HELOISE Pretreat clothing to cut grass stains

Dear Heloise: My twin boys play T-ball and bring home grass stains on their clothes after every practice. Normal washing does not remove these stains; please help. M.G., New Orleans
Grass stains seem to come along with any outdoor sport, whether it's T-ball, soccer or football.
First, pretreat the stain as soon as possible with a prewash spray or stain stick, then rub it in and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before washing. You can also apply liquid laundry detergent (one with enzymes) right on the stain if you don't have a prewash spray handy.
Next, launder as you normally would. If the clothing is bleachable, add bleach to the wash to help remove the stains.
Don't fret if some stain remains, though -- just repeat the process (before putting it in the dryer). Heloise
Dear Heloise: A cordless phone will not work in a power outage. No calls to 911 can be made from a cordless phone in an emergency situation.
You should have at least one telephone of the regular kind in your home. That extra phone should be a tone telephone that does not require house electricity, not one of the old rotary phones. Alex Haunold, San Diego
Dear Heloise: When shredding documents, I open our kitchen compactor and mount the shredder across the bin. As cut pieces of paper build up, I remove the shredder, compact the paper and resume.
No mess, no fuss, no large bags of scrap. Bob, Montgomery, Texas
Dear Heloise: I make a refrigerated pie covered with whipped cream in an 11-by-14-inch pan. It is difficult to cover the pie with plastic wrap without the plastic falling onto the whipped cream.
Now I put three strips of masking tape across the pan before I cover it with the wrap, and it holds beautifully. No falling into the pie! M., via e-mail
Dear Heloise: How many times have you stayed in a motel that supplied barely adequate-sized towels for use after bathing?
Try wiping yourself off with a washcloth first. This removes much of the excess water, and the towels do the rest very efficiently. D. Hardman, Lake of the Woods, Va.
Also, here's a hint from C.L. in Ohio: "My mother taught me to dry off while in the shower -- don't step out all wet, and no water on the floor to clean up." Heloise
Dear Heloise: Recently, I had 30 ladies at a potluck. I do not own a large wastebasket, so I used my clothes hamper as one. I put a large trash bag in it, and that provided lots of room for all the dirty paper plates and cups. Velo Oliver, Phoenix
XSend a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000, or you can fax it to (210) HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com. I can't answer your letter personally but will use the best hints received in my column.
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