bring a soft gleam to the surface — but use a mere 1-2 capfuls at most or you’ll turn the floor into a skating rink.

• Bleach painted walls

Mix a solution of 8 litres water and 1/2 cup (125ml) chlorine bleach to give your kitchen walls a brightening sponge-down after you’ve done a lot of cooking in a frying pan.

• Erase pencil marks with rye bread

Remove pencil sketches from the kitchen wall with a slice of fresh rye bread (seeded or not). An artist’s eraser can also get rid of the marks.

• Wash away wallpaper grime

If your kitchen walls are covered with water-proof wallpaper, remove excess dirt with a vacuum cleaner, then wash the walls with a solution of 1/2 cup (125ml) lemon juice, 1/2 cup (125ml) washing-up liquid and 4 cups (1 litre) water. Before starting, wash a tiny section in an inconspicuous place to make sure the paper will tolerate the mixture.

• Keep stainless steel stainless

Stainless-steel kitchen sinks aren’t quite as immune to stains and marks as their name implies. Here are solutions to various problems:

1. Rust marks Rub the area with a drop of lighter fluid and then clean it with non-abrasive scouring powder and water.
2. Water marks Rub with a cloth dampened with surgical spirit.
3. Other marks Rub marks with white vinegar or soda water, both of which are excellent stainless-steel polishers.

• Lemon stain lifter

Getting a tomato sauce stain off a benchtop or cupboard door is easier than you think. Just wet the stain with lemon juice, let sit for 30 minutes or so and then sprinkle bicarbonate of soda onto the abrasive side of a kitchen sponge and scrub the discoloured area. Most stains will vanish and your kitchen will smell fresher, too.

• Sterilise your sink

Germs can lurk around in a sink on microscopic food particles. To kill them off, fill a spray bottle with full-strength surgical spirit. After you have finished washing dishes, spray the sink with the surgical spirit and then rub it down with a clean tea towel or paper towel.

• Tea thyme for porcelain

Attractive though they are, porcelain sinks can be hard to clean because abrasive cleaners dull (and often scratch) porcelain surfaces. Take the gentle route and clean your sink with fresh lemon thyme tea. Place 4-5 bunches of fresh lemon thyme in a large metal bucket and fill it with boiling water. Steep the thyme for 5-6 hours, and then strain it. Put the plug in the sink, pour in the tea and let it sit overnight. When you drain it the next morning, you will find a gleaming white sink with a delightfully fresh smell.

• Almost-free all-purpose cleaner

Why buy an antibacterial spray cleaner if you can make one in less than 5 minutes? Combine 1 cup (250ml) surgical spirit, 1 cup (250ml) water and 1 tablespoon white vinegar in a spray bottle. Spray onto kitchen surfaces, including tiles and chrome, then wipe off and watch how quickly the germ-killing polish evaporates.

• The dynamic grease-busting duo

The chemistry between bicarbonate of soda and vinegar is so powerful that the mix can flush grease out of kitchen drains. Pour 1/2 cup (90g) bicarbonate of soda into a blocked drain, followed by 1 cup (250 ml) white vinegar. Cover the drain for a few minutes as the chemical reaction dissolves the grease — then flush the drain with warm water. Caution: you should never use this method after using a commercial drain cleaner, which may react with the vinegar to create dangerous fumes.

• Ice-cold degreaser for waste disposal units

Degrease a waste disposal unit by occasionally grinding five or six ice cubes along with 1/3 cup (60g) bicarbonate of soda. The ice congeals the grease, priming it for attack by the bicarb and sending it down the drain. To flush out any residue, fill the plugged-up sink with 5-8cm hot water and run the water through the unit.

Credit : Reader’s Digest

Picture Credit : Google