Miscellaneous Household Tips - 1941 and Earlier

• New shoes too tight?   Try placing a raw peeled potato inside, leave overnight and in the morning your shoes will fit comfortably...
• Repair children's soft slippers by knitting a new toe-cap.  Cast on about 12 stitches and increase each end of the needle until the width required and knit enough to cover the toe-cap, then stitch on.  Any odd piece of four-ply wool will do.  Mrs Stanley.
• To make white salad cream without eggs use a small tin of condensed milk, one teaspoonful of olive oil, one and a half teaspoonfuls of vinegar, one teaspoonful of mustard, and one teaspoonful of milk to thin the liquid.  Miss E Patterson.
• When meat is scarce, boil together split peas, lentils and rice (or split peas and rice without lentils).  If possible buy unpolished rice.  (But where can this be found in England?)  The Rev W Grange White.
• Always wash new stockings before wearing them.  The washing toughens the material of which they are made, and so they will wear longer.
• A piece of strong net, the same colour as the stocking, cut larger than the hole, makes a good foundation for a large darn.   Tack the net on the inside of the hole and darn in and out on the right side until the hole is well covered.
• Clean your rainproof coat by rubbing with hot salt, applied with a clean piece of flannel.  Turn the flannel as it gets soiled.
• To clean Crape.  Rinse the crape in ox-gall and water to take out the dirt, and then in clean water.   Finally, place in gum-water, to stiffen, then beat it between the hands until dry.
• For receding gums, rinse the mouth several times a week with tincture of myrrh, a few drops added to a little water.   Use this at night, and in the morning, use salt and cold water as a mouth wash.
• Hair can never be glorious unless it is well groomed.  The crowning glory of a woman should shine like the coat of a thoroughbred racehorse.   Constant brushing with clean brushes, proper lotions, careful shampooing and never drying the hair by a fire, but with warm towels, will keep it in good condition.
• Clean porcelain sinks with paraffin, washing well afterwards with carbolic soap and water to get rid of the smell.
• A home-made clothes cleanser can be made by taking about 20 ivy leaves, first washing them, and then steeping them for about 2 hours or so in a pint of water.   This liquid should be strained, and it will restore the freshness to most kinds of cloth.    It should be applied with a nailbrush.

NB  Please do not try these at home!