Fabric and Wall Cleaning

Cleaning Soiled Shirt Collars

Take a small paintbrush and brush hair shampoo into soiled shirt collars before laundering. Shampoo is made to dissolve body oils.

Fresh Curtain Cleaning

Freshen curtains in the dryer with a fabric softener sheet and a damp towel.

Linen Closets

Linen closets can be a jumbled mess, especially when you have children making their own beds. Organise bed linens in sets. Fold flat sheet in half twice lengthwise, then fold fitted sheet the same way and lay it on top of the flat folded sheet. Add one or two pillow cases folded long ways and roll them all together into a neat roll. Whoever is making the bed can grab only a roll instead of rummaging around and making a mess.

Cleaning Wallpaper

• To dust papered walls, tie a dust cloth over your broom and work from the top down.
• To remove pencil marks and other non-greasy spots from non-washable papers, use an art-gum eraser or a slice of fresh rye bread.
• To remove greasy spots, crayon marks and food stains, apply a paste of cleaning fluid and fuller's earth, cornstarch or whiting. Let dry and brush off. Repeat the treatment until the spot is gone.
• Wipe off fingerprints with a damp cloth, then sprinkle the moist area with fuller's earth. Let it dry and then brush it off.
• To prevent splash marks when you're washing baseboards or other woodwork, mask wallpaper with a wide ruler, venetian blind-slat or a piece of rigid plastic.
• When you save scraps of wallpaper for patching, tack them to a wall in the attic or closet. When you use them for repairs, they won't look so brand new.