Give your brick wall a facelift

If your brick is looking a little rough, give it new color using this tip. Use a gallon of hot water and an ounce of glue. Add about half a cup of alum, half a cup of venetian red paint, and a cup of brown paint. Mixed into hot water, mix all the colors completly in the water and then use a paint brush and wash down the brick entirely.

Fixing fiberglass

If you have a hole or crack in your fiberglass tub, you don't have time to get it fixed right now or maybe you don't have the money to replace it at the moment. Use this tip for a temporary fix to your bathing problems. Clean the fiberglass area well. Wipe the fiberglass with fingernail polish remover so that all the soap scum is off. Apply duct tape to the area and press firmly so that you are sealing off the area where the crack or hole is. This will hold up to three or four weeks so you can buy a little time and get your fiberglass fixed by a professional.

Drilling holes in ceramic

If you need to drill a hole in ceramic tile, you will find that a piece of masking tape over the area where you are going to drill will prevent your drill bit from slipping and you will be able to drill a straight hole.

Remove rust from metal, bolts and screws

Here is a way to dissolve rust from bolts, nuts and other metals. Soak in full strength vinegar and the rust will dissolve away.
To remove rust on your car or on other metal pieces, rub a piece of aluminum foil over the area and the rust will be gone!
Take a potato, take the skin off of it and dip it in baking soda. Keep dipping it in baking soda and rubbing the rusted area to remove the rust fast.

Stop metal files clogging up

To prevent metal files from clogging up with filings rub some ordinary black board chalk on to the file. This will sort the problem out.

Store chisels safely

Cut a small slit into several tennis balls or other rubber balls and insert the chisel blades into the holes. Your chisels will be protected against chipping and will be safer for all concerned.

Baby proofing cabinets with VELCRO

If you have kitchen cabinets like mine that are not suitable for the commercial child-proofing locks--or you don't want to drill holes in the wood--try using self-adhesive INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH VELCRO.

I use Velcro for my dish, plastics, and food-storage cabinets that are accessible to my children (DO NOT USE VELCRO TO LOCK CABINETS WHERE DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES ARE STORED). I cut strips of Velcro and stuck them to the door frames and doors of my cabinets so that the Velcro interlocked when I closed the cabinet door.

I put three or four three-inch strips per door or drawer, top, bottom, side. My two-year-old twin toddlers can't budge them. Even my hefty four-year-old son cannot open them. I, myself, have to use a little muscle to open the cabinets, but I find opening the Velcro less frustrating than fumbling with a plastic baby door lock.

My cabinet doors are not defaced with holes and such, and this is an economical solution. You can find INDUSTRIAL STRENTH VELCRO in hardware stores.

You can also get EXTREME LOCK VELCRO if you want a really tough lock, but for me that's going a bit too far.