Mark appliances with purchase date, save time

Dear Heloise: As we emptied my elderly parent’s home in preparation for sale, we discovered that we spent a lot of time researching when appliances, furnace, water heater, etc., were installed.

Our Realtor gave us a great idea that we have incorporated here at home.

Take a permanent marker and, in an inconspicuous place, mark the purchase date. No more researching at a later time. Pam Lucas, Columbus, Ohio

Pam, good hint for my readers! Heloise

Fast Facts

Dear Readers: You responded in droves with hints for reusing coffee cans. Here are the best of the best:

UHold toilet-paper rolls when camping.

UA lawn seeder (by punching holes in the bottom).

UIn the garden as wind protection for new plantings and seedlings.

UTo clean paintbrushes.

UUse in the garage for nuts and bolts.

UAs a piggy bank to store spare change.

UIn the laundry room for items collected from pockets.

And a unique hint for metal coffee cans is to bake homemade bread in them. (Loaves come out round, with a mushroom-shaped top.)

Since we’re talking coffee cans, here’s a hint from Diana of Colorado Springs, Colo.: “I use the small [11.5-ounce] plastic coffee ‘can’ as a kitchen-counter compost container. I put eggshells and used coffee grounds in it. Once it is half-full, I mix up the ingredients and crush the egg shells into small pieces. It is a good mixture to fertilize my outdoor flower garden. The container can be used again or thrown away. The label is easy to remove from the container, and it is presentable sitting on the countertop.” Heloise

Dear Heloise: I needed more packing peanuts to fill up a box to be mailed and didn’t have enough, so I used the next best thing — empty water bottles with the caps on tight did the trick! I just put them around the object I was mailing. They kept the box firm and the gift we were sending intact! J.A.B., Dryden, Va.

Dear Heloise: In our household, we always have a soup stock container in the freezer, but in addition to the juices from vegetables, we add broccoli stems and leftover cauliflower, cabbage and celery. These all go in the soup with some beans and some seasoning, and we call this “garbage soup” — always different and always good, and nothing goes to waste. Doris G., Fillmore, Calif.

Sound Off

Dear Heloise: My Sound Off is about pump lotion containers that run out while there is some lotion in the bottom. The tube sticking down is not long enough, so I have to take the top off and shake the lotion out.

Perhaps the makers think the consumers will throw the whole thing out when it gets too low to pump. Hair-spray pumps and spray perfume tubes go all the way to the bottom of the bottle, so why can’t lotion tubes? Rosemary Fisher, Corinth, Miss.

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