HELPFUL HINTS

By HELOISE

LITTLE ROCK — DEAR HELOISE: In a recent column, you published a solution for my cloudy glasses. I was just about to write to you to ask what to do, and there was my answer! I must admit that I had tried soaking them in full-strength apple cider vinegar for 24 hours,but that didn’t work, and now I know I must use my nylon scrubber and put a little elbow grease into the job. My work will be cut out for me in the next few days, but it will be well worth it!

- Nova in California

DEAR READER: Thanks. Remember, the updated hint is to heat the vinegar. It almost bubbles away the mineral buildup!

DEAR HELOISE: Recently, I changed a queen-size bed for a twin trundle and ended up with an expensive foam mattress topper that didn’t fit. After measuring the twin bed, I removed the covering, then used a permanent marker and measuring stick to mark the foam. With my electric knife and a cutting board underneath, I cut the queen-size foam down to a twin. The padded topper covering was downsized to a twin with scissors and a few stitches on my sewing machine. The leftover pieces were cut into standard and neck-size pieces to make pillows. I not only had a new mattress topper for my bed, but several pillows as well.

- A Reader, via e-mail

DEAR HELOISE: My daughter moved into a new home, and I volunteered to line all the shelves in the kitchen and bathrooms. After a tiring attempt at cutting the heavy-duty liner with scissors, I decided to try my rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat. I was able to measure accurately, cut straight lines with square corners and finish the job in a fraction of the time it would have taken me with scissors.

- Sandra Lovelace, Missouri City, Texas Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or e-mail

HELOISE@CompuServe.com

MovieStyle, Pages 40 on 10/23/2009

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