Give these tips a try to lessen paint odor

Dear Readers: When you are planning to paint a room in your home, there are a number of steps you can take to lessen the smell left behind from the paint. Try these:
UCheck to ensure that there's good ventilation in the area you are painting. Open the windows and doors. Turn on ceiling fans or the kitchen exhaust fan to help pull out the odor.
UClose any interior doors in the rest of the house to prevent the smell from spreading.
UBefore applying paint, add several drops of vanilla extract to it. If the paint is ivory or white, use a drop of lemon extract for each gallon. This will actually lessen the paint odor.
UTo absorb odors after painting, cut several large onions in quarters and put on small plates around the room, or fill small bowls with white vinegar and place in the painted room.
UThere are also new paints that are formulated to be nearly solvent-free. The labels will indicate that the paint is odorless. Read them carefully.
Dear Heloise: We travel a lot. I keep baby towelettes in the car. They are great for cleaning hands and faces. I fell and hurt my knee and elbow. With the towelettes it was easy to clean them, and the aloe vera was soothing.
At night, I use them to take off my face cream. When I get to a friend's or relative's house, I don't have to worry about getting makeup on the towels or washcloths. I use the towelettes at home, too. Stella Taylor, Sun City West, Ariz.
Dear Heloise: I accumulate many plastic grocery and shopping bags. I save them in a larger bag, and when it is full, I take it to a consignment shop or to a charity gift shop. They are always very happy to recycle these bags. Florence Tumbokon of Columbia, S.C.
Florence, I just love recycling hints, and yours is a good one! Heloise
Dear Heloise: My husband and I are avid readers. We have tried to find ways to keep track of what we have read. Besides keeping a list of books and authors on my computer, we came up with this very simple visual method. I purchased from a stationery store a box of little red and blue dots. When I have finished reading a book, I place a red dot on the book's spine; my husband puts a blue dot on the books he has read. That way, if we both read the same book, we know when each other is finished. If we see two dots on a book's spine, we know it is ready for donation. Pat Friend, Lexington Park, Md.
Dear Heloise: When my pepper mill conked out, I put a quantity of whole peppercorns in my blender and pureed them. It worked fine. Florence D. Pazera, Tamaqua, Pa.
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