This section is from the book "Practical Housekeeping", by Estelle Woods Wilcox. Also available from Amazon: The New Practical Housekeeping.
- No two children should sleep in the same bed. They will have better health and thrive better to sleep by themselves.
Apply sweet-oil.
Kerosene-oil will remove it.
Use whiting moistened with kerosene.
Melted Snow - produces one-eighth of its bulk in water.
Hold hand in very cold water.
- Drive a peg into the middle of the sole.
Oil-paint lasts longer when put on in autumn.
Morocco Leather - may be restored with a varnish of white of an egg.
Nails dipped in soap will drive easily in hard wood
- A cement made of sand and white-lead paint will stop leaks.
Paint walls or rub over picture frames with laurel-oil.
Door-latches and Locks - will work easily and quietly if oiled occasionally.
Sealing Wax - is made of two parts of beeswax and one of resin, melted together.
Rub with corn-meal, renewing the meal as it becomes soiled.
- New woodwork requires one pound of paint to the square yard, for three coats.
Unslaked lime cleans small articles of polished steel - like buckles, etc.
Cut the wood in the shape desired, and boil eight minutes in olive-oil.
To Clean Russia Iron, mix blacking with kerosene, and it will look nearly as well as new.
- If your coal fire is low, throw on a tablespoon of salt and it will help it very much.
A solution of oxalic acid will remove them without injuring the print.
Leaks about Chimneys - may be stopped by a cement made of coal-tar and sand, neatly applied.
Postage Stamps - will stick, and not turn up at the corners, if the face is wet after applying them.
Do not have one particle of the yolks with the whites, for if so they will not froth nicely.
- The fumes of a brimstone match will remove berry stains from a book, paper or engraving.
Pumpkin seeds are very attractive to mice, and traps baited with them will soon destroy tin's little pest. Dry Paint is removed by dipping a swab with a handle in a strong solution of oxalic acid. It softens it at once.
Sprinkle with weak brine through a water-sprinkler, or scatter salt along the walks.
Add a few drops of ink to a tea-spoon of salad-oil; rub on with a feather, and dry in the sun.
- Dip well-seasoned shingles in lime, wash and dry before lay-ing, and they will last longer and never take on moss.
Throw down a peck of unslaked lime. The heat produced carries out the foul air with a rush.
When a Chimney takes Fire - throw salt on the fire, and shut off the draught as much as possible, and it will burn out slowly.
Dish-water and Soap-suds - poured about the roots of young fruit-trees, currant and raspberry bushes, etc., facilitate their growth.
Cheap Paint for Iron Fencing - Tar mixed with yellow-ochre makes an excellent green paint for coarse woodwork or iron fencing.
 
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