Household Tricks: Part 4

 This is the last part in my series on household tricks. Catch up on the first three parts here: 1  2  3

1. Rubbing alcohol cleans dry erase boards 

One of my best purchases this year was a laminator. What started out as a quest to make an activity binder for my daughter turned into making an activity binder for piano lessons and creating my own dry erase activity sheets. A good idea is dangerous so be careful how you run away with it.

With that said, some of the dry erase markers we had were brand new and also nearing 15 years old. Did they write? Amazingly, they did. Unfortunately, they did not erase easily, so after my daughter scribbled all over the activity sheets I made her, I had the painstaking job of wiping it off with a tissue. It did not wipe off clean and I contemplated getting rid of these markers.

We didn’t have dry erase board cleaner just lying around the house so I did some trials of my own. I tried water with no luck, then Windex with no luck either. After that, I did some quick searching online and found rubbing alcohol. Sure enough, it did the trick. 

Since then, I’ve made a system of letting her draw on the sheets twice a week and wiping them all at the end of the week in preparation for the following week. I’ve attempted to turn cleaning them into a game...that didn’t work out as well as I thought it would. 

2. Lens cleaner cleans cds from skipping 

I’m about 15 years behind on this trick as cds are becoming more obsolete with online streaming and podcasts. However, we’re traditional and I love my cds, especially now that we have kids. My friend had given me a brand new book with companion cds to go with it that she never used. I was so excited to come home and play it for my daughter. 

Here was the catch: the cd came in a vinyl pouch on the inside of the book cover and it had never been opened before. With all the years of the pouch being closed, the cd was essentially stuck to the vinyl. I had to carefully pry away the vinyl from the cd and pull the cd out carefully at the same time. I did a great job separating the cd from the vinyl to remove.  However, when I removed the cd, it made contact with the adhesive from the vinyl pouch, and of course, resulted in adhesive residue on the important side. 

I tried wiping it off with a cloth and some water. There was some residue visibly left on the surface but I popped it in the player to try anyway. It played fine until we reached track 43/50. The cd got stuck and would repeat the same syllable over and over again. If I got annoyed with it, I’d manually press the button for the next track. If I was walking around preoccupied, it would keep going until it could make it to the next track itself. 

After about a week of this, I finally got tired of hearing na na na na na na na na for a minute straight so I did a quick google search and lens cleaner came up. Luckily, we actually have lens cleaner. It worked like magic. What’s actually in lens cleaner that makes this happen? Rubbing alcohol, water, and a drop of dish soap.

In the future, I may make myself a small bottle and use it for glasses/screens, but for this task, I’m glad we had an actual bottle of lens cleaner. 

3. Don't shock nonstick pans with cold water

This one isn't really a trick....but moreso a lesson we learned the hard way. When we got married, we received a nonstick skillet pan as a gift and it was wonderful. We used it for many years and loved it. 

Suddenly, this summer, it started sticking. Foods I used to cook with ease started sticking to the bottom, and although I could wash the pan clean after each use, it made cooking a nightmare. I started doubting my cooking skills (which really aren't bad!) and was constantly discouraged in the kitchen.

This summer, we finally gave in and bought an entire new set of pots and pans...because, well, the pan I wanted as a replacement was $60-$80 alone, and I could get a whole new set for $150. Frugal? No. But I won't need to buy new pots and pans for years and years to come because many of them are still sitting in the box new in a closet waiting for their turn. Don't worry, they'll get their turn.

I was talking to a friend during this ordeal and I learned that you can't shock nonstick pans with cold water when they're still hot or it will kill the nonstick surface. Oops. I've probably done that more than once when I wanted to get the washing process started....🙈 lesson learned. Wait until a hot nonstick pan cools before you try to wash it.

***

It’s been a strange year with the majority of my time spent at home, but I’m glad I was able to learn new tricks and tips to file away in my brain for the future. Hope you were able to learn something new from the series. You never know when you might need to use one! 

Thanks for reading. 🙂