Author: zoey

Moths are really irritating and they can invade your winter clothes, because they prefer all natural fibres, especially wool. It has been proven that they like silk and flax as well. Moths eat all kinds of natural fibres, and sometimes they eat synthetic fabrics, too.

That’s why I always think that it’s better to do something to protect your clothes before it’s too late and you have to deal with hundreds of moths. And the 3 main things you need to do are:

Always clean

Moths are attracted to dirt, stains and the smell of sweat. You could have worn one dress just once, or you might have never put it on and it might have been hanging in your wardrobe forever – regardless of this, you should wash that dress together will the other clothes. It’s also good to put the clothes after you wash them in the dryer for 10 minutes under high temperature. Thus, even if your wardrobe is already inhabited by those insects, you will surely kill the larvae and their eggs. If you don’t have a dryer, just hang the clothes under the warm sun and leave them till the evening. The result will be the same. In case your clothes are already infested with moths, ironing will kill the larvae and the eggs.

Don’t forget to vacuum the wardrobe before returning the clothes inside. Moths don’t like the cleanliness and the lack of dust.

Pack

When you wash the clothes and they dry, put them in ziploc bags, hanging garment bags, or in boxes, so the moths won’t be able to get inside.

Use detergents against moths

Naphthalene is most commonly used. Place a few moth balls among the clothes. You can also prepare a home made detergent against moths with natural ingredients only, because naphthalene could be harmful for your health. What you could do is to make some small bags filled with herbs and spices – rosemary, mint, thyme, cloves, pepper, lemon. Place the bags in the wardrobes and you will soon notice that the moths have disappeared.

Always keep your dirty laundry in a cool and dry place – in wicker baskets or in fabric bags, but don’t store them in your bedroom. They should be protected from moisture, because they will get stained with mold which is quite difficult to clean and, the worse thing is that your clothes get torn on the stained places.

An important rule when doing your laundry is to sort your clothes. The white ones should be washed separately from the others. Or, clothes that are dirtier than usual, they must be also washed separately from the others.

If you have stains on the clothes, you should first remove the stains and then you can put the clothes in the washing machine together with the rest. After you wash the white clothes, you can soak them in bleach for a while. And of the rest of the clothes, after you wash them, you can soak them in salty water, so they won’t lose from their colours.

When washing your curtains, first wet them with cold water several times, then you can hand-wash them in hot soap water and change the water 2-3 times. At the end wash the curtains again with cold water.

It’s good to know that hot water damages woollen clothes. You don’t have to soak the clothes in water in advance. When washing them, don’t rub the wool the way you do with the other clothes. The same applies to clothes made from natural or artificial silk.

For clothes made from synthetic material you should not use hot water, or hot iron. They should be washed in soap water with a maximum temperature of 25-30 degrees.

If you have chewing gum on one of your dresses, you just need to take one ice cube and press it on the gum until the latter hardens. After that carefully remove the gum from the dress and wet the spotted area with some spirit. After that wash the dress.

Have you ever thought why, after all your efforts, your home is still a complete mess, and chaos is surrounding you?

1. Acting before thinking – Maybe you’ve noticed that when you decide to put order in your wardrobe, you just start doing something without actually considering more practical ways of using the space you have. The best way to deal with that is to put the things you use most frequently on places that are easily accessible.

2. You still keep stuff that are of no use – If you regularly clean your home, you will be able to get rid of the whole mess, but, the thing is that you  can’t always have enough time. For that reason, what is important is to learn how to prevent the chaos. Don’t buy clothes or shoes, you’re not about to wear at all. And don’t buy magazines that you won’t even open to read. Just put control on everything that enters your home.

3. You do impulse purchases – Ever since the hypermarkets entered our lives, you can see that people tend to buy things they don’t actually need. The solution: always make a list of the things that you need to buy before you start shopping.

4. You leave the cleaning always for the weekends – It is never enough to have the things placed in order. There is always something more to do – dusting, mopping, etc. But if you split the tasks and do some of them during the week, this will spare you a lot of time on the weekends and you won’t have to spend the Saturdays and Sundays “working”.

5. You allow your kids to create the mess – Have you had the situation when you put order in your closet and then everything goes upside down? Make rules and ask everyone in your family to follow them. This will make it easier to keep the order and peace in the house.

It is true that there are a lot of cleaning detergents offered on the market, but some of them could be quite expensive and not as professional and efficient as we might think. As we all know the price is not always an indicator for quality. What makes the lemon such a powerful cleaning weapon? – The answer hides in the citric acid that the lemon juice contains. It has strong anti-bacterial qualities that can be effectively used in your home.

Here are some ideas how to make use of it, so you won’t have to spend a fortune on cleaning detergents:

– If your sink has one of those kitchen macerators for the waste, you know that some pieces of food can clog the pipe and this leads to some unpleasant smells. That is an opportunity to see what an effect lemons can have. Slice the lemon into small pieces and put it in the macerator. Then turn the macerator on and wait until you smell the fresh lemon scent coming from the sink.

– Cleaning the utensils – regardless of whether it’s brass, copper, or chromium, there’s no ideal method in the world that can make your old, but favourite utensils shine like new. As we already mentioned, the citric acid the lemon contains can go quite deep and clean all dark areas of your utensils. You’ll be more than happy with the results.

– The pop corn, the pizza and any other food that you prepare in the microwave usually leaves a smell that takes several days to disappear. What you could do is just to take a bowl with hot water, put some lemon slices in it, place it in the microwave and “boil” for 1 minute. Thus, the citric acid will clean the bacteria from the microwave and the moist from the vaporised water will soften the sticky stains and pieces of food, so you’ll be able to easily remove them from the walls of the microwave.

Saving energy in your kitchen is easy, useful and costs-saving as well. And cutting the costs is always welcome, because thus you are able to spend more on clothes, cosmetics or anything else that brings to your style, or you can buy something for your kids. Here are a few tips on how to escape the heartbreaking utility bills at the end of the month:

– When cooking always put the cover on the pot, so you can prevent the loss of heat.

– Don’t use too big pots that aren’t suitable for the amount of food you’ll be cooking. Thus, you won’t be heating a bigger surface unnecessarily.

– Turn off the oven or the hot plate before the dish is completely ready, because even when they are turned off they stay heated for some time which will be enough to have the dish completely ready.

– Cook all dishes for the day one after another, so you won’t have to turn on and off the hot plate again and again and wait for it to get heated every time.

– Don’t open the fridge before you have decided what you will need. After all you know what you have exactly in it and keeping the door open until you decide what to take will not help much.

– If you decide to buy a new kitchen appliance, go for the energy saving ones. When choosing an electrical appliance, pay attention to its energy efficiency showed on the label.

– Don’t use the cooker for everything, if you have a toaster, an electric kettle, or an electric steamer. Small electric appliances are aimed for the preparation of small amount of food relatively quickly. That’s why they consume less energy.

– And don’t forget to unplug the charge of your mobile phone when the battery is full, because the chargers can be real energy vampires.

These things could seem small and insignificant, but they most definitely work.