Dryer and vent are clean as a whistle

Dear Heloise: Thank you so much for the info on dryer vents in your column. My dryer has not been drying very well. I'm very faithful at emptying the lint screen each time. Your article made me think of four years drying all these towels, so I disconnected my dryer from the vent hose, reached down the hose and pulled out lots of lint buildup against the wall. I took off the outside vent cover and reached up as far as my arm would go and pulled more out.
Then I took my backpack blower (I'm a landscaper) and stuck the nozzle down the dryer-vent hose in the house and let her rip. Wow! The lint shot out of that hose to the outside. I had my repairman take the dryer drum out and found so much lint just below the lint screen that it was almost a blockage.
I'm happy to say, the dryer and vent are clean as a whistle, and the dryer dries clothes like it was new! You might have saved my house! Grenadene Cruce, Gilmer, Texas
You might have prevented a fire! I'm just the conduit for information -- what you, the reader, decide to do with it is up to you! Folks, how long has it been since your dryer vent has been checked? There are more than 15,000 household fires caused by dryers yearly in the United States. Don't you become an awful statistic. Heloise
Dear Heloise: People who do embroidery, quilting or cross-stitch buy expensive leather thimbles. They can be around 10. I buy heavy leather gloves, cut the fingers off and use them for thimbles. You get 10 from each pair. Marsha Brady, Wabash, Ind.
Dear Heloise: After years of keeping a spring clothespin or two in our travel bag to use for holding hotel-room drapes shut, etc., we have discovered something that works better -- binder clips from the office-supply department. Besides the drapery use, they work well for holding the rolled-up end of a toothpaste tube, and they make great chip clips and bookmarks. We have found many uses for them and keep a supply of different sizes Longtime Fan, via e-mail
Dear Heloise: My mom is in a nursing home and confined to bed or a wheelchair. The aides were putting her dresses on backward, as that way was easier for them to put on and take off. Each time I took her clothes home to launder, I would sew the front of the dress closed and cut the back open. I then sewed the raw edges where I cut in the back and put a snap at the top of the dress. Lynn Falduto, Belleville, N.J.
King Features Syndicate