Tips

17 CAR CLEANING TIPS

With warmer weather approaching I’m sure there will be more & more of you cleaning & detailing your vehicles, at least this is what I assume! While there are plenty of products out there to do the job, there are some things you may have around the house that will work just as well.

I have listed a few hoping someone may find one or more that is useful to them. I don’t recall where I found these tips, as I mentioned in last weeks post, I just have a sheet full of tips that I found interesting and/or useful.

1. To clean upholstery in your car, use soapy water and a mild brush and vacuum up the water with a Wet-Vac.
2. Use Q-tips to clean the air vents and nooks in a car. You can also use makeup brushes and toothpicks to clean the small hard to reach areas.
3. Clean your dashboard and vinyl in the car with furniture polish and a soft cloth. Buy lint-free mechanics rags to use to dust with.
4. Use pet stain cleaner to remove nasty odors from your car’s carpeting.
5. Spray room fragrance in your car after you clean it to make it smell nice.
6. Got a scratch on your car. Cover it with a matching crayon. Find a crayon the same color as your car and rub the crayon over the scratched place. Buff off any wax residue with a soft cloth. This will even work on keyed scratches.
7. Pour a bottle of club soda on your windshield to cut grease and grime. Squeegee it off.
8. If your wiper blades are dull, you can sharpen both sides with an emery board.
9. In the winter time, spray your car’s door gaskets with PAM to keep them from freezing shut.
10. Spray PAM on your car’s grill and hood before going on a trip to keep bugs and stuff from sticking to your car. You can wash it off with shampoo and some warm water.
11. Use furniture polish to shine your car if you don’t have any wax. It won’t hurt the outside of your car.
12. To clean hubcaps use baking soda and a wet brush. Hose off with water.
13. To remove bumper stickers use a hot hair dryer to reactivate the adhesive, then just pull the sticker off.
14. To clean the bumper a piece of balled up aluminum foil. Pour some soft drink on the bumper and rub it clean with the foil.
15. Refresh your old air freshener in your car by dropping some of your favorite essential oil on it. Just a few drops.
16. Use a Wet-One or a Baby-Wipe disposable cloth to clean the dashboard.
17. Use a Brillo pad to clean wheels of road grime and hose off with water.

Quickie Tips

Ok so I was clearing out & organizing some of my files (I know I’m shocked too *lol*) & came across a sheet with lots of tips that I found interesting & helpful so I thought I’d share a couple at a time & hope someone else might find them as interesting & helpful. I hate to admit that I don’t remember where I gathered all these tips, just kept adding to this sheet as I came across them.

Reviving Dried Out Markers

Ever find yourself or your children in the middle of a project & your marker drys out
on you? Ok shall we say frustrating!!! If you’re anything like me you either growl, throw a fit or or say a few choice words that really aren’t going to do a lick a bit a good. You know you don’t have a spare & will now have to go out to get another one to finish whatever you were working on, time consuming! Wow hope you aren’t on a deadline! Hold your horses because I have something you can try… pour 1/2 inch of nail polish remover into a paper cup and let the marker tips soak in the solution for 30 seconds. Let them dry for five minutes before using. The acetone in the remover restores moisture without diluting the color and draws ink down to the tip of the markers.

Uses for Panty Hose

Put your car-washing sponge inside a pair of old pantyhose for a nonabrasive, paint-friendly scrubber. The threads act like thousands of little scrapers that rub off insects and gunk with every swipe. (This tip & photo are from http://www.familyhandyman.com

Panty hose make excellent window cleaners.

If you need a large elastic band to secure the garbage bag in your trash can, just cut the elastic top from your panty hose and use that around the rim. (I LOVE THIS ONE!! I actually use this)

These are just a few uses for those panty hose as I’m sure there are many more & please feel free to comment with a tip you may have used your panty hose for. I have one last use for panty hose for you which I find quite interesting & hope you do as well.

I’m sure most of us women have run into this issue at some point over
the years.. runs in the pantyhose, yep, a definite bummer, however you
can turn that frown upside down & just recycle them by making your own
“Backscrubber”, sounds cool right? Just cut the legs off of a pair of
pantyhose. Insert a bar of soap into one of the legs, centering the
soap so it is in the middle of the leg. Secure it there by tying a
knot on both sides of the soap. You can use this to wash your back
with or your body as nylon acts as a mild abrasive to the skin.

As always thank you for taking the time to read, I do hope you take a minute or two to check out all the other great articles as well as advertising opportunities & Amazing places to shop while visiting us here on Alex Shares. Above all else have a beautiful day!

Tip Tuesday – Choosing Cherries

Choosing Cherries

Did you know that February is National Cherry month!

There are two main types of cherries, Sweet Cherries which include Royal Anns, Lamberts, Rainier & most popular Bing. The other type would be Sour Cherries which would include Morello & Montmorency.

A few tips when choosing cherries: Cherries don’t ripen further once they’re picked. They are very delicate fruits, and need to be treated with care. They are only at their peak for about a month each Summer!

Look at the stems of the cherries

Choose cherries with stems still attached

Select cherries with firm, smooth, unblemished skin, and buy only as many as you plan to eat in the next few days

Keep them separated from strong-smelling foods

For best results, store them… Please read here to see full details on these tips as well as each individual type of cherry & find some amazing tasty recipes.

As always we would love to hear your comments.

Remove Crayon Stains On Walls

Remove Crayon Stains

Have your kids ever decided to use the wall as their personal coloring book? Yeah well I’ve certainly had the “not so happy” surprise to find little doodles here & there. After reminding them they have tons of paper as well as coloring books to use for their creativity, I try to figure out the best way to clean this color from my almost white walls *lol* Well I decided to try one of the many I found at TipNut.

Vinegar – soak a toothbrush in white vinegar and scrub marks off.

This tip worked for me, took approximately 2 minutes start to finish to clean the mark I made to test this tip. Please let us know if you try any of these or other tips & let us know how they work for you.