A few days ago, my wife badly burned the rice and scorched a cooking pot while cooking dinner.  It looked like she had ruined the pan for good, since no amount of soaking and scrubbing would remove the black burned residue from the pot.  Mind you, this was a piece of expensive, thick stainless steel, copper-bottomed gourmet cooking ware. It would be a shame to throw it out.  And I didn’t want to scrape the stuff off the bottom and ruin the pot.

I remembered somewhere I had read that using oven cleaner would clean the pot. It wouldn’t hurt to try. The instructions said to warm the oven a little first. As this wasn’t an oven but a large saucepan, I heated the pot on low heat just slightly over the stove (not too hot or the cleaner will smoke), then sprayed the cleaner on and left the pot covered overnight.

In the morning, to my astonishment, the stubborn black crust was liquefied and wiped right off the bottom and sides of the pot with nothing more than newspaper. No scrubbing needed. It worked!

So what were the active ingredients in this stuff? I could only find mention of one ingredient – sodium hydroxide, which is lye. Lye is very strong stuff and needs to be handled with care. I normally don’t like using caustic cleaners, but in this case, it was all I could find to save the pot. It’s not to be used on exterior oven surfaces, aluminum, chrome or baked enamel, but it’s fine for porcelain, enamel, iron, stainless steel, ceramic and glass cooking ware.

A word of warning – wear gloves and don’t breath the stuff.  The cleaner was heavily perfumed, probably to mask the lye odor.  But the fragrance was overwhelming in itself.  Spray it on outside and cover the pot quickly before bringing it back indoors.

Well, I happy to report I’ve finally found two excellent, inexpensive and non-toxic ways to get blood stains out of clothing, towels and sheets that work nearly every time.

Blood Stain Removal Method One – For Fresh Stains:

If the stain is fresh or recent, Hydrogen Peroxyde will do the trick.  Simply dab a generous amount on the stain and keep dabbing until the stain is removed.  If it’s a big stain, put enough on so that it bubbles up.  Wait until it settles to apply more. Use a fresh piece of cloth or paper towel to blot the loosened blood off.  Sometimes the peroxyde needs to soak for a few minutes before all the stain can be removed.

This method will work on clothes, mattresses, carpet, upholstery.  But if it’s an old blood stain, hydrogen peroxide doesn’t do the job very well.  But the next product will…

Blood Stain Removal Method Two – For Dried Stains:

If the stain has dried, I’ve found a cleaner that works like a charm even on blood stains that have already been washed but stubbornly remain.  It’s inexpensive too.  It’s called "Goop Hand Cleaner" and you can get it at Walmart in the Automotive section.  Even thought it’s called a hand cleaner, it works great on washable fabrics of all kinds.

To use it, all you have to do is rub it over the stain (on dry fabric) and let it sit for 20 minutes or so.  Then throw the item in the washer and run it through a wash cycle.  Let it sit longer than 20 minutes if it’s a tough stain.  When the wash is finished, your blood stain will be gone as if by magic!

The best thing is its non-toxic and biodegradable.  And it works on all kinds of other stains too.  And of course, it’s fantastic for cleaning your greasy hands after working on the engine.  The label says it removes grease, paint, ink, tar and industrial dirt from hands and washable clothing.  I haven’t tried it on tar yet, but it works well on ink.

Word of warning:  Goop can lighten the area it is applied to, so first test it out on a small inconspicuous area first if you’re worried about colorfastness.

Have you ever opened up a closet, garage or back room and found it draped with ugly, scary cobwebs?  It’s a sight for sore eyes that no one wants to have in their home.

For something so lightweight, those cobwebs are hard to remove.  They’re very sticky. If you use a broom or cobweb duster, good luck removing them from the tool because they don’t want to let go. 

I found an easy way to remove them that works better than any of the expensive gadgets I’ve tried.  It’s disposable and it’s completely free!  It’s my magic cobweb wand!  I make it myself and it works like a charm!

Here’s how to make one:  Roll up a full page of a newspaper diagonally starting in one corner.  When you get to the end, tape the corner down to keep it from coming apart.  You now have a newspaper tube – your "wand."  Hold it by one end and add the "magic wrist action" – simply make small circles with your wrist to remove the cobwebs.  The cobwebs circle around the wand and stick to it.  Keep moving the wand around in circles until you’ve wrapped all the cobwebs around it.  Then throw it away and you’re done!

If the cobwebs are too high to reach, find a broom stick or a dowel or a bamboo pole and tape one end of your "wand" to it and proceed magically removing those ugly cobwebs.

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