Tips keep scum out of the vase

Dear Heloise: I read the article about cleaning scum out of vases. I am a floral designer, and this is my suggestion:

To keep the scum from forming in the first place, change the water in the vase every day. Grab your flowers at the neck of the vase and take them out, give them a fresh cut (so they can continue drinking), change the water and put the flowers back in the vase. To keep the water clean, strip the leaves off all the stems that are below the waterline. Toss any stem (flowers or greenery) that is wilted. Pam from Baton Rouge, La.

Pam, thanks for reminding us about how little effort it takes to keep fresh flowers looking beautiful for as long as possible. Heloise

Dear Heloise: I love the microfiber cloths, which can be purchased fairly inexpensively. I use them for all my cleaning chores:

• For mirrors, just dampen a small part of a cloth with plain water, wipe down the mirror, then dry with the other part of the cloth. If doing a lot of mirrors or windows, dampen one cloth and dry with another.

• For floors, use instead of the disposable dry cloths. It’s more economical and environmentally friendly.

• Use to dust; the dust is trapped by the cloths instead of being pushed around.

Dorothy Schafler, South Orange, N.J.

I love microfiber cloths! You don’t need cleaning agents — just use them by themselves! Try one on computer screens, cell-phone displays, TVs and eyeglasses. Heloise

Dear Heloise: For those of us who live in areas where it snows, I found it helpful to buy a child-size snow shovel. I keep it in the house for shoveling the front and back steps. A normal-size shovel is inconvenient to get out of the cold garage and unwieldy to use because of its size. Linda Shirk, Bellevue, Neb.

Dear Heloise: I have an artificial Christmas tree, and I string the lights on it as I put each layer together. That makes it easier to put them on and take them back off. Lisa in Little Rock, Ark.

Speaking of holiday tree light- stringing, here is a hint from Linda of Mississippi: “This Christmas, as I put each strand of lights on my tree, I put a small piece of tape on the plug and number each one. After Christmas, when I remove the lights, I look for the highest number, which was the last strand put on, and remove that strand first.

“I also use rolled sections of newspaper for each light strand. Keeps the lights neat and recycles newspaper, too!” Heloise

Sound Off and solution

Dear Heloise: I hate it when the cord from my iron gets all tangled. So, I found a solution — I use an empty toilet-paper holder and stick the cord inside. It works wonders. R. Harge, Waterbury, Conn.

SBlt Send a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or you can fax it to (210) HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com.

King Features Syndicate