Homeowner Forum / Cleaning / December 2006

I still figure that bleach substitute is not nearly as good as bleach
when white clothes are involved, and I should use bleach with really
dirty white clothes, or stuff that didn't come clean with a regular
wash.

Can anybody please tell me how to take the pink out of the beige shorts.
I have tried Napisan in cold water soaking over night.
Do I need to try HOT water???

I have a mat with rubber backing on it for antislip purposes. After many
washes some of it has come away from the mat leaving it sticky and has put
rubber backing on the floor.
Can anyone tell me what I can do to take the rubber backing off the mat

Dear Friend,
As you know, my Son is a Marine deployed overseas and is still recovering
from his injuries in May.  We spoke today and he and many others in his
unit are not able to come home for the Holidays.  They comprise mostly of

Carpet Purchase ...need  input
We are planning on recarpeting our home in the SF Bay Area, CA.....
with mid to upper quality carpeting.
We have 2 children 14 and 11.  No dogs, no cats.

I am going to clean my kitchen stove. It has blacked burned stuff over
it. I remember seeing someone on the Tony Danza show a few months ago
telling about homemade stuff or stuff that you can get for cheap to
clean kitchen, bathroom, etc. She mentioned mixing baking powder(Arm

Help? :-/
While hand-washing a French White-type Corning Ware ceramic cooking
dish I filled it with water and now the glass cover is stuck to  the
dish! To make matters worse, there is a smaller ceramic bowl inside the

Anyone have any ideas for keeping the cat hair down, other than lots of
vacuuming and brushing?

What is a lint-free cloth, and where can I get one?
I have loads of pieces of cloth, and loads of scraps, and loads of
rags.  I especially save a piece of cloth if I haven't got one like
it.  But I never know what is "lint-free" and what isn't.

1)  Why is it that the insturctions for dishwashing tablets, all 3
brands that I checked, say to put the tablet in the "main dispenser"?
And which is the "main dispenser"?  They are the same size.  How am I
know to know which is main and which isn't?  

Please help! I am no tech genius and need to buy a shower-head. When I
went to Consumer Reports, it ranks them according to whether the water
is hard or soft. So, is Chicago water hard or soft? Thanks.

After buying and returning several sponge mops from homeowner stores
and Smart & Final, etc. because they just did not do the job, I have
struck pay dirt.
At a professional cleaning supply house, I bought a sturdy mop made

How dould I get the musty smell out of two dresser drawers in the
basement laundry room, and how do I put textile bags back in the
second drawer without them starting to smell again?  And could I do
this in the winter?

I'm a new Mr. Mom and finding it difficult to go from being in charge
of several dozen people to being in charge of just a home with no one
to boss around.
The biggest problem is clothes.  We have 3 kids and my wife has

This seems like a stupid question, but it's important to me.
For the last couple years, I have been casually looking for the
plastic scrubbers that I have used for decades when washing dishes.
I never found any, but I thought that was because I wasn't looking