Now Here’s A Tip – March 5, 2019

#Middlebury

• Worried about pesticides in your diet? Try mangos, one of the fruits least likely to have pesticide residues.
• It can be a snap to remove burned-on food from the bottom of a pot or a frying pan. All you have to do is sprinkle in some baking soda and add hot water. Let the mixture sit overnight. In the morning, add a dash more baking soda and scrub the residue away.
• Got dirty floors? Make sure you aren’t throwing good effort into a dirty mop. You need a second bucket filled with rinse water, then follow this pattern: Clean mop in water with cleaner, mop a section of floor, rinse mop in plain water, go back over that section, rinse mop again. Repeat.
• “I like strong tea with no milk. My husband drinks black coffee. The coffeemaker and our mugs get stained over time. About monthly, I ‘brew’ a pot of hot water, but I put a dishwasher ‘pac’ in the carafe. The hot water dissolves the cleaner, making the coffee carafe easy to clean. Then I use the detergent water to clean all the mugs. It works like magic.” – T.L. in Missouri
• In time for tax season: Don’t overlook the value of opening and contributing to an individual retirement account to reduce your tax bill. Contributions need not always be made by Dec. 31 to count; it’s possible to open an account as late as tax-filing day on April 15, and it can still count against your 2018 taxes.
• To check for toilet leaks, add a few drops of food coloring to the toilet tank. If, without flushing, you see the bowl water start to change color, you know you have a leak.

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