A cleaning tip, or two, that you may find useful. As I say on my Web page, these are tips that have been emailed to me, or that I have found on the Internet. I have not tried all of them and do NOT guarantee their effectiveness. If you do try one and it works, or if you have another one that works for you, please let me know.
Grease stains on the driveway can be cleaned with dry concrete. Scatter some dry concrete on the stain, swish it around with a stiff broom and sweep up.
For those of you with a chimney, throw a few handfuls of salt on the fire periodically to help stretch out the chimney sweep visits. The salt will keep the soot from depositing. Also, use a foamy bathroom cleaner on the bricks or stone in front of the chimney to get rid of fireplace stains. Be sure to wash with a mild sudsy cleaner after.
Chrome can be cleaned with aluminum foil dipped in Coke ™. Be sure to wad up the aluminum foil, hold over the sink and wipe the chrome. The chemical reaction will get rid of the rust.
For crayon on the walls, try using WD 40 ™. The oil will cut right through the wax in the crayon. If color remains, try bleach. Kitty litter and baby powder mixed in the toe of old pantyhose makes a wonderful odor remover for those smelly kids shoes.It absorbs, dries and freshens as the same time.
To keep ants from entering the house, sprinkle cinnamon or any other pepper along entranceways to prevent the ants from entering the house. If you live near a wooded area and have a problem with snakes, you can sprinkle mothball powder along decks, garage doors and other entranceways to prevent all sorts of creepy crawlies from coming in.
Baking soda in the bottom of trash cans will help absorb any stray odors as well.
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This was a little message from the folks over at Spark People, that I agree with completely.
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. - Bill Cosby, comedian
The dangers of people pleasing
No matter how hard you try, no matter how many hours you spend pondering and planning, and regardless of making your hardest efforts, you absolutely cannot please everyone. It is impossible. So do yourself a favor and stop now before you drive yourself further towards insanity. There are many drawbacks to being a people-pleaser. A big one is that you often put yourself in a position of subservience. Sometimes you even put yourself last, which helps no one. Remember that helping yourself and doing what you feel is important should be valued. Find worth in your own opinions and viewpoint, and don't let your desire to please others compel you to keep yourself in the background. Falling short of perfection only proves that you are a normal human being.
The only thing you accomplish by being a "people pleaser" is making yourself everyone's door mat. There is nothing wrong with helping people out, IF it is something that you really want to do or believe in. However, if your only doing it to placate someone, or to make a friend, or to "keep the waters calm" then I believe you are doing a big disservice to yourself.
Being a door mat or "servant" for other people will only eat away at you. It is harmful to you emotionally and, eventually physically. The more you stress out about doing all this stuff for other people, that you really don't want to do to begin with, the more damage you are doing to you body and soul day by day.
You don't have to be mean or aggressive in your refusal to help, or your disagreeing with someone. But remember that your opinions and choices are just as important as anyone else's. Stand up for yourself, if you don't who else will? LOL, well maybe me. But I can't always be there. I have to learn to start standing up for myself more often too.
LMAO! It's easier to encourage others to stand up for themselves than it is to do it for yourself. But I'm going to make more of an effort and I hope you will too. Do we really want to wait 20 or 30 years to do the things we want to do? To value ourselves as much as we value others?
For example, my mother was married to my father for about 40 years. What he wanted always came first. So for the first 20 years of her life she lived under her fathers roof and his decisions, for the next 40 it was my fathers roof and primarily his decisions. I know that she loved my father and us kids, however I can't even begin to comprehend the sacrifices she made for us.
It sounds awful for me to say it this way, but since my father died she has lived her life with joy and happiness. She does the things she wants, goes where she wants, when she wants...and personally I couldn't be more proud (of the way she has handled the things life has thrown at her) or happier for her. At the same time, it saddens me that she spent so many years taking care of others (us, her family and friends) rather than spending a little more time on herself.
I see her...when I look into the mirror. I honor her and love her, but that is one trait that I do not want to pass on to my children. I've tried to impart to them how important it is to plan for their future, to put themselves first (in an unselfish manner, is that possible?). But those are things that I have expressed to them. I don't know if I have shown them through example. I wonder if I've done a good enough job? That is a hard question to ask yourself. Have I done enough for them? Will they be able to stand up for themselves? Lord, I hope so. I pray so.
Well, surprise, surprise...I'm rambling again, LOL.
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Have a wonderful day!
Hugs!
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