Vintage housekeeping tricks that really work
Grandma always kept a tidy linen closet, with everything in its place. Make changing the bed sheets a breeze with this handy tip: simply place the folded duvet cover (and the other pillowcase if changing a double bed) inside the matching pillowcase and fold again.
Flowers don't always arrive in tip-top condition so if they are looking a little drab, this hack will be sure to revive them. Plunge them into hot water to bring them back to life, making sure to move the blooms out the way of any steam.
It can be hard to pull out long nails that have been driven deep into thick wood without this handy trick. By placing a small block of wood underneath your hammer or carpenter's pincers, it'll give you extra leverage to pull out the long nail without losing grip.
Notoriously hard to clean, the inside of bottles can be rinsed out with a mixture of sand and water. After a good shake, the abrasive combination will clean out all those hard to reach corners. Just make sure to rinse out the bottle afterwards and leave it to air dry.
Stacking glasses is perfect for saving space, however, when they get stuck they can be in danger of breaking. The easiest old school way to remedy this is by filling the upper glass with ice-cold water, and plunging the lower glass in warm water. With a slight nudge, they should come apart easily.
While a dustpan and brush will sweep up larger shards of glass, to get rid of all the tiny unseen bits, there are a few effective things you can use, as shown here by YouTuber Laura Morey.
Our grandma used to say ‘look after the corners and the room will look after itself’, which strikes us as profoundly accurate now that we’ve got our own home. These are often problem areas where we throw things that we don’t know where to put.