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Preparing for Winter

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Comments

  • not sure if you can help or even if this is in the right place? I am trying to save money and not use the TD.However is it still worthwhile using fabric conditioner as the towels feel hard anyway when dried on the clothes horse?
    SPC £500 well will try very hard.

    GC £6.16/£150
  • elljay
    elljay Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts
    moonflower wrote: »
    not sure if you can help or even if this is in the right place? I am trying to save money and not use the TD.However is it still worthwhile using fabric conditioner as the towels feel hard anyway when dried on the clothes horse?
    There are quite a few suggestions much earlier on the thread, or maybe another one in here somewhere about how to manage without fabric softener. Try some of them, I often use washing soda half and half with washing powder which is good enough. Another thing that my grandmother taught me when I used to complain that towelling nappies felt rough and hard was to give them a really vigorous shake or better still a good rub together which re-energises the fibres. I had the softest nappies around, with no added chemicals to get onto my baby's skin. Liz
  • moonflower wrote: »
    not sure if you can help or even if this is in the right place? I am trying to save money and not use the TD.However is it still worthwhile using fabric conditioner as the towels feel hard anyway when dried on the clothes horse?

    I haven't used fabric-softener in years, because of family members with sensitive skin. And I rarely use my tumble-drier. But I put all the dried laundry in the airing cupboard, where it's nice and warm (because of the hot water tank), until it's time to put it away, and when I take it all out, it's all nice and soft - no crispy towels here!

    Like Elljay, I don't use fabric softener on nappies either, just put those in the airing-cupboard too :-)
  • Caterina
    Caterina Posts: 5,919 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker I've been Money Tipped!
    [quote=oystercatcher;15935077..... We have overlapping tiles on the upper part of the house and I think the mice can easily squeeze between the tiles to access the wall space and then the rest of the house .
    It's amazing how noisy the little things are!

    Oystercatcher[/quote]

    Hi Oystercatcher,

    One of the problems of mice being poisoned is that they end up going to die just as you say, between tiles and in the wall space, and then you get dead mouse smell for weeks and that's really horrid (had one of these situations in a workplace and for the year and a half that I worked there I breathed mouse cadaver stink :eek: ).

    So I find the humane traps really useful also for the practical, not just non-violent way they remove the mice.

    The best food to use with mice is actually not cheese but chocolate. If you keep all your food inaccessible and in hard containers (NOT cardboard boxes, mice cut into those like into butter!) and remove a few mice per day with the humane traps eventually you can get rid of the little blighters, hopefully!

    Also, have you got/can you borrow a cat? They are great mouse-deterrents even if they aren't good mousers, some cats are lazier than others! Mice smell them and do not come near. And if a cat catches a mouse the killing is much less horrid than the poison one (IMHO).

    Best of luck :D

    Caterina
    Finally I'm an OAP and can travel free (in London at least!).
  • OddjobKIA
    OddjobKIA Posts: 6,380 Forumite
    forget humane traps


    Inject some cheese with petrol leave it out for them and the next time they chew trough a live cable..































    SPLA BANG T

    One mouse less:rotfl:
    THE SHABBY SHABBY FOUNDER
  • Caterina wrote: »
    Hi Oystercatcher,

    One of the problems of mice being poisoned is that they end up going to die just as you say, between tiles and in the wall space, and then you get dead mouse smell for weeks and that's really horrid (had one of these situations in a workplace and for the year and a half that I worked there I breathed mouse cadaver stink :eek: ).

    So I find the humane traps really useful also for the practical, not just non-violent way they remove the mice.

    The best food to use with mice is actually not cheese but chocolate. If you keep all your food inaccessible and in hard containers (NOT cardboard boxes, mice cut into those like into butter!) and remove a few mice per day with the humane traps eventually you can get rid of the little blighters, hopefully!

    Also, have you got/can you borrow a cat? They are great mouse-deterrents even if they aren't good mousers, some cats are lazier than others! Mice smell them and do not come near. And if a cat catches a mouse the killing is much less horrid than the poison one (IMHO).

    Best of luck :D

    Caterina

    Thanks Caterina, we use chocolate and/or peanut butter to bait our traditional mouse traps.
    I realise about the mice dying in awkward places which is why I am hoping to catch them before they set foot in the house.
    We have two dogs who chase all the cats out of the garden (thus solving the age old cats and flowerbed problem) . The terrier has been sniffing with interest in the garage so we've had to be very careful where we leave traps and poison.

    Something has disturbed the 'blue food' we left out so am hoping this will solve the problem.
    I hate killing things but feel this is the only way. A humane trap will only pass the problem on to another building.

    Oystercatcher
    Decluttering, 20 mins / day Jan 2024 2/2 
  • Pips_Mum
    Pips_Mum Posts: 2,893 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I`ve used Humane traps and always got on well with them.
    As Caterina says at least you dont get dead body smells or guilty nightmares of mice coming to haunt you!!:rotfl::rotfl:
    Debt at LBM [strike]£17,544[/strike] :eek: £5700
    :TOver £14,000 PAID OFF :T

    2020 the year of less - Less debt, less waste, less spending, less stuff, less stress!
  • miggy
    miggy Posts: 4,328 Forumite
    I thought I'd better review my list as I am full of good intentions but the cold weather is getting there ahead of me:
    1. miggy wrote: »
      Buy fleeces for kids' beds, to go under the sheet. Yes!
    2. Buy a fleece for the computer chair, or rather for whoever sits here! Am even wondering about buying slippers for whoever's here, as kids tend to put their feet on a hot water bottle which all adds up in terms of hot water. Will have to give a bit of thought to that one. I found an old fleecy cushion cover which goes on there nicely, cost me nothing and is much warmer than the plastic seat.
    3. Get a couple more hot water bottles. Turned out we had enough - though a spare always comes in handy.
    4. Get a timer for the immersion heater. Am using the cooker timer (20 - 30 mins) if I need hot water in the day - and if anyone is up after midnight I sometimes use the economy 7 to heat water for the morning - but basically I haven't done this one.
    5. Get insulating film for single-glazed windows. Have finally bid for some on ebay - nowhere local seems to stock it.
    6. Work out what to do about kitchen door.
    7. Get key hole covers. That's what sellotape is for...
    8. Get sausage dog or equivalent for the back door.
    9. Investigate slipper socks for those children who don't currently wear them.
    10. Sort out insulation for rabbit hutches - I did them in part a few years ago: an extra layer of plywood on the outside, with roofing felt on the sides. The hutches are drier inside and have to be warmer. I might freecycle for a couple of bits of old carpet to drape over them as well, as current plastic sheeting isn't thick. Am using an old rug which probably won''t last long quote]
    So that's as far as I've got to date. Does anyone have any ideas about keyhole covers for key holes that are in metal plates - so the ordinary covers don't go on easily? Or do I have either to drill the metal (not sure if it is deep enough to fix well) or revert to using bluetack?
    Miggy

    MEMBER OF MIKE'S MOB!
    Every Penny a Prisoner

    This article is about coffeehouse bartenders. For lawyers, see Barrister. (Wikipedia)
  • elona
    elona Posts: 11,806 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    For keyhole covers how about using a fridge magnet?
    "This site is addictive!"
    Wooligan 2 squares for smoky - 3 squares for HTA
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