Pink Stuff

We are very excited to have Jo Wake, one of our faithful friends at the House guest, join us to post this week! She has some sage advice and tidbits to share!

It was so kind of the Really Real Housewives to ask me to do some guest posts this week. I can claim Liz as a friend, but although I follow this blog, I don’t really know any of the other housewives. However, I have been a housewife for a lot longer than most of them so I have been learning to do things the easiest way for a few years now.

One Sunday afternoon I was sitting thinking I didn’t know what advice I could offer you when I looked at my carpet and thought I needed to do something about the spots on it. Lo and behold, I thought of something you might appreciate.

Many years ago, whilst living in the States, I bought some Pink Stuff – it’s actual name is Quick ‘n Brite – and I have been using it forever. It is the best thing I have ever come across for removing the spots and stains which occur through every day life. No, I am not being paid to recommend it, but I think it is wonderful stuff. Recently I visited our local Costco and found they were selling a similar product which the guy selling it actually called the Pink Stuff, although oddly enough it’s white. Something about the pink being from strawberries and people being allergic. I don’t think I believe that. I had loaned Quick ‘n Brite to the local bowling alley and they were impressed with it so the owner’s wife picked some up. I believe you can use it in a carpet cleaning machine these days. But for me, it will always be something I use as a spot cleaner. You can mix it with water or for really bad stains, use it undiluted.

Except for wine spills. Maybe you don’t drink wine, but I do and I found this tip a long time ago. If you spill any red wine on your carpet, don’t touch it; cover it with a thick layer of salt. Leave it for, maybe, 24 hours and then just vacuum it. Hey presto, no wine stain. I tried mopping it up with paper towel first. Big mistake. The salt does a wonderful job of absorbing the wine. Of course the moral of that is drink it don’t drop it.

That same Sunday I had to peel some garlic and I thought you might be interested to know that you can keep garlic forever in a Mason Jar once you have peeled it. I put a piece of paper towel in the jar to absorb any moisture.

Peeling the cloves is a pain and I used to be able to buy peeled garlic in the store but haven’t been able to do so for a while. I first started doing this when I bought huge jars of peeled garlic at Sam’s Club. Way more than you would have thought just two of us could cope with. Amazingly it keeps a very long time. I just wish I could still buy it peeled because peeling it myself is not my favourite job. I find a medium size Mason Jar holds three good sized bulbs of peeled garlic.

Jo Wake has been happily married for almost 44 years, originally from the UK, living in Canada now. She's interested in cooking, reading and wildlife conservation.

Her blog is "Jo on Food, Life and a Scent of Chocolate" When she first signed up with blogger, they would not accept her last name for some reason, so she used a family name.

If you need any more info about Jo, a friend wrote a blog post about her some time ago. Although it claims she's interested in gardening, she's not really. She likes to look at gardens, that’s all.