Active Housekeeping Posts — Page 2 of 22 « Housekeeping

How To: Fold Your Fitted Sheets Nice and Neat

Folding fitted sheets seems nearly impossible, but with a neat trick it's just as easy as folding a blanket.

How To: Laundry Symbols Deciphered! Here's What the Care Labels on Your Clothes Really Say

Frankly, I never cared about the care labels on my clothing. They supposedly held some secret key to keeping clothes clean and bright, but who wants to look at little icons and a bunch of fine print for every single garment they wash?

How To: Get Rid of Spiders Naturally

Spiders are common pests that typically prefer to live outdoors. However, insects and warmth will eventually attract them into our houses. They like to spin their webs in corners, crevices and unused areas of your house. Most species are harmless and even act as a natural repellent for getting rid of other insects. However, in some cases, spiders can be very dangerous. Whichever the case may be, they are scary and people are always looking for natural ways to get rid of them.

How To: Sterilize a Toothbrush to Remove Germs

Did you know germs can travel pretty far? If you store your toothbrush in the bathroom like almost everyone does, you may need to give it a good wash now and again. In this tutorial, learn how to remove germs from your toothbrush, and stay healthier. This video will show you how to use common, natural household items to clean your brush instead of harmful chemicals.

How To: Sterilize a Sponge

In this tutorial, we learn how to sterilize a sponge with Debbie Anderson. Over time, your sponge can collect a lot of different bacteria, so sterilizing it is very important. You will need: baking soda, vinegar, measuring cups, rubber gloves, and a microwave. First, place a stopper inside of your sink and fill it up half way with hot water and add in 1/2 cup baking soda and 1 cup vinegar. Mix this together with your hands (with gloves on them) and then place the sponges inside. Rinse the spo...

How To: Pack dishes, plates, platters, and bowls for moving

Moving soon? Don't know how you'll ever get your possessions packed and moved in one piece? Well, fret no more...

How To: Protect Your Home from Mice for the Winter

Brought to you by Tomcat. Falling snow, warm fireplace, delicious hot cocoa, quiet reading time, mouse. Quick quiz - which one is not like the other? Nothing can ruin a perfectly cozy afternoon in your home like a pest on the loose. With dropping temperatures, you may have some unwelcome residents, like mice, looking for shelter from the cold.

How To: Remove ink stains from cloth using hand sanitizer

If you have little kids, then you probably know that they LOVE drawing and doodling. But it's when that love of doodling extends beyond the preschool classroom and paper to your walls, furniture, and clothes that things go a bit awry.

How To: Outsmart Mice

This post is brought to you by TOMCAT. Video: .

How To: Clean Your Blender

Put a squirt of dish soap in the blender. 2. Fill blender with hot tap water 3. Put lid on and take the blender for a whirl. 4. Rinse, dry and done!

How To: Clean Low Water Light Sensor on a Weil McLain Gold Boiler

If your Weil McLain Gold water boiler has stopped working due to a low level water light being on, this video will show you how to clean the sensor.

How To: Unlock A Privacy Door Handle

When owning a home one type of lever set you may have in your home is a privacy lever. In a privacy lever set, the main feature is that the door can only be locked from the inside. Sometimes a kid might get locked in or someone may accidentally lock the door behind them. It's really easy to unlock it in an emergency.

How To: Kill fire ant beds naturally

This method works to prevent ants from crawling off and starting new colonies. Works everytime and requires no chemicals or harmful store bought sprays. Kill fire ant beds naturally.

How To: Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Fruit flies are nasty little pests, and an infestation—large or small—is an unwelcome sight in the kitchen. Aïda Mollenkamp demonstrates a quick, easy way to lure fruit flies away from your food in this home and garden how-to video.

How To: Prevent Fruit Flies

Fruit flies are an incredible nuisance, as anyone in any warm climate knows all too well. In this video, with Chef Keith Snow of HarvestEating.com, we learn a simple but effective countermeasure against these aggravating little pests. Most successful, he says, is the use of vinegar.

How To: Keep Denim Jeans Clean & Smell-Free Without Ever Washing Them at All

Even if you decode the laundry symbols on the tags of your clothes and follow them perfectly, using the washing machine tends to change their shape and fade colors over time. And whether you spent $20 or $200 on them, there's nothing worse than having your favorite pair of jeans ruined.

How To: Prevent a Bathroom Shower Window from Rotting Out the Easy Way

This is a great tip that will show you how to easily protect your bathroom tub or shower window from rotting out due to water damage.

How To: Make a Great Looking American Flag Centerpiece for Dining Room Table

Here's a great tip on how to make a great looking American flag centerpiece for your dining room table.

How To: Keep your granite countertops clean and shiny

Granite countertops are a beautiful addition to any kitchen or bathroom. Unfortunately it can stain, but you can prevent stains easily by following the instructions in this video. They will teach you everything you need to know about cleaning granite countertops.

How To: Clean a Blender the Fast Easy Way

This video will show you a quick fast and easy way to clean your blender with liquid soap.

How To: Quiet Down a Squeaky Hamster Gerbil or Mouse Running Wheel

Here's a quick easy way to quiet down a loud squeaky hamster, mouse or gerbil wheel. This will enable you to finally sleep at night!

How To: Clean Cooking Grease Out of a Microwave Oven Range Filter

Learn how to easily remove the cooking grease out of your microwave stove top oven range filter. This tip will allow you to reuse the filter!

How To: Use SuperClean for a Fast Easy Way to Clean the Exterior of a BBQ Grill

This video will show you how to use SuperClean for a fast and easy way to clean some of the gross crud off of the exterior of your BBQ grill.

How To: Make Your Own Febreze (And Save Up to 97% Per Bottle)

If you're a Febreze fanatic, you're well aware that the "odor eliminator" can be pretty pricey, and that's reason enough to stop buying it.

News: 7 Tips for Organizing Your Room

Today I'm going to show you 7 easy ways to organize your room. They are really simple and cheap so I hope you find them useful!

How To: The Secret to Washing Your "Dry Clean" Clothes—Without Going to the Dry Cleaner

Unless your work clothes require dry cleaning, you probably only go to the cleaner a few times a year. And for those few items in your closet for which you do, you have to then find the time and extra budget to make a trip all the way to the cleaners and back again. In the end, it can be quite the hassle.

How To: The Best Way to Hang Dress Pants and Jeans So They Actually Stay on the Hangers

If you don't have hangers with clips, hanging up jeans and dress pants can be frustrating. They never stay straight and constantly slide off the hangers. You can always MacGyver your own pants hangers by using clothespins, but if you don't have any, there's another way.

How To: Fix a Wash Machine That Won't Spin Repair Agitator

This video will show you how to fix, repair, replace a broken agitator in your wash machine. If the agitator stopped turning, this is an easy way to fix it.

How To: Install and Wire a Ceiling Light or Chandelier in Your Home

This video will show you how to install or replace a chandelier or ceiling light in your home. We also explain the wire colors and that the white one is power.

How To: Bleed Air Out of the Oil Line on a Boiler Burner

This video will show you how to bleed the air out of the burner oil line on your furnace if you run out of oil. Shown on a Carlin EZPro burner, Weil Mclain Gold boiler. Also would work on most burners the same way including a Beckett.

How To: Change the Exhaust Filters on a Whirlpool Microwave

This video will show you how to change the range and overhead air filters on your Whirlpool microwave. MODEL MH1160XSB-3

How To: Change the Light Bulb Inside a Whirlpool Microwave

This video will show you how to easily change the light bulb inside of your Whirlpool Microwave. MODEL MH1160XSB-3

How To: Change the Light Bulb on a Whirlpool Microwave Range

This video will show you how to change the range light bulb on a Whirlpool microwave. Model MH1160XSB-3

How To: Stop telemarketers from calling

If you want to stop telemarketers from calling, use this guide and try a multi-pronged approach. You Will Need

How To: Freshen up any room with dryer sheets

Tires of buying those air fresheners that don't work? Then try something you already have at home. In this home and garden how to video our host shows you how to use dryer sheets and a fat to give any room a fresh clean sent. If you don't have a fan its ok, use any vent and two dryer sheets to get rid of stale smells.