28 and only just worked out how to run a house!

welshminibar

Hi there

Borax is a great cleaning product. It's a natural mineral and you can buy it in Boots (not near the cleaning stuff, but near laundry starch) and it doesn't have an icky smell. ( I mix in a little essential oil to the hot water too). Also it's cheap, especially if you don't do lots of cleaning ha ha.

The box gives you lots of ideas but I use it for:

general muck cleaning that includes yucky stuff - grease at bottom of sink, basin, bath, floor. The slightly grey hand marks on doors.

It's also great to occaisionally put in a white or mucky wash at 40 degrees (or less) as a prewash if you use nonbio.

I fyou are really keen you could enven use it as starch..

It's also a good ingredient if you are making wierd science plasticity experiments with your kids - for glack or gloop.

Store carefully as it is white powder!

welshminibar

A previous post recommend vinegar in your machine - excellent!

I use it instead of fabric conditioner. It's fantastic to be free of the synthetic cloying smell of the stuff - you can add lavender or geranium to the vinegar. 1 or 2 capfuls in the conditioner section and it washes away all the soap residues as well as keeping limescale at bay. don't use brown vinegar though!! just standard white stuff. Of course it won't be everyone's cup of tea but if you can give up the fluffy towels it's one less needless chemical in the water. (And don't worry your laundry won't smell of vinegar)

I also heard that if you are skint and have to go to the launderette with out any powder, the machines have such an excess in them you can mange without!

cheers

tawnyowls

SusanCarter wrote:

I believe the reason for rice being dangerous is that it has a high specific heat capacity which means that it takes a long time to cool.

It's partly this, but more to do with the type of bacteria in it. Spore-forming bacteria can protect themselves against drought, freezing etc by forming spores that then 'hatch out' when conditions are right. As these bacteria (mainly Bacillus subtilis) are disease-causing, you don't want the rice hanging around giving them ideal conditions (warm and wet), so cold storage and using it up quickly after thawing, if it's been frozen, is safest.

Guapa1

I'm lucky. My mum was a working mum, but I was bought up by my granny, an original Jamaican matriarch. I could cook a full sunday dinner by the time I was 9. I still hate cleaning though.

natzini

Glad this thread has resurfaced!

I am part of the career generation too, am almost 25 and went to an all girls Grammar. All we were taught to do was pass exams, and didn't even do Home Ec, we did Food Tech instead! So we were taught how to mass produce boring lemon biscuits and design deserts and packaging!

I'm learning though, and once I've got a proper hang of it, I'll be laughing at those who are still out all the time and going home to a mess of a home, ready meals and a hangover!

moanymoany

Congratulations, you have discovered at 28 what I discovered at - well, lets say much later! :rotfl: :rotfl:

However, if you are truly serious at practising OS get a copy of 'The Tightwad Gazette', second hand from Amazon or Play. You can try your library, but no-one so far has had any luck. This book is the bible of moneysaving, with it you will pay off your mortgage early and have dosh in the bank.

nickiboop

I am 30 and I have inly just clicked why its called running a house! The paper work and budget side is the bit I am good at (an accountant by trade!) however meal planning and cleaning are things I am just learning, I am too stingy to hire a cleaner and I don't do it often myself so i dont know why I am surprided that its not tidier (Oh and the Easiyo is fab just got mine on sunday!)

dubgirl

Just been reading through this great thread. Like many others, I left school in the 80's when it was all about having a career and all home ec classes taught me was how to make a strawberry pavlova ( I've forgotten the receipe) and cheese on toast (called welsh rarebit). I really wish that schools would teach kids about budgetting, meal planning etc. I intend to make sure that my DS is as knowledgeable as possible when he leaves home and can rustle up more that a boiled egg.

sylphraven

I had to teach myself before finding this website coz my mom was a cleaning, cooking, etc machine, she didnt like us helping coz she could get it done quicker (& probably quicker) doing it herself, & she always said we should enjoy ourselves while we could - great for us as children except when we moved out we couldnt keep a house!

I could cook somethings, generally keep a house tidy & somewhat clean, but had no money management skills. OS has tripled my menu, and halved my bills. I'm even now able to give my mom tips!

& Saving this money with the shopping is helping get rid of my debt (along with other tips on this website).

Hopefully I will teach my sons to be able to budget, cook, clean & not get into debt, even though so many companies will quite happily give you easy money, they'd happily take a whole lot more off in the long run.

buxtonrabbitgreen

When I was at school ( a very long time ago) it was domestic science. I didn't start it till the 3rd year though as we coulnd't until we had finshed making the apron and hat. It took me 2 years as the sewing teacher was so fussy. We did however learn to cook.
I have sent all my kids off into the world able to cook. At times they needed to. for instance I could phone home from work to say I would be late and could one of them make dinner and they could always produce something.
I don't remember my mum ever showing me how to cook. But as I trained as a cook I was ok when I got married. The main problem I had was trying to scale quantities down. I was ok making a gallon of custard but no idea how to make enough for 2.