Grandma Gigi’s home & garden hints from Vermont
Grandma Gigi’s household hints from a Vermont farmhouse: cleaning, laundry and the little tricks that keep a home running.
For years I kept a whole shelf of sprays under my sink, each one meant for a single job. Today that shelf is mostly white vinegar and a box of baking soda, and the house is just as clean. These two cheap things are not magic, though, and using them badly gives poor results. Used … Read more
Open an old trunk or a linen closet, and you may find a tablecloth or pillowcase that went in white and came out the color of weak tea. The yellow looks permanent, but in many cases it is not. Most of it comes from things we can slowly remove: body oils, old starch, and acids … Read more
If your faucet wears a white crust around the base and your shower door looks permanently foggy, you probably have hard water. Hard water carries dissolved minerals, mostly calcium. When a drop dries, the water leaves and the minerals stay behind as a white ring, a rough film, or a cloudy haze that wiping alone … Read more
A holiday dinner, a birthday, a power cut: candles leave a mark on the tablecloth sooner or later. Wax looks like a disaster when it spreads over cotton or linen, but it comes out well if you remove it in the right order. The wrong order, such as using hot water first, makes it far … Read more
A clothesline costs very little, uses no electricity, and gives sheets a clean smell that a dryer cannot copy. Many people hang laundry in summer and then give up when the weather turns. In my house the line keeps working in all four seasons, with a few adjustments that I will share here. This article … Read more
Homemade laundry soap is a thrifty, old-fashioned idea, and I have mixed my share of it. I like it for some jobs and I do not like it for others, and nobody told me the difference at the start. Here I will give you the plain facts, so you can decide whether it suits your … Read more
Every grandmother knows the sight: a child comes in from the yard with green knees on a good pair of jeans and a very proud face. Grass stains look hopeless, but they are one of the easier stains to beat if you treat them before the clothes ever reach the dryer. In this article I … Read more
Every fall I open the closet where the winter coats hang and meet the same stale smell, a bit like a damp basement. A musty closet is not only unpleasant. Wool and cotton take on the odor, and the coat you reach for on the first cold morning smells like the closet. The smell comes … Read more
Spring gets all the credit for cleaning, but I think fall is the better season for it. Once the windows close and the heat comes on, you will be inside for months. Whatever dust, damp, and grime is in the house stays there with you, and the air gets drier and closer. So each October … Read more
The oven door glass is the first thing guests notice and the last thing I want to scrub. Grease splatters bake on again and again until the glass turns brown and you can no longer see whether the roast is done. The strong oven sprays work, but their fumes sting the nose and eyes, and … Read more