HELOISE: Teach children the joys of work

Dear Readers: Here is a letter of thought from the Heloise Files that was printed many years ago. I hope you find it heartwarming:

“Dear Heloise: Gather your children around you and teach them how to enjoy work. My three children and I can clean the house four times as fast as I can by myself, and they are all elementary-school age.

“I see no better way of saving both time and energy and, at the same time, helping children learn how to happily accept responsibility than to teach them when they are young.

“The world will be a much happier place for them as adults. And one added plus: I know they will save time and energy as parents themselves by teaching their children to do the same. What better legacy could I give them to pass on?

Janice”

Still good advice today!

Heloise

Dear Readers: Here are some alternate uses for cube-shaped tissue boxes:

Storage for a child’s small toys.

Keep one in the car for small trash, CDs, etc.

Use to organize pens, pencils, staples and other small office supplies.

Put in the kitchen for small kitchen gadgets.

Put in the laundry area to hold used dryer sheets.

Heloise

Dear Heloise: Another use for those clear, over-the-door shoe organizers, besides for shoes? We use ours for hats, mittens, scarves, etc. They stay there all year because they take up very little space, plus they’re always with the coats!

Amy in Michigan

Dear Heloise: Today I tried something with aluminum foil that worked expertly. To sharpen any scissors, I just cut four to five layers of aluminum foil with them several times. My cuticle and nail scissors now work like new!

Ursula in Lincoln, Calif.

Dear Heloise: I love my floor duster mop for sweeping my kitchen floor. When I use it, I always use both sides of the cleaning pad. I simply turn the cloth over and reattach it to the base. That way, I get double duty from each cloth.

Peggy in McKinney, Texas

Peggy, do you know what also works in a pinch? Paper toweling, or an old dish- or washcloth.

Heloise

Dear Heloise: When I bring in potted plants for the winter, I have a mess from dead leaves, spilled water from too-small catch pans, etc. This year, before bringing some of my bigger plants in, I put them in the small (cheap), round laundry baskets from a dollar store. This has solved the problems of finding saucers to catch the excess water and having a place for the leaves to fall.

Kim Vawter in Bellevue, Neb.

SOUND OFF

Dear Heloise: What I would like to see is more manufacturers giving us slacks for shorter people, with an inseam of 23 inches. Some slacks are $40, and then you have to pay $8 to have them altered.

V.N. in Ohio

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

King Features Syndicate