HELOISE Hint has beds warm and cozy right on time

Dear Heloise: Bedtime at our house in the wintertime used to be very difficult, since we usually only heated the living area, leaving the bedrooms chilly. The little ones (and adults) hated to go off to their cold beds.
We solved this problem by buying flannel sheets and electric blankets. I plug each blanket into a simple on/off timer and set each one to come on about a half-hour before normal bedtime. Voil & aacute; -- warm, cozy beds waiting for us. I also set the timers to go off when we get up in the morning. No more worrying if the kids accidentally left the electric blanket on all day.
Those little ones are high-schoolers now but still want their "fuzzy sheets" and warm blankets on a timer every winter. Brenda Palmer, Via E-mail
Dear Heloise: I have read many hints about taking the prescription information off of medicine bottles before throwing them away. The one I have found to work the best and fastest is a nail file.
A few swipes with an emery board or any nail file and the information is gone in a second. The file can be used over and over. Jackie Frandsen, Palmdale, Calif.
Dear Heloise: I have been reading your hints for more years than I can remember and have benefited many times from them.
I have an upright freezer, and it is easy to forget packages in the back. As a consequence, I end up throwing things out on occasion. I measured the shelves, went to a discount store and bought clear plastic storage boxes that are wide and deep enough to fit on each of the four shelves. I store meats on one shelf, breads and pasta items on another shelf, snacks on the third shelf and frozen fast foods on the fourth shelf.
These storage boxes are easy to see through and to pull out to reach things in the back of the freezer. Jackie Griffith, Council Bluffs, Iowa
Dear Heloise: I put a three days' supply of pills in the bottom of my pill bottle and cover them with the cotton-ball insert, then place the rest of the pills on top of the cotton.
When I get to the cotton, I have a three-day supply left and a reminder to call in for a refill of my prescription. Paul Marks, Via E-mail
Dear Heloise: This evening, my wife wanted to dust her newly baked brownies with powdered sugar. The flour sifter was too big for the job, so I looked for a suitable substitute.
Digging through the cabinets, I found a tea infuser that worked great. Scoop up a little powdered sugar into the infuser, close the lid and tap it over the brownies. Nice, even dusting, with no mess. George Houtman, San Antonio
XSend a great hint to: Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000, Fax: (210) HELOISE or E-mail: Heloise@Heloise.com.
King Features Syndicate