DIY Life

I'm sort of embarrassed to admit it, but mildew got its spotty little grip on my bedroom curtains this winter. The fabric was sort of bunched up against the window pane a lot. Little did I realize it, but every sunny morning was like a mildew fiesta back there.

When sunlight and warmth hit the cold glass, condensation formed on the inside of the pane. The curtains soaked up the moisture and the warmth. Lo and behold, a big ugly patch of mildew was the result. Yikes!

What makes mildew so revolting is its sheer persistence. Once it gets its hooks into any household surface--whether it be a painted ceiling, an item of clothing, or a home fabric such as curtains--removal is genuinely tough.

We've discussed stain removers before on DIY Life. We've covered the homemade brew, taught you how to get ink out of laundry, and let you in on the peanut butter secret.

So that's it, right? All your stain removal questions are covered, and we can call it a day.

Hardly. As long as I remain helplessly clumsy and my children remain, well, children, I will be finding new stains and learning new ways to remove them.

The School of Fiber Science & Technology at the University of New South Wales has put together this list of 21 common stains, and how to remove them. Did you know that borax will remove cocoa and that lemon juice will treat rust stains? Some of the solutions are surprising, but I'm willing to give them a try. You already have most of what you need around the house.

[via: Lifehacker]

When you run out of massage oil, lotion, shave gel, or nearly any other personal care product, do you panic, or calmly reach for the baby oil? Baby oil is the one item that I go overboard and buy too much of because it is so cheap, and there are so many uses for it.

My two year old sighs in contentment when I use baby oil to massage her dry winter skin. I use baby oil to get peanut butter out of her hair, and have used it to get gum out of her hair too. Please join me after the jump for a list of all the extraordinary uses I have for baby oil.

Did you have to cover all your wood tables with tablecloths this Holiday season, due to stains you didn't have any clues on how to remove? White heat stains, steam marks and water rings can make wood downright sad and want to hide from prying eyes.

You can use an iron to remove white heat stains from your wood tables. By placing a towel over the offending white mark, placing your iron that is set to "steam" on the towel, and removing the iron after nearly one minute, the stain should be gone. Wipe up any moisture left by the iron, and you should have a stain free table that should show no damage from the steam iron.

If you don't have an iron, you can try toothpaste, baking soda, olive oil, salt, vinegar and these other stain removal methods. I don't know about you, but I'll stick with the iron. I know that all the methods mentioned do work, but I like to do things in a hurry, and a steam iron is the fastest method for me. How do you remove stains from your wood furniture?

We've all been there - -the removal of stains from countertops, carpets, couches, beds, shoes, clothing and just about anything else that something vibrant can be spilled onto.

Instead of spending precious dollars at the nearest Home Depot or Lowe's to get that flashy bottle of "Oxygen" stain remover, what may you have around the house that costs next to nothing and performs the same job better?

How about cigarette ash, mayonnaise and Alka Seltzer? Those household goodies could come in handy when used as proper stain-removing aids, but since the suface effectiveness varies (carpet and formica are, um, different of course), you may want to take a gander over here and see if any of the surfaces you need cleaning could be blotted, wiped, steamed and washed with some ordinary objects probably within your sight somewhere in your home.

My favorite: using a load of table salt to get that wine stain out of that nice tablecloth. There's plenty more, so have at 'em here. File these away for future reference as well, should you desire.

At the demand of my wife, I've been removing crusty old popcorn ceiling texture from our new house. It's a messy process, but a few tricks can make it (and cleanup) an easy task. If things go well, you'll end up with a fresh, clean ceiling.

It's pretty easy to stop your little one from eating things you don't want them to. A sharply stated icky!, yucky!, naughty! or no! will usually do the trick. However, how do you stop your child from ingesting a substance which you most likely can't see, such as lead?

I have here for you some excellent ideas and strategies from the Parent Center Newsletter for keeping lead out of your little one. If you have a toddler or know someone who does, you may wish to read the complete article.

Here are a few ideas for you: